Givenchy Spring Couture '97 was McQueen's debut collection at the mega-label. He took the job after Galliano announced exited from the brand after just 2 years. McQueen was a controversial choice for a pleothra of reasons. One of them being that he was quoted to say, he had "no respect for Hubert de Givenchy" and had taken the job only because he "loves fashion." For a storied house, especially one in the traditionalist fashion world, this was largely disrespectful.
Executing this collection in just 3 months, McQueen chose a white and gold color palette, which the Givenchy brand was known for. However, the collection retains McQueen DNA with a slew of femme fatales and an emphasis on tailoring. Tailoring and an emphasis on the strength innate in females are two things McQueen was known for in his design language. When taking the job, McQueen had made it abundantly clear that he was not there to please the women of Givenchy.
In honor of Sean McGirr debuting his McQueen collection yesterday. Lets take a look back at McQueen's S/S 1995 collection entitled 'Birds' named after Alfred Hitchock's famous movie, which McGirr said he had taken inspiration from. The famous look from this collection had a modeled encased in trasparent pallet tape. The collection had classic McQueenism like the infamous bumster pants which at the time were met with a lot of criticism. This collection, of course, in true McQueen fashion fused a theme underscored by violence with beauty.