Givenchy Spring 2012 Review
Photos: Imaxtree
Looks from the Givenchy Spring 2012 show
Show: Givenchy
Hair: Luigi Murenu
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Accessories: Spike-heeled sandals in chrome, giant shark tooth pendants in gold and silver
Overall takeaway: Riccardo Tisci's Waterworld seems like a place many women wish they could live.
The Spring '12 collections began their thought-processes months ago, but it's odd how many seem to relate directly to the Paris we're experiencing today. Witness Riccardo Tisci's voyage to the bottom of the ocean: It seemed light and carefree, but couldn't it be Tisci's vision of a world flooded by melted polar ice-caps? And doesn't that chime with the global warming weather that's seeing Parisian temperatures hit the mid-nineties in October?
Maybe—but for once the lightness of Riccardo Tisci's vision wasn't necessarily shadowed by imminent darkness. True, there was a sharpness to his clothes—razor-cuts scissoring dressing into lappets at each thigh, dresses tugged taut and high at the hem, and those savage shark tooth pendants dangling around every other neck. But the pastel colors, the textures of fishscale explored through sequins and less conventionally through discs of leather or chiffon were markedly delicate and even fragile, something Tisci has rarely handled before.
Mercifully, Tisci didn't let the theme run away with the collection completely. Alongside the jackets and skirts ruffled with watery ripples of fabric, there were simple and eminently wearable blazers and taut trousers in salmon-pink, khaki and, of course, black. After all, you get black at the bottom of the ocean—and as ever, Tisci's little black dresses were some of the best in all of Paris fashion week. He's on the crest of a wave.
SEE THE SPRING 2012 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS
