While Sarah Burton debuted her first Givenchy presentation during men’s fashion week in Paris on Thursday, it’s hardly her first effort.

She’s been quietly overseeing men’s collections since being named creative director of the heritage house in late 2024, and menswear tailoring, one of her passions, has already informed her womenswear collections.

“The two collections talk to each other,” she said during a preview Tuesday evening, where looks from her spring 2027 menswear collection were displayed on mannequins amid sculptures by acclaimed English artist Rachel Whiteread.

“When I arrived, I put the design studios next to each other, so that the women’s and men’s teams talk to each other,” she said. “It’s almost a constant conversation that happens between the two studios, and sometimes an idea originates in men’s and then comes over to women’s and vice versa.”

For example, the “Old Masters” floral embroideries on one of the men’s tailored coats echoes those on the halter-neck gown Danish model Mona Tougaard wore in Burton’s hit fall 2026 womenswear show. Some of the trouser suits in that collection, in pinstripes or classic checks, were reprised and adapted for the spring menswear collection.

“Also, in the shops, women are sometimes buying the menswear clothes as well,” the designer noted. “It’s very important, from a business point of view and an image point of view, that they both sit well together.”

Burton brought to Givenchy menswear designer Harley Hughes, her longtime wingman at Alexander McQueen, where she spent most of her fashion career, and their approach is very workroom based. She opted for a presentation format rather than a runway show to exalt the craftsmanship that goes into embroidered military bombers, double-breasted tailoring and sleek leather aviator coats.

“It’s very much like the women’s process. I started with the silhouette first,” she said, highlighting the nipped waists on the Prince of Wales suit, worn with aplomb by British photojournalist Don McCullin in the teaser campaign that went up on billboards around Paris on Wednesday.

“It just has to be grounded in a suit. Because of my passion for tailoring, it seems to be the soul of every collection — probably from my training at McQueen,” she said. “But what I really wanted this collection to show is the multifaceted side of men, so it’s not just one man, it’s many men, and it’s also multigenerational.”

McCullin, 90, wore his gray checkered suit with a white shirt and necktie bearing an archival tulip print, whereas his campaign costar Danny Fox, a Cornish painter, went shirtless under his dark suit, whose notched lapels were dropped near the waist.

“Not only do you want to have something for different moments in your life, but also different periods of your life as well,” she said.

Over the years, Givenchy menswear has pinged between a classic, tailored image and streetwise edge.

Now Burton is casting a broader net. Also among her male muses is actor Timothée Chalamet, 30, who memorably wore custom Givenchy leather tracksuits for his “Marty Supreme” press tour.

“He really understands fashion, and is very inspiring to talk with about fashion,” she enthused.

Burton reprised the tracksuits for her Paris presentation in every vivid color imaginable, pairing them with puffy sneakers and installing them among colorful pails and canisters, among Whiteread’s more recent works.

A fan of the British artist for decades, Burton selected two colossal black props — titled “Closet” and “Wardrobe” — which echo Whiteread’s plaster and resin casts of rooms and containers. Whiteread told Burton the former represented her younger self, the latter her older self.

“I love the idea of intimacy…and this idea of different ages talking to each other,” she said. “In this room you find my idea of what archetypes are in a man’s wardrobe.”

So everything from white shirts, rugby shirts and perfectos to curve-seamed denim and leather jeans encircled the two slightly disquieting sculptures.

Burton also sees a man’s wardrobe stretching from everyday staples, like workwear overalls, which she styled with a white leather shirt, or a Crombie, to more precious, heirloom-worthy items, like her satin coasts and bombers with dense embroideries.

The “Marty Supreme” room echoes the concept. “I took what I felt was the most ordinary object, which is a track suit, and made them into something very opposite, that was with leather, so they felt sort of precious,” she explained.

“There should be a craftsmanship in what we do, like a beautifully cut jacket and a beautifully tailored coat,” she said.

And Burton is adamant that menswear nourishes women’s fashions — and is a joy in itself.

“Working from a very menswear head gives the women’s tailoring something different that maybe wouldn’t happen if you just thought about it from a very womenswear point of view,” she said. “So I really enjoy working on the menswear.”