Riccardo Tisci - Designer

[NYLA22]

Because we know several people that have worked for him and they shared his beyond extravagant demands. Which doesn’t make him worse, I actually think it’s funny, but he is beyond extravagant and saying the opposite is just lying. There’s nothing normal about him.

Valentino is just too normal if you compare to Tisci.

Ok, now I'm curious...we need to know what some of those extravagant demands are. Very curious! 😆

 

[fenty]

if he gets back at all i hope this rest from fashion gets him back to the sexy goth vibe he had. Even dark trashy sexy would work, as im sure he could make that classy. just not so street heavy again.

Exactly why I said Tisci, I miss that gothic, edgy vibe he gave at Givenchy. I don't think him being at Valentino is farfetched but they saying Michele is in talks...major sigh

 

[Mathewthew]

Ok, now I'm curious...we need to know what some of those extravagant demands are. Very curious! 😆

Haha. maybe something like Hedi ???

 

[THD96]

Former Burberry designer Riccardo Tisci: ‘I’m ready to start a new chapter’​

He talks about dressing British screenwriter, actor and producer Michaela Coel and his next moves.

Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci at the Burberry's fall-winter 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection fashion show in London, on March 11, 2022. (Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP)
01 Aug 2024 05:35AM
After two years out of the limelight, Riccardo Tisci is ready to make a comeback, and he’s armed with a new sense of confidence and clarity.
“Creative people get into a very dark tunnel. Sometimes, everything that [other] people see is positive and beautiful, but behind that is insecurity and darkness,” he says, his speech marked by a southern Italian accent. “I went through that, but today, I’m happy, more than ever, because I’m happy inside myself.”

​

Tisci is in Greece when we speak. He has just finished his workout (going to the gym is one routine that keeps him grounded). After stepping down as creative director at Burberry, a role he held for almost five years until September 2022, he decided he needed some rest. That involved travelling across Africa, visiting Lagos in Nigeria among other cities.
Today, he lives between Paris and New York, the latter where he has been spending a majority of his time. “It’s the place I’ve always dreamt to be,” he says. “I bought a house many years ago but never got the chance to live there because I used to live in France for Givenchy [where he was creative director from 2005 to 2017] and then in the UK for Burberry.”
Tisci, who turns 50 this week, sees the new decade as a turning point, one where he is able to be more intentional with his output and more purposeful in using the cachet he has built to lift up others. “I feel accomplished and ready to start a new chapter,” he says. “It’s not like I have nothing to say. But I want to give a space to other people to communicate and express themselves.”
Indeed, Tisci may be a free agent, but he’s kept himself occupied with a plethora of projects. He’s a mentor to young talent, including designer Luis de Javier; a collaboration under his name is in the works with US sports giant Nike (little details have been revealed); and last week, London-based independent twice-yearly magazine Boy.Brother.Friend published its latest issue, of which Tisci was the inaugural guest editor.

From left: Stella Maxwell, Riccardo Tisci and Irina Shayk attend the Marc Jacobs & i-D 'The Pre-Party' at Viking Villa on April 15, 2023 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Marc Jacobs and i-D/AFP)
“The kind of person Riccardo is, I think he needs meaning, he needs connection and he needs it to be true,” says British screenwriter, actor and producer Michaela Coel, a longtime collaborator and close friend of Tisci’s, having met the designer through American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney. “Now more than ever, since the phase of Burberry is gone, he will come out to play if there is some real truth, love and honesty.”

​

Born in the coastal city of Taranto, Tisci grew up in a working class family where he was raised solely by his mother, along with his eight sisters. (His father died when he was four, and his mother passed away in 2021.) The designer recalls his childhood warmly, one that was filled with love.

“I made the assumption that because [Tisci] was at a huge luxury company, he probably came from a place of privilege, but it wasn’t anything like that,” adds Coel. “We actually had so much in common regarding relative early hardship and perseverance and managing to get very lucky in discovering a skill we were good at, and we bonded over these things.”
After a series of design stints at Puma, Antonio Berardi and Ruffo Research, he was appointed as creative director at LVMH-owned Givenchy, whose image he modernised by injecting it with an elegant, gothic charm as well as introducing streetwear staples such as sweatshirts and sneakers, which at the time were not common in luxury.

Michaela Coel wearing the dress Riccardo Tisci designed for the red carpet event of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London, on November 3, 2022. (Photo: Isabel Infantes/AFP)
Tisci’s friendship with Donatella Versace has fuelled speculation that he might succeed the Italian designer at her namesake brand, but in 2018, he joined Burberry, replacing Christopher Bailey as chief creative officer. While he expanded Burberry’s footing in streetwear — a hot collaboration with Supreme in March 2022 generated queues outside its stores and sold out online in minutes — sales growth following the pandemic was slow. Tisci exited the brand that September.
In November 2022, for the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Coel wore a black gown by Tisci — the first garment by the designer, under his own name, in 17 years (Tisci founded his own label in 2004 but put it on pause the following year when he joined Givenchy). This month, the two have come together again for Boy.Brother.Friend, which features Coel on the cover, photographed by Inez and Vinoodh, and more than 30 pages of shoots shining a spotlight on the work of African and Black diaspora.

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“It’s a vision that essentially explore both our strengths and gives space to people who have inspired us along the way and it’s about keeping that dialogue alive,” says Boy.Brother.Friend founder and editor-in-chief Kk Obi. “It’s what we’ve been doing with this publication from the start.”

I’m lucky that now I can choose what makes me happy. That’s not always related to money"

Tisci first discovered the magazine at the bookshop in Palais de Tokyo in Paris. “I saw that it was an Africa-focused magazine and thought it was super cool, very honest, very raw, very creative and forward.” Tisci and Obi reconnected last year while both in Lagos. “Kk suggested a story on me, but I thought, we don’t need [that]. I said, lets make it a platform where we create an opportunity for the younger generation.”
“Fashion has changed a lot since I arrived in the 2000s,” Tisci continues. “You had big names: Martin Margiela, Azzedine Alaïa, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Hedi Slimane . . . I was the young one and to be next to these people was very difficult. We didn’t have Instagram, so it was all about creativity. You also had people like Isabella Blow and Anna Piaggi, who had something to say. Today, everything is like fast fashion. If you’re cute and have good marketing, you can go into first place. People who are talented but shy don’t get the opportunity.”
That realisation has led Tisci to lend his name to projects he might not have gotten involved with in the past. It helps, of course, that modern-day creative directors aren’t just known for the craft of their clothes but come with a community of collaborators. Some, such as former Chloe designer Gabriela Hearst, stand for causes beyond themselves; others, such as Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton, are able to fuel new desires for fashion as entertainment by creating cultural moments.

Givenchy's spring/summer 2014 collection. Riccardo Tisci was creative director at Givenchy from 2005 to 2017. (Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP)
Tisci says he feels ready to return to fashion. “I’m trying to figure out the right moment and way to come back,” he says, candidly. Recent projects, such as the magazine or creating costumes for artist Marina Abramović’s opera-inspired show in 2020 were very “personal”, he explains. “It made me happy and love my job again. I didn’t have to please anybody and I could just collaborate with people who understand my language.”

​

Current macro-environmental factors will lead to a wider reckoning that sees the industry returning to “creativity and real identity”, he believes. “Hopefully it will be much more open-minded too. Because now it is a confusion. Everything looks the same.”
Would that prompt him to return to designing for a larger corporate entity, or will he prioritise his own label? “It’s very important for me to decide [where] I can give the best of myself and what’s going to please me, because I want to have a family and I want to do other things too,” says Tisci. “[I would] join a [luxury] house that already has a strong identity, so I just have to give it more. But I’m very open as a person.”
“I’m lucky that now I can choose what makes me happy. That’s not always related to money,” Tisci notes. “For the next project, I want to be very free.”
Kati Chitrakorn © 2024 The Financial Times.

Source: cnaluxury.channelnewsasia.com

 

[Lola701]

“[I would] join a [luxury] house that already has a strong identity, so I just have to give it more. But I’m very open as a person.”
“I’m lucky that now I can choose what makes me happy. That’s not always related to money,” Tisci notes. “For the next project, I want to be very free.”

Hmm….Donatella, wake up!
Because on this one, it’s either Delphine Arnault or Bruno Pavlovsky on the line!

You can’t get more « strong identities » than Chanel and Dior right now. And doing womenswear allows him to be free compared to having to do many many things.

 

[Kite]

Apparently he's back to talks with Versace after they halted the procedures the last time over his ridiculous request.

 

[helmutnotdead]

Apparently he's back to talks with Versace after they halted the procedures the last time over his ridiculous request.

I want to know what happened!

 

[tourbillions]

I want to know what happened!

probably unlimited amount of boys and vacations

he definitely wants chanel i think... I still love wearing his givenchy.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

Oh my man is REEADY!!! I am too to see him back at an amazing house.

 

[Lola701]

Apparently he's back to talks with Versace after they halted the procedures the last time over his ridiculous request.

I guess now that Donatella doesn’t own the brand and that the new group needs for it to really succeed, things can change.
He can swallow his ego regarding his name for now and ask for a ridiculous salary at this point. I wonder if they can afford Donatella + Riccardo! That’s a lot!

 

[Kimihiro]

Wasn’t the rumor was he wanted credits to be ‘Versace by Riccardo Tisci’ and they don’t want none of that? I felt like there was more to it.

 

[Kite]

Yep! And DV took it as an insult which I can understand.

 

[FashionPower]

I don't know why People are still obsessed with him. He was great at Givenchy but it turned out he was only interested at the Quick and easy bucks. It is so obvious he is no more passionate about fashion as form of creativity or expression, if he comes back it would Just be to get more money. Feels like a mercenary to me. Also his showing off on Instagram is extremely off putting, he has been basically on vacantion for 4 years now. We do Not care about the hung brazilian escorts Who hooks up with. He is definition of a burnt designer.

 

[tourbillions]

I don't know why People are still obsessed with him. He was great at Givenchy but it turned out he was only interested at the Quick and easy bucks. It is so obvious he is no more passionate about fashion as form of creativity or expression, if he comes back it would Just be to get more money. Feels like a mercenary to me. Also his showing off on Instagram is extremely off putting, he has been basically on vacantion for 4 years now. We do Not care about the hung brazilian escorts Who hooks up with. He is definition of a burnt designer.

Unfortunately him on autopilot is still miles aheead of what we have been getting these days

 

[susseinmcswanny]

I would really like to see what he could do at Versace altho maybe only if he had a lot of creative freedom. The brand seems like it’s trying to stay in the merch lane of things

 

[reese06]

Yep! And DV took it as an insult which I can understand.

I understand but funny considering she used to send out clones of herself and the Donatella ichnography products - which I think are amazing btw and better than some of the stuff she puts out now

I would like to see what he would do at Versace if he’s going to actually be in the studio

 

[eugenius]

I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for him doing the next JPG couture collection.

 

[Steddycam91]

I've always hoped that Riccardo would somehow eventually wind up taking the reins of Versace. His gothic-ethereal vibe, but combined with a bit more va-va-voom glamour...I can see the vision working. His couture experience would be beneficial in "relaunching" Atelier Versace as well, which I also think should make a comeback with collections and catwalk shows...but I doubt that'll happen.