Givenchy SS26, season two: Sarah Burton sharpens her vision

Camz
Oct 10, 2025
3 min read

A house reborn under soft power

This fashion show was about a cultural moment, Burton captured something people wanted to hold on to, quite literally.

That night, at her sophomore show for the house, the audience proved it. Clients arrived already dressed in her new Givenchy trophies, their pale yellow duchesse satin cabans cinched with expressive black belts, like members of a secret club who all understood the assignment.

Softening the architecture

Burton’s second collection continued the dialogue she began last season but with a whisper instead of a roar. “Because it’s been a lot of things, Givenchy, it’s important to set its silhouette, its woman, its cut,” she explained backstage. “It’s important to give it clarity at the beginning.” Clarity indeed came through her mastery of construction and deconstruction.

The exaggerated, near-armored tailoring of fall had been softened; this time, she stripped away the internal canvases that once made her jackets stand upright without a body. The result: blazers as light as shirts, coats that swayed with air instead of structure.

A curvaceous coatdress from last season was reborn in fluid motion; its once-perfect lapels deliberately slipping off the shoulders, exposing the delicate straps of the lingerie beneath.

A gesture that said, with quiet rebellion: perfection is overrated. Blouses and leather jackets leaned forward as if caught mid-step, their collars dipping to frame thick chain necklaces.

The cropped Perfecto jackets lifted in the back, playfully revealing flared lace minidresses that seemed ready to take flight.

Skirts, meanwhile, dipped just below the navel, wrapped “almost like a bolt of fabric around the body,” as Burton described. The effect elongated the silhouette and the gaze.

Feminine power, no apologies

Burton has never hidden her fascination with female strength, but here she asked the essential question: how do you empower a woman through feminine archetypes rather than masculine ones? Gone were the power suits that scream “don’t mess with me.” Instead, she conjured seduction with precision: sheer puckered mesh dresses, body-hugging bodysuits, and mules with needle heels sharp enough to puncture a man’s ego.

The vibe? Mind-for-business, bod-for-sin: a balance that Givenchy once mastered in its golden age.

A glimpse of couture to come

Hidden between the ready-to-wear lines, Burton offered flashes of Givenchy’s couture potential and they were spectacular. An off-the-shoulder coat in serene pool blue was covered in embroidery that seemed both chaotic and controlled, its silk threads falling into a meticulous ombré fringe.

The white “bedsheet gown” a model clutched against her chest was not an act of modesty but of drama as if couture itself had just woken up, late but divine. And that delicate peach ball skirt with its feathery texture? Not feathers at all, but shredded chiffon, hand-cut into ethereal strands that moved like air.

There was craft, yes, but also a refusal to let craft feel heavy. Burton understands the modern couture paradox: to look effortless while being impossibly complex.

Conclusion: Givenchy finds its heartbeat

Sarah Burton’s Givenchy has entered its next phase, one less about spectacle and more about substance. The silhouettes breathe, the woman leads, and the glamour feels lived-in rather than performed. This is power without shouting, seduction without cliché.

And as Burton walked out for her bow to a roar of applause, it was clear she has achieved what few designers can: she made people feel something again.

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