Givenchy Couture

Hat's Off to You

Parisian grayscale women meets 60s furniture, the hat's of Givenchy Couture could be said to be quite risqué .

Riccardo Tisci, creative designer for Givenchy for 5 years now, has brought about the new style of hats that resemble Hussein Chalayan's style of construction, but also seem to resemble 1960s lampshades. I'm all for Couture being exaggerated fashion, and I realise it's not something that will realistically be worn outside of a red carpet or debutant ball, but would this really catch on? We never really assume for all weird styles to come up in Ready to Wear and high street, but is it really just a way of standing out? Personally, the clothes are gorgous, hypnotic and seem to be two different styles of collection in one, but I'm not sure about these hats. They seem to be a way of saying "I have something wild, wacky and crazy in my collection that's inspired by art, don't look at the clothes." Alexander McQueen for example had his latest high heeled shoes to accompany his Spring Summer 2010 ready to wear collection, but the clothing and styling was equally as weird. If you take these lampshade hats away from Givenchy couture, the collection wouldn't have the same affect; it would be a generally ordinary collection compared to other couture collections. It's difficult to stand out, especially against such designers like Dior, but as said in the previous post, although it's all extravagant and over the top, it's not dissimilar to previous collections. At this time when designers like Lacroix are struggling, they need to find a way to stand out from the rest. McQueen would be one that if he did a couture collection he would stand out just for being weird, out of the ordinary, and simply bringing something new to the table. Even his ready to wear collections stand out more than couture. It makes you wonder why designers who create couture, a seemly dying collection that is only sold to the elite, don't use their collections to create something more than just wearable. Perhaps this is why all of a sudden we have lampshade hats.