Maria Grazia Chiuri Shows Her Final Collection For Dior: The Cruise 2026 Collection

Creative Director for Dior’s women’s collections, Maria Grazia Chiuri, has announced her departure from Dior after debuting the House’s cruise 2026 show on May 27th in the gardens of Villa Albani Torlonia. She will be stepping down after nine years at Dior, another defining shift in the fashion industry’s latest turnover.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior

Blending haute couture and ready-to-wear pieces, the cruise 2026 collection plays on Chiuri’s signature themes of time by delivering an autobiographical synthesis of a singular moment suspended in time described in the collection notes as “the beautiful confusion borrowed from the title Ennio Flaiano suggested to Fellini for 8 ½.” 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior

The pieces in the metaphorical collection seamlessly fuse fashion history and contemporary syntax. Leaning into menswear we see tailored suiting moments featuring masculine vests with delicate lapels paired with long, full skirts, and tailcoats. Stunning dresses are done sheer, cascading lace  with intricate embroideries or contrasted with bas-relief patterns that are then combined with military jackets with black edges and detailed buttons. We see outerwear in the form of high-to-low trenches and dramatic fur coats. Certain dresses are reminiscent of chasubles, while many are fluid in movement with ethereal silhouettes. Black and red velvet pay homage to the Fontana sisters, who conceived Anita Ekberg’s outfits in La Dolce Vita. The collection features a range of elements that interact with white in a variety of materials, from the densest to the lightest, accompanying the styles. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Dior

Through this poetic narrative, Chiuri expertly reconstructs the characters, landscapes, and mythology of her home city of Rome, inviting the wearer to dream and discover a new constellation of stellar affinities. It’s the end of an era for Maria Grazia Chiuri and the House of Dior, and this collection is undoubtedly a beautiful goodbye.