Following shows for men (in January) and women (in March) in autumn 2024, both presented at Givenchy’s house on Avenue George V, this 2025 pre-co lookbook saw the design studios join forces to photographing their respective collections on the sidewalk outside. . Over a Zoom, Susanna Venegas (who designs women’s clothing) and Josh Bullen (also in men’s clothing) explained their rationale.
Said Venegas: “We work separately, but we also have a fairly constant conversation. And while we both have our own inspirations, there is also that language we share. So shooting this lookbook was about exploring a story between the two collections.” Bullen added: “We both work at very different times so it’s hard to do something that’s completely connected… so here we wanted to introduce some looks as a couple because it’s not something we’ve done before can do. And when it came to styling and looking at both collections, there were some special combinations that looked really good.”
Venegas said her code for this collection was Stella Tennant (with a touch of Paula Yates). Bullen, meanwhile, leaned through Julan Schnabel to John Lydon. These different directions partly reflected their different design backgrounds, respectively in couture (at Dior, before a stint at Margiela) and in technically advanced utilitarian menswear (Stone Island). When the collections were recorded together, the intersections created by this proximity were fun and compelling. A women’s white double satin button-up shirt with a funnel neck, worn over a black marabou-lined skater skirt with pompoms, epitomized Venegas’ seemingly (but not) thrown-together spirited carelessness. In addition, Bullen’s cat-print cashmere ringer sweater, sloppy tuxedo pants and open-heel loafers were more dressed-up grunge.
Viewed in isolation, Venegas-curated womenswear leaned into Givenchy’s late 60s and 70s archive, while reconfiguring its posture to serve the contemporary context. This was achieved through adjustments in proportion and materiality that reoriented the house’s chic source code to signal something bolder and more self-determined. In menswear, Bullen has channeled Hubert’s peerless mid-century patrician grandeur into a 21st century masculine equivalent by employing dual sartorial silhouettes, both designed to be worn irreverently, sometimes expressed in blue-patterned double-sided nylon inspired by Hubert’s own loungewear. There was also a base of upgraded but vintage-inspired military clothing and some of the more whimsical details, including cat pattern, carried over from fall.
What the future will bring at Givenchy still remains murky: Meanwhile, Venegas and Bullen lean into that limbo to produce fun and attractive collections whose common denominators are clarity and panache.
