Maria Grazia Chiuri’s spring 2027 Fendi collection looked molto sexy. Well, what you could see of it. Models paraded inside a semi-transparent mirrored box, glimpsed through its reflective screens while their reflections multiplied across the surfaces and mingled with those of the audience. Chiuri drew on Italian pop stars Raffaella Carrà and Adriano Celentano’s delirious television performance of “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” staged amid a hall of mirrors; Arte Povera artist Luciano Fabro’s Mirror Cube, in which spectators confronted their own reflections while an unseen performer occupied the interior; and E. E. Cummings’s erotic love poem “i like my body when it is with yours.” From that typically culturally omnivorous constellation of references emerged a timely show about human connection and what is lost when fashion, intimacy, and life itself are mediated through screens.
Undergarments were the stars of the show. The first look set the tone: a white button-front dickey and a black lace-trimmed slip worn with one of the leather detached shirt collars that are quickly becoming a signature of Chiuri’s Fendi. Since her Dior days—when she anticipated the wave of naked dressing with sheer gowns layered over tonal boy shorts and bralettes—Chiuri has had a knack for making sensual clothes that feel resolutely woman-friendly, concealing and revealing exactly what the wearer chooses. Underwear became an interstitial layer between body and clothes, sometimes exposed, sometimes concealed. Delicate bralettes trimmed with lace and embroidery peeked from deconstructed tuxedo vests, plunging V-neck slips, and unbuttoned shirt dresses.
There was still plenty of Chiuri’s favorite color, black, but the mood was less resolutely ascetic than her fall 2026 debut and more choose-your-own-adventure, from sparkly boy-short bodysuits to full-coverage dresses and coats. Color and pattern brought levity, with leopard mingling alongside pretty pastels like dusty rose and butter yellow. That looseness carried into the styling, with a pistachio silk bralette and boxer short set grounded by a duster coat, embossed leather belt, fishnet knee socks, and jeweled thong sandals, because why not? The clothes had a tactile appeal that made you want to reach out and touch them, almost too apt by the time six rows of guests emptied into the narrow strip between the front row and mirrored runway, pressing everyone shoulder-to-shoulder on the way out.
