Givenchy shows way from brash theatrics to wearable elegance

The Duchess of Sussex is an impressive trophy for Clare Waight Keller to have bagged so early into her tenure at Givenchy, but she’s not the only muse in town.

In her first collection since Hubert de Givenchy’s death in March this year, Waight Keller riffed on all that is most Audrey Hepburn – Mr Givenchy’s longtime muse

– just as she did for the Duchess’s wedding gown.

As we are learning from her necklines, capelets and sleek-simple sheath dresses, the Duchess is a Hepburn fan, too.

The quiet brilliance of Waight Keller is to make the accoutrements of a mid-century fashion star seem fresh, powerful and relevant

– if a strapless sequined pannier dress can be called relevant. Worn over a black sweater and black tuxedo trousers, it could.

She had the perfect silver-grey trouser suit, poet’s blouse and flawless taupe trench, as well as off-the-shoulder jackets (in the Duchess’s wardrobe already) that fastened into huge bows. Capes, in all their incarnations, added a regal minimalism to everything including slim black trousers.

At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri also explored caped possibilities. The first half of this collection was such a concentrated hit of chicness I thought I’d gone to heaven. The classic Dior suit was re-imagined as three pieces (including a hybrid Bar jacket with slit sleeves), in navy or tweed. A slim, belted jacket with a matching shrug and a sweeping skirt – Chiuri’s personal favourite – was everything a modern woman could want from tailoring. The more confident she becomes, Chiuri explained, the more she finds herself concentrating on clothes that feel and look effortless, while delivering the flawless fit and luxurious fabrications that are couture’s raison d’être. This is what couture was conceived to be. But over the decades, it has become a red carpet tool designed to shock and awe.

“I wanted to design pieces so subtle you almost can’t see the details on Instagram,” she says. Good luck with that, you might think. But she’s right. Social media is deceptive. It can make the brash and the over-wrought look good, and the understated appear unduly drab.

It seems both Clare Waight Keller and Maria Grazia Chiuri are on a mission to rescue us from the brash theatrics and deliver us on to a modern, wearable form of elegance.