Givenchy: Fall-Winter 2011-12.

Givenchy:  Fall-Winter 2011-12

Riccardo Tisci’s recent outings at maison Givenchy have been stellar, albeit lacking in the cohesion department.  From the ready-to-wear to the haute couture, Tisci’s concoctions have appeared to most onlookers as steeped in a dizzying amalgamation of different design concepts, quips, and personal inspirations.  Season after season, Givenchy is re-imagined and re-directed to communicate a different idea—all, though, anchored to Tisci’s highly publicized, uniquely gothic religiosity.  Last spring’s animalier-laden collection of industrial-utilitarian sheer smocking satisfied both the Givenchy customer and the business ends that motivate Tisci’s work.  However, some argued that the show concept itself remained unfocused despite Tisci’s accomplishment of re-branding the maison with the iconographic image of the Obsedia.  The same went for the neo-classical menswear of 2011, where trompe l’oeil effect leopard print and psycho-goth leather facial shrouds dipped more into mid-career-McQueen territory than namesake Tisci Catholicism.  Regardless of the press stings and criticisms that Givenchy has become more and more artificial, Tisci, I find, has been able to nurture Givenchy back to health with a lucid mission statement of creating aspirational garments that re-animate the body.  Furthermore, Tisci must be given credit for having a strong finger on the pulse on pop-culture and his quasi-epistemic understanding of the street.  For Fall-Winter 2011-12 menswear, Tisci proved just that—validating his provocateur reputation with a commercially successful collection steeped in the hard-edged masculinity and aggression (rudeness?) espoused in rap culture.  Then, in palette cleansing form, Tisci’s haute couture for Spring-Summer 2011 (shown in January) nodded to his obsession with Japanese pop-culture, which delivered 10 sci-fi Japanime inspired evening gowns shown at Place Vendome.  The main conclusion shared by both collections?  Tisci demonstrated, above all else, a deep understanding of a certain historical-cultural narrative and how it has come to aesthetically translate itself.  And if pre-fall 2011 women’s ready-to-wear was any indication of the direction Tisci was taking for next autumn-winter, consider me sold on the urbane-deco luxe.

 

[ photos:  via style.com.  models: Saskia, Izabel Goulart ]

For Fall-Winter 2011-12, Tisci had the idea of fine-tuning house iconography on the brain, solidifying in my opinion, Givenchy as the province for those seeking French recherché embedded in exceedingly contemporary, finely embellished sportswear.  Tisci’s customer wants a recognizably Givenchy silhouette and what better way to offer it by reinventing the archives while maintaining the abstract ideas and emotional heaviness of the recent storyline?  I have to admit—my hunger for a quixotically super-dramatic presentation was primed yesterday sitting in front of my computer as the poetically soporific A Thousand Kisses Deep seduced onlookers at Haider Ackermann.  Could any singular person or set of images possibly re-suspend me into the level of utter catharsis that came with that thunderous Ackermann experience?  It seemed doubtful until today when Tisci demonstrated an extension of his architectural prowess and married it to his severe celebration of the body.  A true engineer of aggressive romanticism, Tisci's panther digi-print baja jackets, transparent tops, and slick silhouette of body-conscious black translated as sinister - and literally animalistic.  With runway veterans Natalia Vodianova, Frankie Rayder, Karen Elson, and Querelle Jansen leading his pack of wild, untamed creatures under a veiling arch of lilac-colored vegetation, the heavy-handed Tisci went straight for the fashion-jugular with yet another deliverance of erotic showmanship.  Perhaps animalier has been taken to new meanings - but who really knows?  Tisci favorites including the liturgical high-neck gave the silhouette a confusing element - is this woman a psycho-goth dominatrix (with all of the appropriate pvc leather accoutrements) or a broodingly conservative school teacher? Without a doubt, a sinuous collection that drips of the usual high sex vulgarity-restraint dichotomy (think Prada F/W 2008-09) will always be a retail success.  New-minimalism out, anthropomorphological dressing in. 

   

[ photos:  via nowfashion ]