Sarah Burton, who designed the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress in her former role as creative director of Alexander McQueen, has been appointed to the top job at Givenchy.
The French luxury label’s new creative director, who will be responsible for the women’s and men’s collections with immediate effect, said: “It is a great honour to be joining the beautiful house of Givenchy, it is a jewel. I am so excited to be able to write the next chapter in the story of this iconic house and to bring to Givenchy my own vision, sensibility and beliefs.”
Her appointment follows months of speculation in the fashion industry about where the Cheshire-born, Manchester-schooled designer, who left Alexander McQueen last year, would go next, with some suspecting it would be the helm of the LVMH-owned fashion and perfume house.
The former right-hand woman of the late Lee Alexander McQueen, she had been working at his namesake brand for 26 years, first under him and then as creative director after his death in 2010.
According to industry estimates, she helped grow the Kering brand’s sales to about €830m as of 2022 and was often given credit for deftly walking the fine line between the avant garde spirit that McQueen made his brand’s bread and butter and commercial success.
As the fashion journalist Lauren Sherman wrote last November: “For LVMH, Burton’s technical talent would be the key … Contracting Burton would be a message to the market, and consumers, that the company still values traditional design skills, not just hype.” Such an approach is likely to go down well as in keeping with the heritage of a brand that famously dressed Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Sidney Toledano, the chair of the Givenchy board, called Burton an “exceptional creative talent”, saying in a statement that “her unique vision and approach to fashion will be invaluable to this iconic maison, known for its audacity and haute couture”.
With this appointment, Burton becomes one of five women to hold a creative director role at an LVMH-owned label, alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior and Stella McCartney for her namesake brand. It may go a small way to redress a growing imbalance in the industry.
When Burton stepped down from McQueen and Seán McGirr was announced as her replacement, it meant that all the creative directors at Kering were white men, sparking discussion in the industry around the question of representation – analysis from last year showed that the proportion of female creative directors was lower then than it was 15 years ago.
This next step is also apt: McQueen himself held the Givenchy top job between 1996 and 2001.
Burton will be the brand’s fourth designer in less than 10 years; Riccardo Tisci is often credited as the most successful in recent times. She will be the second woman to take on the role, after Clare Waight Keller, another Briton, who held the position from 2017 to 2020. Burton follows in the immediate footsteps of the American designer Matthew Williams, who stepped down in January after three years.
Given the relatively rapid turnover of design talent at Givenchy, it may be hoped that Burton will bring a steady hand to the storied French brand. She will present her first collection for the house in Paris in March.
