Kaia Gerber on becoming Sarah Burton’s first Givenchy muse

It seems redundant to point out now since we’re all fully aware of the problem, but fashion is sorely lacking when it comes to female creative directors. While identikit white men rotate at an astonishing rate between the industry’s top jobs, there are just a couple of houses being helmed by women. So it was a relief when Sarah Burton, who formerly headed up McQueen, was announced as Matthew Williams’ successor at Givenchy last year. 

When Burton made her big Givenchy debut at the AW25 Paris womenswear shows back in February, for many women in the audience it felt like a breath of fresh air – while Burton didn’t rewrite the rulebook when it came to design, what she did do was create clothes that women really wanted to wear. On a diverse cast of models of different sizes, out came chic, easy tailoring, offbeat eveningwear, and standout statement looks – like the cocktail mini made up of tiny compact mirrors – that spoke of someone who truly gets it.

Now, Burton’s sophomore campaign for her new house drops, with the British designer looking not just to the agency casting boards when it comes to her models, but also to the women she works with for inspiration – longtime stylist and industry legend Camilla Nickerson is one of the stars of the Collier Schorr-lensed series, alongside make-up artist Lucia Pieroni. Even Schorr switches the back of the camera for the front, stepping into a chic black suit and perching on a chair.

It’s Kaia Gerber who pulls on one of the collection’s more showstopping looks for the shoot, in the form of a halterneck top crafted from big hunks of crystal and glass. Having starred in Burton’s first campaign for the house, and walked her debut show, it seems like Gerber is becoming something of a muse for the designer, and that the respect is mutual: “I could write books about Sarah as an artist and a designer and just how important the art she has shared with the world is,. But for me, what makes Sarah special is her character,” says Gerber. “She leads with kindness and strength, and it is because of those traits that I have always felt so empowered by wearing her clothes. It feels like you are wearing a piece of her heart, and getting to see how much of her heart she puts into her pieces, that is in many ways true.”

Of the shoot, which brought together a big group of women Gerber has been working with for the last ten years as she made her way as a model, the model described it as something of a homecoming. “It was so lovely reuniting with Sarah and her team who I have been getting to know professionally and personally over the past six years. In many ways it felt like a reunion – between the team, between me and Collier who shot me for the first time over a decade ago, and a lot of the women who I have had the privilege of working alongside since I started in the industry.”

Click through the gallery above for a closer look.