Tisci's sanctuary of geniusness

Loving Givenchy has been an universal law for me since I remember myself. I guess while I was in my mother's womb I was already worshiping Givenchy. Anyway, as I said before (here), the 2013 Spring/Summer season is gonna be incredible because Riccardo Tisci slayed my soul with new religious themed prints. Uh-mazing! Everything I needed tbh.

When I saw the runway show and the sweaters and t-shirts, suddenly came to my mind a lot of paintings that I remembered from my History of Art classes. After a little research, I reunited some of them and did a funny comparison with the looks from the show that took place last June during Paris Fashion Week.

Tisci was clearly inspired by the work of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, one of the prominent French academic painters of the Realism movement. In fact, it takes a huge dose of geniusness to decompose masterpieces and use them as iconic prints. That's sooooo not a problem for Givenchy's creative director. Here's the proof...

Painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau "Pietà" (1876)

Painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau "The seated Madonna" (1888)

Painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau "The Madonna of the Lilies" (1899)

Painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau "The Madonna of the Roses" (1903)

All of the paintings are really beautiful and this religious imagery was used with a subtle subversion, which is a great thing in my opinion. It's not just a simple print, the images are manipulated, modified and they have a lot of layers. The Virgin gets her eyes 'blindfolded', she also gets a new halo, the child with open arms loses his head and is turned upside down... and a lot of other details that are wittily well done. Some people may consider it controversial, I think it's intelligent and daring. 

I wrote an article for the latest issue of DSECTION magazine about Givenchy's special collaboration with artist Benjamin Shine. In that same article I talk a little bit about the fact that "Virgin Mary has found a new sanctuary on the streets through the bodies of devoted fashionistas", I think this is a remarkable and successful formula for Tisci. He knows what he's doing by turning sacred art into a fashion expression. Well, I'm working on another cool post about this collection, this time in terms of editorials. Hope to share with you soon. Meanwhile, don't forget to buy DSECTION, with Simon Van Meervenne on the cover, because there are 4 articles written by me and 2 interviews as well.