Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Inaugural Couture Show for Fendi to Be Held in Rome
- Martino Carrera
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
The designer is to unveil her fall 2026 couture collection for the house on July 9 in the Eternal City.
Maria Grazia Chiuri Laura Sciacovelli/Courtesy of Fendi
MILAN — Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut couture show for Fendi is taking place in Rome, the luxury house said Monday.
The Roman brand has earmarked the evening of July 9 for the designer’s fall 2026 couture collection. The exact timing and location will be unveiled at a later stage, Fendi said.
This is not the first time Fendi has staged its couture collections outside of Paris, and the event will mark the third couture show to be held Rome, where the luxury brand is based.
Fendi previously unveiled couture in the Italian capital in 2016 and 2019.
In the former occasion, the Haute Fourrure show — the name given to the brand’s couture collections back then — was designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld for fall 2016. It was paraded at the Trevi Fountain, a first for the Baroque monument, whose restoration Fendi supported — the catwalk placed directly on the water. The event marked the 90th anniversary of Fendi, flanked by an exhibition at the company’s headquarters at the stately Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana.
Fendi headquarters at the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome. Courtesy Photo
In 2019 the show, designed by then solo designer Silvia Venturini Fendi — ahead of the arrival of Kim Jones in 2020 — was staged at the Temple of Venus. Fendi pledged a 2.5 million euro donation for the restoration of that site.
Chiuri herself has picked Rome — her hometown — as the stage for her swan-song collection at Dior in May last year. A mix of cruise 2026 and haute couture looks were shown against the spectacular backdrop of the Villa Albani Torlonia. Ahead of her last Dior show, Chiuri also unveiled her personal investment in Rome’s Teatro della Cometa, which she has been restoring for the past five years.
Chiuri was artistic director of women’s collections at Dior — like Fendi controlled by luxury behemoth LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — between 2016 and 2025.
The designer, appointed to the Fendi helm as chief creative officer last October, made her runway debut at Milan Fashion Week last February. Her arrival at Fendi marked a return to the brand for Chiuri who kicked off her career there in 1989, helping to boost the brand’s accessories offer.
Fendi has staged collections in far-flung destinations occasionally over the years.
It most famously mounted a show on the Great Wall of China back in 2007, which ignited the trend of event marketing and itinerant fashion shows, and was one of the earliest signals of China’s importance for luxury consumption.
More recently, the fall 2015 couture collection was unveiled at the Tokyo National Museum, while the fall 2019 coed ready-to-wear show was staged at the Powerlong Museum in Shanghai. In 2023, the Fendi men’s spring 2024 collection was paraded at the then-new Fendi factory in Capannuccia, near Bagno a Ripoli, a 30-minute drive from Florence, in tandem with leading menswear trade show Pitti Uomo.
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