On the very same day as Taylor Swift, Sarah Burton entered her Showgirl era. For her second outing as Givenchy designer, Burton turned up the volume with collars dripping rhinestones over collarbones, luscious peach maribou feathers, a pocket-rocket cocktail dress in lipstick red leather, and Naomi Campbell in a tuxedo jacket worn open over a barely-there lace trim bra.
Burton has been at Givenchy less than a year, but Alexander McQueen’s long-term right-hand woman has already established a new identity for the house and for herself. Givenchy, the spiritual home of Audrey Hepburn and the little black dress, has an immaculate bloodline of glamour that runs from Paris to Hollywood, but it is a relative minnow as a business. Her recent predecessors had mostly leaned into streetwear and utility-coded metallic accents, but Burton is bringing back the glamour.
