MARKING a considered beginning for Maria Grazia Chiuri, Jo Ann Callis shoots Fendi‘s Fall/ Winter 2026 campaign.
Rather than foregrounding spectacle, the images dwell in emotional nuance, exploring the fragile, often contradictory nature of human connection. There is a quiet tension throughout: a push and pull between intimacy and distance, presence and inaccessibility.
Fendi AW26 Campaign
This exploration unfolds through gesture. Bodies lean, hesitate, or mirror one another, suggesting a dialogue that remains just out of reach. Callis approaches the campaign as a sequence of suspended moments, where proximity does not guarantee understanding. Even when figures share the same space, a subtle dissonance persists, reinforcing the idea that connection is as much imagined as it is experienced.
Within this framework, Chiuri’s concept of a shared wardrobe becomes central. Menswear and womenswear echo one another, not as identical forms but as reflections, revealing both affinity and divergence. Tailoring sharpens softness; fluidity unsettles structure. In this exchange, femininity and masculinity are not fixed but continuously negotiated.
Contextually, the campaign sits within a broader cultural return to introspection, where fashion resists overt narrative in favour of psychological depth. References to Pina Bausch underscore this, privileging emotion conveyed through movement over explicit storytelling.
Rome anchors the work. Its interiors, textures, and diffuse light lend the images a cinematic quality, situating the collection within a space that feels both historic and unreal. Here, Fendi does not simply present clothes – it constructs a world shaped by distance, desire and the enduring complexity of human connection.
by Ellis Dowle