GIVENCHY RESORT 2020

With all the big hopes and hoopla that surrounded this latest incarnation, Clare Waight Keller has  delivered a collection that reaches a new benchmark for the heritage brand…………… mediocre!

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Well maybe I should say yawn worthy! These are clothes for people who need a label to feel secure as they’re just clothes for the sake of clothes and in in the majority they are boring and pointless. So I guess this is one more to add to the pile of the emperor’s new clothes. If anything, the collection looks like contemporary sportswear and save 3 or 4 gowns this is H&M ready.

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WTF are these people thinking? There’s no guts, no fashion, no style, no chic, no elegance... just clothes… clothes that can bear any label by any design student or wannabe designer. Welcome to the demise of fashion as we once knew it! It’s almost like the fashion demolition derby!!

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 PS… nothing says resort like shearling and fur!

Givenchy men’s fall 2019

Clare Waight Keller certainly took a turn away from what’s going on in menswear and I can’t say its unwelcomed! I think she took her cues from Tom Ford and even Yves St Laurent of the 70s meaning one of the same but it is refreshing to see suits and pants that men might opt to wear. Everything old is new again except for maybe the shiny patents looks and the extremely close fit in some cases.

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I think the collection would have greatly benefitted from models that didn’t look barely out of their teens and if she had truly delved into some of the statements she made in the collection. A variety of pant shapes mostly full cut and more body com and classic looking tailored pieces rule the roost. I wish she had more of the  novelty pieces like the asymmetrical shirt tail shirt and the color block blazer as well as one particular blazer done up in some divinely wonderful novelty fabrication. 

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Givenchy and Dior menswear in their original incarnations were for the gentlemen elite of the world, classically tailored and sportif without a lot of if any bells and whistles. Speed that up to decades later and I think Keller has hit upon something that so many have missed and that would be clothes to be worn other than on a runway and still look fashionable.

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The palette is both classic and adventurous but hardly looks clownish in the least. I may not truly like what she is doing on women’s but this struck a note for me and it’s a far cry from sweats and hoodies and tees that prostituted and diluted the name for far too long.

Givenchy prefall 2019

Clare Waight Keller … what are you smoking girl? It’s just a lot of  very unappealing clothes, many of them poorly proportioned to make up this hodgepodge of a collection. Trench coats mini boleros and oh  yes what can say Givenchy more  than quilted elastic waist pants, gestapo trench coats, night shirts, nurse’s uniforms or hefty bag raincoats! ( and a nod to Vaccarello and Slimane)

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The time has come to STFU about “your” inspirations and actually design  clothes that reflect the stature of the brand. I can’t even say it holds together as a collection. I can only say they are clothes and Ms. Keller must need an adjustment of her meds if she thinks that this pile has anything to say to anyone let alone speak to the DNA of the house.

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As was pointed out to me earlier in this week I heard… “we’re old “ but I say  it’s not the age it’s the level of taste and knowledge that allows us to say go design  anything with your own label since this is laughable in the extreme if it is to be associated with  a heritage brand such as Givenchy.

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