Purity reigns over “Bleached Canvas”, the Givenchy Spring 2019 Haute Couture collection designed by Clare Waight Keller, as a path to vivid color is drawn through the void of white.

The British designer created a series of bold looks in shades of fuchsia, yellow, blue, and orange. One dress appeared to be made of thick rubber strings in a kaleidoscope of color, while other brightly colored accents were added through feather trims, jeweled headdresses, and beaded capes. These second-skin pieces were entirely bespoke; each one required days to produce in collaboration with specialty atelier, Atsuko Kudo.

“I tried to take the most modern approach possible with everything,” said Clare Waight Keller following her third Haute Couture collection for Givenchy.

Waight Keller will refer to clothing construction as architecture with the pursuit of absolute lightness. While this duality represents the essence of haute couture—tailleur and flou—she seems intent on considering a more hybrid approach: a Swiss guipure dress that appeared sculpted, or skirts that were flawlessly contoured before giving way to a cloud of sheer organza. From the sexy racerback of a dress shooting down between the shoulders to the glistening red embroideries shooting through the pleats of a skirt, Waight Keller was working through experiments of form and technique.

Backstage, journalists seemed curious about the latex. Waight Keller rightly rejected the connotation of kink; in color, at least, they imparted a painted-on slickness, indeed, a modernity.