BEAUTY: Clothing--Givenchy

Black and red have made up a kind of standard color palette for Riccardo Tisci, head of Givenchy, for a while now, most notably in the form of a black and red American flag for his '12-'13 FW collection. So, what else can be done with black and red? It seems to be a color combination that conjures dark, sinister, even hellish images. And that seemed to be a stone's throw from a twilit world of spirits, magic, animism, rituals, gods, and zombies. Tisci zeroed in on the milieux of Haitian Voudou and Candomblé from South America.

Models walked a path of red glitter laid in a maze through the audience (Tim Blanks at Style.com likened it to a "highway to hell"). Some models wore face paint which make-up artist Pat McGrath said were versions of African masks (Candomblé is a mixture of spiritual beliefs brought with slaves taken from West Africa with Native South American beliefs and Catholicism, much like Santeria in Cuba), but looked more like Baron Samedi, one of the loa, or gods, of Haitian Voudou, usually depicted with a top hat, black tuxedo, and a white, frequently skull-like face. Black suits trimmed in devilish red, a shirt that appeared to be scorched, and an image of an upside down skull were neutrals next to a fantastic print based on the weavings of the indigenous peoples of South America, which showed up on a variety of suits and separates. Look how the print fades to black on some pieces...

But a standout turned out to be how the collection was styled--the jewelry added an absolutely perfect macabre, ghoulish touch with chicken feet (used as ingredients in Voudou rituals), fangs from wolves (? or werewolves?), crosses, bits of red coral, and bells. So daringly imaginative and AMAZING.

Below: "Baron Samedi" by photographer Matt Barnes

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