Maria Grazia Chiuri offers a love letter to her home city

A star-studded front row and evening drizzle only added to the ambience.

A model walks the runway during the Dior Women Cruise 26 fashion collection show at Villa Albani Torlonia, in Rome on May 27, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s cruise collection, shown in the gardens of the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome, has paid tribute to the eternal city, her home town.

The creative director of womenswear at Christian Dior since 2016 - and the first woman to hold the position – presented both a cruise and haute couture collection.

“I want to show what I love, what I really love,” Grazia Chiuri told guests at the show.

Grazia Chiuri received a standing ovation.

Vogue Australia editor-in-chief, Christine Centenera, who attended the show in Rome, says it was Grazia Chiuri in “full form”.

“[It] was romantic, light, exquisite. Anchored in her home town, Rome, it was a love letter to the eternal city, and transcendent. It transported us all to another time.”

The unusual blurring of ready-to-wear with haute couture, says Centenera, was something Grazia Chiuri had never done before.

“She created a fluid dialogue between the two, elevating the clothes but also the skill of the ateliers and seamstresses,” she says.

Natalie Portman at the Dior Cruise 2026 show held at the Villa Albani Torlonia on May 27, 2025 in Rome, Italy. Picture: Getty Images

Shown in front of a seriously A-List front row (seated under umbrellas in the drizzle), including the likes of Natalie Portman – in tiered layers of white silk – The White Lotus’ Alexandra Daddario, French actor Camille Cottin and Rosamund Pike, the collection included ethereal sheer and lace gowns, liquid-like tailoring, nods to masculine tropes such as vests and waist coats and supremely feminine silhouettes in a colour palette of mostly black, white and molten takes on neutrals. The inspiration for the collection started with Grazia Chiuri thinking about Mimi Pecci-Blunt, an Italian noblewoman and arts patron whose literary salons were attended by the likes of Salvador Dali.

Maria Grazia Chiuri smiles at the end of the Dior Women Cruise 26 fashion collection show at Villa Albani Torlonia, in Rome on May 27, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Grazia Chiuri’s love for Rome, and its cultural institutions, has been expressed elsewhere this year with the unveiling this week of the 233 seat theatre, the Teatro della Cometa, Grazia Chiuri has spent the past few years restoring alongside her daughter, Rachele Regini.

The spectacular show – which follows similar passport-required cruise season productions from the likes of Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci – comes amid speculation around new creative direction for the brand.

In April Jonathan Anderson was appointed artistic director of Dior Men following the departure of Kim Jones in January. He will show his first collection on June 27 at the Paris menswear shows. The ready-to-wear shows in September and October meanwhile will be closely watched for the anticipated debuts from new creative directors at Chanel, Gucci and Balenciaga.