British designer Sarah Burton is totally honest, speaking with William Middleton for W Magazine [link] two days before her second showing as Givenchy’s creative director.

The interview is part of a Givenchy fashion story ‘Strength and Sensibility’ featuring Burton’s hand-picked, super-femme model and actor Kaia Gerber. Camilla Nickerson styles the fashion shoot lensed by Craig McDean [IG]./ Hair by Olivier Schawalder; makeup by Hiromi Ueda

In one of those life twists that leaves one speechless, Kaia signed on in November to play her mother Cindy Crawford opposite Homer Gere, son of Richard Gere. The new TV show ‘The Shards’ arrives 30 years after Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere's divorce and will play on the FX platform.

Female-Focused Empowerment at Givenchy

It’s not only her reality that Burton brings a “female-focused aura of empowerment” to Givenchy. Her candor comes at a time when patriarchal values in America are deeply embraced by most members of the Trump administration.

Burton’s view of gender is liberating, Middleton writes, while acknowledging the dearth of women designers still. Anne doesn’t have a view on the author of “Paradise Now: The Extraordinary Life of Karl Lagerfeld”.

But I will say that Luke Leitch has received high praise on AOC, for his even-handed, empathetic writing about women designers and feminism generally. In a moment of total exasperation in recent months, I literally sent readers with a link to his column for a more circumspect view on a topic that had me fuming.

Back to Sarah Burton, she put some steel in my spine just now, explaining to W Magazine readers:

“When we think of how to empower a woman, she’s often put in a suit or something constructed, something male,” she says. “Instead, I was looking at female iconography and how it can be used to make a woman feel incredibly powerful. I wanted to look at sexuality and sensuality, revealing bits of the body in certain ways.”

The Lessons of History

Few American women feel secure about the ground on which we’re standing today. A couple years ago Vogue France announced that we were living in a post-feminist society, so leave the guys alone.

My own certified green residence is built on land that previously was a rest and rehab facility for Confederate soldiers. In a literal sense, I have the upper hand, but am also extra aware of my surroundings and how easily history attempts to repeat itself.

This is my own frame of mind as I approach the topic of female designers in luxury fashion. Chanel is at the top of my heap of luxury fashion wonderfulness, with Matthieu Blazy living in Luke Leitch’s exalted territory. At Fendi, we don’t know what Maria Grazia Chiuri is envisioning for her next act. If Demna is feeling the vibes of 1990’s Tom Ford’s Gucci, that’s good news for women.

The Books that Impact Us Deeply

Kaia’s well-known love of books and her book club gave me a Eureka moment. I firmly believe that one’s favorite books explain much about who we are, and a quick search brought me to Vogue’s ‘The Five Books That Changed Kaia Gerber’s Life’.

Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson has chosen his list of favorite — perhaps life-changing — books for the new Dior book totes. Besides only one woman author on his list, what do those titles tell us about him and his own values? If one is carrying around a new Dior ‘Dracula’ tote, how are women portrayed in that book?

One of the very interesting aspects of Kaia Gerber’s list is the broad range of interests. AOC remembers Kaia Gerber’s comments about Jeremy O. Harris’s ‘Slave Play’ and the real friendship that has evolved between the two creatives.

Gerber saw the play with her mother, which tells us much about their relationship and Crawford herself. Cindy Crawford hardly needs a positive PR campaign, and yet her daughter creates these treasured stories about them and their relationship on a regular basis.

Actually, Sarah Burton got a fashion duet when both Cindy and Kaia wore Burton-designed Givenchy to the Broadway opening of ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ in April 2025. The limited-run Broadway play starring George Clooney as journalist Edward R. Murrow, tackled the McCarthy-era Red Scare and the fight for journalistic integrity.

Sarah Burton’s views are well-established — first and foremost in my mind, in her flourishing relationship with Alexander McQueen and how she handled herself in the ensuing years of his death. Yes, Burton handled his legacy with sensitivity and brilliance, while evolving her own principles at McQueen and now Givenchy.

Can you imagine if Sarah Burton arrived at Givenchy with references to burning the house down? It reminds me of all those white nationalist guys carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. Or the book burnings in Germany in May 1933.

As Anne of Carversville looks into 2026, and with a life-changing assist from AI which delivers in one second the answer to any question I ask — being inspired by creatives’ book lists is only the beginning.

Thanks, William Middleton, Sarah Burton, Kaia Gerber and the whole shoot team, for getting the party started. ~ Anne