Sarah Burton Makes a Powerful Debut at Givenchy
“To go forward, you have to go back to the beginning,” the new designer explained. “To me, that’s about the atelier. It’s the heart and soul of Givenchy.”
On Friday in Paris, all eyes were on Sarah Burton, the former Alexander McQueen designer who in September was named Givenchy’s creative director. It’s a daunting role that has proven to be difficult for the brand’s more recent leaders, each of whom have bid adieu after short attempts at rebuilding; one question that shuffled among showgoers: can Burton find success at Givenchy? Her McQueen legacy is enough proof of her expert craftsmanship, though her ability to exit the McQueen mindset, one she operated under for 25 years, and lead a brand with a different identity, history and scale was something that still needed testing. For her Givenchy debut, she smartly opted to reference the House’s start.
“To go forward, you have to go back to the beginning,” Burton explained. “To me, that’s about the atelier. It’s the heart and soul of Givenchy.” While Burton was sourcing for her inaugural output, a cache of Hubert de Givenchy patterns was discovered in a secret cupboard at the founder’s first-ever maison during recent renovations. Inside the brown packets were calico patterns from Givenchy’s debut collection in 1952, which he staged in that same atelier. It was a sign for Burton, whose debut line harkened back to the namesake designer’s earliest days and drew parallels to her personal method of working: “on the stockman, in fittings, between the studio and the atelier.”
“It’s my natural instinct to go back to pattern-cutting, to craftsmanship. To cut, shape and proportion. It’s what I feel, how I work, and want to do,” she said. So, her entire collection was brought to life by tailoring, a certain kind that mixed conflicting masculine techniques with quintessentially feminine shapes. In practice, that meant big shoulders mingling with hourglass waists, bracelet-length sleeves cutting down cocooning jackets, and slabs of fabric strategically draped across the body to form backless dresses and tied skirts.
The goal was to create a powerful wardrobe that represented all parts of the contemporary woman: “strength, vulnerability, emotional intelligence, feeling powerful or very sexy. All of it,” Burton noted. Emerging on the runway following the final carousel, she was met with a standing ovation.
See Givenchy’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection in the gallery above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week coverage.
