It was a homecoming for Maria Grazia Chiuri as she debuted her first collection for Fendi, the very house where she began her career almost forty years ago. It was a major move, both for Fendi and for Chiuri, but the designer very pointedly didn’t want to make it all about herself. Emblazoned along the centre of the runway were the words: “Less I, More Us.” Chiuri wanted to remind us that even though one person comes out to take a bow at the end of a runway show, a collection is the result of thousands of pairs of hands.

For Chiuri, the central ethos of her debut collection was to create a wardrobe that “place[d] itself at the service of the body’s desires, not to control them but to accommodate them, go along with them, make them visible.” It wasn’t an ostentatious collection. Instead, Chirui presented an array of tailored blazers, sheer dresses, cargo pants, motorbiking jackets, Canadian tuxedos, and jumpsuits. There was fur, of course, this is Fendi! But it was all vintage, a major move for the house. 

The real stars of the show, however, were all the Baguettes. Back in the 90s, Chiuri was part of the team that developed the house’s most enduring bag. Therefore, it was a given that she’d go all out. They were sequinned in zebra prints, exploding in multicoloured furs, finished with corduroy, constructed from soft leathers, in blacks, tans, yellows, the list goes on. It was enough to keep the Baguette’s number one fan, Carrie Bradshaw, in supply for years to come.