Show Report: Givenchy A/W 16 Womenswear

Once one negotiated their way through the scrum outside the entrance to the show, guests were faces with a wooden maze, within which the models would walk. Warmly lit, it was - in contrast to outside - rather cosy. Within our particular enclave also sat K pop rapster CL - looking demure and understated in last season's Givenchy - and 18-year-old breakout Luka Sabbat, sporting an Off-White ‘Staff’ coat in support of his best friend Virgil Abloh.
 
One never knows whether it is hip-hop artists who are being influenced by Riccardo Tisci - or the other way around. Just as soon as ASAP Rocky is wrapping himself in an upside down black and white American flag, Tisci is sending the same down his runways. In the words of Aretha Franklin, ‘whose zooming who?’ Currently, a lot of enlightened eyes within hip-hop and internet culture are set upon the wisdom that lies within Ancient Egypt. Although this African kingdom has been inspiring for a while, within the works of conscious creatives - such as Willow Smith, Brooklyn based Joey Baddass, and hip hop psychedelic duo The Underachievers - Tisci has opened up the conversation to new audiences, and represented it here within his collection. A hieroglyphic of the Egyptian eye appeared as a central motif on one of the first dresses and the heels of thigh boots were cut out in an Art Deco style.
 
We have seen a touch of the ancient at Loewe this season also. Here at Givenchy, metallic mosaic jackets and vests were layered under tailored jackets. Colonial explorer codes also sat on top, in the form of blue, red and black frogged military jackets. They evoked imaginary images of Isabella Blow on the Nile. Prints were a big part of the story. Used to portray the higher states of consciousness an open third eye can naturally induce, they covered dresses in a psychedelic haze of desert shades; brown, sand, and brick red. The riches of Africa were further explored via leopard prints and snakeskins, delivering total looks that were heading for a new kind of earthy maximalism. Summarising the seventies meets nineties overtone that ran throughout, the most desirable pieces were some incredible black velvet bomber jackets.
 
Shopping aside, Tisci’s inclusive vision of world culture feels so much modern than the white Russian tribes of ‘now.’ Kanye may have been at Vetements – but he was here too. And so were the new global generation.