A New Chapter: Introducing Sarah Burton’s Givenchy

Alongside a cast of supermodels who appear regularly on billboards and glossy magazine covers – Adut Akech, Vittoria Ceretti, Kaia Gerber, Eva Herzigova, Liu Wen – for the fall/winter 2025 Givenchy campaign, creative director Sarah Burton recruited some lesser-spotted faces, too. Typically more at home behind the scenes, Burton’s long-term stylist Camilla Nickerson, makeup artist Lucia Pieroni, and the photographer Collier Schorr were all convinced to step out in front of the camera.

Such is the pull of Burton, one of fashion’s most loved and highly regarded creative directors. The casting choice organically expresses not just how Burton reads and reconsiders the codes of one of Paris’s most storied maisons, but also what she stands for, what she is moved by – namely, a nuanced vision of modern womanhood. Her broad and generous definition of multifaceted femininity is ageless and inclusive of different body types. One season in, and this iteration of Givenchy is already resonating with the likes of Cate Blanchett, Elle Fanning (who wore the first-ever Burton-designed Givenchy look at the Oscars this year), Rooney Mara, and Vanessa Kirby – who has turned to Burton’s deft hand for her recent red-carpet maternity wardrobe (high praise indeed).

By sensitively interpreting rather than mimicking the work of Hubert de Givenchy, Burton honors the complexity of women by bringing together the tactile and the tough, romance and rigor, strength and sensuality. “I want to address everything about modern women. Strength, vulnerability, emotional intelligence, feeling powerful or very sexy. All of it,” she said when it was unveiled.

So, a butter-soft leather biker jacket is molded into an hourglass silhouette. The unexpected juxtaposition between classical elegance and engine-revving rebellion is smoothly entwined. The result? Tension that captivates rather than jars. Or, in real-world terms, the kind of pieces the busy woman of today will gravitate toward again and again.

Accessories are also thoughtfully executed and chime with the instinctive approach to getting dressed. Just as ’50s Givenchy couture dresses were reworked with a 21st-century attitude in the fall/winter ’25 collection, the ‘Sliced Square’ ballerina pumps have an exaggerated sharp, square toe, as well as an elastic band that echoes the grosgrain belts of the ready-to-wear. Elsewhere, the ‘Pinch’ bag – named after the hardware pincers that nip it in – is the kind of quietly unassuming statement accessory that would resonate with the woman who doesn’t do obvious (and would run a mile from the words “it bag”).

Or doesn’t feel obliged to do obvious. That’s the thing about the Sarah Burton Givenchy woman: she refuses to be put in a box.

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