Yesterday Riccardo Tisci staged Givenchy’s spring 2010 couture show. If Suzy Menkes was a little bored by John Galliano’s old-fashioned take on couture for Dior, she must have been delighted with the glitter and sequins at Givenchy … right? Well, she wasn’t entirely amused. Though she calls the show “audacious,” she also found it “frustrating as just 22 models whizzed by in high speed.” Also adding to the frustration of many attendees was front-row guest and Tisci’s muse Ciara, who arrived 40 minutes late and was booed by photographers. (So in WWD, she talked up how busy she is working on her new album.)
Backstage, Tisci called the show “Early ’70s Paris — erotic.” That was quite evident in the sheer paneling, and less so in the Bermuda shorts, which, after Chanel, marks the second couture collection this season to include mom shorts. But the highlight of the show was the glitter jumpsuits. Menkes writes in the New York Times:
The show deliberately disintegrated into a disco mania of purple and electric blue — a wild rave of evening clothes, calmed by two ball gowns with psychedelic colors on the hem ruffles.
Yes. Couture ravewear is upon us! Dig up your bedazzlers and JNCOs and get to work. Hilary Alexander summed the show up in the Telegraph thusly:
The mood was more Studio 54, with its disco-bright, glam-rock, sequinned jumpsuits, in graphic patterns, glitter-ball eye make-up, and electric ball gowns, with golden crystal bustiers, and shadow-dyed from neon-lilac to intense velvet, and finishing in bouncing, pom-pom trains of ruffled tulle.
Not only were the clothes glittery, the models’s faces were too.
Photo: Imaxtree
Couture body glitter! (Okay, couture face glitter — it’s still exciting.) All Tisci missed were accessories consisting of bedazzled glow sticks and jewel-encrusted Vick’s vapor inhalers.
But the sparkles still stole the show. And so perhaps it’s time for Tisci to usher in a new muse. No offense to Ciara, but she is not a diva who has made a name off sparkles. That would be Beyoncé, and if anyone can rock one of those sequined jumpsuits and get away with it — or at least just get gobs of attention for it — it’s her. The woman could use a little more coverage anyway.
Smoky Eyes and Red, Red Lips [NYT]
Paris Haute Couture: Givenchy spring/summer 2010 collection [Telegraph UK]
See a slideshow of Givenchy’s complete spring 2010 couture collection.
See a slideshow of details from Givenchy’s spring 2010 couture collection.
