Although it was relatively unsung, Hubert de Givenchy’s house did produce menswear under its founder. As with Givenchy’s current creative director, that menswear was strongly informed by the personal identity of Hubert himself.
When it comes to womenswear, Givenchy’s heritage is up there in the pantheon. And wisely, Matthew M. Williams has of late become much more engaged with the specific archival codes of his original predecessor. This resort duly included a series of prettily and precisely draped evening dresses in confectionary colors. Added to these riffs on Hubert’s classical and sometimes almost minimal mid-20th century womenswear silhouettes, realized in new-century materials, were contemporary accessories including Voyou bags and footwear including Cowboy Shark boots. The combination created a sort of fashion time-travel impression: Audrey Hepburn in a Tik Tok by Hitchcock.
In other scenes, Williams developed his own elevated Cali work/skate/grunge womenswear aesthetic, placing riveted construction denim under archival snow leopard relief outerwear and shaggy Afghan-esque jackets over stirruped post-Skims fitted pants. Unstructured yet cinched tailoring in silk twill, plus harder, collarless satin-darted jackets added a recognizably menswear/formal element that was referential without being reverential.
Underlying the lookbook pieces was a large swathe of carefully developed offerings in jersey and cashmere, there to feed Williams’s urge to offer Givenchy customers an unusually thoughtful (at least in luxury) array of wardrobing options. Hubert’s are big shoes to fill—most especially when it comes to womenswear—but Williams continues to find his feet.
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This article was originally published on Vogue Runway.
