Paris (AFP)
British fashion designer Clare Waight Keller, known for having signed Meghan Markle's wedding dress and for being the first female artistic director of Givenchy, is leaving the French fashion house, we learned in a press release on Friday.
"As the first woman to have been artistic director of this legendary house, I am honored to have had the opportunity to continue her legacy and to have given her a new life," said the 49-year-old designer, in a Givenchy press release , without saying more about his professional future.
For its part, Givenchy will later announce the decisions regarding its new creative team.
After relaunching the Pringle of Scotland brand, Clare Waight Keller went to Chloé, before becoming in 2017 artistic director of the house Givenchy, founded in 1952 by Hubert de Givenchy. She also worked at Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.
"I wish Clare the best in her future projects," said Sidney Toledano, CEO of LVMH Fashion Group (fashion division of luxury giant LVMH, owner of the fashion house), after welcoming his contribution to " last chapter dated Givenchy ".
"Under his artistic direction, and in collaboration with the teams and workshops, the Maison has revived the founding values of Hubert de Givenchy and his innate sense of elegance," he underlined.
The sleek dress, with a boat neck and three-quarter sleeves, designed for the former American actress Meghan Markle, contributed to the fame of Clare Waight Keller, named best British stylist (women's collection) in 2018. A price that she had received from the hands of the former Duchess of Sussex, then pregnant.
Her latest collection (ready-to-wear for women), presented in early March in Paris, celebrated "imperfect beauty", with raw cuts and collages of falsely neglected fabrics.
The designer had succeeded Givenchy's Italian Riccardo Tisci, who had occupied the artistic direction for twelve years. After the departure in 1995 of the designer Hubert de Givenchy (deceased in March 2018) whose muse was Audrey Hepburn, three British designers succeeded one another to this position: John Galliano, Alexander McQueen then Julien Macdonald, before the nomination in 2005 of Riccardo Tisci .
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