La nuit dernière in France, the Opéra de Paris premiered its 17-minute ballet “Boléro,” a short piece heavy on cross-industry artistic pollination. The production’s set was designed by performance artist Marina Abramovic, and, for fashion fans, its costumes came courtesy of Italian design maestro Riccardo Tisci.
Ballet would seem a fitting spoke for the Tisci wheel — it’s moody, it’s romantic, and it’s classic — much like the designer’s work at the helm of Givenchy. Unsurprisingly, Tisci has received prior offers to create costumes for the performing arts, but never felt the timing was right. That is, until now.
“I wanted the dancers to feel naked somehow,” the designer told VOGUE UK. “The costumes express two sides of me: darkness and romanticism.”
Indeed, the pieces are as diaphanous and frosty as first-layer pond ice, but the motifs appliqued therein are all macabre — ribcages, spines, and jawlines embroidered across tulle, highlighting the dancers’ sinewy musculature underneath. These threaded tattoos, however, aren’t just about the interplay between skeleton and skin — Tisci also imbues a flourished, almost floral air to the glittering designs, highlighting his flair for the theatrical in tandem with his love of the heavy-handed. Graphic, and entirely fitting with his well-known modus operandi, Tisci described his approach succinctly. “[It’s] all about intensity.”