The British designer Sarah Burton is in her sparkling new offices at Givenchy, in Paris, talking about the spring collection that she will be presenting in a matter of days, her second for the storied house founded by Hubert de Givenchy. Burton is currently—unfortunately enough—one of only a handful of female designers at the head of a major international house. Not surprisingly, she has a view of gender that is liberating. “When we think of how to empower a woman, she’s often put in a suit or something constructed, something male,” she says. “Instead, I was looking at female iconography and how it can be used to make a woman feel incredibly powerful. I wanted to look at sexuality and sensuality, revealing bits of the body in certain ways.”
Burton, who is wearing a crisp white Givenchy dress shirt, loose jeans, and sexy black heels, is invariably down-to-earth and engaging. She has built up a tremendous amount of goodwill in the fashion world, first for stepping in for her close friend and mentor Alexander McQueen after he committed suicide, in 2010, and then for her steady stewardship of the McQueen brand over the following 13 years. “Sarah is extremely human and warm, and cares deeply about every aspect of the experience of the art form that she offers,” says the actor Gwendoline Christie, who often wears Burton’s designs. “It is compassion, and we feel it in her creations—it’s rare.”
Burton takes a very hands-on approach to her work. To illustrate her process, she leads the way from her office to an adjacent large, rectangular studio that she had made by knocking down a wall between two rooms. It is a loft-like space with bright white lights that also functions as a runway. A wall of mirrors has dozens of photos documenting the new collection. Each of Burton’s designs is brought to life gradually, through fittings on mannequins and models. “I love drawing, but when you do a sketch, it’s only two-dimensional,” Burton says. “When you use fabric, you see how it drapes and moves—it’s 3D. Whenever I do a fitting, I put the garment on, I pin it, cut it, drape it, and take it in from all angles. I always ask the girl to walk and move in it. Only then can I really visualize the clothes. They’re not made for Instagram—they’re made for real life.”
For someone about to present her sophomore show, Burton is incredibly calm. Her composure is particularly impressive given that the season has been one of the most highly anticipated in decades, as new designers take the reins at houses as varied as Dior, Chanel, Versace, Gucci, Jean Paul Gaultier, Bottega Veneta, and Loewe. Amid this moment of change, Burton’s presentation takes place in a white cube constructed at the base of the historic Hôtel National des Invalides. The exterior of the venue is stamped only with the house’s impeccable logo in black: givenchy, paris shimmers under the soaring, gilded dome of the Invalides, which has dominated the Left Bank for centuries. Although it is pouring rain, the weather does not dampen the enthusiasm of the hundreds of fans and fashion groupies who are gathered at the street entrance. Guests make their way past security, over thick, wet gravel, around a moat, and toward the venue.
In the past year, many major celebrities have taken to Burton’s designs for Givenchy: Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet at the Oscars, Cynthia Erivo at the Met Gala, Jenna Ortega at the Emmys, and Christie at the second-season premiere of Wednesday. This summer, at the official U.K. state banquet at Windsor Castle for French president Emmanuel Macron, Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore an exquisite crimson Givenchy gown with a cape.
So it is not surprising that Burton’s latest show has attracted a stellar front row, including Erivo, Charlize Theron, Jodie Comer, Tracee Ellis Ross, Raye, Rooney Mara, and Eddie Redmayne. When the Chinese pop star Fan Chengcheng appears, along with the Chinese actor Zhang Ruonan, the crowd out front greets them with piercing shrieks. The diminutive Ortega arrives in a sheer cherry red gown, and the statuesque Christie in a long black skirt and a slouchy dress shirt. Both actors, who are seated next to each other, are wearing designs from the collection that is about to be presented.
The show brings into focus Burton’s vision for Givenchy. “It started with peeling back the structure of tailoring to reveal skin and a sense of lightness and ease,” the designer explains in cards left on every seat, “then exploring the female vocabulary of dress and undress.” That means a black dress with a nipped waist and thin straps; sharply tailored jackets with trousers or long skirts with dramatic slits; and a minidress in pale pink satin, with a cape. There is no shortage of sheer, including a cutaway bra and underwear worn underneath a floor-sweeping net cover-up. Dresses are draped and twisted as though they are sheets that have been yanked off a bed and wrapped around the body. There is an architectural rigor to the collection, fused with sensuality and fluidity. At the end of the show, Burton takes a bow wearing black pants, a black sweater over a white dress shirt, and white sneakers. She receives a standing ovation.
Burton was born and raised in the north of England, the second of five children. Now 51 years old, she began her career in 1996, before she had even graduated from Central Saint Martins, as an intern with McQueen. Coming up in the scrappy world of London fashion alongside a genius like McQueen was a potent education. “It was this tiny studio where we made everything,” Burton recalls. “It was really a labor of love. You learned everything from the ground up. There wasn’t lots of money, which made it more creative. And his narrative was always so personal, telling a story about how he felt at the time or about the state of the world. It became something that was much more than just fashion.”
Burton had been the head of womenswear at the company since 2000, so, following McQueen’s death, in February 2010, she was the logical replacement. “It was incredibly difficult at the beginning,” Burton recalls. “It wasn’t something that I immediately said yes to—it took a while. But we very much wanted the teams to stay together, so I took on the role.” In October 2023, Burton stepped down from McQueen, having been there for a total of 27 years. The following September, she was named the creative director of Givenchy.
Founded in 1952, Givenchy has a rich history that has, over time, become a little muddled. Throughout the four decades of his career, Hubert de Givenchy had a clean, refined view of Parisian chic; “Le Grand Hubert,” as he was known, was considered one of the most elegant men in the world. His work may not have had the breadth of other greats like Coco Chanel or Cristóbal Balenciaga, but Givenchy did have something else that set him apart. “A lot of his history has been through film,” Burton points out. No other fashion designer has had such a long relationship with an actor as Givenchy had with Audrey Hepburn. Having met early in her career, the two of them remained the closest of friends throughout their lives. Their cinematic collaboration was one for the ages: Sabrina (1954), Funny Face (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Charade (1963), and How to Steal a Million (1966). One of the most enduring images in the history of fashion must be of Hepburn in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in her black satin Givenchy dress, black opera gloves, black sunglasses, and pearls.
Hubert de Givenchy retired in 1995, and the house was led in rapid succession by an array of designers over the following decade: John Galliano, McQueen, Julien Macdonald, and Ozwald Boateng. In 2005, Riccardo Tisci took over, leading Givenchy for a dozen years. Clare Waight Keller was at the house for three years, followed by Matthew Williams, who was creative director for four. There was certainly good fashion produced during that time, but the churn made the historic house seem uncertain of what it stood for.
Burton was already familiar with Givenchy because of McQueen’s time as creative director there, from 1996 until 2001. But to begin her own tenure, she decided to go back to the source. “I had been here with him, but I had not really looked at Givenchy’s work,” Burton explains. “Because this house has had a lot of reinventions, I wanted to examine its birth—that’s where you see what its soul is really about. I found these pictures from Givenchy’s first collection, in 1952. He was friends with Cristóbal Balenciaga, and his work was very stripped back, very clean—it was quite Hitchcock, in a way. Every house starts with a foundation, and to me the foundation is all about silhouette.” Beginning with her first collection for the house, and continuing into the spring, Burton has focused on the architectural underpinnings of Givenchy’s style.
Burton also discovered the technical capabilities of a major Parisian house. “One of the first things I did was go to the atelier, because this work is a sort of dance between the designer and the atelier,” she says. “We had a small atelier in London, but here you can drape or draw, and they convert that into a pattern and make it even more beautiful. What’s very different about Paris is the expertise, the level of craftsmanship. There’s a lightness of hand that’s amazing.”
Burton has a sincere appreciation and admiration for her team. Her democratic approach was on display in this fall’s advertising campaign, shot by the photographer Collier Schorr. It features a short video and a series of portraits of collaborators such as the makeup artist Lucia Pieroni and the stylist Camilla Nickerson, alongside models with a range of origins, body types, and ages: Kaia Gerber, whom Burton personally selected as the model for this story; Adut Akech; Vittoria Ceretti; Nyaduola Gabriel; Liu Wen; and Eva Herzigová. Burton points to a particularly striking image of the curvaceous model Emeline Hoareau, from the French territory of Réunion, shot from behind in a sheer black dress, flexing her arms. “I love the picture of Emeline with her arms in the air,” Burton says. “She’s such a powerful person and has this energy that’s amazing.”
As she finishes her first year at Givenchy, Burton has brought a humanist approach to the grand French house. “When I think about my work, it is important to remember that it is meant for real people,” she says. “I love to talk to lots of different kinds of women.” Christie, who has worn both seasons of Burton’s designs for Givenchy, raves about the experience. “Sarah is immersed in the foundations of the house,” she says. “Her perspective at Givenchy feels new, hopeful, and charged with a fresh magnetism—she’s a designer at the height of her powers.”
Produced by Endorphyn; Producers: Magali Mennessier, Emanuela Polo, Léa Ranaivojoelina, François Lothoré at Get Regie; Lighting Director: Shri Parameshwaran; Lighting Assistants: Margaux Jouanneau, Charles Hardouin; Digital Technician: Nicolas Fallet; Retouching: Gloss Studio; Fashion Assistants: Paget Millard, Joséphine Dorval; Hair Assistant: Cloé Hobi; Makeup Assistant: Libby James; Set Assistant: Penélope Hémon.
Source: W Magazine