Givenchy RTW Fall 2020 at Paris Fashion Week

After last season’s side trip into upcycled jeans and hippie florals to wear with them, this was a more formal collection, with a stress on the demonstrative tailoring Waight Keller has made her speciality at Givenchy.

Its demonstrativeness this season was derived from strong shoulders, from which fell soft, full, and female sleeves, as seen on items including a jacket, a night coat, and a retro-elegant dove-grey caped dress. Elbow-length gloves added a way of occasion to several of the ensembles.

The softly draped, boldly printed dresses that appeared midshow resonated more directly with how women are dressing now, i.e., with an eye fixed for attention-grabbing details but also an appreciation of—make that an insistence on—ease.

During a few instances, they were worn over pants, which may be a styling trick you’re more likely to ascertain IRL than the opera-length gloves that accompanied the suiting. Kiki Willems’s caped knit dress operated on an identical principle: Comfort plus circumstance may be a potent combination.

For evening, Waight Keller zeroed in on fringe and feathers. They’ve clothed to be two of the foremost popular refrains of the season, seen almost everywhere, but they’ve been a part of her Givenchy oeuvre since her first high fashion collection two years ago.

Here they came in optic black and white, and that they decorated both a relaxed Le Smoking and floor-length dresses with cinematic Old Hollywood flair.

The dramatic chapeaus, which Waight Keller likened to cloaks for his or her face-framing properties, were a lift from HdG’s oeuvre and a nod to the house founder, who would’ve turned 93 fortnight ago.