GIVENCHY SPRING-SUMMER 2021 WOMEN'S & MEN'S COLLECTION
“You find the pieces of the puzzle for a collection, building it from symbols and signs, but never forgetting the reality of the person who will wear it and bring it to life. The women and men should be powerful and effortless, equal and joyful, a reflection of who they really are – only more so. It’s about finding the humanity in luxury.” Matthew M. Williams, Creative Director, Givenchy
At Matthew M. Williams’ Givenchy, ‘Hardware’ is key. Eschewing, gendered notions of jewellery and accessories, rather it is hardware that unites the women and men of Givenchy, a symbolic nexus of utility and luxury and the place where this collection began. The Lover’s Lock is a unisex object of utility, decoration, commitment and emotion; a sincere yet playful symbol of Paris – it nods to the lost locks of Le Pont des Arts – it is an object punctuated throughout this initial collection as both decoration and fastenings. It also points to Williams’ commitment to the world of Givenchy in this first proposal as the house’s Creative Director.
The Spring-Summer ‘21 collection explores Givenchy in the form of a stream of consciousness for Williams and is a ‘sampler’ of what is to come. Begun in the midst of a pandemic and completed within two months, this is a new beginning, yet is intermingled with elements of the archive and is a utilisation of Givenchy’s distinct lineage, pointing to the past, present and future. Above all, there is a sense of celebration, of the people who have led Williams here and those he wants to wear the clothes. This is expressed in the images that reveals the collection, a photographic study by the creative director together with the artist Heji Shin – a photographer who also gets to the heart of who a person is as much as to the clothes they wear.
