King for a day

Givenchy FW21
By Kinza Shenn | Fashion | 9 March 2021

What feels like a lifetime ago (read, back in October), Alyx designer Matthew M. Williams dropped his first campaign for Givenchy: a lookbook of selfies shot by Naomi Campbell, Kim Kardashian, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, 070 Shake and Skepta to name a few of many worthy of note.

Instagram lit up after FW21 streamed from Paris last night, with his friends back to drop shots wearing the new collection. It was a departure from the strict clean lines of Givenchy as we knew it from the helm of Clare Waight-Keller. Instead, Williams brought a “to-hell-with-it attitude”, an evocative drama of starkness and extravagance, intimate and sincere yet monumental. He said, it’s “like music you can wear.”

Styling mixed extremes of the oversized and underdressed. Cocooning was an overarching theme – something being explored in this season at large, but also paying ode to the codes of Givenchy’s founder. Industrial hardware brought to mind Alyx’s Rollercoaster buckles. Shoes bowed to another designer in the Parisian label’s canon with Alexander McQueen Armadillo-esque heels. Robert Hood soundtracked the show. “The phrase, Organized Chaos stood out in my mind upon talking with Givenchy’s team,” the minimal techno pioneer said. It’s the simplest way to describe this wild ride.

GALLERYCatwalk images from Givenchy WFW21





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