Why Maria Grazia Chiuri Should Drive Fendi to New Heights

MILAN — Maria Grazia Chiuri is returning to Fendi as chief creative officer — and observers were unanimously upbeat about the appointment.

Leveraging her experience; her knowledge of the brand, where she began her career in fashion; her strong connection to Rome, where Fendi is based; her practical approach to design, and her familiarity with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, its artisans and its supply chain in Italy, Chiuri is expected to succeed at the fashion house, just as she did at Dior.

Paola Cillo, associate professor of management and technology at Bocconi University, believes Chiuri “is a great fit and a good experiment. The symbolic power of her return, combined with her track record of blending intellect, craft and cultural voice, make her a strong candidate to launch Fendi into its next chapter. It’s a great story to tell. A family story of five sisters that goes back into the hands of a bright and super-capable woman. Fendi is a matriarchal family affair and Maria Grazia Chiuri is the perfect heir who will respect, preserve and leverage on this unique story.” 

After exiting Dior in May, the Italian designer on Tuesday was appointed chief creative officer of Fendi. This confirmed rampant speculation she was headed to the Rome-based house, which, like Dior, is controlled by LVMH. It is a return to Fendi for Chiuri, as the designer kicked off her career there in 1989, helping to boost the brand’s accessories offer.

“Maria Grazia Chiuri is one of the greatest creative talents in fashion today, and I am delighted that she has chosen to return to Fendi to continue expressing her creativity within the LVMH group, after sharing her bold vision of fashion,” said Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH. “Surrounded by the Fendi teams and in a city that is dear to her, I am convinced that Maria Grazia will contribute to the artistic renewal and future success of the maison, while perpetuating its unique heritage.”

February Debut

Chiuri’s first womenswear collection for the fall 2026 season will be shown in Milan in February, said Fendi chairman and CEO Ramon Ros in an interview. This will be followed by menswear in June and couture in July, pointing to a  departure from the past, as now “one single person will bring consistency across the board and long-term solidity to the narrative.

“This is beautiful news, we are very happy,” Ros added.

Asked if chief creative officer was a new role for Fendi, he said, “yes, and it is one that allows her to fully express her vision. This current moment of uncertainty in the industry can be overcome, and it can be an opportunity if creativity is seen as a motor to do so, but you need someone who has the determination, total control of the metier, and a strong vision that will remove all the white noise and focus on the products, without stopping at that but diving deep down, creating a creative legacy with the community.”  

“I return to Fendi with honor and joy, having had the privilege of beginning my career under the guidance of the house’s founders, the five sisters,” Chiuri said in a statement. “Fendi has always been a forge of talents and a starting point for many creatives in the industry, thanks to the extraordinary ability of these five women to foster and nurture generations of vision and skill. I am grateful to Mr. Arnault for entrusting me with the task of helping to write a new chapter in the history of this extraordinary women-founded company.”

At the end of September, Silvia Venturini Fendi was named honorary president, which confirmed speculation that, after the exit of Kim Jones from his role as artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women in October last year, more changes could be taking place at the brand.

Fendi and Chiuri “share the same values of Italian artisanal craftsmanship, and she can strengthen production also at the industrial level,” said Ros, highlighting a renewed focus on creating “unique and iconic products that will give joy to customers and empower them for the long-term and not for one season or just to be cool or fashionable and Maria Grazia is the right person to do this.”

The fact that Chiuri has worked at Fendi before and knows the brand well helps to “share the history of the brand and what it can become. With Silvia being named honorary president, they will bring more visibility and attention to the archive and what has been done in the past, which is not always so recognized or well-known outside,” Ros argued. “We are working for the next chapter, the next 100 years full of passion and vision to bring the brand where it deserves to be.”

While both part of the LVMH group for years, Ros first met Chiuri during the summer “when we were finalizing the candidates, and I have always respected her as woman leader, for her consistency, determination and metier, which are the foundations of a successful maison. She is such a professional and her discipline is amazing. She is dedicated and has put in the hours, it takes years to become so skilled. All this gels with our idea of unique and long-term products.”

Asked about Chiuri’s main talents, Ros said that she “has a very strong empathy with customers, she is very intelligent and in a second she understands the context, what is happening in the world and what the world needs. This is important, because sometimes designers need to be more sociologists than designers.”

One Vision

Chiuri stepped down as artistic director of women’s collections at Dior, succeeded by Jonathan Anderson, who also took on the responsibility of menswear. This appears to be a new direction for LVMH and one that is seen as modern.

Giovanna Brambilla, partner at Milan-based executive search firm Value Search, said that having two separate creative directors heading women’s and men’s “made sense until a few years ago,” offering different products presented in diversified moments and times “because, in the end, they spoke to different targets. Now we live in a modern society that is much more fluid, and menswear and womenswear often overlap in terms of timing and also use: what seems to count is the clarity and uniqueness of the message that a brand wants to transmit and in this sense a single creative lead is enormously more effective and ensures great consistency.”

Roberto D’Incau, managing partner, Lang&Partners Milan and Paris, said Chiuri’s “arrival at Fendi feels like both a homecoming and a strategic statement by LVMH. She began her career there, and now returns with the maturity and authority gained at Dior. It’s also aligned with Arnault’s current vision: one creative voice per maison,  ensuring coherence and storytelling power. Her limited experience in menswear is unlikely to be a major issue, as that segment remains relatively niche for Fendi. The priority will be to unify the brand’s creative language across women’s, accessories and couture.”

D’Incau believes Chiuri’s “challenge is to renew Fendi’s desirability without betraying its soul. She brings a deeply humanistic approach — emotional, feminist, yet anchored in craftsmanship and cultural depth. This could harmonize beautifully with Fendi’s Roman heritage: sensual, architectural, artisanal. She will need to build trust within the atelier and assert a clear vision early on. If she succeeds in combining emotion and rigor, craftsmanship and modernity, Fendi could enter a new ‘mature’ phase of elegance — confident, intellectual, and unmistakably Italian.”

Alessandro Maria Ferreri, founder, owner and CEO of consultancy The Style Gate, agreed on the idea that there should be one single designer leading creativity. Separating the collections under more than one designer allowed “more time to conceive new ideas: to design eight or 10 collections per year can be draining for one person, who, even when helped and assisted, is expected to make key decisions. I think LVMH knows very well how to manage this enormous workload and the physical and psychological stress it involves: this is the reason why the organization around the designer is increasingly more calibrated, scaled and organized to  allow for as much serenity as possible.”

Bocconi’s Cillo thinks Chiuri’s first move will be “to build her own creative team to give voice to the project she has in mind for her Fendi. Second act, it will not be a product, but a tribute to Fendi’s sisters and specifically a reframing of the house through its women. She most probably will quietly reconstruct the atelier culture — haute furroure — but with a strong commercial sense. And then a relaunch of the Baguette, as an emotional bridge between the past she helped create, and the future that is right in her hands.”

Chiuri “knows by heart” the Fendi codes and she “has the sensitivity to reinterpret them with the lens of today. Indeed, her skills are a rare hybrid of craftsmanship, commercial intelligence, and cultural fluency,” concluded Cillo. “Also, she knows well the Roman culture behind the brand and this will be reborn through her creations. Her goal won’t be to shock, but to root herself — emotionally, historically and spiritually — in the house before she revolutionizes it.” 

Asked about the first potential steps Chiuri should take, Ferreri said that Fendi “has an enormous potential that can still be expressed.” Silvia Venturini Fendi and her daughter Delfina Delettrez as a family “have valiantly and creatively defended the heritage of the brand, a miracle that unfortunately not many other brands have done, but now Fendi has to take off, maybe even infusing a dose of sexiness, leaving a sign also in segments such as evening cocktail wear, shoes and the technical/nylon part that was beloved when the Fendissime line existed and that went a bit lost. Maria Grazia is a master in employing technical fabrics for elegant suits, for example, and this will give added verve to clothes.”

Ros said Delfina Delettrez Fendi is staying on, in charge of the jewelry collections for the brand. “Fendi has long been a hotbed of talent, so many designers started working here and have moved on to head major brands, a testament to the impact on the community and the industry,” Ros said. In addition to Chiuri, examples include Pierpaolo Piccioli, Alessandro Michele and Frida Giannini, among others.

Ferreri touted Chiuri’s “pragmatic” sense commercially, “which Fendi significantly needs especially now.”

While praising Venturini Fendi’s work with menswear, and admitting Chiuri has been less involved in that segment, “Maria Grazia will surprise us with a novel version and vision” for men, and will be able to further develop ready-to-wear as well as couture, which has “not bloomed yet,” he said.

Ferreri also praised Chiuri’s arrival at Fendi. “It’s the perfect choice,” returning home to Rome, to the brand and to LVMH. “She is familiar with the dynamics, the endless possibilities working with artisans, suppliers, laboratories and supply chain.”  

Bernstein luxury analyst Luca Solca  said he believes “this is a good opportunity to relaunch the Fendi brand. Maria Grazia’s talent can bring new relevance to this maison, which lost some of its luster in the past few years.”

Brambilla said that, just when many iconic brands “appear to be painstakingly seeking to recover their DNA, who better than Maria Grazia to bring back to light the distinctive message and original spirit of the brand,” given her experience at Fendi at the beginning of her career. Brambilla is certain Chiuri will be able to return those codes “in a modern and innovative way.”

Also, Brambilla touted the fact that Chiuri is “proud to be Roman and has returned home to a brand tightly linked with the Italian capital,”  shortly after also restoring another city gem, the Teatro della Cometa.

Venturini Fendi represents the third generation of the Fendi family. From 1992 until 2019, she seconded Karl Lagerfeld in the artistic direction and since 1994 she has been responsible for the accessories and menswear lines.  During the centenary of the house this year, she was also tasked with the design of the women’s collections after Jones departed.

Venturini Fendi’s last collection was shown in Milan last month for spring 2026, a colorful, crafty and fun ready-to-wear lineup that came with new highly embellished versions of some of the most successful accessories for the brand, including the Baguette and the Peekaboo.  

Fendi has also seen changes at the C-suite level, with Ros joining as CEO on July 1. He was previously president and CEO of Louis Vuitton, mainland China, and succeeded Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, who in April became deputy CEO of Christian Dior Couture.

Chiuri departed after nine years at the French brand, the first woman to lead the creation of women’s collections, and writing a key chapter in its history, helping to grow the brand thanks to a mix of commercially successful product and feminist-driven storytelling. 

Chiuri’s final collection took place in May, a mix of cruise and haute couture looks shown against the spectacular backdrop of the Villa Albani Torlonia in her hometown of Rome, which some of her regular collaborators attended, including artist Eva Jospin and photographers Brigitte Niedermair, Brigitte Lacombe and Maripol. Venturini Fendi also attended the show.

Ahead of her last Dior show, Chiuri unveiled her personal investment in Rome’s Teatro della Cometa, which she has been restoring for the past five years.

Chiuri’s collections for Dior, built around strong brand signatures such as the Bar jacket, pleated tulle skirts, goddess gowns and hit accessories like the Book Tote bag and the Slingback shoe, helped the company quadruple revenues from 2.2 billion euros in sales in 2017 to 8.7 billion euros in 2024, according to HSBC estimates. LVMH does not break out revenues by brand.

She has staged blockbuster shows in destinations ranging from Mumbai and Mexico City to Tokyo, Athens, Marrakech and Seoul, showcasing and emphasizing the creativity of local artists and artisans.

Chiuri joined Valentino Garavani and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti at Valentino in 1999. She developed a reputation as a hitmaker, contributing to the hugely successful Baguette bag at Fendi and the Rockstud pump at Valentino.

Chiuri left Valentino in 2016 after 17 years with the brand and eight in her role as co-creative director with Piccioli. Chiuri and Piccioli first worked together at Fendi for 10 years. Garavani selected the designers to boost his brand’s accessories category, which they did, rejuvenating that division. They were promoted to creative directors of accessories at Valentino when Alessandra Facchinetti was assigned the same title for ready-to-wear after Garavani retired in 2007. In 2008, they succeeded Facchinetti as creative directors of the brand.