EXCLUSIVE: Givenchy to Return to Paris Men’s Wear Calendar in January

DIFFERENT STROKES: At least one major brand is battling the tide of coed shows.

After switching to joint women’s and men’s displays following the arrival of Clare Waight Keller as artistic director in 2017, Givenchy has decided to switch back to the men’s wear fashion calendar for the fall 2019 season, WWD has learned.

The French fashion house will stage a presentation on Jan. 16 during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, before returning to the runway in June, it said in a statement.

Waight Keller, whose coed spring collection was inspired by the gender-fluid style of Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, will continue to show women and men side by side in her ready-to-wear and haute couture shows, the brand said. Her campaigns for the house have portrayed both genders in mirror-image pairs.

“Granting men’s wear a dedicated platform starting from January reflects the house’s support of Clare Waight Keller’s vision for the brand,” Givenchy said.

The move comes at a time when a growing number of brands are opting to present women’s and men’s wear at the same time. Celine and Maison Margiela staged their first coed shows this season, while brands including Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Haider Ackermann and Sonia Rykiel featured models of both sexes on the catwalk.

French conglomerate LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the owner of Givenchy, is making a high-profile push into the booming men’s wear market with the launch of the category at Celine, as well as the appointment of new designers at the helm of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Berluti in the last year.

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