Eight months after departing Dior, Chiuri’s return to fashion’s front bench was stamped with her identity and values
A big name designer’s first catwalk show in a new job is a drumroll moment of pure ego: Maria Grazia Chiuri, who joins Fendi after leaving Dior, is a headline-making hire with main character energy.
The first surprise, as Milan fashion week began, was a catwalk painted with the motto: “Less I, more us.”
Backstage Chiuri explained that she wanted to celebrate the proud matriarchal heritage of Fendi, which has been led by four generations of women in the family. The new motto, she said, was a celebration of “the female way of doing fashion, and also the Italian way of doing fashion, which is about sharing ideas, and craftsmanship, and working in freedom.”
Chiuri’s leadership marks a break with the family line at the Roman brand where founder Adele Fendi was succeeded first by five daughters, and then by granddaughter Silvia Venturini Fendi and great-granddaughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi.
