Be There: An Esoteric Chauvinist at Givenchy - Men's Folio
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Be There: An Esoteric Chauvinist at Givenchy

  • By Men's Folio

 An Esoteric Chauvinist  1

Walking inside the preview room for Givenchy’s Pre-Fall and Fall/Winter 2013 collection, you’d immediately be taken at awe by the abundance of covetable items that are obviously going to be near impossible to obtain in a few months time; a very depressing notion. But then again, I guess that’s what differentiates the fans from the hardcore that’d go to the point of even tracking down shipment times from when the pieces depart from Italy to when the reach the doors of the Paragon store.

 An Esoteric Chauvinist  2An Esoteric Chauvinist  10Sure enough, with only veins of red standing out against the sea of blacks and grays, the entire the collection was very somber, almost had a very deep melancholy mood to it. “I’ve been obsessed with America since I was a kid,” creative director Riccardo Tisci commented about his menswear collection, and indeed it was. Symbolisms and motifs used to represent the U.S.A was splattered right across everything, from star appliqués on denim jackets, photography work of Robert Mapplethrope’s (whose work has been a longtime passion for Tisci) printed across sweaters and shirts, to the abstract representation of the American flag on some of the clutches, it was a very patriotic love letter to the land of the free. But then again, he contrasted these ornamentation with a more menacing symbolism, such as two concentric circle of candles that almost had an occult witchcraft feel to it. “Everything related to America but in a very dark way,” explained Tisci.

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All American subjects and emblems aside, we see a man’s best friend appear again in the digital prints (this time the Dobermans have beaten out the Rottweilers used in previous collections.) As well as perhaps an extremely controversial image of a nude male figure (would be full-frontal if it wasn’t for a tactically placed Orchid) patched on shirts as well as a nearly naked woman blown up to in a monochromatic scheme on a jersey sweaters. As usual, Tisci has not shyed away from the subject of taboo sex; just check out our personal stand-out favorite: was a basic black cotton sweater with the word ‘pervert’ slapped across the back in a Varsity-style manner with the number ‘17’ right below it. (Fun fact, Tisci’s favorite number) “This is the dark side of my personality.”

An Esoteric Chauvinist  6An Esoteric Chauvinist  7An Esoteric Chauvinist  8But what was most exciting about the preview for their Fall/Winter 2013 menswear collection was the introduction to a new line of watches. With four designs coming out next season done in very basic subdued colors, the watches have a surprisingly basic design to them; far from what you’d expect would come from the guy who combined an image of Bambi with a nude woman for his womenswear collection. 

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