Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2014: Givenchy review
PARIS -- Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Ciara and Lily Collins were among the starry crowd at the Givenchy show Sunday night at Paris Fashion Week, where designer Riccardo Tisci installed a five-car pileup for a runway centerpiece, complete with a wrecked Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, and set the show to a live tribal drum beat, courtesy of a group of musicians in the rafters.
The makeup was also dramatic, namely glittery masks that weren’t masks at all, but hundreds of individual Swarovski crystals applied to models’ faces.
The inspiration: A crash of cultures, Japanese and African.
The look: Haute tribal with an earthy sensuality.
Key pieces: Paneled kimono jackets with silk accents giving them a tuxedo look. Fluid silk jersey tops and dresses, some with leather accents or cowl necks, draped to reveal erogenous zones such as the belly button, and the small of the back. Single-sleeve black jersey jumpsuit over racer-back sequin stripe tank top. Fire engine-red sequin jersey halter dress. Zigzag knit tank dresses. Micro-pleated leather apron skirt over pants. Shimmery, multi-hued sequin gowns with deep V-fronts that will be on the red carpet in no time. Flat sandals with wide plastic straps and crystals on the heels.
The verdict: It was time for Tisci to move on from the digitized prints he helped popularize, and that have now been in fashion for so many seasons. (Collins was wearing the Bambi sweatshirt from the fall collection.) And many of the new draped pieces were masterful looking. But there was way too much going on in this collection. Between the front row celebrity pileup, the luxury car pileup and the piled-on details, you hardly knew where to look.
