I’ve been so excited about Riccardo Tisci‘s stree-style-wise pre-fall 2016 look-book which was photographed in Berlin – but I don’t feel that excitement anymore, if talking of Givenchy‘s menswear outing. It just feels like a look-back at the collections that Tisci delivered for men in the last few years. This season, the mood-board was all about a very narrow and specific theme – it was photographer Frank Marshall’s images of Botswana and its music devotees dressed up in their favourite band t-shirts, fringed biker jackets and cowboy hats. Indeed, it’s quite difficult to imagine the leather-filled Wild West in the heart in this African country. “I looked in the book and saw these gangs, their freedom – it was something very new for me”. There was a free-spirited attitude in the collection, which has also brought a spotlight on Africa’s stereotype-breaking subcultures. However, if you won’t pay attention to what books Tisci holds on his bookshelf, then the menswear part seems to look good, but surely not ground-breaking.

I have the same feelings towards the women’s part, which in reality is the spring-summer 2016 haute couture collection (smartly overlapped with menswear for the next season). Back in the days, when Givenchy’s creative director did separate haute couture presentations, everybody knew his girl well. You surely didn’t want to mess up with her. Her black, lace gown, fur stole and vampish make-up tells it all – she is a romantic, slightly gothic dame. And as you see, she hasn’t changed even a bit, she is still the Tisci girl from the Instagram favoured #GivenchyGang. The haute couture part is a collection of masterpieces (take the hand-embroidered cape with circular patterns), but just like in the case of menswear – doesn’t feel fresh.