Riccardo Tisci Touts ‘Serenity, Freedom’ in Spring Givenchy Campaign
PARIS — Mother-and-daughter shopping excursions at Givenchy? You bet.
“The mother can go on one side of the shop and buy more elegant clothes, couture, eveningwear, bags,” Riccardo Tisci said. “Meanwhile, the daughter can buy trainers, a miniskirt, oversize sweatshirts, a tight dress, leather, key rings, glasses. Not many houses have that diversity and we’re trying to reinforce that very strongly.”
Cue Givenchy’s spring 2017 ad campaign, which juxtaposes classic studio portraits of veteran models with desert scenes featuring a younger cast and more freewheeling styling.
The message in these diptychs, due to break in American Vogue’s February issue, is unmissable: “I want to make clear that we are welcoming different kinds of women, different kinds of men in our world,” Tisci said in an exclusive interview. “We can dress a woman that’s more mature, more classic and a woman who is more street, more daring, stronger and more sensual — girls that like to play with fashion.”
“Freedom and serenity” are the chief qualities Tisci sought to convey with the images, shot by Givenchy regulars Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
“The pictures look very serene, very real, and I’m not the only one to want something more serene and natural in this moment,” he said, alluding to turmoil and strife in the world.
The crew drove three-and-a-half hours outside of Los Angeles to find an otherworldly landscape of sand and rock. Models for the location shoot included Vittoria Ceretti and Faretta Radic.
“I wanted the girls to look like they were having a rave party on Mars, on another planet,” Tisci said, lauding the pink and lilac shade to the sky near sunset and cursing the wind, which wreaked some havoc with the production crew.
“It was a tornado basically,” Tisci teased. “But it was fun.”
The campaign, slated to run only as double-page spreads, marks a break from Tisci’s group shots, which reinforced his “Givenchy gang” concept, and from the goth-tinged darkness that often creeps into his designs and image making.
MORE: Givenchy Advertising Campaigns: A Look Back >>
The spring women’s collection — “all about mandala, the strength of nature and the strength of spirituality,” Tisci told WWD at the time — compelled the designer to pare back his campaign to essentials.
“It was much more pure, much more clean, much more tight and body-conscious,” he said of the collection, citing a wish to focus on “pure and essential men and women.”
Retouching was kept to a minimum, as was hair and makeup for the female models.
“It was very much about beauty — real, classic beauty,” Tisci said, noting Victorian portraits were the inspiration for the studio shots of models including Irina Shayk and Mariacarla Boscono.
Carine Roitfeld styled the campaign, with hair by Jimmy Paul and makeup by Kate Lee.
A making-of video, to be released in January, heightens the contrast between the studio and location shoots. Tisci was plotting his next shoot in early January — for Givenchy’s new baby and kids’ collection, which his many sisters are relishing.
Among the styles he interpreted for children are his popular Rottweiler knits: snarling dogs for the adults, cuddly puppies for the tots.
See exclusive behind the scenes images from the Givenchy ad shoot:
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