On October 3, 2025, during the Paris Fashion Week, Givenchy presented its Spring Summer 2026 ready-to-wear collection. Sarah Burton’s second outing for the house built on the modern silhouette she had established for Fall Winter 2025, easing the sharper elements of her debut while solidifying a distinct visual language. From the outset, the collection’s equilibrium was clear: it balanced commercial appeal, assertive tailoring, and a woman-centered exploration of dressing and undressing.
Burton focused on a femininity that was both relaxed and forceful, combining precise construction with sensual unraveling, transparency, and couture-grade workmanship. Tailoring retained the house’s curved seams, softened shoulders, and cinched waists but introduced greater fluidity than the previous season.
The motif of undressing appeared repeatedly – lapels slipped away from shoulders, bra straps surfaced deliberately, and coatdresses hung as if barely held in place. Sheerness coursed through the lineup, from netted fabrics and see-through gowns to a strapless cherry-red piece offering measured exposure. Dramatic ruffles and tiers animated necklines, skirts, and capes, while elongated, hourglass proportions emerged in plunging openings, thigh-high slits, and sculpted shapes free from rigid structure.
Elevating the ready-to-wear, Burton incorporated hand-embroidery, ombré fringe, shredded chiffon that evoked feathers, and gowns draped like bedsheets and clasped to the body. Scarf-like wraps were knotted and woven into garments, and oversized adornments – rhinestone collars, long earrings, and body-chain “armor” – extended the crafted assemblage introduced earlier.
The color story moved fluidly across black, which opened the show in duchesse satin; white, which appeared in embroidered “bedsheet” gowns; gentle pastels such as pale pink and peach; and bright injections of cherry red and pool blue. Texturally, the collection traversed silk, shredded chiffon, netting, and duchesse satin, with transparent organza and other sheer materials amplifying the sensual atmosphere. Embroidery, silk threads, and loosely hanging ombré fringe added a controlled sense of disorder.
In its entirety, the collection blended exactness with softness, projecting an elegant yet subversive femininity imagined through a woman’s perspective. It extended the direction set by Burton’s debut, proposing a Givenchy woman who is simultaneously structured and unfastened, minimal yet romantic, and defined by confidence, clarity, and artisanal rigor.
