Image via Complex Original
Riccardo Tisci, Creative Director of Givenchy, turns 40 today. The designer kicked off his birthday celebrations last week in Ibiza with a star-studded party. Guests included Naomi Campbell, Jared Leto, Kate Moss, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and, rather surprisingly, Justin Bieber…who allegedly managed to get Orlando Bloom barred from the event. The gifts have already started rolling in, from Beats by Dre's 24 carat gold headphones, to a salacious 'Gram from Kim Kardashian, to a performance by Kanye West that Tisci called "the best present of my life."
After four decades of a full life and an already legendary career , Riccardo Tisci has cemented himself in the canon of fashion and pop culture. But just because he's one of the few fashion designers enjoying the limelight as fully as an A-list celebrity doesn't mean you know all that there is to know. So, to celebrate the talents of Tisci on his birthday, we cobbled together a list of facts you may not have known. Whether you fancy yourself a Tisci encyclopedia or are just getting to know the man, click through 40 Things You Didn't Know About Riccardo Tisci. Happy birthday, Riccardo!
Tisci comes from a large family filled with women, who are a source of inspiration.
He told the New York Times, “I love romanticism and sensuality, maybe because I come from a family with eight sisters.”
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His mom had to defend him as a child.
W Magazine reported that “even during his silent teenage goth years—when he wore his black hair long, his face smeared with white makeup—his mother would staunchly defend him when the neighbors in their small town would ask if everything was all right with her son.”
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He comes from Taranto in southern Italy, a city from which Quentin Tarantino’s family derives its surname.
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Tisci has always been fascinated with America, and says he's “obsessed with” the American flag and collects different versions of it.
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He once tried his hand at being Santa Claus to help support his family, who he says “never had much money”.
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His Central Saint Martins graduation show was called “8:30, The Procession,” and it was inspired by the Italian film director Federico Fellini.
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He became friends with supermodel Mariacarla Boscono when he was studying at Central Saint Martins and has since used her in many Givenchy campaigns.
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After he graduated, he worked for British designer Antonio Berardi for a while.
Berardi is possibly best known for the dress he designed for Gwyneth Paltrow for the Iron Man 3 premiere.
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In 1999, Kokon to Zai (only a boutique in London then) picked up Tisci's graduation line, which was sewn at home in Italy by his mothers and sisters.
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Tisci ended his eponymous line in 2005 after joining Givenchy.
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He wasn't Givenchy's first choice to replace former creative director Julien Macdonald.
Apparently, Zac Posen, Sophia Kokosalaki, Giles Deacon, Richard Chai, Alber Elbaz, and Rolan Mouret were all interviewed—and offered the position—before Tisci.
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Tisci wasn't sure that he wanted to work for Givenchy, but realized he needed to support his family back home.
Tisci wanted to develop his own line, but accepted Givenchy's offer after learning that his mother was planning to sell her home to financially assist his sisters. Tisci recalls, “my mother called me and said to me, ‘I am going to tell you something I haven’t even told your sisters: I think I 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.’ When I heard that it was like a knife in my heart. I felt like 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.”
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He took over Givenchy's menswear line in 2008, three years after he was brought on at the brand.
Before Tisci finally took control of the menswear line, the brand's design studio was responsible for the collections that went down the runway following Ozwald Boateng's exit after the spring 2007 collection was designed. Givenchy's Spring 2009 collection was the first to include Tisci's designs for men.
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Givenchy's popular Rottweiler motif was inspired by a “boy scout book.”
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He’s definitely more into dogs than cats, and once said, “Dogs are the only creature that still has a heart and a brain and is still your best friend”.
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He surprised the fashion world by using transgender model Lea T in his fall 2010 advertising campaign.
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Never one to shy away from controversy, he also used albino model Stephen Thompson in his spring 2011 campaign.
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One of his youngest models was only four months old at the time.
MariaCarla Boscono’s daughter, Marialucas, posed with her mom for Givenchy's spring/summer 2013 campaign.
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Tisci's spring/summer 2011 couture collection didn't include one of his favourite colors—black.
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It was rumored that Tisci would become Dior's creative director in 2011—fashion editor Derek Blasberg even announced it on his Twitter—but the role eventually went to Raf Simons.
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He has designed for royalty—Queen Rania of Jordan has been pictured wearing his designs for Givenchy.
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Courtney Love is also a fan, and she says it's because Tisci didn’t judge her on her size.
“He was more than happy to dress me during the biggest weight gain of my life. He renewed my faith in fashion,” she said.
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Before designing Kim Kardashian's wedding dress, he also designed one for Christina Ricci in 2013.
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Tisci designed some of the costumes for Madonna’s “Sweet and Sticky” tour, which included the outfits she wore for her notorious Super Bowl performance with M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj.
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He says he loves hip-hop and “the voices of those back in the day like Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott, Ciara.”
In fact, Lil' Kim name-checked Givenchy way back in 1996 in her song “M.A.F.I.A. Land.”
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He’s such a music fan, Vogue featured him in a shoot with Kanye West, Florence Welsh, and Steve Tyler’s daughter Liv.
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Kanye West wore a black leather kilt designed by Tisci at a 2012 Hurricane Sandy Benefit Concert, and reportedly asked Getty Images to delete their photos of him in it (they didn’t).
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Tisci was co-chair of the Met Gala in 2013, thrown in celebration of the exhibition Punk: Chaos to Couture at the Costume Institute.
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On the night of the Gala, Tisci sent the rumor mill into overdrive when he posted images on his Instagram feed that had people questioning if he and Frank Ocean spent the night together.
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Tisci clearly gives the best presents—he sent Rihanna a customized T-shirt of herself for her 25th birthday.
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Tisci is friends with performance artist Marina Abramović and sat with her during her performance piece The Artist is Present at MOMA in New York.
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He also bought a town house from Abramović, located in SoHo, New York.
In the spring of 2013, the designer purchased an awesome home (complete with a pool) from the artist for $3.06 million.
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He collaborated with the painter Kehinde Wiley, creating costumes for the models that were featured in Wiley’s “An Economy of Grace” series.
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He has also turned his hand to editing, and was a guest editor for Visionaire in 2011 and A Magazine in 2008.
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