Riccardo Tisci - Designer

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Special Report: Haute Couture

Skeletons, Family and Religion

By SUZY MENKES

Published: July 6, 2010

PARIS — Played out in white, gold and brown, with skeletal patterns intricately worked in lace, Riccardo Tisci’s couture collection for Givenchy touched the 35-year-old designer’s dark and deep religious side. In contrast to the flamboyant menswear show last month, with its streetwise clothes and sensual South American models, the designer showed his collection Tuesday in the privacy of a hôtel particulier off the historic Place Vendôme, where dresses were suspended from circular rails.

Focused on evening wear, the baroque richness and detailed workmanship reflected the gilt-embossed walls of the venue. Even lacy hosiery was made by hand, fringes were created from feathers and shoes were imprinted with surreal abstractions of men’s footwear. There was little of the sharp tailoring associated with Givenchy, where Mr. Tisci has been the creative director for five years. But his inspiration — Frida Kahlo and Mexico’s Day of the Dead — hit a chord of memento mori, a style that is appearing in fashion and the subject of three current exhibitions in France.

In an interview, the designer explained his vision.

Q. The first shows that I saw of yours in Italy were very quiet, and almost religious with all those lighted candles. I have heard you say that Italians love three things: sex, football and religion. What do you go for?

Me, I’m religion. I grew up in a family from South Italy, from Taranto, and I lived a very tough life as a kid, because I missed my father when I was very little. I had this fantastic mother with eight sisters. I’ve never been missing love in my life, but the one thing that really gave me the strength to become what I am today is religion, belief. It doesn’t matter from which religion you come from, it’s that you believe in something.

Q. Let’s take you back to your childhood. This little town of yours is on the side of a cliff....

A. This little city — super-beautiful, super-baroque, very dark in a way. Very South Italian city, with a legend about finding mermaids swimming in the water. It’s the Italy that not many people know — foreigners think about Sardinia, this beautiful paradise, or Sicily.

Taranto is very dark because it’s very related to religion, but at the same time people are really happy and joyful and they party a lot, which is part of my personality. I’ve got darkness in my style, because it comes from processions, veils, the Virgin Maria, crosses and all that suffering part of religion, which I love. And then I’ve got the happiness part of my life, which is the happy part of Riccardo Tisci.

Q. This privileged and private couture event seems a long way from your shows with Courtney Love sitting in the front row and singing at the after party. Are you growing up?

A. This season I decided to go back to the roots of the house and to do a little collection, more concentrated as a message and on cut and shape.

I want to present 10 very specific looks, a strong identity of what I’ve been doing in last five years, and by appointment, like it used to be in the old times, during the ’50s or the ’60s. Couture for me is very special, something that has to be given time, very personal.

Q. Why do you think imaginative and inventive Italian designers have to come to Paris to flower?

A. If I would have to say thank you to a country in my life, it would have to be England, because this was where I was able to study. The second one is India, because that is where I started my first collection, and the third one is France, because they accepted me and they allowed me to be at Givenchy. At the same time, Italy is an amazing country and I’m very proud to be Italian, I’m very glad to have Italy in my life.

Q. You talk about family. Do you believe in the family of fashion?

A. I am 35 years old and I really think the important thing in my daily life is family. It is very important in life, to have people that you believe and believe in you.

I’m always surrounded by women. Woman is the biggest expression of my life, my muses: Mariacarla [Bosconi, the model], Marina Abramovic [the artist], Courtney Love. Even my team is mostly women. Why? Because I always felt at home around women, since I was a little kid; most of my friends were girls. Growing up with my sisters, I’m always attracted to strong women.

Women, in Italy, they say, do not wear the trousers. But women there are very strong; they know what they want. And that has been the success of my life.

Q. Are the men you showed in the last month’s show the guys that your couture women go out with?

A. My woman is so strong, so confident of her sexuality, so confident of her decisions that she can play with both worlds. She can wear a tuxedo with a romantic shirt; she can wear a jacket, like a men’s jacket, with a mini-dress and high heels.

Q. When you talk about your dark side coming from religion, there’s not much darkness in this haute couture collection. It starts off all white with no black at all! Is this your happy side?

A. You know, dark for me is not always black, it’s not only dark colors, it’s not about goth and black cloth. It’s much more mental.

This collection is languid, the shape is like a drop on the body. There is a tuxedo jacket, which is something I’ve been doing for the past few seasons — short in the front and curved but very dramatic in the back. It’s like having a cape on top of a long black priest dress.

It’s a lot of crosses. I’ve got zippers that open the dress, a chemisier that crosses the body at the waist and on the front. Other than that, I’ve been working in all gold, which I’ve never done before. It is always about a pattern, embroidered on this garment for church, for liturgy, for a pope.

I think it’s less dark. It’s not black — for the first time in my collection in 10 years of my career. The darkest color is brown; it’s from brown to white.

It’s difficult for me to do a collection that is from Look 1 to 50 completely different colors, because my way of working is about believing one thing and developing it to the end. This season is mostly about salmon, flesh colors, beige.

It’s my romantic side, but the concept is very gothic and very dark.
Click to expand...
*Video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/07/07/style/1247468399111/close-up-and-personal-luxury.html

nytimes.com
 
Article for Dazed & Confused/Oct '10

(www.dazeddigital.com)

The creative director of the French fashion house delves into the art of couture
The October issue of Dazed & Confused celebrates what underlies the 'craft of fashion'. Now, for our Dazed Digital relaunch, who better than to speak to than the creative director of power house Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci, who delves into his art of Haute Couture and how he defines it. The influential designer talks about how he sees the purest form of fashion, Couture and Givenchy's recent masterpiece for Haute Couture A/W 2010.
Dazed Digital: This season you've gone back to the house's roots, presenting in the traditional salon style with an installation. Do you think this style is better suited to the art of couture?
Riccardo Tisci: I think the presentation was a big success – it was very strong. When I started to do this I was really scared, to be honest, and worried how people would react. When I do a show I have such high emotion; the energy is amazing – but, people don’t really see the details and the work and the experimentation that we, the designers, put into the clothes. With prêt-à-porter you’re having a look. This season maybe low-crotch trousers with a very tight knitwear jacket is fashionable, but for next season perhaps I’ll decide that neoprene trousers with a super-big shirt is the fashion – you give an injection of style. But with couture you have faithfulness – people are faithful to you. In couture, you will see that the cut looks like a lace dress from a distance, but it’s only when you get nearer you understand that it’s layers of lace, hand stitched in a certain shape, all the work – the zips, the buttons, the hooks… it goes on.

DD: Why is the intimacy of a tête-à-tête important for the presentation of a couture collection in particular?
Riccardo Tisci:I thought there would be people saying, “Oh, you’re not doing a show!’ But actually I was really surprised because everybody loved it; everybody loved to spend time with me and my team, to live in the Givenchy moment. The new concept from now on, every season, is that we will do an installation. Each season will be a new inspiration and we’ll find a new way to see my family ­– this is why I wanted to shoot this big family portrait.

DD: What, in your own words, is the definition of couture?
Riccardo Tisci: Couture is emotion. Couture is freedom. Couture is not thinking about pricing and not thinking about craziness. You can do whatever you want to do in couture. The couture client wants the latest things, but she wants the clothes to be super-special – the fabrics won’t even touch or go near anything like prêt-à-porter. I also believe that couture is not about shocking. When I was young, especially when I was at school, I thought couture was about big gowns, big hats (that is couture as well, of course) – but my couture is about going near the clothes and having a look at the details. I like people to have a shock in a chic way.
DD: How many fittings do you normally do with each couture client, and are you personally involved? Can you tell us about that process of building a personal relationship with your couture clients?
Riccardo Tisci:I have one person with me, and we work together. I usually do the first fitting with the team and the ambassador of couture (kind of like a seller) – she represents the maison. And then I do the final fitting because the client wants me there. They’re not spoilt, they really understand that you’re very busy, but they just want you to say what you think – for just ten minutes. They really want to know your opinion because it really is a service at the end of the day, a luxury service. It’s something I really enjoy. I think, “God bless me,” you know? I’m really lucky to be here. These five years as a couturier have really changed my way of seeing fashion and my confidence with fashion. Couture is a dream.

DD: When you first began with the couture, was there quite an established team? When you hear about the way couture works, it’s always stories of little old ladies sewing, and you know they’ve been doing these things for their whole life and it’s very much a craftsmanship. Is that the way it works with Givenchy?
Riccardo Tisci: In the beginning, to be honest I was super-scared. I turned up and took a step back and said, ‘I am here to learn,’ and I feel the same today. I’ve got only to learn from these people because they have been doing couture for 30 or 40 years, so I keep learning every season.

DD: This season’s intricate creations include superstitious symbols from the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, and a lot of the heavy embellishment is seen on the back of the garments – tell us why the back is important for you.
Riccardo Tisci:This is very much part of my style, I work a lot on the back ­– I love the back of clothes for men. I love even T-shirts printed behind. I think, “Why do you want to show only the front?”

DD: It is often speculated that haute couture is a dying art. What is your response to this view?
Riccardo Tisci: I think it’s become stronger because, actually, in prêt-à-porter now we understandably need to make the collection satisfy the big market more, so couture is extra special. You know, if you buy a Cartier ring you want people to know it is a Cartier ring or a diamond, or a piece of art that’s giving an emotion – then people read it and say, “wow that’s really amazing”. With prêt-à-porter you see people in the street, in a club, in a restaurant or whatever, and you think, “Oh my god, he’s wearing my trousers!” In a way it’s more open – people can put together the way they want – mixed with other designers. Couture is more your own world, they come and buy head-to-toe ­– they buy the jewellery, bags, coats, dresses, bodies underneath…. But couture is not dead ­– it’s taken another shape.

See the October issue of Dazed & Confused for the full interview with Riccardo Tisci, out September 16
 
The pictures accompanying the article above:



dazeddigital

Givenchy Haute Couture F/W 10.11 Full Collection (HQs)





style.it
 
His clothes are great, but more importantly he is all sorts of yummy goodness
 
Spring / Summer 2011 Collection
1/3 | HQ (style.it via Nicolasa)



 

youtube.com/user/maxlinden2630 | originally posted by maxlinden in Givenchy S/S 11 Paris thread

I find adorable how Riccardo crosses himself before going outside to salute (1:57). It's a gesture that defines his personality.
 
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