Maybe I should take back what I said yesterday about the “plethora of good shows” in Paris this week. The past two days have not been my favorites by any means. So far I’ve been underwhelmed by Yohji Yamamoto’s print crazy, clash festival and Junya Watanabe’s patch work Raggedy Ann look also wasn’t doing it for me.

I was hoping Ricardo Tisci’s Givenchy could change the tides a bit, but maybe we’re on a weird backwards roll here this week. Speaking of rolls, Tisci proclaimed his latest line was inspired by “basketball and bauhaus”. An interesting combination, especially when you consider current basketball fashions vs. the stripped down utilitarianism of the Bauhaus school. I guess he was referring to the lines on the court because those were certainly front and center. As in literally, the lines of a basketball and court were all over the clothes.

Gone are the days of Givenchy’s abundance of gothic elegance and Parisian sophistication. We have now seemed to entered the “Kanye West” era of the famed fashion house. The pants were baggy, the shoes were reminiscent of Jordans and we even saw basketball tank tops and printed sweaters with ummm..basketballs on them. The whole line made me think about playing NBA Jam in an arcade in the 90’s. Speaking of the 90’s, I guess we’re still trying to beat those fashions to death after a year+ into this “craze”.

This was basically a street wear line and I’m sure they will sell a ton of tees and maybe some sneaks to the heads out there. I did like some of the long leather jackets and well cut blazers but the 90’s hip hop thing just doesn’t seem to jive with the fashion house. I guess they can always count on the followers of Yeezianity (yes, click on it, it’s real) to pick up some the latest goods.

-JRS