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On the very same day as Taylor Swift, designer Sarah Burton embarked on her Showgirl period. For her second outing as Givenchy designer, Burton turned up the volume with collars adorned with sparkling rhinestones across the collarbone area, rich peach-colored maribou plumes, a pocket-rocket cocktail dress in lipstick red leather, and Naomi Campbell in a tuxedo jacket left open over a barely-there lace trim bra.

A New Identity

Burton's tenure at Givenchy under a year, but Alexander McQueen’s long-term right-hand woman has already established a new identity for the brand and for herself. The Givenchy fashion house, the spiritual home of Audrey Hepburn and the timeless black dress, has a flawless lineage of elegance that runs from Paris to Hollywood, but it is a relative minnow as a business. Her recent predecessors had largely embraced streetwear and practical metallic details, but Burton is bringing back the allure.

"The goal was to create something seductive and intimate and to show skin," Burton explained backstage. "When we want to empower women, we often adopt male-inspired styles, but I wanted to explore female emotional intelligence, and the process of adorning and revealing."

Subtle seduction was evident, too, in a dress shirt in butter soft white leather. "All women vary," Burton stated. "At times when selecting models, a model tries on a garment and I can just tell that she prefers not to wear heels. So I change the look."

Red Carpet Revival

Givenchy is reaffirming its position in celebrity event attire. Burton has styled Timothée Chalamet in a butter yellow tuxedo at the Oscar ceremony, and model Kaia Gerber in a retro-inspired ballet dress of dark lace at the Venice film festival.

The Revival of Schiaparelli

Schiaparelli, the surrealist fashion label, has been experiencing a revival under designer Daniel Roseberry from America. In the coming year, the Victoria and Albert Museum will host the first major British Schiaparelli exhibition, exploring the work of the founder Elsa Schiaparelli and the brand she created.

"Schiaparelli is not merely purchased, you collect pieces from Schiaparelli," Roseberry remarked after the show.

Women who wear Schiaparelli don’t need an exhibition to tell them that these designs are masterpieces. Art-adjacency is positive for revenue – garments carry art gallery price tags, with outerwear priced from approximately £5,000. And revenue, as well as profile, is rising. The setting for the event was the Pompidou Centre in the French capital, an additional signal of how close this house sits with art.

Revisiting Iconic Collaborations

Roseberry reexamined one of the iconic joint efforts of Schiaparelli with artist Salvador Dalí, the 1938 "Tears" gown which will be in the V&A show. "This was about revisiting the foundation of the fashion house," he explained.

The torn effects in the original were painted on, but for the updated version Roseberry cut into the crepe silk itself. In each version, the rips are eerily suggestive of flayed flesh.

Eerie Details and Playful Threat

A touch of threat is present at the Schiaparelli house – Elsa referred to her mannequins, with their defined shoulders and cinched waists, as her miniature army – as well as a cheerful embrace of wit. Buttons in the form of fingernails and metallic nose ornaments as earrings are the visual grammar of the brand. The punchline of this show: synthetic fur created using brushes.

Avant-garde themes emerge throughout contemporary fashion. Eggshell-inspired heels – treading carefully, understand? – were highly sought-after at the brand Loewe. Surrealist distorted timepieces have appeared on stage at Moschino. But Schiaparelli owns this territory, and Roseberry oversees it.

"Schiaparelli clothes have a heightened theatricality which sucks the air out of the room," he expressed. A crimson dress was adorned with a geometric insert of flesh-toned mesh that was positioned approximately where a pair of knickers should, in a captivating deception of nudity. The balance between practicality and drama is integral to the presentation.

US Talents Take on Paris

A carousel of creative director launches has introduced two New York favorites to the French fashion world. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have moved on from the Proenza Schouler brand they founded in 2002 to lead Loewe, the Spanish leather house that grew into a $1.5 billion powerhouse under the leadership of Jonathan Anderson before his transition to Dior.

The Americans looked delighted to be in Paris, France. Bold colors inspired by Ellsworth Kelly brought an upbeat pop art aesthetic to the cultured artistic knowledge for which Loewe now stands. Banana yellow loafers shook their tassels like the fringe of Baker's costume; a red peplum jacket had the confident glossy contours of a ketchup bottle. And an evening dress disguised as a recently used bath sheet, soft like a clean towel, captured the sweet spot where clever design meets fashion fun.