Sarah Burton debuts with panache

This season, Paris Fashion Week‘s second major debut featured Sarah Burton‘s first collection for the house of Givenchy, an unqualified success.
 
An intimate presentation, the show was unveiled on a sunny Friday morning inside Givenchy’s historic headquarters on Avenue George V. The setting, newly redone in pristine white—including the staircases—provided a strikingly clean slate for Burton’s vision.

Givenchy and Burton continue to be a magnet for stars, with an A-list front row that included Gwendoline Christie, Rooney Mara, Joseph Quinn, Ryan Destiny, Raye, and Kit Connor, all dressed in Givenchy by Sarah Burton for the occasion.

“I wanted a blank page. When I came here, I found a beautiful building with all sorts of walls, like little boxes. So, I said, ‘Can we rip out a few boxes?'” Burton told Fashion Network post-show.

Burton paid homage to Hubert de Givenchy, drawing from his iconic Bettina blouse, crisp tailoring, and little black dresses for Audrey Hepburn. Yet, with undeniable authority, the British designer has already made the French luxury house her own.
 
She opened with a respectful nod—a black fishnet top emblazoned with ‘Givenchy 1958,’ the year of the house’s founding. Even here, she subtly reinterpreted Givenchy’s legacy, crafting the piece from sexy semi-sheer fabric. She followed with couture-inspired pink and canary yellow leotards, elegantly folded at the neckline.

Burton’s tailoring prowess was on full display in bold herringbone double-breasted suits and nipped-waist redingotes with dégradé finishes. Every so often, she infused pure Parisian chic—from a perfectly cut, dropped-waist white double-face cashmere coat to a biker jacket reimagined as a cocktail piece.
 
Burton joined Givenchy last year after spending nearly three decades at Alexander McQueen (Lee), where she began in 1996 while Lee was also the couturier at the house of Givenchy.

“I wanted to go back to the silhouettes of Givenchy—that’s the backbone of this house. But I also wanted to encompass everything that it is to be a woman today. A moment you want to feel powerful, or sexy, or fragile, or vulnerable. I wanted to communicate and celebrate the complexity of being a woman,” explained Burton, who used all sorts of shapes and sizes of models in a highly variegated casting.

 
Also apparent was a clever sense of humor, from a remarkable multi-mirror top, worn seemingly miraculously, to a stupendous multi-makeup compact cocktail dress that provoked wry smiles all around.

 
“In my head, I imagined Bettina Graziani (Hubert’s favorite model) spilling her handbag in the atelier, and out came powder puffs, makeup cases, and a few jewels,” smiled Burton.

The result was the freshest jewelry collection of the season—jangling Swarovski tambourine earrings, crystal knuckle earrings, knotted silver chokers, golf ball-sized earrings, and bold, chunky abstract bracelets. In one show, Burton invented an entirely new commercial category where Givenchy had previously been absent, adding to the sense that this debut was a significant win for Sidney Toledano, CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, and Alessandro Valenti, who became CEO of Givenchy last year.

​
 
Burton also took bold, creative risks, reinventing the Bettina blouse as a sexy nightshirt and reinterpreting Hubert’s signature inflated sleeve into a femme fatale version featuring detachable leather sleeves worn with a mini bra.

Next up is couture, though more likely in February, as Burton builds her team. Like during her tenure at McQueen, she wants to create workshops with young graduate talent, working with pattern cutters from “the amazing schools they have here in Paris.”
 
The show marked another milestone in Burton’s remarkable career. Straight out of college, she joined McQueen, became his right-hand woman, and later took over as creative director following his passing in 2010. In her early months at McQueen in the mid-’90s, she recalls taking the Eurostar from London to Paris, transporting “show pieces, like flashing robots,” for Givenchy couture shows.
 
When asked to define the Givenchy DNA, Burton replied:
 
“I think wherever you go, you have to tell your own story. Establish what the house represents, and then interpret what you want to say with feeling, trust, and emotion,” she concluded.