Riccardo Tisci wove a complex dichotomy of sportswear and luxury together for his Fall Winter 2010 collection for the house of Givenchy, exploring the realms of water and snow sports alongside minimalist tailoring and crystal embellishment. Underlying the collection was an intangibly precious and reverent feeling, with the North African influences of the season before surely surpassed by a return to Riccardo’s European roots.

Despite the splashes of colour and glint of diamonds, M/M Paris’s graphic sticker invitation for the show (below) gave little away of what we would witness from A#8′s curator this season.

*               *                *

Held in the Lycée Carnot in the 17th arrondisement, the show was lit by circles of red heat lamps, with dark benches zig-zagging across the floor of the draughty stadium. Guests included many of Riccardo’s muses and friends – including Amanda Lear, Beth Ditto, Anna Piaggi and the odd addition of Little Britain’s David Walliams, engaged to model Lara Stone (who walked in the show).

Following some of the key elements that were interspersed through the SS10 haute couture collection, Riccardo worked his signature aggression coupled with a bold romance – sculpting a modern wardrobe that explored the house codes of Givenchy. A grosgrain ribbon tied at the neck of many outfits was a delicate reminder of the ultra-feminine. Givenchy makeup artist Pat McGrath created a ruby red glittering lip as a stunning and harmonious accompaniment to Riccardo’s garments, and a pale pink stain around the eyes gave the girls a vampiric intensity.

Each look walked a fine line between tethered restraint and a fluid freedom, however disparate the fabrics and colours may have been in the distinct sections of the show. This included the transformation of high-necklines with mesh and lace panelling, and the bound miniskirts and cropped trousers in neoprene unzipped at the waist like a deconstructed cummerbund. Tailoring was offered double breasted with a long, lean silhouette, a subtle A-line and tuxedo detailing.

Intricate ruffles, lace and pleating were reworked in vermillion red, sheer black and nude – contrasted with shiny leather outerwear that lent a new hardness directly from the menswear collection (with five mens looks shown for the first times with the womenswear).

Sleek body-hugging knitwear was rendered in navy, grass green and red jacquards, focused on circular motifs reminiscent of baroque architecture, layered with straps and gilets – updating the use of similar prints for SS10.

Eveningwear showed a redux of themes seen in the haute couture collections, albeit simplified for ready-to-wear. Breastplates were the focus for intricate detailing of lace and ruching, with a bolero shape encircling the bust. Dresses and drainpipe trousers were encrusted with crystal, as were exquisitely bejeweled gloves and clutches – pieces that seemed morphed into a single sparkling object, contrasting the sober tailoring and simplicity of little black dresses. Those same dresses continued the folded detailing of the skirts and trousers, with leather, velvet or satin triangular panels falling from the bust. The final looks revisited marabou and ostrich feathers, in sheer voile tops exploding with feathered fronts and trailing gossamer wings behind.

Leaving much to sink in, Fall Winter 2010 proposed many new ideas which will continue to inform Riccardo’s aesthetic – furthering his baroque and gothic leanings with a dose of well-timed Givenchy minimalism.

Show Details:

DECOR & PRODUCTION: La Mode en Images

MUSIC: Frédéric Sanchez

HAIR: Luigi Murenu

GIVENCHY MAKEUP: Pat McGrath

Above: Vogue Italy’s Anna Piaggi backstage after the show.

Above: The Gossip’s Beth Ditto congratulates Riccardo Tisci backstage after the show.

As a quiet force in photography for over 25 years, Paolo Roversi has firmly grounded his softly organic and profoundly intimate work within the more avantgarde circles of fashion. Over the years, Roversi has helped define the aesthetics of many key players who manage to sit just under the global commercial and celebrity radar, those intelligent labels from Romeo Gigli to Undercover and Yohji Yamamoto. Accompanying this inclination for the darker side of the industry, Roversi has held his fascination in the faces of muses such Stella Tennant and Kirsten Owen – protean beauties whose faces have stood the test of time – never the latest wondergirls, but forever stalwart personalities in a fickle world.

For Yohji Yamamoto’s A#2, Paolo Roversi spoke with James Sherwood on the eve of the release of his third book Studio, celebrating his 25 years in the industry. In their interview they discuss the taste of a photographer in the fluctuating world of fashion, the staying power of intellectual models, the nostalgia of Yohji Yamamoto and the habits of Roversi himself.

James Sherwood: What makes you sit at the Steinway every morning and wish to play again?

Paolo Roversi: “I live my life through photography. It is fundamental and reaches deep into my heart and soul. Since time began, humans have wished to capture immortality be that Egyptian hieroglyphs, Grecian statues or photographs. I am endlessly fascinated by the moment. Always the moment.”

Celebrated fashion writer and curator Olivier Saillard constructs Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag’s alphabet – a concise and razor-sharp breakdown of the world of M/M Paris.

ALPHABET : Their 26-poster installation of human typography.

BJÖRK: Medulla album, 2004.

CAFE ETIENNE MARCEL: Designed in Paris, 2002.

DESSIN DANS L’IMAGE: Yohji Yamamoto Spring Summer 1999.

ECRIRE UNE PERMANENCE (writing that endures): a continual retinal image from reuse of M/M’s symbols, saturated shapes.

FILLES (girls): recognising each model that is a part of their story, equal to that of photographer, stylist, hairstylist and makeup artists.

GRAPHISME: “Unlike art, graphic design is financially motivated and is part of an economic reality”.”Generally, graphic design means serving others disciplines”.”For us the field matters little, only individual thought”.

INEZ & VINOODH: since Thierry Mugler in 1997, Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin have been the photographers to realise many M/M Paris projects. Between them, robotic models climb out of giant boxes, clothes that seem soaking wet seem to end in neat ink drops.

JIL SANDER: serene aesthetical documents which reject temptation towards the spectacular, a continuing relationship with the German designer since the 1990s.

KLEIN (Calvin): the cut-and-paste technique, a wider fashion audience.

MODE: Inextricably linked with their work. Fashion or art appear as equal subjects of study and experimentation. “Our position is never a reaction”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

OPERA: Antigona by Tomasso Traetta, for whom M/M Paris staged their set in 2004.

POSTER: a surface for communication which they try to question by awarding it its own status. From a poster that a teenager pins on his bedroom wall to urban posters…

RANGER, ARCHIVER, ORDONNER (arranging, archiving, organising): www.mmparis.com

SUBJECTIVITÉ: “Our parents were obsessed with psychoanalysis and fascinated by the subconscious. We are all the product of an upbringing where it was vital to assert one’s personality and not to conform.”

VOGUE: French Vogue, their art direction – “To each their own destiny”.

YOHJI YAMAMOTO: more than 10 catalogues between Yohji and M/M between ’95 and ’00.

ZÜRICH: The exhibition in which the M/M Alphabet (above) was launched.

“From our point of view, a fashion designer is a creator of signs on the scale of life. From one season to the next, he builds up a complex and sophisticated language all of his own which enable him to articulate his proposals, his poetic, political or simply amusing messages.”

- the words of M/M Paris on the DNA of fashion through designer ideology and how we intrepret it all.

“The history of fashion for us therefore is something made up of a compression of all these signs, all these languages, which compose then decompose in the different aspects of creation.”

The importance of uniform in fashion cannot be underestimated – it’s a multi-layered concept that infiltrates on many facets. Think not only of the designers’ world, itself a repeating aesthetic and concept of codes – their ideology – but also the way everything is sold on the rails in store; coats, jackets, shirts and pants lined up on a gleaming metal bar. Wherever you may visit globally, it will adhere to the vision. The true beauty, and power, of uniform however is in its ability to mean something to everyone – it’s a universal language, alluringly repetitive and iconic.

In 1996, Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak instigated a project with renowned photographer McDean (Another Magazine, W, Vogue, Jil Sander, Calvin Klein) to turn their theories on fashion and uniform into a ‘collection’, a reference portfolio of men and women aligned to instantly indentifiable groupings.

We have UPS driver in his brown shirt, pen in pocket; the biker kitted out with full motocross armour, the jockey in resplendent silks, the fireman and a generation-X Hare Krishna, complete with hoodie and scuffed sneakers. Then there are the branches of military…

Of course, to the observer it’s the latter which is most identifiable within the world of Yamamoto. Think of his army jackets, long, wool naval coats and the tailoring which makes its wearer look quietly, progressively noble.

McDean, former assistant to Nick Knight (another name with Yamamoto lineage – that late 80’s silhouette in black with red, amongst other campaign material, burned into the consciousness of any avid fan) has produced a striking set of visual stereotypes, elevating these common dresscodes into moments of frozen beauty.

Article by Dean Mayo Davies.