A VERY GIVENCHY CHRISTMAS

There is not a single person in Givenchy’s holiday imagery, which might sound like an odd decision for a season built around parties and dinners, but the French photographer Camille Vivier has turned the absence into the point of the shoot, setting each piece up on its own as though it were waiting in an empty room for someone to come back and claim it.

With art direction by M/M Paris and set design by Emilia Margulies, the shoes are arranged step by step up a grey spiral staircase, bags rest on clear acrylic plinths that look borrowed from a museum, and a pair of white sneakers sits on a spindly black wire chair against a wall painted the same deep red that runs through almost every image in the series.

That red belongs mostly to the womenswear, where the Boudoir Rose mules come with a large fabric flower blooming over the toe and the Bow mules follow in the same mix of vermilion, black and metallic, while the Shark Pinch boot, shot in a red and black colour-block against a pale blue floor, is the piece most likely to be worn somewhere loud. For evenings that call for something smaller to carry, the house has gone in heavily on its Pinch line, with clutches that can be held in the hand or hung from a chain sitting alongside miniature versions of the Antigona and a group of gold minaudières photographed in a cluster on mirrored glass, and the jewellery runs from sculptural Pinch pieces to the more dramatic designs from The Muses.

The gifting side of the edit is quieter, made up of the Voyou Bucket, small leather goods such as a metallic cardholder and a handful of charms, including one shaped like a flower, which feel designed to be bought for someone specific and wrapped rather than picked up on the way to a party. Menswear gets Pinch loafers, which Vivier scatters across a white floor as if they had just been kicked off, Gent Pinch ankle boots, Cargo styles in brushed leather and the chunky Puffy Yard sneaker, with wallets, belts and leather key rings filling out the rest.

The still-life approach works beautifully on the bags and jewellery, but it does leave the men’s pieces looking a little flat next to the theatre of the women’s shoes, and without anyone wearing the clothes the series sometimes reads more like a very handsome catalogue than a campaign with a mood of its own.

Givenchy has long relied on its accessories to carry the house’s identity between collections, and this edit makes a confident case for them as the gifts people will actually want to receive this year. The holiday selection is available now in Givenchy stores and online.