BETWEEN MONUMENTS AND MUSIC
“In many ways, this collection is about a constant tension between two worlds. It’s about finding personal meaning in difficult circumstances; it’s about sincerity in what we do rather than strategy. We wanted to bring a sense of lived reality alongside precision, elegance and extravagance in the clothing and looks. Ultimately, fashion for us is a way of being, feeling and connecting rather than a game to be played. It’s almost like monumentalising the everyday, filling it with emotion – like music you can wear.”
Matthew M. Williams, Creative Director, Givenchy
In Williams’ Givenchy, there is a mix of lavishness and austerity, together with the imperfect beauty of humanity. It invokes the distinctly emotional side of the business of luxury and fashion – for both maker and wearer – something once again utilised and celebrated by Givenchy.
The nexus of utility and luxury, protection and comfort, is at the heart of this clothing, infused as it is with the isolation and poignancy of the past year. Yet at the same time, it is a collection that is at once monumental and intimate, giving the wearer presence and audaciousness, yet still with a sense of a person at its centre with a to-hell-with-it attitude. Ultimately, it is an offering that transcends troubled times.
This is the first of Matthew M. Williams’ Givenchy offerings to utilise the show format, adding to the sense of drama and monumentalism in the clothing, yet never neglecting its distinct intimacy and its eventual relationship with the wearer. With an original score by Robert Hood, one of the godfathers of minimal techno and a musician profoundly linked with the sound of Detroit, Williams’ commissioning displays his American heritage as well as a purposeful, emotional bridging and connecting of continents and cultures through sound.
As Robert Hood says of the commission and collaboration:
“It was exciting and challenging for me to produce the soundtrack for this endeavour. The phrase, ‘Organized Chaos,’ stood out in my mind upon talking with Givenchy’s team; I immediately began to imagine what that would sound like while keeping minimalism in mind. The manifestation is an instrumental narrative of art as it relates to Matthew’s vision of fashion. The verbal input, colour palettes and visuals of the space gave me the inspiration and drive for the rhythm of this project
