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Givenchy: Medicis in Morocco

You cannot fault Riccardo Tisci for consistency. Eleven days after staging a North African inspired menswear show, the couturier revisited the region again in a stellar Givenchy haute couture show in Paris Tuesday evening, July 7.

But where his men’s collection was Marrakech dude meets Parisian dandy, his couture crossroads was more Catherine de Medici visits the Atlas Mountains.

There was an air of modern day princess with most of the looks in this show of 22 outfits, each one given Berber or Moorish female names.

From a wonderful opening corset-coat worn with tight pants to the final warrior princess bride, there was not one sour note in this fall 2009 collection, the latest affirmation of Tisci’s talent.

“Morocco, again. I know! but when I have an obsession it’s an obsession!” said Tisci backstage as a mob waited to compliment him. Staged in a covered market in south Paris, the show attracted a suitably chic front row including two fellow designers, Peter Dundas and Christian Lacroix, fresh from staging what might be his last collection now that his house has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Tisci even played around with the chador, or full-length cloak, though his were made of gold sequins and showed most of the face, except forehead, cheekbones and nose.

Parts of this show were armor-plated chic, with breastplates and multiple wristbands almost stacked up to the shoulder in gold, silver and flesh-colored plastics and metals.

The Italian couturier is also an exuberant tailor, with innovative peplum hems, huge tongues of fabric and outrageously flowing drop crotch pants. His Givenchy collections are rarely easy to wear, but for those with the figure and self-assurance to put them on, his clothes make wonderful fashion statements.

Made in various hues of anthracite, off white and faded rose, fitted out with medallions and military regalia, worn by a sublime casting and presented on a clever rectangular gray beam catwalk, this was a brilliant Princess Leila goes to Fez trip by a couturier very much playing his A Game.

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