For her second Givenchy campaign, Sarah Burton enlists Rooney Mara and the Clash bassist Paul Simonon in a portrait of friendship and craft
Fashion loves a full circle moment, and with Sarah Burton’s arrival at Givenchy, one closes with inevitability. For more than two decades – over half her life – Burton devoted her work to Alexander McQueen, the house that shaped her hand and honed her heart. McQueen himself, of course, once held the keys to Givenchy’s ateliers in the 1990s, a brilliant tenure that burned bright and fast. Now, Burton finds herself in the same Parisian salons on Avenue George V, sewing the next chapter in a lineage where teacher and student converge.
Burton’s vision for the French house is an excavation, rebuilding from the inside out, its foundations measured in muslin and memory. “It’s my natural instinct to go back to pattern-cutting, to craftsmanship,” she told Alexander Fury before her debut. “It’s what I feel, how I work, and want to do.” That instinct to work, and to feel, is the pulse of the new era.
The Spring 2026 campaign, Friends and Muses: The Portrait Series II, turns that ethos into image. “My friends are often my muses, and my muses often become friends,” Burton says. “The second in our Portrait Series celebrates this creative relationship with both Rooney Mara and Paul Simonon.” Collier Schorr provides her lens for the series, capturing portraits of actor and AnOther Magazine cover star Rooney Mara and the Clash bassist turned painter Paul Simonon.
Mara and Simonon make a fascinating dual portrait. The multi-award-winning American actor was, until recently, attached to portray the leading role of Audrey Hepburn in Luca Guadagnino’s biopic, most recently appearing in the searing kitchen-set drama, La Cocina. She carries with her the look and spirit of Hubert du Givenchy’s most famous muse, thanks to her minimalist severity and emotional intelligence. Across from her, Simonon – the punk legend and artist – represents a raw artistry that Burton herself admires. Schorr photographs them both stripped of embellishment, capturing the intimacy and authority Burton’s clothes imply.
Precision, gentleness and impeccable craft. In a meeting of English precision and Parisian poise, Burton restores the romance of the atelier without nostalgia – a circle recut and resewn.
