Maria Grazia Chiuri’s First Fendi Couture Show Lets Desire Shape a Contemporary Vision

Desire sits at the heart of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s new Fendi couture vision, shaping a contemporary approach that treats haute couture as an intimate conversation with the bodies and minds that inhabit it, rather than a distant fantasy.

Desire as a modern couture starting point

In her Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Haute Couture debut for Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri explicitly frames the collection around desire, not as provocation, but as a physical and emotional force carried through posture, movement and the way fabric meets the body. She has spoken about working in a “speedy society where everything is consumed by the next relevant or irrelevant thing,” noting that there is “no time for analysis, no time to really look” and positioning couture as a space where slowness, attention and presence can be reclaimed.

Against that backdrop, desire becomes a way to talk about freedom, pleasure and fluidity the possibility of dressing without…