Givenchi se inspira en MachuPicchu y Peru en moda de temporada de invierno

Givenchy displays a raw romanticism

Riccardo Tisci takes his collection to the high heartland of Peru
By Suzy Menkes
Published: July 2, 2008

PARIS: It is dark and elusive, but the raw romanticism of Riccardo Tisci is starting to create a powerful, modern image for the house of Givenchy.
For the winter season, the designer took his collection into the high heartland of Peru, where he created a landscape of Machu Picchu colors like tobacco brown and stony beige. Hefty cuffed shorts, leather bomber jackets, ethnic patterned alpaca sweaters and gaucho boots with a chap at the front seemed a long way from the sophistication of the City of Light.

Yet, take away the ethnic focus and there were intriguing things going on, especially in the fabrics. Tisci's idea of a waxed leather coat lined with alpaca fur was only the start of this mountain trail through high and low materials, as he melded denim, silk jersey, chinchilla and cashmere. The melange could be deciphered only from the program notes, so that some effects, like Inca blanket patterns on tailoring, seemed on the runway to push the theme too far. Yet the Givenchy look emerged as tautly tailored, with an elegant nobility, or soft and graceful, as models walked a rough floor like llamas loping across those Peruvian plains.

Shocking pink might be considered, as in India, the navy blue of Peru, but it screamed out in the context of Tisci's venue: an austerely beautiful former convent. However, the clothes were gentle, as in a sari-shaped asymmetric dress or another with a gaucho cape flaring at its back.
Making a coherent collection with decisive daywear, credible cocktail clothes and long gowns is not so simple now that fashion is in flux. But Givenchy offered all that without the banal rhythm, as long jersey dresses suggested the nonchalance of day into night, evening dresses made of strands of silk had a swaying sense of movement and sheer lace dresses were shown under tailored coats.

Tisci - like several predecessors - was thrown to the lions at Givenchy. But he showed in this collection that he was learning how to joust with this proud and powerful couture beast and make clothes relevant to the 21st century.