A dissected propeller plane created by artist Paul Veroude was suspended from the ceiling of Halle Freyssinet on Friday evening as hysterical violins and heavy breathing played fanfare to Givenchy’s spring/summer 15 collection. It would be one of Riccardo Tisci’s best ever, but the opening exits of black tailoring – double-breasted shorts suit, a jumper, a minimal coat – kept things mysterious. “When people think I’m going in a certain way, I have to go the complete opposite way,” the designer told i-D backstage. What he meant was that we were all expecting a print-centric, multi-layered, perfectly covetable collection for summer – after all, that’s been Tisci’s great success at Givenchy – but what we got was much, much better.
“I went back to square one. My first season five years ago was very similar. It was all my obsessions when I was a child,” Riccardo explained, drawing a parallel to the schoolboy details featured in crests on tailoring and the pairing of shorts with blazers. “On the other side there were the flowers and the love,” he said. They were Baby’s Breath, the petite white wedding flower, used as all-over prints on shirts, shorts and jackets, and in the closing looks, which had jaws dropping around the circular runway. Utterly breathtaking, garments from trousers to t-shirts were embellished with pearls on top of the floral print, creating a 3D effect that literally sparkled like a treasure chest.
Tisci said he wanted to take things to the next level. “Of course we do big business with sweatshirts and t-shirts, but I’m going back to ‘real clothes’. It’s an interpretation of ‘real clothes’: my own polo, my own sweatshirt. A different way to do things.” While the embellished pieces were more dreamy than real, they represented exactly what Tisci was talking about. This season was Givenchy’s graduation from the easy pieces that have re-established the house’s prominence under Tisci’s reign, and an exploration into the territory of intricate, couture-level menswear. Considering the plane installation and the parachute details that appeared in garments mid-collection, you could say it was jump out into the unknown.
Credits
Text Anders Christian Madsen
Photography Mitchell Sams