It takes some skill to pull inspirations as disparate as desert roses, Moroccan priestess hats and gowns and 60s Italian op art into one united vision that also has to in some ways respect the codes of the house of Givenchy. Riccardo Tisci has done just that with his spring summer collection that started off as a cleanser of graphic straight lines in black and white tailoring that then paved the way for an explosion of op art prints that was carried through from head to toe with minute precision. Ruffles and tulle prevailed once more as with previous Givenchy collections, but were edged up with the huge platform wedges that were bandaged wrapped with leather, tulle or op art. Riccardo Tisci had many reference points as he told us but the end result was a solid vision that that was in his words "hypnotising".

Dazed Digital: What you wanted to achieve with this collection?
Riccardo Tisci: The tailoring is very dark in the way that the tailoring from Morocco, is very sharp and triangular, black and white and very classic in a way. Then working by working, I wanted to make a new keffiyah which is a scarf that everyone wears, but I wanted to do a cliched keffiyah. So basically I introduced a 60s op art by a Italian couture designer and pair it with a keffiyah. The more that I looked like it This is really perfection in terms of what my style is with a touch of romanticism. Then I researched the desert in Arabic countries and then found this rose of the desert, these really dry flowers which added romanticism to the pieces, especially with the shirts.

DD: Where did the hats come from?
Riccardo Tisci: This is a very classic hat shape, which is a cone hat very popular in the 30s/40s Morocco. The women would wear these big imperial dress in tulle that were floor length, big platforms with this big cone hat. I wanted to make something very clean that looks like a shark but at the same time it's very Moroccon/Algerian.

DD: And if you could sum up your collection with one word?
Riccardo Tisci: The collection is very hypnotising!

Photos by Clement Dauvent