New Woman

Clare Waight Keller takes over the steering wheel at Givenchy. Desmond Lim heads to Hong Kong to check out her debut collection for the house

ivenchy, under the reign of Riccardo Tisci for the past 12 years, had taken on a dark, sensuous persona with a rebellious street thug nuance —making every collection highly desirable to the discerning fashion cognoscenti. So when the French fashion house announced that Clare Waight Keller would replace Tisci as its new artistic director, tongues started wagging as their aesthetics were poles apart. She, most recently of Chloé fame where she had every hipster girl eating out of the palm of her hand with soft, airy dresses oozing a cool 1970s bohemian vibe. The British designer had also previously cut her teeth in the fashion sportswear houses of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Would she continue on Tisci’s path, or inject a breath of fresh air into the maison? Expectations were high, and what ensued was a collection that paid homage to the house’s founder Hubert de Givenchy, who recently passed away in March. There were his preferred shades ranging from monochrome and bolts of red, to the ever-so-chic mint green. Silhouettes were generously cut with structural shoulders being the starting