Vogue.co.uk's take:
DO you ever feel as if you are on the verge of a fashion moment? Well that was how the mood was swelling last night as time ticked nearer and nearer to
Riccardo Tisci's couture presentation for Givenchy.
Givenchy is a bit like a Stradivarius. It has been passed from owner to owner - designer to designer - Mr Givenchy to Galliano, McQueen, Macdonald and now Tisci - each one composing a new melody, each one as much in awe as they are in trepidation of the tales the mystical tongue the spirit seems to speak. Last night however harmony had been restored, the orchestra fully tuned, and a new masterpiece was emerging.
At the entrance to the Musee Bordelle your invite was exchanged for a map and plan of the pieces. An installation. Enough to make your heart sink, a private view where you would have to jostle with champagne sipping crowds as you glimpsed half a corner of some work of art. But, in the walk through the Jardin de la Rose, past a wrapped black silk chiffon and organza short sleeved jacket - the front hem set with a 'mille feuille' of petals in laser cut silk, worn with patent leather skirt, not on model but stone carved bust, the doubts were carried away in the cold night air as murmurs of something exciting, something beautiful, something special within whispered on the wind.
The shadows, sculptures and spirit of Givenchy was being reawakened, delicately getting tuned to play again. Past a white-washed stark room, where an electric viola was being bowed (the start of this old goes new theme), by a woman in white shirt, white pants, a weeping tune where a bottleneck of people queued to see the line of exhibits - models not on a runway but in rooms, behind ropes. A girl in hand pleated shirt of draped black jersey and wide palazzo-style pants, a maxi-meets-mini dress with a black tulle illusion adding lace hem over a draped jersey dress. There was no denying the knots, twists and cut was couture, the spirit Givenchy, but the essence quite new.
Library ladies, with their white cotton poplins, painted cuffs and oversized nerdy eyewear, white leather, patent, fishnet and poplin, created 'Socrates' thinkers of fashion and this was a dawning of a new era - cue sharp intakes of breath and murmurs of approval of the new look amongst the wondering voyeurs.
From Bettina to Tisci's muse, model Maria Carla Boscone, it seemed the Italian with his separated palettes had hung up many new ideas, but they had to be searched and found upstairs downstairs and hidden in every nook and cranny - a fashion treasure hunt where you dared not search everything out. Black hair, painted black faces, black striped taffeta jacket and tight skirt, with twists of bows on the hem, hid in an alcove of four models. Down the stairs to the nude and works in progress, as girls wafted past back-turned canvases and empty easels with golden Veronica Lake kiss curls tumbling down over their shoulders. The flesh tulles and organza gowns embellished with burnt ostrich feathers and double silk georgettes making these ethereal creatures as lovely as they were other worldly.
Maria Carla, with white lace appliquéd to her face, newly peroxide blonde crop and curled on her plinth in a long asymmetric satin white sculpted bustier dress. Amongst a room of artefacts Carmen Kass emerged from a crate as indeed the most beautiful of all the icons in the room in a double silk satin white strapless gown, with cape carried by black clad servant who was spellbound. To the redheads' room with inky tear stains trickling down a cheek, khaki tulle, hand-painted bodices and romantic gowns of degrade pleats and petals, the Tisci illusion was soft and lyrical. To his 'finale' installation with the creations in a 'Studio Revolte' - all scarlet ladies, red sequins, twists and tucks, pencil skirts, blouses a la Bettina and icon pieces of the past dipped in red glitter and styled with red oversized eyewear. The crowd seemed transported by his song, and the creations showed he can cut as well resurrect the spirit of the house. Tisci wooed doubters to his way of thinking. Although not the conventional user-friendly presentation, many ardent supporters hope this is the start of something great to come. (January 24 2006, PM)
By Camilla Morton
those pyjama trousers
Everyone's got to agree with me!
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