Mood board: You’d be forgiven for incessantly humming The Velvet Underground and Nico’s ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ on the way into the latest Givenchy show. To start with, because ’I am your mirror’ was precisely the title of the collection. Guests cruised through the endless corridors of the Île de la Cité’s Palais de Justice in near-complete darkness, illuminated only by a laser trail bouncing from mirrors. As it turned out, it was a symbol: one of blurred sartorial gender codes. In fact, Clare Waight Keller’s inspiration this season started with Annemarie Schwarzenbach, the early 20th century journalist and photographer who was educated as a boy by her parents.
Best in show: Schwarzenbach’s striking ultra androgynous look was mimicked by the models, many of which sported boyish pixie cuts. The show’s pièces de résistance were high-waisted, pleated trousers paired with sahariennes, pared-down smoking jackets and sleek trench coats. For the girls, that is. Boys – Waight Keller has been polishing her flair for menswear since her arrival to the French maison – got to wear the gilded leather, skinny lavender suits and clutch handbags this time. Not to say there weren’t touches of a more conventional take on femininity. After all, the front row was star-studded (guests included Liv Tyler, Rooney Mara, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Isabelle Huppert). For their red carpet engagements, it seemed, the designer proposed a sparkling finale of sequins and strass-embroidered evening gowns.
Finishing touches: Accessories included tan leather tote bags worn as clutches – mostly by men, but one piece stood out: glasses bore XL proportions and were baroquely embellished with dangling chains and rimmed with crystals, contrasting with the minimalism of the rest of the collection. If they end up hitting the stores, they are guaranteed to be sold out show-stoppers.
