Review by Tim Blanks
The last time Riccardo Tisci showed a couture collection for Givenchy, the zipper pulls were bones. This season, they were wings. Fashion's favorite goth took flight with a new obsession: Japan. Not the land of obis and geishas, he said, but the Japan of robot toys and the dancer Kazuo Ohno, whose intensely ritualized style of performance, called Butoh, was a huge influence on Tisci's friend, the singer Antony Hegarty. When Ohno died, Antony and the Johnsons performed a tribute concert that so inspired Tisci, the dead man became a sort of muse for the designer. And this was the result. According to Tisci, Ohno provided the romance, the melancholy, and the palette (the color of dried flowers). Robots, meanwhile, influenced the appliqués, the shoes, and the huge hats by Philip Treacy (couple this with Armani last night, and Treacy is clearly the go-to guy for sci-fi headgear).The detail was as crazily consuming as last season's. One outfit required 2,000 hours of cutting and 4,000 hours of sewing. A single pair of trousers had 90 meters of plissé. On this scale, appreciation of the clothes as they solemnly rotated from hangers in a reverentially hushed salon on the Place Vendôme became an almost academic exercise, like examining works of art in a gallery. Maybe not such a bad analogy, given the extraordinary appliqué on a bolero that crossed a robot's face with a Catholic cross, or the organza that was laser-cut and appliquéd on layers of chiffon and tulle to create a three-dimensional spread of vermilion wings. One gown featured a Japanese crane, again appliquéd, that rose phoenixlike from a cloud of feathers. Massive bird's wings were folded across a sheer skirt. The Swarovski crystals and pearls that were crusted on the bodice of another dress began to pop like fish eyes as the dress moved.
The craft was undeniable, though in the end, like Ohno's favorite dried flowers, the clothes lacked some of the rude life that Tisci stuffed into his recent menswear collection.
I'm not a fan of this couture. The talent and design is amazing but it feels like a lot of what I've already seen this year. Sadly I'm disappointed.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting that you say that. I guess there are trends, the sheer skirts, feathered skirts... I haven't decided what I think of the collection as a whole. Since there was no fashion show, the photos appear lifeless and museum-like. But the pieces themselves are so distinctive to me, that I can recognize a Givenchy Couture within seconds on a celebrity or in a magazine. But if I were to make a top 10 list of my favourite couture dresses, none of these would make my list.
ReplyDeleteCate Blanchette (Oscars)
Liv Tyler (Met Ball)
Mariacarla (Met Ball)
lol my last comment was so mixed up. The list at the bottom are celebs that have worn looks from this collection.
ReplyDeleteThe first photo at the top? I think the dress looks divine! I think its sad that Tisci chose to display this collection the way he did.
That is true. I think it might be the poses that throws me off. I just think that Marchesa and Ellie Sab(spelling) have the same feel. I dunno. It's beautiful and stunning but not a WOW factor for me. The add at the top however took my breath away.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. After seeing Cate at the Oscars, I was really curious (and a bit worried) about what the collection looked like. The dresses take on a life when worn in real life, and WITH life. I think it's great that he featured so many East Asian models, but I worry that he perpetuated a stereotype by making them all stand exactly the same, blurring any individuality they have. This worries me.
ReplyDeleteBut you know why some couturiers don't do fashion shows? The clients (who are dropping hundreds of thousands) do not want the clothes they buy to be splashed all over the news and the internet the next day. So some couturiers are stopping having runway shows altogether and are having salon viewings like this. Another reason clients don't like fashion shows is it mixes buyers (the extremely wealthy) with borrowers (celebrities who never pay for dresses), so it attracts paparazzi. There's even concern that the media could heighten security threats for kidnapping of heiresses (especially of South American or Arabian women) due to the huge discrepancies in wealth. anyways... that was a long boring comment.
Yeah it was a little boring. Cate wore that dress wonderfully but her face is such an interesting face that it shone over the dress. She wore the dress not the other way around. Which is good for fashion but not for couture.
ReplyDeleteAnd Yes it was boring but good to know. It just seems like the fashion world is so busy walking on eggshells that we forget that we are here for art.
I blame celebrities. And our obsession with them. I like it when fashion (especially couture) is seen as a high art, and clients are patrons. The idea of celebrities borrowing dresses turns the dresses into billboards for the brand instead of masterpieces to be cherished. What happens to those dresses after a red carpet event? This is sad to me.
ReplyDeletelol at my last comment, and then my rabid excitement to see Beyonce in a dress from this collection. But look how amazing she looks!
ReplyDelete