Sarah Burton’s first Givenchy handbag turns the house’s brittle elegance into something curvier
Snatch, as a name, raises eyebrows. It makes you think of … well, the turn-of-the-millennium Brad Pitt vehicle directed by Guy Ritchie, perhaps? Despite the cinematic antecedents of Hubert de Givenchy and his symbiotic relationship with the brittle elegance of Audrey Hepburn in the 1960s, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t quite the frame of reference that Sarah Burton was mining when devising her first handbag for the house that bears his name. Rather, it echoed ideas that formed the crux of her menswear presentation this week, her formidable but supply pliant tailoring compressed to “snatch” at the waist, although Burton’s was a gentle hug rather than a grab. The Snatch – as that’s what this bag is called – is gently drawn in, caving to carve out curves, disrupting a linear architecture with softness in much the same way as her clothes, especially this Givenchy menswear offering – her first officially shown on the Paris fashion week schedule – that echoed Hubert de Givenchy’s personal sartorial elegance, but combined it with quotations from the universe of her womenswear. Sleeves on her white Bettina Blouse-ish shirts were curved, raglan shoulders gently rounded, and indeed the waists of grain de poudre tuxedos and cashmere suits were undoubtedly snatched.
The Givenchy Snatch bag is available to buy now.
