Riccardo Tisci surprised us with his choice for the latest Givenchy campaign. We are proud to see Mert & Marcus capture Erykah Badu as the house’s new star.
“Erykah, she’s an icon—come on! What I want to do with my advertising campaign is spread the love. Already now it’s been three seasons that I’ve been using people that express something—they are great artists, or beautiful women, or stylish women, or models that I really believe in. It’s kind of a family portfolio”, says Tisci.
Tisci had Erykah’s image in the back of his mind while designing his Spring 2014 collection, a mix of African and Japanese influences. “She’s one of the most stylish women I’ve met in my life. She’s got such a good sense of proportion, of colors”, were his exact words and there is not a living soul to doubt that.
This Erykah Badu cameo, is another reason to love Ricardo Tisci even more. After a long absence of women of color in this season’s campaigns or even catwalks, he is taking a stand using Maria Borges, newcomer Riley, and Asia Chow, against homogeneity in fashion.
“There was a lot of talk this season in fashion. Me, I was one of the persons who ended up not being touched by this. I discovered Joan Smalls, I discovered Maria [Borges]. I discovered a lot of black girls, and I’ve been always supporting them. For me, I grew up in a family and I grew up in a culture, an education, that we all are the same.” And he is absolutely right. There is no point in pretending to be so avant-garde and advanced, when actually differences between skin color are still a boundary in fashion.
