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On the very same day as Taylor Swift, Sarah Burton stepped into her Showgirl phase. For her second outing as the creative director of Givenchy, Burton amplified the drama with collars dripping rhinestones along the décolletage, rich peach-colored maribou plumes, a sleek and short cocktail dress in bold crimson leather, and supermodel Naomi Campbell in a tuxedo jacket draped over a scant lace-trimmed bra.

A New Identity

Burton's role at Givenchy under a year, but the former key collaborator at McQueen has swiftly crafted a unique persona for the fashion house and for herself. Givenchy, the spiritual home of the actress Audrey Hepburn and the little black dress, has a pristine heritage of elegance that runs from Paris to Hollywood, but it is a smaller player as a business. Her recent predecessors had largely embraced streetwear and functional metal embellishments, but Burton is bringing back the glamour.

"The goal was to create something seductive and intimate and to reveal the body," Burton noted backstage. "In efforts to empower women, we often reach for masculine codes, but I wanted to look at female emotional intelligence, and dressing and undressing."

There was covered-up allure, too, in a formal shirt in supple white leather. "Every woman is different," Burton commented. "Sometimes when I’m casting, a model tries on a garment and I immediately sense that she is uncomfortable in high heels. Therefore, I adjust the outfit."

Red Carpet Revival

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

Schiaparelli’s Surreal Resurgence

The fashion house Schiaparelli, the surrealist fashion label, has been resurgent under designer Daniel Roseberry from America. Next year, the Victoria and Albert Museum will host the inaugural UK Schiaparelli showcase, examining the work of designer Elsa Schiaparelli and the house she founded.

"You don’t buy Schiaparelli, you collect Schiaparelli," Roseberry declared post-presentation.

Clients of Schiaparelli need no showcase to tell them that these garments are artistic. Connection with the art world is beneficial for business – clothes come with gallery prices, with jackets starting at about £5,000. And income, as well as visibility, is rising. The location of the presentation was the Centre Pompidou in the French capital, an additional signal of how deeply this fashion house is connected to the arts.

Echoing Past Artistic Alliances

Roseberry recalled one of the most renowned partnerships of Elsa with surrealist master Dalí, the 1938 dress named "Tears" which will appear in the V&A display. "This focused on returning to the origins of the brand," he noted.

The “rips” in the original were painted on, but for the modern iteration Roseberry shredded the silk crepe itself. In each version, the rips are eerily suggestive of stripped tissue.

Eerie Details and Playful Threat

A hint of danger exists at the Schiaparelli brand – Elsa referred to her mannequins, with their sharp shoulders and tailored waists, as her toy soldiers – as well as a cheerful embrace of wit. Fingernail-inspired fasteners and gold noses dangling as earrings are the visual grammar of the label. The punchline of this show: fake fur crafted from paintbrushes.

Surrealist elements appear throughout contemporary fashion. Eggshell-inspired heels – navigating delicately, get it? – were a sellout at the fashion house Loewe. Dalí-inspired melting clocks have walked the catwalk at Moschino. But Schiaparelli owns this territory, and Roseberry commands it.

"Garments from Schiaparelli possess a heightened theatricality which dominates the space," he stated. A red gown was adorned with a triangular piece of nude-hued fabric that sat roughly where underwear would typically be, in a head-swivelling illusion of nakedness. The interplay of functionality and spectacle is a key aspect of the event.

New York Designers in Paris

A carousel of creative director launches has welcomed two NYC stars to the French fashion world. The duo Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have departed from the fashion house Proenza Schouler they created in 2002 to take over Loewe, the Spanish leather house that evolved into a $1.5 billion powerhouse under the direction of Jonathan Anderson before he moved to Dior.

The American creatives seemed ecstatic to be in Paris. Bold colors inspired by Ellsworth Kelly brought an upbeat pop art aesthetic to the sophisticated art intelligence for which Loewe is currently known. Banana yellow loafers dangled their tassels like the hem of Josephine Baker; a scarlet fitted jacket had the confident glossy contours of a condiment vessel. And an evening dress disguised as a recently used bath sheet, soft like a clean towel, achieved the ideal blend where innovative design intersects with stylish enjoyment.