After hitting Paris this week with a menswear show that saw muses Naomi Campbell, Kendall Jenner and Mariacarla Boscono overshadow the boys in a Catholic-inspired couture collection, Givenchy have announced that they’ll be taking their next womenswear collection on the road, showing it in NYC rather than Paris. For the event, designer Riccardo Tisci is getting a little help from his friend, performance artist Marina Abramović – a long-term member of Team Tisci. “She’s going to help me to art direct the show,” he revealed to WWD yesterday, giving little away save to promise that the event would be “very interesting.”
This isn’t the first time the pair have collaborated – back in 2012 Abramović modelled alongside Kate Moss in a campaign for the brand shot by Mert and Marcus, in 2013 Tisci designed the lace bodysuit costumes worn by the dancers in a ballet of hers, a reimagining of Ravel’s erotically charged Boléro.
But their relationship is more than just collaborative – it’s also something of a love affair. “Marina is, for me, the world,” Tisci told Dazed in an interview last year. “Riccardo is determined,” said Marina in turn. “He is a good human being. And he is never jealous. He has a great sense of humour. And is always telling terrible, dirty jokes.” Elsewhere, Tisci's described Abramović as his soul mate – intense.
Now that they’re working together again, we can’t help speculating as to what the September show will be like. Will the Givenchy girl gang take after the artist’s signature symbolic wardrobe of black, white and red, and don long, dark ponytails? Will Abramović involve the audience, as she did in her exhibitions The Artist is Present (2010) and 512 Hours (2014)? Or will she issue a further apology to Jay-Z after she lambasted the rapper for using her in his music video “Picasso Baby” in 2013? Watch this space...
Watch the trailer to documentary about Abramović, The Artist is Present below:
