Of late, luxury fashion houses have largely been selecting their creative directors for their unique brand vision, marketing prowess, and ability to generate hype, rather than their design style and capabilities. Givenchy SS21 proves that it may be time to go the old-fashioned route and put design first. Givenchy creative director and 1017 ALYX 9SM founder Matthew M. Williams has released his debut menswear and womenswear collection for the French fashion house, following the release of a teaser campaign shot by Nick Knight last month.
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Givenchy SS21 features the same emphasis on hardware that Williams employs at 1017 ALYX 9SM with the Givenchy love locks and intertwined G motifs featuring heavily across the fifty four looks showcased; on bags, dangling from leather corsets, worn as belts, and encircling models’ wrists.
While there are nods to Williams’ predecessors at Givenchy; think three-toed sandals, horn shaped caps and heels for Alexander McQueen as well as a fresh take on the brand’s iconic Antigona bag, the references to Hubert de Givenchy’s signature sharp shoulders in the form of restrictive bags sitting across models’ shoulders (yes, literally bags turned upside down with a neck hole cut out) were almost farcical.
Givenchy SS21 simultaneously tries to cater to 2000s nostalgia, with skin-baring halter tops, horizontally slashed trousers, sheer long sleeve tops worn over tank tops (and vice versa), and metallic trousers that all look at home in one of the many nightclubs currently closed to the general public.
Givenchy SS21 menswear and womenswear was described as a ‘stream of consciousness’ for Matthew M. Williams. “You find the pieces of the puzzle for a collection, building it from symbols and signs, but never forgetting the reality of the person who will wear it and bring it to life,” says Williams. “The women and men should be powerful and effortless, equal and joyful, a reflection of who they really are – only more so. It’s about finding the humanity in luxury.”
A stream of consciousness approach is all well and good when you like the designer it’s coming from, but what happens when the designer’s experience overpowers the fashion house it’s for? In short, Givenchy SS21 is much more akin to 1017 ALYX 9SM than Givenchy. By trying to do everything at once, it ends up doing almost nothing, with the collection lacking direction and cohesion, leaving very little lasting impression once it’s removed from your line of vision.
Is it too early to long for the return of Riccardo Tisci or Clare Waight Keller?
Words by Theo Rosen
