Haute flash

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This article was published 07/10/2017 (3210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARIS — The Givenchy insignia was mounted on rather elegant metal scaffolding in front of the Palais de Justice. A crane-operated camera swooped high and low, causing the assembled crowd to cheer. The building’s central hallway, with its domed and coffered ceiling, was the definition of majestic.

It was the setting for Givenchy’s spring 2018 collection and the debut of new creative director Clare Waight Keller; and the monumental architecture served as a silent declaration of the importance of the occasion.

Indeed, the city was accidentally given over to fashion. Personal cars were banned from Paris streets for the day with the aim of reducing pollution. But fashion created its own little traffic jam in front of Givenchy, which only heightened the sense that this industry exists in its own little world.

And yet, when it’s at its firing-on-all-cylinders best, fashion does reflect the world back at us. It magnifies those details that might be easily missed, but which define a particular moment in time. It turns an emotion or a mood into something visual.

So when fashion shifts, particularly at brands that are so engrained in the culture — Givenchy, Balenciaga — take notice. For better or worse, the winds of change are blowing.

In a season, Givenchy has transformed from former designer Riccardo Tisci’s gothic passion to Keller’s dispassionate populism.

The first model down Keller’s runway wore what appeared to be a midnight blue coat dress with metallic buttons. It called to mind the history of the house and suggested that, perhaps, Keller would find kinship with its classic past. But no. Soon the rhythms of rock ’n’ roll style — more Rolling Stones than break-out indie band — appeared on her runway, with leather miniskirts and trim striped pullovers.

Keller showed menswear alongside the women’s clothes on beanpole young men whose backs seemed curved into permanent slouch, with looks of studied boredom etched on their faces. They wore fitted blazers with sharp, exaggerated shoulders, pants so skinny they might as well be leggings and the occasional motorcycle jacket.

The women’s clothes included lace tanks with a long skirt, and dresses with a modest slit that revealed a burst of contrasting pleats. It was the kind of collection in which any fashion lover could probably find a thing or two to buy. And appealing to a customer’s desires is a designer’s duty. But where is Keller in all of this?

The collection had a hint of this designer and that designer. Ideas and inspiration are always floating in the air, but who, exactly is Keller?

For a lot of people, Givenchy still calls to mind perfect little black dresses, Parisian chic, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sabrina. It hasn’t been those things in a generation or two, but it takes a heck of a long time for fashion to worm its way into the popular imagination and once it does, it takes a lot of dynamite to dislodge it.

— Washington Post