Schiaparelli, the forties and thirties, and animal sensuality – when mentioned collectively – at first do not seem to have any common thread. However, when revealed that these were among the influences sighted by Riccardo Tisci as the inspiration for his Givenchy F/W ’09 collection, one starts to see the elements that were extracted from each and combined to create looks that can only be described as unabashedly Tisci. “I wanted to show lots of different shapes for all kinds of women,” confessed Riccardo Tisci post show, and perhaps more than his other references, this seemed to hold the greatest authority over his show, with asymmetric dresses and tops, with accentuated shoulders
For the Givenchy F/W ’09 collection, Tisci continued to fine tune his skills – he stuck to his usual, limited color palette where black dominated and added royal navy, butter ivories, and accents of deep fuchsias and ceruleans. But Tisci doesn’t need color to distract his audience, for he wants to let the focus rest on the cut, detail, and craftsmanship of each piece.
Blue glitter shoulders pads peeked through the shoulders of a short, ivory lace dress, well-cut pants were paired with a variety of “top choices” such as silk knits draped around the torso and finished off with ostrich feathers and embellishment on the shoulders.
Texture was a key technique, combing fur and tuille, wools and silk jerseys, and ostrich feathers with silk jerseys (see those fabulous white asymmetric Grecian dresses at the finale).
Over the past few years, Tisci has elevated himself to the Parisian elite very literally through calculated measures. Tisci’s creations are nothing short of geometry genius, the silhouettes, the tailoring, the proportions, the use of solid color with style lines – no one does it better.
Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
