Brand Evaluation

Since it was established in 1952, the Givenchy brand has evolved and been under the influence of some of the worlds most celebrated designers. When the brand began Givenchy's vision was that of light separates collection featuring floor length skirts and light blouses, including one named after model of the moment Bettina Graziani. In 1954, Givenchy was the first to present his own luxury couture line. The ethos of the brand is clear when looking over past collections, you notice that at the heart of everything is classic, French style and elegance. Although over the past decade Riccardo Tisci has pushed the brand creatively and has begun to bring an element of avant garde into the design of the clothes and make up, the fundamental shapes, colours and fabrics used and the feel of the collections is still in keeping with Hubert de Givenchy's original vision. Knowing the history of the brand has proved invaluable as without this knowledge it wouldn't have been possible for my designs to fit in with the brands usual aesthetic. When looking over the Givenchy brand as a whole, I took several things in to consideration. I looked at the colours, fabrics and shapes that the brand is famous for, as well as analysing the different sides of the brand, some more elegant, some more grungy, some modern and pop punk inspired.

Givenchy's modern day target audience has become younger in age as the brands style has evolved to produce more avant-garde pieces that are coveted by affluent consumers in their 20-30s. Recent collections have combined classic styles with T Shirts featuring brightly printed designs and religious symbols - popular styles with the younger generations. Givenchy seems to be maintaining the perfect balance between still being the brand that dressed classic film stars such as Audrey Hepburn in her iconic little black dresses while developing an innovative, exciting, avant-garde side that has the ability to attract younger consumers.

I chose Givenchy as I relate to their designs and admire the monochromatic palette and classic silhouettes and fabrics seen in their collections. I love how Givenchy can be dark and grungy in it's editorials, yet ethereal and pretty with a slight strangeness in catwalk shows. Givenchy has a very distinctive style running through all of their imagery, with a consistent look to their advertisements and editorials in particular. Usually shot in black and white, their editorial images are instantly recognisable, showcasing a more simplistic style of make up that explores the themes behind their extravagant catwalk looks and choosing to focus on texture and styling. This is all came into careful consideration when planning my editorial images and although there are things I would change I am pleased the style in which I chose to shoot my designs as it is in keeping with that of Givenchy. All of Givenchy's Beauty Advertisements differ in make up style in relation to the collection they are advertising, yet share the same elegance. To reflect this through my work, I linked the two by placing them on a similar background and adapting the colours to reflect the differences in the morning and evening looks. I did a lot of research into Givenchy's choice of models and found that they most commonly prefer either pale, blonde girls or dark haired, strong featured, striking looking models. I wanted to portray this through my advertisements as well as accentuating the difference between the day and evening looks so found a light skinned blonde model for my daytime advertisement and contrasted this by using the dark haired model for the evening. When designing my catwalk looks, I took inspiration from Givenchy's S/S16 designs and the work done by Pat Mcgrath designing the make up for the show. I wanted to maintain the same elegant, ethereal feel created by Riccardo Tisci and Pat Mcgrath so did a lot of research into colour and the symbolism of pearls and gold but brought my own edge to the concept by including a Dusk Pink shade as a key colour to the look. To find a colour that fitted my brand and S/S16 trends I looked back at previous collections and was inspired by an array of nude toned blouses released by Givenchy over the years. I wanted the colour I chose to be springlike and pretty yet muted enough to work with Givenchy's extremely monochromatic Spring/Summer 2016 collection. I looked through numerous pinks but am pleased with the shade I chose and feel it really pulls the look together with the other key colours of Gold and Pearl.

I was also careful to reflect my brand during post production. As mentioned above, Givenchy has a very consistant style of presenting their imagery and I wanted to be careful to respect and maintain that. I sourced both of Givenchy's logo's online and researched the editorial layout of their images to gain an understanding of how they would present their work. The beauty advertisements are all laid out almost identically, so to ensure my advert looked fitting I laid them out in the same style and spent time sourcing the exact same fonts used. Givenchy's editorials share the same colouring and style yet are presented in a variety of different ways which gave me more freedom on the presentation of my images, so I tried out different techniques used by the brand in order to find the one that worked best with my images.