Maria Grazia Chiuri Looks to the Fendi Archives for Her Debut Cruise Collection

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Maria Grazia Chiuri understands the Fendi archives intrinsically. Having started her career at the house in the accessories department in the late 1980s, the designer returned more than three decades later to take on its top creative role. And her first cruise collection there revisits the house’s history, with an intimacy that only someone who helped shape it from the inside could possess.

Released via a lookbook and accompanying short film, the collection reframed classic Fendi codes—including sleek tailoring and, of course, deliciously sequined Baguette bags—through a distinctly cinematic lens. It paid homage to Histoire d’Eau, Jacques de Bascher’s 1977 short film—widely regarded as the “first fashion film”—which was commissioned by Karl Lagerfeld to coincide with Fendi’s first ready-to-wear collection. In Chiuri’s reimagining, the protagonist, a German tourist named Suzie, drifts through Rome in a wardrobe that blurs fantasy and reality, past and present.

Texture was another through-line: contrast-woven jackets, leather outerwear circled with plush collars, and bags and shoes pieced together with tactile fuzzy patches were all featured in the lineup. Another hallmark of the house, parchment-colored, leather-lined, studded Baguette bags—of course, a design that Chiuri had a hand in developing—appeared once again in their original subdued color palette.

Like her work at Dior, Chiuri’s Fendi is pragmatic and primed for real life. Floor-length trench coats, while trimmed with statement linings, were shown with functional flared trousers and double-stacked handbags—one tote, one Baguette, that is—for the woman on the go. Sequined “going out” tops were hidden just enough underneath crisp double-breasted suiting, an outfit easily taken from day to night.

Just as compelling were Chiuri’s evening wear propositions. Balancing the collection’s sharper pieces was a lineup of soft glamour: plunging gowns, liquid skirt sets à la Gwyneth Paltrow in Great Expectations, and a sheer fringed number for the more adventurous dresser.

Chiuri also built upon the idea of a shared wardrobe, a concept she introduced for the fall/winter 2026 season. Many of the looks came with a menswear companion: a check-print split skirt with matching printed trousers, and a his-and-hers Canadian tuxedo done in a metallic fabric.

The collection reinforced the collaborative spirit that Chiuri is imprinting on Fendi. As she phrased it at her debut in February: “Less I, more us.”