Riccardo Tisci is lensed by Steven Klein, with Guinevere van Seenus & Saskia de Brauw for the June issue of Interview. A leading candidate to take the design helm of Christian Dior, Tisci is interviewed by DonatellaVersace within a frame of reference that she can understand, via her brother Gianni’s DNA.

The Givenchy (Tisci) mindset is highly sexual, almost primal, but tough-as-nails and maybe just a twinge romantic.

In a design world where I am suspect of the minds and motives of several leading figures, Tisci in on my good guy list. Like Gianni Versace, Riccardo Risci honors the female world. With eight sisters and a father dead at an early age, Tisci could love women or hate us.

The Female Factor

Luckily, Riccardo Tisci is fascinated with femininity, ‘the strength and romanticism’ that so many women possess.

TISCI: Imagine all these sisters. Eight women of all different shapes and lifestyles. So my path was pretty peculiar. Even at the beginning when I arrived at Givenchy, there were certainly people who supported me, but not everyone loved me. They were saying, “Why an Italian who acts Gothic?” Never mind the fact that Italy is one of the main exhibitors of Gothic art in the world. But it was like, “No, Italians should only do sexy!” Sex is something I live very well, but it is something I revealed very slowly in my fashion. What I do is emotional. For me, there is a base, which is my Italian roots. It’s a strong passion for fashion, a passion for sensuality and dressing for one’s self. Then when I went to England, to Saint Martins, I was traumatized, in a positive way. It was that British sense of transgression and the dark. Then when I went to Paris, I was doing couture, which everyone was saying was finished. Bullshit! For me, in the end, it was all a mixing of ingredients.

Admitting that he is attracted to transgression, he prefers to make it surreal because Tisci hates vulgarity. ‘I don’t love shock by itself. I do the shocking in the chic.’