AREN’T WE ALL JUST LONGING FOR SOMETHING? MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI ASKS

words by NIA TOPALOVA

We love it when things turn poetic, and Maria Grazia Chiuri always seems to know how to lead us somewhere sentimental. In her very first Fall/Winter 2026-2027 campaign for FENDI, she brought the focus to the ambivalence of human connection, the aching desire to connect, and the simultaneous inability to fully do so in order to protect our vulnerability.

The campaign is shot by photographer Jo Ann Callis, who’s process began with a sketch, outlining the interplay between a man and a woman, which Chiuri then transformed into an uniformity, which paradoxically intensify expressions of femininity and masculinity, mirroring womenswear and menswear, and reflecting shared dualities. Each movement reflects one’s inner world as suspended moment within a larger sequence.

Pina Bausch, one of the most influential dancer and choreographer of the twentieth century, is the inspiration behind the exploration of emotional tension through physical proximity. Her works explored the space between people, and the way bodies communicate intimacy, conflict and longing without words, combining dance, theatre and everyday gestures in order to expose vulnerability, desires and the complexities of human relationships.
Rome became the essential presence of Chiuri’s work, inviting viewers into a somehow constructed reality, and evoking the cinematic essence of both FENDI and Rome.