Four out of the top 10 most saved images from the fall 2025 season on Vogue Runway were from Sarah Burton’s debut show for Givenchy. Whether it was the finesse of her sculptural tailoring or the viral clickiness of a mostly bare bejeweled top, Burton’s collection struck a nerve, a fact that was very much in evidence tonight at her second show for the house, where many clients were dressed in their latest trophies. A pale yellow duchesse satin caban worn with an expressive black belt seemed to be particularly popular.
Burton’s second outing picked up where the first one left off. “Because it’s been a lot of things, Givenchy, it’s important to set its silhouette, its woman, its cut. It’s important to give it clarity at the beginning,” she said. Still, there were key differences, principally with the exaggerated volumes of her tailoring, which she’s softened. Where some of her jackets for fall could have stood up on their own without a body in them, this time she removed their inner canvas construction, giving them the lightness of a cardigan or a shirt.
A curvaceous coat dress from last season had been deconstructed, its formerly perfect lapels peeling off the shoulders in a demonstrative fashion and exposing the delicate bra straps from which it was suspended. Blouses and leather jackets were tipped forward, the collar of the shirts dipping low to reveal chunky necklaces, and the hem of the perfecto swooping up in back, the better to show off voluminous lace minidresses, while skirts dipped a bit south of the navel, “almost like a bolt of fabric that you wrap around your body,” said Burton, promising that the shape elongates the proportions.
All of this was done in the name of powerful femininity, she explained. “Instead of going to all the male archetypes to empower a woman, I thought, ‘how do you empower a woman through feminine archetypes?’” Hence, as well, the bodysuits, the sheer puckered mesh dresses, the needle heel mules, and the generalised mind-for-business, bod-for-sin attitude of the collection. That was Marilyn Monroe’s face in the almost abstract black-and-white print on a knee-length coat.
Another element was the little glimpse of Burton’s Givenchy couture. An off-the-shoulder coat in pool blue was embroidered with controlled abandon, its silk threads dangling at the hem in a deep ombré fringe. The white bedsheet gown that a model clutched to her breast was similarly embellished. And that peachy bra top and full ball skirt in feathers? Not feathers at all, but gently, painstakingly shredded plumes of chiffon. Couture is a challenge that would daunt many another designer, but from the clothes on her runway, and the cheers she received when she came out for her bow, Burton looks ready.
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