Runway highlights
It’s a season of designer debuts, art-centric collections and spectacular tributes. JACQUIE ANG gets the low-down on the talking points
THE NEW GIVENCHY
In the revolving carousel of creative heads, Clare Waight Keller moved from creative director at Chloé to artistic director at Givenchy, where she takes on women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, accessories as well as haute couture. She referenced Hubert de Givenchy’s sketches, which defined the shoulder as the starting point. The founder’s penchant for prints are also here: Clovers came from the Autumn/winter 1961 couture collection while lips were adopted from AW 1979 couture collection.
The New Chloé
Succeeding Clare Waight Keller is Natacha Ramsay-levi, who arrived from Louis Vuitton womenswear, where she’d worked under artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière. The first Frenchwoman at the creative helm since Martine Sitbon’s appointment in 1988 is also charged with accessories and leather goods. Her debut paid homage to founder Gaby Aghion with Egyptian-inspired prints, among allusions to predecessors, all reinterpreted with a cool tomboyish vibe.
THE NEW JIL SANDER
Delivering dreamy shirt-dresses, folksy macramé accents and colour-blocked knits, Luke and Lucie Meier’s approach towards femininity, lightness and sensuality in their 60-strong Jil Sander debut highlights another facet of the namesake founder’s 45year oeuvre. Both have enviable experience points — Luke was formerly head designer of Supreme and co-founded menswear line OAMC, while his wife Lucie’s credentials encompass Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Dior — but this is the first time both are working together.
The New Lanvin
Upon the declaration to turn the oldest French couture house into a full-fledged lifestyle brand à la Michael Kors, fashion observers waited with bated breath to see what suddenly-installed artistic director Olivier Lapidus had in store. At 59 years old, he is the oldest newcomer this season, and he only had a few weeks to work on his first collection. Opening with a parade of LBDS and suits, his conservative offerings leaned close to founder Jeanne Lanvin’s signatures such as statement sleeves, with logos made out of her name for embellishment. It seems like he’s on track to fulfil his mission.
THE LAST AT SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
Out after three seasons, Fulvio Rigoni is replaced with Paul Andrew, the design director of women’s shoes. Rigoni’s last collection offered texture with perforations on suede or hand-painted python skin. Exclusive prints featured body-contouring stripes with a dynamic 3D effect.
THE LAST AT DIANE VON FURSTENBERG
Jonathan Saunders steps down after five seasons as chief creative officer. His final collection is a bold expression of his confidence in colour and print, accentuated with decadent florals said to be painted by hand in the studio. His successor Nathan Jenden is a familiar face at the company — the new chief design officer and vice president, creative worked with von Furstenberg as creative director before he left in 2011.