Fendi

Fendi appointed Maria Grazia Chiuri Chief Creative Officer on 14 October 2025, bringing her back to the house where she worked in accessories from 1989 to 1999 and consolidating the principal fashion categories under her direction.

Silvia Venturini Fendi became Honorary President on 1 October 2025, moving from day-to-day design leadership into heritage stewardship, representation and support for the house’s Roman craft culture.

Fendi marked its centenary in 2025 with exhibitions, product releases and collections that placed family memory, Roman craft and the house’s changing authorship at the centre of its public history.

Following Kim Jones’s departure, Silvia Venturini Fendi again led womenswear while retaining accessories and menswear, directing the house through its centenary year and the transition to Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Kim Jones left Fendi womenswear and couture on 11 October 2024 after four years, returning those categories to interim direction by Silvia Venturini Fendi.

Fendace turned collaboration between rival houses into one of the year's most visible runway events.

Kim Jones directed Fendi womenswear and couture from September 2020 to October 2024, introducing a literary and collaborative register while working alongside Silvia Venturini Fendi in accessories and menswear and Delfina Delettrez Fendi in jewellery.

Delfina Delettrez Fendi joined the house’s formal creative leadership as Artistic Director of Jewellery in 2020, developing fashion jewellery and high jewellery alongside Fendi’s clothing and accessories divisions.

Fendi launched Hand in Hand in 2020, commissioning workshops across Italy’s regions to reinterpret the Baguette through local leather, lace, weaving, embroidery and decorative techniques.

After Karl Lagerfeld’s death, Silvia Venturini Fendi assumed responsibility for womenswear while continuing to direct accessories and menswear, holding the house through its first major creative succession in more than five decades.

Fendi launched Haute Fourrure in Paris in July 2015, formalising a couture-level programme built around the house’s fur atelier. The line later adopted the broader Couture title as its material scope expanded.

Fendi formalised its highest craft programme as Haute Fourrure in Paris in 2015, extending Lagerfeld’s fur experimentation into couture-scale presentations and Roman monument shows. He remained responsible for womenswear, fur and couture until his death in February 2019.

Following the 2006 Hyères Grand Prix, Vaccarello joined Fendi during Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure and spent approximately two years specialising in fur design. No more exact public appointment title or effective dates were recovered.

LVMH and Prada jointly acquired a controlling stake in Fendi in 1999. LVMH bought Prada’s share in 2001 and became the majority shareholder, moving the house from family control into a global luxury group structure.

Frida Giannini joined Fendi’s leather goods studio in 1997 and worked on the expansion of the accessories business before moving to Gucci in 2002.

Alessandro Michele worked in Fendi’s accessories studio from the late 1990s, developing leather goods within the house’s material and product system before joining Gucci.

Silvia Venturini Fendi directed accessories and menswear from 1994 to 2025, creating the Baguette, Spy and Peekaboo bags and establishing a distinct menswear language alongside the changing leadership of womenswear.

Silvia Venturini Fendi joined the main studio in 1992 and assumed formal direction of accessories and menswear in 1994. Lagerfeld continued to lead womenswear and fur within a parallel authorship structure that placed apparel and leather goods under distinct creative control.

Giambattista Valli worked on Fendissime during the first half of the 1990s, gaining experience in a younger commercial line before later roles at Krizia and Emanuel Ungaro.

Pierpaolo Piccioli joined Fendi’s accessories department in 1990 and worked there with Maria Grazia Chiuri before the pair moved to Valentino in 1999.

Maria Grazia Chiuri worked in Fendi’s accessories studio from 1989 to 1999, learning within the family-led workshop system and contributing to the department during the development of the Baguette under Silvia Venturini Fendi.

Silvia Venturini Fendi developed her early design practice through Fendissime, the younger line run by the third generation of the family before she joined the main Fendi studio.

Fendi Casa launched in 1987, extending the house’s leather, textile and furnishing codes into interiors. The division later moved from licensing to the FF Design joint venture established in 2021.

Fendi launched Fendissime in 1987 as a younger diffusion line developed by the third generation of the family. The line became an early training ground for Silvia Venturini Fendi and her cousins and later employed Giambattista Valli.

Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna hosted Un Percorso di Lavoro for Fendi’s sixtieth anniversary and Karl Lagerfeld’s twentieth year at the house. Garments, fur panels and atelier processes were presented inside a national art museum, giving the house’s craft a formal institutional setting later revisited for its 2026 couture presentation.

Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna hosted Un Percorso di Lavoro for Fendi’s sixtieth anniversary and Lagerfeld’s twentieth year at the house. The exhibition placed the maison’s fur, leather and atelier processes inside a national art museum.

Fendi commissioned Jacques de Bascher to direct Histoire d’Eau, the film used to introduce the house’s first women’s ready-to-wear line. The project made moving image part of Fendi’s structural expansion beyond fur and leather.

Fendi’s 1977 launch of women’s ready-to-wear expanded Lagerfeld’s remit beyond fur. The line carried the atelier’s material experimentation into clothing while the house grew through film, licensing and international retail.

Fendi launched women’s ready-to-wear in 1977, extending a house previously centred on fur and leather into a complete fashion wardrobe. The first collection was introduced through Jacques de Bascher’s film Histoire d’Eau.

Working with the five Fendi sisters and the Roman fur atelier, Lagerfeld stripped weight and formality from fur, introduced vivid colour and graphic construction, and established the double-F “Fun Fur” mark as the house’s new visual code.

Appointed by the five Fendi sisters in 1965, Karl Lagerfeld transformed fur through colour, lightness and graphic construction, created the double-F “Fun Fur” mark and later directed women’s ready-to-wear and Haute Fourrure until his death in 2019.

Alda Fendi managed the internal fur workshops and the relationship between designers, technicians and artisans, giving the house’s material experiments an exacting production structure.

Carla Fendi directed sales, communications and international strategy, later serving as president through the house’s transition from family ownership to LVMH control.

Franca Fendi managed purchasing, retail and client relations, linking the house’s raw materials and workshop output to its Roman stores and international clientele.

Anna Fendi directed design operations and licensing within the five-sister structure, coordinating product development as Fendi expanded from a Roman workshop into an international fashion house.

Paola Fendi entered the family business in 1946 and led the technical development of fur, overseeing dyeing, tanning and material processes that later enabled the house’s most experimental work.

From 1946 through the sale of a controlling stake in 1999, Paola, Anna, Franca, Carla and Alda Fendi operated the house through distinct but interdependent roles spanning fur technology, design, purchasing, communications and the atelier. Their collective structure professionalised the family workshop and remained the operational framework through Karl Lagerfeld’s long collaboration.

Edoardo Fendi co-founded the Roman house with Adele Casagrande Fendi and helped expand its retail and commercial base until his death in 1954.

Adele Casagrande Fendi established the house with Edoardo Fendi in 1925, building on the Roman leather and fur workshop she had opened in 1918. She directed its craft standards and remained involved as their five daughters assumed responsibility for the business.