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Simultaneously with the pop star Taylor Swift, Sarah Burton stepped into her Showgirl phase. In her second collection as the creative director of Givenchy, Burton turned up the volume with collars adorned with sparkling rhinestones over collarbones, opulent peach-toned feather accents, a sleek and short cocktail dress in lipstick red leather, and supermodel Naomi Campbell in a tuxedo jacket worn open over a minimalist lace-adorned bra.

Forging a Unique Path

Burton's role at Givenchy less than a year, but Alexander McQueen’s long-term right-hand woman has swiftly crafted a distinctive character for the brand and for herself. The Givenchy fashion house, the legendary domain of Audrey Hepburn and the classic LBD, has a flawless lineage of glamour that stretches from Paris to Hollywood, but it is a smaller player as a business. Previous designers at the house had largely embraced streetwear and functional metal embellishments, but Burton is reintroducing the allure.

"The goal was to create something erotic and sensual and to show skin," Burton explained after the show. "To strengthen women, we often reach for masculine codes, but I wanted to look at women's emotional depth, and dressing and undressing."

Subtle seduction was evident, too, in a formal shirt in butter soft white leather. "Each woman is unique," Burton stated. "Sometimes when I’m casting, a model tries on a garment and it becomes clear that she is uncomfortable in high heels. Therefore, I adjust the outfit."

Red Carpet Revival

Givenchy is rebuilding its presence in high-profile occasion wear. Burton has dressed actor Timothée Chalamet in a soft yellow tuxedo at the Oscar ceremony, and Kaia Gerber in a vintage-feel ballerina gown of dark lace at the cinematic event in Venice.

Schiaparelli’s Surreal Resurgence

The brand Schiaparelli, the surrealist fashion label, has been resurgent under the American designer Daniel Roseberry. In the coming year, the V&A Museum will host the first major British Schiaparelli exhibition, examining the work of the founder Elsa Schiaparelli and the brand she created.

"Acquiring Schiaparelli is not about buying, you collect pieces from Schiaparelli," Roseberry declared after the show.

Women who wear Schiaparelli require no exhibition to tell them that these garments are artistic. Art-adjacency is beneficial for business – garments carry art gallery price tags, with jackets starting at about £5,000. And revenue, as well as reputation, is rising. The setting for the event was the Pompidou Center in the French capital, an additional signal of how intimately this brand is linked to art.

Revisiting Iconic Collaborations

Roseberry reexamined one of Elsa’s most famous collaborations with artist Salvador Dalí, the 1938 "Tears" gown which will be in the V&A show. "This focused on going back to the roots of the fashion house," he noted.

The torn effects in the original were carefully rendered, but for the updated version Roseberry shredded the crepe silk itself. In both designs, the rips are eerily suggestive of stripped tissue.

Surreal Elements and Menacing Charm

A touch of threat is present at the Schiaparelli brand – The founder called her mannequins, with their defined shoulders and nipped-in waists, as her plaything troops – as well as a joyful appreciation for humor. Fingernail-inspired fasteners and gold noses dangling as earrings are the distinctive language of the house. The punchline of this show: faux fur made from paintbrushes.

Surrealist elements appear across modern style. Cracked-egg heels – walking on eggshells, understand? – were highly sought-after at Loewe. Surrealist distorted timepieces have graced the runway at the house of Moschino. But Schiaparelli leads in this area, and Roseberry oversees it.

"Schiaparelli clothes have an intense spectacle which dominates the space," he said. A crimson dress was cut with a triangular panel of skin-colored netting that rested around the area underwear would typically be, in a startling illusion of bare skin. The tension between wearability and theatre is integral to the presentation.

New York Designers in Paris

A carousel of creative director launches has welcomed two NYC stars to the Parisian scene. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have left behind the fashion house Proenza Schouler they established in 2002 to lead Loewe, the Spanish leather house that expanded into a $1.5bn (£1.1bn) alpha name under the direction of Jonathan Anderson before his departure to Dior.

The Americans looked delighted to be in Paris. Bold colors inspired by Ellsworth Kelly brought an upbeat pop art aesthetic to the in-the-know art smarts for which Loewe has become recognized. Vivid yellow slip-ons dangled their tassels like the fringe of Baker's costume; a crimson peplum blazer had the confident glossy contours of a ketchup bottle. And a party gown imitating a recently used bath sheet, fluffy as a freshly laundered bath sheet, achieved the ideal blend where clever design meets fashion fun.