Monday, July 2, 2018

Givenchy Fall 2018 Haute Couture


Clare Waight Keller, the latest in a string of designers to helm this heritage brand, made it perfectly clear that this season the show would be an homage or a paean to the eponymous designer/founder of the brand. With that said,  the following will be what I know or at least what I saw: 
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“Le Grand Hubert” was a man of great elegance, refinement and chic, both personally and professionally. He was unquestionably a paragon of good taste. What I saw in this presentation was not so much as a dedication to Monsieur as it was seemingly more about Audrey Hepburn, his beloved friend and muse. From the kitten heels to the opening look which was a riff on the red dress from Funny Face to the gamine look of the models, to the beatnik stage in Funny Face, the clothes looked more about her than about him.
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Yes, there was elegance. Yes there was an extremely heavy focus on evening clothes which as any fashion maven will tell you was not the only category  that M. Givenchy designed or held as his strong suit. He was as prolific in his day and afternoon clothes as he was in his eveningwear. His women wore clothes that showed the body in the most raffiné of ways; never overtly sexy and if anything a tad matronly at times. Today was a 90% evening wear collection with a great deal of repetition and riffing on the same styles over and over and lots of asymmetrical cuts as well looser shapes.
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Yes unquestionably, Ms. Waight Keller gave the couture ateliers an incredible workout to achieve some immensely beautiful effects but in the end that’s what they were … creations of the most incredible and intricate of hand work. 
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The clothes themselves seemed to be less defined in shape albeit when she did show a more precise hand in the tailored pieces but still the polish, the final touch seemed to be missing. When one thinks of M. Givenchy’s oeuvre, one can surely recall far more memorable silhouettes and far more signature pieces than were shown today.
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Let me not forget to say that the use of that so called heavy artillery jewelry which was completely and totally antithetical to the designs and the supposed MO of the collection. Apparently Ms. Waight Keller also believes that men will need couture evening coats  ... I am not sure why or when they need to wear them but alas they were slick and again some of them quite exquisitely rendered but the same shape over and over just reinterpreted by embellishments and flourishes.
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Rather than blather on ... yes it was pretty, yes it made a statement which remains unclear to me but it was missing was a  precision, the soigné  and draping and innovation that the eponymous designer brought to the runway each season. Sadly what this equates to is sort of like basing his entire career on 2 gowns from 2 movies which would be like defining Bill Travilla’s entire career on Marilyn’s Seven Year Itch dress. 
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PS ... as for raising the topic of the 2 dresses worn at the most recent royal wedding ... why does no one point out that these dresses were not perfection in any way, they did not fit  and in particular the wedding gown which was ill constructed and poorly  fitted. As I was told by a colleague who worked elbow to elbow with Monsieur … “there is no such thing as a waist seam” ... tah dah! Think again and why bring those 2 very mediocre pieces into the picture when reviewing this collection?

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