“To go forward, you have to go back to the beginning. To me, that’s about the atelier. It’s the heart and soul of Givenchy.” Sarah Burton
A cache of Hubert de Givenchy patterns was recently discovered walled up in a hidden cupboard at his first maison at 8 Avenue Alfred de Vigny while it was being renovated. The brown paper packets proved to contain calico patterns from his 1952 debut collection, which he showed to audience packed into his atelier.
For Sarah Burton, it triggered a tangible connection with her own way of working: on the stockman, in fittings, between the studio and the atelier. Purposefully close-up, her first collection as Artistic Director walked intentionally, with zero distractions, through the house at 3, Avenue George V, the historic address of Givenchy since 1955.
“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.”
Starting from the body up – from the imagery of the studio stockman, stamped GIVENCHY 1952- the rhythm of her collection evolves around tailoring, merging and counterpointing masculine techniques with feminine shape. Through salons stripped-back to their original beauty, a sense of powerful femininity is constructed, re-cut, played with, and enjoyed from all angles from a woman’s point of view.
“I want to address everything about modern women. Strength, vulnerability, emotional intelligence, feeling powerful or very sexy. All of it.”
Symbolism and atmosphere flows through the precision of modern couture-cut silhouettes. Strong shoulders and an hourglass waist, the definitive line of jackets and coats and two types of trousers walk in counterpoint with the free experimentation of shapes that happened in the studio. Bolts of fabric are spontaneously poured as backless dresses or tied as a skirt. An incendiary female-gaze sexuality charges covered-up fronts with bared backs and rivets the eye to the kick in the back of a black leather pencil skirt.
Echoes of Hubert de Givenchy are caught but not replicated. The Chantilly lace dresses are scissored-up to micro length, elongating the body. Fifties foundations take a provocative turn in bullet-bras. Bracelet-length sleeves and cocoon backs are captured in coats and jackets. His scarves and bows are translated into graphic, exploded leather scarves, knots, and the airy organza neckline of another Givenchy classic - a white shirt which acts, for today, as a dress.
Intertwining the couture values of the past and the creative energy of the future.
