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Givenchy: Welcome to Posh Primitivism

If there is any designer who can boast of unique sources of inspiration it is Riccardo Tisci, the creative director of Givenchy, who for the past several seasons has referenced and mixed North African imagery with Italian Renaissance ideas.

He did so again Sunday night, Oct. 4, in Paris with a Spring 2010 collection that melded North African zigzag graphic designs with swirling chiffon elements that recalled the famed romantic Renaissance frescoes of Ghirlandaio in Florence’s Santa Maria della Novella.

Tisci is probably now Paris' most romantic designer, no small feat in a city legendary for its appreciation of women and their dreams. His is never a soft romanticism, but a hard graphic style and its ability to conjure up some unattainable, leggy vision.

Tisci’s big change this season was injecting prints into this collection, where previously his shows were famously monochromatic. He showed these in jacket panels, leggings, shoes and bags, giving the collection great coherence.

Yet it was one all-black look that best summed up his oeuvre, a mini skirt and chiffon bodice finished with tulle twisted into large flower buds, a great expression of tough romanticism.

“These are my usual obsessions; graphics, strict cutting but with big new element for me, prints with an North African origin, and an investigation of Roman haute couture,” said Tisci backstage after the show.

Beauty note for those obsessed with their hair: The famed stylist Luigi Murenu sent the models out with hair jelled back at the top but loose at the back, a big trend in hair at the moment, and like this collection, quite romantic.

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