BLACK capes over leopard skin, zippers and belts slung around the thighs, Givenchy struck a dark, sensuous note in Paris on Sunday with a summer look that seemed plucked from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
Stepping out into a courtyard, the first model wore a cropped white jacket with a long tail falling down the back, over a black skirt and transparent petticoat that stretched down to thick, dizzying heels.
Singers Lily Allen and Courtney Love, and actress Liv Tyler were among the famous faces who watched as designer Riccardo Tisci sent out organza tops secured at the back with leather straps that hinted at bondage gear.
Faces were powdered white with darkened lips, the hair stern and short, or gathered on each side of the face and tipped with small plaits. Golden zippers ran all over a sleeveless black jacket, above sleek pants with a copper belt hooked at the top of the thighs. A few pieces in the palest pink provided a brief distraction, but the show returned swiftly to a darker register, with a whole series in leopard skin. Short skirts were layered over pants – then covered over by long petticoats in seethrough fabric or fishnet.
A tight, starched blouse like a fencer’s suit had a transparent back, while a thick, breastplate- like piece flowed into a cape sweeping down the back.
For his men’s collection in June, Tisci also built around black, his trademark colour, and leopard skin, dressing models in Mexican wrestler-style leather masks with grids for the eyes
and mouth.