Fendi’s new collection: Clothes without commitment issues
Like an old friend who lives in a new city, Fendi is calling. They want to hang out.
Now under the direction of Dior’s former creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, the Italian heritage label presented its fall/winter 2026 collection today in Milan, and along with 80 expertly tailored looks, it has a new mantra: “Less I, more us.”
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In other, more wishy-washy hands, this chant of togetherness could get corny, with statement tees about saving trees that nobody ever wears. But in Chiuri’s world, the “us” isn’t some nebulous clump of humankind. It’s the deep moments of friendship where clothes become connections, memories, and bonding experiences. You can see it in the lace inset blouses destined for an “Omigod, how are you?” lunch; the shearling coats covered in blotted floral prints that are meant to be worn on long walks for deep discussions; a shaggy stole that reads “five sisters,” a nod to Fendi’s original quintet of female founders but also the name of everyone’s college sorority group chat.
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Yes, there were new Baguette bags—good ones—that came in canvas and leather and beaded sparkle fringe. (Really!) Chiuri, of course, helped develop the style when she was an accessories designer at the house in the ’90s.
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But there was also a slew of slinky embroidered dresses in inky silk or sheer ballet-slipper beige. Their shape is ageless and trendless; they seem destined to be layered endlessly over leotards or under giant coats, borrowed by friends and sisters and daughters, and worn whenever you “just don’t know” what to do or how to feel, but you hope your favorite look can help you out. Chiuri says the new Fendi dresses have been “called on to accompany our lives, our emotions, our desire.” Likewise the new fur coats and stoles, made with upcycled and re-fabricated materials from Fendi’s studio archive, which the brand calls “emotionally durable design.”
Translation: Like those old friends, these clothes want to stick with you for a long, long time. Make like Mel Robbins and let them—a great outfit is the best kind of old friend.
