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PARIS, France — Givenchy delivered what could possibly be one of its most imaginative shows in recent memory for spring-summer 2014, a myriad kinetic play of stripes and color that confirms why designer Riccardo Tisci's collections are among the most eagerly anticipated on the Paris calendar.
The mood of the show might have been described as tribal-meets-machine, with electronic circuitry prints appearing alongside loincloth shapes, leggings, printed Aztec-like neck adornments, sandals and even primal face paints.
It takes a designer as bold as Italy-born Tisci to pull something off this wacky and anachronistic.
Fifty-seven looks filed by.
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They evoked, through their sheer number, as well as through the tensions created by diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines on multiple-layered ensembles in blue, red and gray, the feeling of a jostling army.
Red disk motifs, a reference to both the modern computer and a primitive symbol, recurred on knee-length apron skirts as well as long and short-sleeved vests.
Every other look had a different visual trick at work. The use of nude color on shorts made the clothes morph into the body. Futuristic printed jackets were tied around the waist, open to expose the trousers to recreate the shape of a 19th century dandy's coat.
But what truly made the show a coup was that among all this intellectual musing, most of the looks were completely wearable.
By: Thomas Adamson
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