Volkswacht Bodensee - Maria Grazia Chiuri's Fendi homecoming feted in Milan

The homecoming of the respected designer -- the first ever woman at the creative helm of Dior and a veteran of Valentino -- was one of the city's most anticipated events on day two of fashion week, with actors Monica Bellucci and Jude Law in the front row along with Fendi ambassador Bang Chan of the Korean boy band Stray Kids.

An experienced designer who has worked for Dior and Valentino, Chiuri received a standing ovation after Wednesday's runway show, some 35 years after her debut at the Roman fashion house.

Chiuri began her career in accessories at the luxury label, where fashion great Karl Lagerfeld presided for over 50 years and which is now owned by French fashion conglomerate LVMH.

"I am here to give back what they have given me," the designer told Vogue magazine this week of the Fendi sisters behind the business.

The designer's first Autumn-Winter collection, for both men and women, featured black, white and green furs, all restyled, and a minimalist colour palette of mostly black, white and pale blue.

With delicately flowing slip dresses -- including a scarlet one that could have been in homage to the late Valentino -- and peekaboo lace, Chiuri explained that she wanted to present a "personal geography" of fashion, highlighting Fendi's history and collaboration with other designers, a method she had already successfully championed at Dior.

With stiff shirt collars worn as necklaces by women -- paired with plunging necklines -- and oversized furs for men, Chiuri also hoped to "go beyond the distinction between women's and men's wardrobes".

The designer collaborated with young artist SAGG Napoli for football T-shirts and scarves with slogans in Italian such as "Rooted but not stuck" or "Loyal but not obedient".

A dozen anti-fur activists demonstrated outside Fendi's Milan headquarters where the show was held, calling on Milan Fashion Week to ban fur, as London and New York have done.

Chiuri, a Rome native, began at Fendi in 1989 as an accessories designer, working side by side with Pierpaolo Piccioli to mark the beginning a long collaboration.

Coming to Valentino in 1999, Chiuri spent the next 17 years at the Roman design house, serving as co-creative director with Piccioli upon the retirement of Valentino Garavani in 2008.

Named to head Dior in 2016 after Raf Simons, Chiuri became the first woman creative director of the storied French couture house, bringing an unapologetic feminist and global eye in reworking Christian Dior's celebrated hourglass silhouette.

How the designer would envision her task at Fendi -- whose roots are in fur and leather goods -- following the departure of artistic director Kim Jones in 2024 had been much discussed in fashion circles.

L.Wyss--VB