Sartorially creative details are the foundation upon which Givenchy Artistic Director Matthew M. Williams reimagined elegance for Fall 2023. Across soft-shouldered and double-breasted dresses, inward-facing pleats, gathered necklines, fluidly-flared trousers, and split leather skirts, each silhouette was inventive, yet polished. Even the footwear was subversive, in doll-shoe-like stilettos in magnified volumes, shark boots with wide shafts, and high boots with rounded toes made in soft leathers.

Comfort, too, was essential to the collection. The relaxed language of loungewear is elevated in a proposal for a new, easy sort of formality: cashmere coats with unstructured shoulders, Japanese denim frayed to replicate the texture of tweed, smocked leather dresses rendered in stretchy fabrics.

Set against the all-white École Militaire, it’s easy to imagine the collection as a uniform for the future—one that builds confidence from comfort and inspires empowerment in its elegance. Backstage, Document offers a look at Williams’s proposal for a new kind of luxury, “in a demonstration of the codes that seduce a modern wardrobe mentality.”