GIVENCHY - TOP 5

Yesterday was a momentous day for the house of Givenchy. Riccardo Tisci took the Internet by storm by announcing that 1200 tickets to the SS2016 presentation would be available to members of the public, a move designed to celebrate both the launch of a New York flagship store last week and the opening of a flagship in Milan which will coincide with the show on September 11th. Givenchy is one of the industry's longest-running fashion houses; founded in 1952 by Hubert de Givenchy, the house quickly gained a reputation for its elegant couture pieces and its sartorial links with icons such as Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn. The brand has come a long way, recruiting legendary designers such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano along the road. Since his appointment in 2005, Tisci has nurtured a new, darker aesthetic and catapulted the brand to huge mainstream success. To celebrate his first decade at the house and his decision to make high-fashion more accessible, here are five of Givenchy's greatest collections.

Xiao Wen Ju wearing Givenchy Couture, A/W 2011

SS15 HIGHLIGHTS [SO FAR!]

As the dust began to settle around New York Fashion Week, its audience began to question whether or not this was the most innovative NYFW in recent history. New York is renowned for its emphasis on urban chic - luxe sportswear and high-end separates are usually the order of the day, leaving the melodrama for Paris. This season, however, things were markedly different thanks to a number of young designers ignoring traditional runway presentations in favour of something a little more interesting. Opening Ceremony, for example, cast stars such as Dakota Fanning and Rashida Jones to create a Fashion Week satire; one which raised eyebrows among the industry for its exaggerated depictions of fashion clichés. Elsewhere, Gareth Pugh moved his show from its usual Parisian setting to the Big Apple and Thom Browne created a typically fantastical setting for his S/S15 garden party. This season was packed with truly memorable shows and indicated that some designers are looking to move away from the 'trade show' mentality that has recently plagued the industry. We already have pre-collections, resort collections and diffusion lines to provide the commercial basics that keep the industry thriving - the runway is a platform for spectacle and it seems that, for the first time in a while, designers are ready to embrace it.

PROENZA SCHOULER S/S 2014

If there has been one collection so far that has managed to marry sartorial past and present, it is undoubtedly Proenza Schouler. By teaming yellow suede jackets (think Phoebe in Friends circa 1999) with shiny metal fastenings and faded white seams, the designers managed to reference and re-imagine an iconic 90s aesthetic in a way that we haven't yet seen. These same metal fastenings were seen on a range of almost sci-fi full-length coats and the occasional cropped blazer (complete with contrasting suede lapel), a hint at the metallics which would come later on in the collection.

THOM BROWNE S/S 2014

Fashion has a reputation for being deranged. Iconic designers such as Lee McQueen have flirted with the concept of insanity in their collections (VOSS), and Vogue recently featured an editorial on the eccentric Helena Bonham Carter, best-known for playing disturbed villains such as Bellatrix Lestrange and the Red Queen. Thom Browne is also known for creating collections that clearly differentiate themselves from those of his contemporaries - his last collection, for example, managed to revamp the houndstooth and harlequin checks that were last heavily in vogue way back in 2010. It comes as no real surprise, then, that Browne went completely, deliriously over-the-top with this glorious collection - a true reminder that Fashion Week is escapism at its best.