Dior still hasn’t made a formal decision about who it will hire to replace the sailor-suited Hitler-loving John Galliano, but informally, Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy is considered the front-runner. (Some rumors are swirling that he’s already landed the job, but an announcement hasn’t been made yet.)
Tisci designed Cate Blanchett’s Oscar dress, which was a strictly love-it-or-hate-it affair, and while I initially thought she looked like her chest was ensconced in a misplaced maternity panel, I later reconsidered the gown and came down on the side of loving it.
And now, after reading this quote from Tisci about why he took the job at Givenchy, I am on the side of loving him too. He took the job to help his mom keep her house and so she would “never have to worry again.”
“I wasn’t interested,” says Tisci now. “Not at all. I was going to say no. But the week before, my mother called me and said to me, ‘I am going to tell you something I haven’t even told your sisters. I think am going to sell our house, because your sisters are struggling, they’re having children, they need the money, I will go to a retirement home.’ I heard that, and it was like a knife in my heart. I felt such a failure, that my mother had to sell the house of my father whom I don’t remember. And then I went to Paris, and they showed me a contract with all these zeros on it, and it was like help from God. I thought, ‘If I sign this, my mother will never have to worry again.’ So I signed it. And the first thing I did was pay off the house, and set aside enough for my family. It was the best present I’ve ever been able to give.”
His mom has attended every fashion show since, getting a seat of honor in the front row. Tisci credits her for his success, since she “gave me the belief in myself.” Being the youngest of eight sisters, too, helps him understand how women want to look and feel in their clothes.
Meanwhile, the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week was downright somber in light of Galliano’s YouTube-fueled kaboom of self-destruction:
Still, guests called the mood at Dior funereal, with black ribbons on the guests’ chairs and a solemn address by Dior president Sidney Toledano, speaking of the terrible and wrenching ordeal of the designer’s “disgraceful statements” being associated with Dior.
More pointedly, Galliano’s namesake collection was also shown, albeit in a scaled-down manner, and with one model sporting a small Star of David tattooed on her arm.
Galliano is set to appear in a Paris court on charges stemming from his racist tirades on May 12.
TEAM TISCI.
Tisci at Paris Fashion Week Fall 2011
Full collection can be viewed here, probably only recommended if you have multiple millions of dollars and/or really, really dig cats.
About Amy Corbett Storch
