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Givenchy’s fearless creative director on the models, muses and #family that inspired his incredible A/W ’15 collection

THE MUSES OF

STYLE FEATURE

Riccardo Tisci

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Victorian chola isn’t an aesthetic one would immediately associate with a storied French fashion house, even one headed by an Italian designer known for his rich Gothic influences. So when Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci sent models at his Autumn/Winter 2015 ready-to-wear show out with forthright facial jewellery and kiss curls plastered to their

foreheads, heads well and truly turned. Tisci says he has always been fascinated by Victoriana, and has

a great love for Latin culture. For Givenchy’s exquisite Autumn/Winter 2010 haute couture collection he used bone zippers and skeletons of pearl sewed onto silk duchesse satin, details inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations and artist Frida Kahlo.

Yet he’s also known for embracing ethereal looks in white and cream. “In my shows and collections, I am not a person with one identity,” he explains. “The word may be ugly, but my work is schizophrenic in lots of ways.”

The ornate face embellishments we saw this season are another extension of Tisci’s flair for the striking, while also being a way to make us look at the faces as closely as we do the clothes. That’s because Tisci doesn’t share the widespread fashion belief that models are just clotheshorses, employed merely to wear and walk. When we’re watching a Givenchy show, Tisci says, we should pay as much attention to the models as we do to the clothes. “At the end of the day,” he says, “a show is not just made out of the clothes, it’s made out of emotion.”

Tisci is vocal about the place and importance of the muse and the personality of the people who wear his clothes, whether on or off the runway, within the mythology of his reign at Givenchy. “For me, models mean a lot because they’re not just presenting my collection; they’re really giving it life,” he says. “A really good model has personality; it doesn’t matter if she is famous or unknown.” Tisci is constantly searching for girls with that certain something. “When I was a kid, Gianni Versace created the moment of the top models with Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista… so it was a little bit in my blood.” What is he looking for? “I always go for a strong, fierce, bold, intelligent woman.”

One of his most enduring collaborators, Mariacarla Boscano, is a friend from a time before he came to Givenchy. “I have many muses. But I’d say my Audrey [Hepburn], the one who defines

what my style is and fits my universe in every way, is Mariacarla Boscono,” he says. “We were friends, we were young, we were naive, we were just enjoying studying and enjoying London as club kids. I could see a potential in her, and she could see my potential.” He credits her for being one of the first people to believe in him, and she appears time and again in his campaigns, the face that encapsulates Tisci’s Givenchy.

Tisci famous for being fearless when it comes to his casting, and is credited with launching the careers of Joan Smalls and Lara Stone. He has featured Ming Xi, Lakshmi Menon, Grace Bol and Chanel Iman both on the runway and in campaigns. In 2010 he discovered and cast transgender model Lea T at a time when it wasn’t yet trendy to be associated with the transgender community. The models he casts often become part of his close coterie; the T in Lea’s chosen name is for Tisci.

“We’ve known each other for so long,” he says of their relationship. “I was there during her most difficult times and the best ones.” Considered a pioneer for trans models, and paving the way for the likes of Hari Nef, Inés-Loan Rau and Andreja Pejic to walk the runway, Lea T was on the brink of a downward spiral after

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facing rejection from her family and friends for wanting to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

Tisci stepped in and cast her in the campaign, he has said in a past interview, “to help Lea financially, and because who says so that a transsexual cannot be a top model?” It seems that people are agreeing with him:  last  year,  Lea T  became  the  face  of Redken’s global campaign, marking the first time a transgender model has ever landed a starring role with a cosmetics brand. 

Tisci’s casting of Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls as an exclusive for the S/S ’10 haute couture show was remarked upon at the time, along with Givenchy’s more diverse than usual set of girls on the runway. This was not so much a conscious decision for Tisci as something  he  did  simply  because  it  fit  his  aesthetics.  “I  opened my second couture show with nine black girls; some of  them I’d discovered, some of them were established like Naomi Campbell or Liya Kebede,” he says. “I  remember all  the magazines  talking about the casting, and that surprised me. People make such a big deal about using black girls in your casts, but it shouldn’t be a big deal — it should be normal.” 

Tisci’s friends aren’t just people he hangs out with who happen to grace the pages of magazines — he has made clear that they are family.  His  Instagram  captures  moments  with  Kim  Kardashian 

and Kanye West, whom he calls one of his closest friends, Naomi Campbell, Madonna, Courtney Love and Joan Smalls among many more celebrities. And check the joyous hashtags to see how he feels about them: #love, #angel, #gang and #family are all regulars. In a way, it was Tisci’s championing of the different, the alternative and the not necessarily  ‘fashionable’  that  led  to him  to  befriend Kim Kardashian at a time when few high fashion labels would dress her. Now she has appeared on the cover of countless fashion magazines and starred in campaigns for Balmain.

So  important  is  family  to  Tisci  that  he made  it  the  centre  of Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci’s A/W ’15 campaign. The cast of  the #Family  campaign  reads  like  a  collective  of  Tisci’s  collaborators: Joan  Smalls,  Kendall  Jenner,  Kanye West,  Jessica  Chastain, Mica Arganaraz,  Jamie  Bochert,  Akimoto  Kozue,  Candice  Swanepoel, Stella Lucia, muse Mariacarla Boscono, American footballer Victor Cruz and Chinese pop singer and actress Chris Lee. But one name made more headlines than the rest: By casting Donatella Versace, Tisci is blurring the lines between creator and consumer, competitor and collaborator. “I believe  in breaking rules,” Versace captioned her black-and-white campaign photo on Instagram. “I want to get  TE

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rid of the old system, support each other and make fashion a true global community.” And no one will be a stronger ally in that than Riccardo Tisci.

“Your cast should have everything that is related to your world and your aesthetic,” insists Tisci. “It doesn’t matter what their race is, what their gender or sexuality is, you should represent beauty — beauty is beauty.”

Too often it feels like a designer manufactures a friendship with a celebrity for commercial reasons, but with Tisci there’s no doubting his sincerity. “We have never approached celebrities [or] models in the usual way,” he says. “We don’t consider any of these people our ambassadors. When I work with someone, it’s always a collaboration. I don’t push my vision on them; I want them to feel like themselves. I respect them all and they are not marketed choices. They are relationships that come from the heart. They are my friends, my family, and that is how they become my muses.”

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