The French house of Givenchy is celebrating the new decade, and a fresh cycle in the Chinese lunar calendar, with a limited edition capsule collection of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear. The collection draws its inspiration from the Chinese Zodiac myth of the great race that decided the order of the animals in the annual lunar cycle.
The rat, so it goes, won despite being the smallest animal in the race. It used its smarts to come in first place, riding atop the stronger ox until before the finish line. Givenchy has taken that sense of wits and wiles as inspiration, conceiving its collection as an ode to freedom. The key print of the collection, influenced strongly by 70s graphic design, features a four-lobed print of four rats in undulating profile – an evocation of the house’s 4-G motif. It’s also meant to suggest a labyrinth and escapism a la the crafty rat.
Pieces in the collection come in mostly black and white fabrics, with the graphic in red as a visual counterpoint. You can expect to find it on t-shirts, sweatshirts, V-neck sweaters, parkas, and hooded windbreakers – all pieces you can wear throughout the year thanks to the abstract and not-too-literal stylings of the collection’s rat motif.