Givenchy sets N.Y. Fashion Week show against dystopian background

Fashion from the Givenchy Spring 2016 collection is modeled during Fashion Week on Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)

NEW YORK -- On a dystopian set with One World Trade Center beaming its blue light into the night sky this Sept. 11, Givenchy took Manhattan on a pier Friday before a star-studded crowd, remembering tragedy and celebrating fashion at the same time.

Riccardo Tisci, the French fashion house's creative director, worked with performance artist Marina Abramovic on the Waterworld-esque set of walls made of recycled metal and wooden shards, seating his huge crowd on stacked wooden pallets and benches as models walked in looks of mostly black and white.

There was lace, there were sheers and there were tuxedo jackets for both men and women.

Givenchy chose New York Fashion Week: The Shows rather than Paris this season to mark the opening of its first store in the city, along Madison Avenue.

Kim Kardashian, who showed off her baby bump in sheer black, was in the audience with husband Kanye West. They were joined by Julia Roberts in a T-shirt adorned with Tisci's face, Uma Thurman, Margot Robbie and Nicki Minaj in a body-hugging animal print dress, along with athletes Amar'e Stoudemire, Victor Cruz, Russell Westbrook (showing his own fashion line this season) and father-daughter Steven and Liv Tyler.

Among the models were Kim's little sis Kendall Jenner.

Givenchy calmed the crowd, including more than 800 members of the public who received tickets to watch from the sidelines, with a soundtrack of chanting and other music honouring six cultures and religions.

The collection itself was part elegant ease in roomy black trousers with loose ribbon on the outer seams and part boudoir come-and-get-me lace. Some looks included eery face adornments in lacy patterns while other models had multiple spike earrings with nodules attached at the tops of their nose bridges. Among grander looks was a black skinny trouser encased in a sheer structured shell.

Models walked the winding, open-air runway in treacherous heeled mules, including several steps up and down stacked wood pallets. One toppled as she navigated this world, described in show notes by Abramovic as an event "about forgiveness, inclusivity, new life, hope, and above all, love."