Workwear With A Side Of Whimsy
Review of Givenchy Fall 2024 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
With the absence of a face leading the creative steer, and also giving critics a name to critique or praise, luxury houses often look to the unsung heroes of their studios to see them through until they are once again shored up with announcement of a new creative director ready to chart another course.
One of the benefits of this, is that you get a true distillation and often truer representation of a house’s codes. Seeing as the studio team will often have decades of experience working behind-the-scenes across all categories, special projects, materials development, and archiving. A responsibility not to be taken lightly, and some seasons when it’s called for they have their moment to shine. Proving their mettle with these often interim collections, which need little fanfare. And today, in the intimate setting of the salons of 3, Avenue George V (a location famed for being where Hubert de Givenchy created many of his collections) Givenchy presented their fall 2024 collection.
There was, as described in the show notes, a tension between gentlemanliness (expressed as the character of the founder) which was evident in the military-styling of the outerwear and graceful tailoring, and the once-called feminine preoccupations of the founder, who’s opulently decorated interior spaces were only matched by the “eccentric gestures” as found in his own wardrobe.
A light-hearted whimsical jaunt around the house’s design codes, meant that clean silhouettes formed the base, but the feline charms of the cat became an unexpected way to re-introduce an archival print and tap into some new ways with fur, from full-blown elongated trims dripping from coats to motifs playfully hidden within grey jacquard parka jackets or peeking out from the fur adorning a bomber jacket.
And as if to re-anchor the house in its historical origins further, a ‘Blouse Blanche’ (aptly named as it loosely translates to ‘Lab Coat’ in English, and speaks to the way the studio team took to its reinvention for fall 2024), worn by Givenchy in his studio – according to the notes – opened the show. The archive piece was re-engineered as workwear, and rendered in what appeared to be calico or natural canvas, as if to drive home the point that the work of a designer is twinned with the skills of the master craftsman.
The founders public and private wardrobes would also often contain flashes of flamboyance, and that was represented today, in part as the ultimate in luxury loungewear. As a sweatsuit and ribbed knitted long johns, both in chenille looked at home against the formality of the setting.
THE BUZZWORDS
Unexpected whimsy, honed house codes, origin stories, reworking workwear
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look #10
Unearthed from the House archives, this chandelier print is worked into an all-over motif, and further embellished with pearls and metallic yarns conveying the audacious elegance on display throughout the collection.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
There was a sense of going back to the House roots, with todays consciously concise show, which was an aligned collection for the house. But by highlighting key inspirations or archival memories, room is being left for whoever helms the brand in the future to build on these ideas or create some anew.
