Fendi SS27 Turns Sensuality Into a Game of What to Reveal

There could hardly be a more fitting reference for Fendi SS27 than Raffaella Carrà. Sensual, flamboyant, irreverent, and magnificently self-possessed, she understood the pleasure of being seen without surrendering control of the image. More than three decades after beginning her career at Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri taps into that spirit for a collection devoted to freedom of the body and the thrill of choosing exactly how much to reveal. Lace, silk, fur, leopard, sequins, and lingerie speak in a distinctly Roman register, lavish yet mischievous, with Carrà’s audacity running through it all.

Lingerie, Fur, and the Pleasure of Revealing Just Enough

Lingerie loses its private status almost immediately. Bralettes and lace-trimmed silk step confidently beside distressed denim, substantial coats, and fur, allowing delicacy and opulence to flirt with one another. A glimpse of lace beneath something substantial has far more allure than a perfectly composed evening look, while leopard, velvet, beads, and flashes of gold sharpen the seduction with a touch of decadence.

Carrà’s influence finds its most theatrical expression in the mirrors. Drawing on her famous television performances with Adriano Celentano, Chiuri stages the show inside an installation inspired by Luciano Fabro’s Cubo di specchi. Bodies fracture into reflections, disappear, and reappear across the glass, while the audience catches itself inside the spectacle. Suddenly, the question is not simply how much of the body is visible, but who decides how it is seen. It is a wonderfully apt game for Fendi, where sensuality has always carried an element of power.

Fendi SS27 Women & Men RTW 

The Baguette, With a Sense of Humor

And what would this story be without the Baguette? Chiuri knows the icon intimately. She worked on its development during her first chapter at Fendi, and SS27 treats that history with wit instead of reverence. Sequins and fringe recast it for the season, while one version shrinks to almost absurd proportions, barely generous enough for a phone. Flirtatious, impractical, and instantly desirable, it is exactly the sort of fashion object that needs no sensible argument in its defense.

That little baguette also captures the spirit of Fendi SS27 rather neatly. Chiuri has no interest in asking a woman to choose between sensual and sophisticated, romantic and provocative, dressed and undressed. All of it can coexist. Carrà understood that contradiction decades ago. Under a thousand reflections in Milan, Fendi makes it look irresistible once more.

The Faces in Chiuri’s Fendi World

The front row brought together some of the maison’s strongest cultural relationships. Fendi Japan brand ambassador Mina of TWICE joined brand ambassadors Bang Chan of Stray Kids, Ren Meguro, Monica Bellucci, and Tan Jianci, while Rachel Zegler, Yara Shahidi, Maisie Williams, Iris Law, Aitana, and Meng Ziyi were among the other guests. It was less a random celebrity roll call than a portrait of the world Fendi now inhabits, where Roman glamour sits comfortably beside cinema, music, and a younger generation of international stars.