After the news last season that Matthew M. Williams had stepped down as the Creative Director of Givenchy, the house decided that their FW24 collection would be a more lowkey affair. Taking place inside Givenchy’s salon on Avenue George V in Paris, the guests sat around tables that were filled with finger foods and classic French pastries as the models wove between the crowd. Designed by the internal design team, the FW23 collection was a tribute to the personal style of the house’s founder, Hubert de Givenchy.

The very first looks out were takes on the classic blouse blanche, the white coat or robe that was traditionally the go-to apparel of fashion designers when working in their ateliers. We then moved on to some classic outerwear, pinstriped trousers and long coats that included armholes underneath the sleeves so that you can pop your arms through and wear the coat as a cape (a wardrobe staple for Mr. Givenchy).

Shirts and trousers appeared in a distinctly 1970s cut that featured a recurring chandelier motif from the archives, the sunglasses in this section being incredibly reminiscent of the kind worn by Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour.

Then, the head scarves came out. Though Givenchy himself isn’t remembered as a particularly humorous designer, when he founded his brand in the early 1950s (after some very influential years as an apprentice to Elsa Schiaparelli), he was noted for accessories that included handbags that looked like shopping bags, Panama hats that doubled as bags and earrings in the form of gilded peanuts. The head scarves that were in the FW24 collection, which can be clasped under the chin and feature long flowing locks of hair, are a reproduction of pieces from this brief, very early tongue-in-cheek era.

The collection continued with more pieces that the eccentric Mr. Givenchy would casually wear out and about — tailcoats, shearling jackets, masses of fringe, opera gloves as casual gloves, and highly ornamented panelled jackets. Even his own beloved double-G belt was recreated for the collection. 

As a collection, it was a beautiful and memorable tribute to the house’s founder and clearly helmed by a team who wanted to display some of the more joyful moments of Givenchy’s vast archive.