Without making noise, be heard. This is probably the best way to describe Clare Waight Keller and her presence in the fashion industry. Now she is Givenchy&#39;s first female creative director.

There is a difference between making noise and being heard. In the age of social media, which dictates that you trumpet your existence and puke into a never-ending newsfeed&mdash;where you are, who you're going with, what you're eating, where you're vacationing&mdash;the decision may seem like only then speak when you have something to say, maybe appear retro.
Clare Waight Keller, designer at <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/fashion/givenchy-woman-show-autumn-winter-2023-24-collection-photo-look" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Givenchy</a>, has always let her work speak for itself: a work that reflects the English creative who today, twenty years after the start of her career, is recognized by Time, which includes her in its list of the 100 most influential people the world has taken.

Born in England, Clare Waight Keller has always had a passion for fashion and art. After graduating from Ravensbourne College of Art, she found herself across the ocean, in 1990s New York - the inescapable coordinates for a certain nostalgic fashion today - with the most iconic of designers: Calvin Klein. &quot;From a stylistic point of view, minimalism didn&#39;t require much effort,&quot; he later told the Wall Street Journal, &quot;but at a certain point the brand became immensely famous and consequently commercial, with big numbers: the gap between before and after was so brutal that it is necessary to create armor, armor&quot;. After Calvin Klein she worked for Ralph Lauren, Pringle of Scotland and Chloé.

&quot;I keep asking myself if I not only like the piece, but if I would wear it. That&#39;s why it&#39;s sometimes difficult to work with men&quot;.

Sometimes when we analyze garments in the style office, they&#39;ll exclaim, &#39;Oh, but that&#39;s Chloé. Maybe it&#39;s possible, but I don&#39;t feel like wearing it.&quot; She&#39;s finally able to take a leadership role, and she&#39;s doing it forcefully, without raising her voice. She doesn&#39;t need to, either. As if a woman, who may have come later than others to her due, needs the condescension reserved for young talent, who may stumble but make mistakes. A paternalistic stance that Clare defies, however, hissingly admitting: &quot;Yes, it can be difficult working in a man&#39;s world, but current feminism discourse may also be a bit outdated&quot;. However, the man who started the house wants to meet her and invites her to his home in Paris, where a butler is waiting for her. &quot;He had heard that LVMH was looking to resume couture production, which it had paused during the Tisci era, and he was excited about it. He told me that was the heart of his brand.&quot; Hubert de Givenchy died a few months later, but his brand is more alive than ever.

In the public spotlight

However, she made headlines with the wedding dress she designed for Meghan Markle, Prince Harry&#39;s bride. So the savvy American chooses a designer of English origin to pay homage to her adoptive family, but who is able to imagine a modern woman wearing sharp-lined dresses just the way she likes them. The dress is made of silk with three-quarter sleeves and a boat neckline, austere but with a veil on the sides of which are embroidered the flowers symbolizing each of the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

The dialogue between the female and the male side

Bringing the feminine side into dialogue with the masculine. A task she will continue to do until 2017, the year she was appointed creative director of <a href="https://www.givenchy.com/es/en/homepage?gclid=Cj0KCQiAgaGgBhC8ARIsAAAyLfGk8p1EuzuBTWA5SszfWAvedkSucaLw1DInkRDiGKoWMv0EILMXrzgaAmknEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Givenchy</a>. She will replace a man, <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/fashion/riccardo-tisci-new-brand-creative-director" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Riccardo Tisci</a>, who had strayed from the femininity of Count Hubert de Givenchy, friend, confidant and reference designer of Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy-Poi-Onassis, amid hoodies and outrageous patches by Robert Mapplethorpe and basketball shoes . After the era of Tisci backpacks and combat boots came Clare and with her the origins of the house's couture femininity.

SpringSummer 2018

The first show takes place in the Palais de Justice, where imposing marble busts face the catwalk: no one has ever had the courage to take advantage of this space, but if Clare has managed to make herself heard over the chatter of the men, her want to say who she is and how she should dress, a few busts won&#39;t put her off. The reception of the first spring-summer 2018 collection is lukewarm, the work that is asked of her, even with couture, monumental. There are wool coats with pronounced shoulders that are far from the soft whisper of Chloé; Dresses with ruffles and ruffles are making a return, but they&#39;re dyed in a sober black, the prints are optical at best.

Givenchy SS 2018

The precision is that of tailoring, but femininity is not compromised, instead becoming more mature and conscious: Clare delves into the archives - a simple and natural exercise in a house of this caliber, and one that even her predecessor never did - with the modesty of one who wants to learn from the holy monsters again. He studies the volumes, he brings some printed motifs back to the catwalk. There&#39;s also the crumpled denim total look with urban appeal, the soft leather jacket to wear with all-black Texans, the red vinyl trench coats, the pleated silk peeking mischievously out the side of a tweed skirt.

Clare Waight Keller: The designer makes the Givenchy heart beat again

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