Today is a new day at Givenchy. On Monday, the French fashion house offered its first look under Clare Waight Keller’s direction — and the design slate has been wiped clean.
On Monday, The New York Times revealed the designer's — who took over for creative director Riccardo Tisci after 12 years — first campaign for the brand, and there's no Kardashians in sight. In fact, instead of using reality TV stars, the preview of the collection gives off “old-world references," including “a nod to the clichés of French fashion heritage, with smudged mascara.” It's a true departure from both her work at Chloé, as well as Givenchy’s previous collections.
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But, here comes the plot twist. There are a lot of cat references. Steven Meisel shot the images (ahead of the offering's October 1 debut) in black and white, featuring two models, Elias Bouremah and Saffron Vadher, holding felines in their lap (the kittens are wearing Givenchy collars, of course). Waight Keller isn't just an animal lover, though; the cats are actually a nod to feline prints from a 1953 collection by Hubert de Givenchy himself.
Using both a male and female model in the teaser was intentional: At Paris Fashion Week in the fall, Waight Keller will be showing her first men’s and women’s collections together — the first of the LVMH brands to embrace the trend of a genderless runway, à la Gucci or Burberry. “To me, Givenchy is a world where women and men alike are strong, stoic and mysterious,” she told The New York Times of the campaign. “They own their power, and share it equally.”
That, and apparently, a love for cats.