Scroll through Instagram and you get a whole lot of different takes on Riccardo Tisci's sensational show tonight: gypsies, Game of Thrones, Joan of Arc. One thing everybody could agree on: These were the baddest bitches on a Givenchy runway in a long time. That, and it was hands down the sexiest collection of the season so far.
As Tisci's interest drifted toward the streetwear scene in the last couple of years and he turned the designer sweatshirt into a covetable (and highly lucrative, no doubt) commodity, his collections lost some of the unabashed sexual heat he was once known for. Well, it came roaring back from the first look out here: a little black dress with grommeted lacing between the breasts, worn with peep-toe boots, the tops of which nearly grazed the skirt's hem.
After the sex factor, the next thing you noticed was how worked these clothes were, some as elaborately as haute couture. Black-and-white latticed jackets and coats, each more ornately decorated than the last with whipstitching and filigree; Roman gladiator dresses in studded leather backed with lace; fringed tinsel sweaters with giant jeweled medallions nestled at the chest; and, for something a little more low-key—though, to be honest, the one thing this collection didn't offer was much in the way of variation—second-skin black knits with corset lacing tucked into super-high-rise jeans.
For the record, Tisci said his reference points were Tyrolean costumes, vintage pinball games (which explained the way the models zigzagged through the crowd), and his earliest days at Givenchy, nearly 10 years ago now. "In the beginning, when I started, it was much more tough and sexy," he said. "I feel like women today tell me that's what's missing from the market." Certainly that's true this season, when so much of fashion has gone boho.
Earlier this summer, rumors circulated that Tisci was headed toward an exit from Givenchy and about to take on a new challenge. We gave up playing the designer-musical-chairs guessing game a while ago, but there was clearly no sense of wavering in this collection. The one word that kept coming to mind about Tisci's take-no-prisoners, rock 'n' roll warriors? Committed.
