Riccardo Tisci Revisits The Looks That Defined His Career

Hi, British Vogue.

I'm Riccardo Tisci and this is my Life In Looks.

Very emotional straight away.

This is me at three.

This photo's been taken by my father

in front of my house in Como.

This picture is one of the only pictures I've got

that my father took before I lost him.

I've been grown up

with this fantastic eight sisters and my mom.

It was the most beautiful moment of my life

to live with my mom and my sister.

When I was 12, 13, I was very afraid to express myself.

So illustration, art

and everything was expressed became a language.

So this is my Central Saint Martins graduation show

from the young age

I understand I want to express myself with art.

Then I found out fashion was my language.

I came to England, 18, end up to apply for the grant

of Central Saint Martins.

I won and that was my graduation.

So it was the first step

but at the time I never thought I would become successful.

The inspiration was basically this essential strong,

futuristic Italian woman.

So I think I got a lot attention

because it was very different from everybody else.

It was a high heels, it was a lot of sensuality

it was a lot of pattern celebrating woman's body.

And that literally it was the start

of my career because then Coco decide bought a collection.

Then I started having like Bjork, Michael Jackson,

Janet Jackson buying from this shopping Green Street.

And then when I start getting press

and I start getting attention and I start getting confidence

of I could do something with my career.

My first Riccardo Tisci collection.

I graduated at Saint Martins.

My best friend Mariacarla Boscono, she came to my house

in my room because I used to live in Milan at the time

and Mariacarla, she was about to become successful model.

So she saw the collection, she got excited, she said,

Let's do a show, let's do a show!

I said, no, no it's impossible.

I cannot do that, I don't have a penny.

And she said, I'm good to help you.

And Mariacarla with Kara Nelson, Liya Kebede,

Frankie Rayder they made a casting, convincing girls

to do this show for free.

They gave me this like you know, big place,

this big garage outside Milan.

And I did this show at 10:30 in the night

where the invitation was a photocopy

of a picture Mariacarla took by me.

It was a moment where everything was glam.

Tom Ford and Gucci, everything was bigger, big makeups

Baroski [indistinct] did this collection

was very dark, very gothic.

It was called The Procession.

And with this I got so much attention that Givenchy

gave me the opportunity to

become the creative director.

The reality is this, that my mom

she was about to sell the house where we all grown.

That for me was one

of the most tough news that could happen in my life.

It was not beautiful house because we were from,

I come from a very poor family.

Life came this Givenchy proposal

and I was like at the beginning I didn't want to do it.

But then I re-thought about it when they told me

I much will get paid, straight away.

My thought was not even the value of the money

it was the fact that could help to buy the house.

And my mother, she could die in a place where she built

a family out of love with my father.

So that's why I sign the Givenchy contract.

Rihanna is one of the darling of my career

and she was the darling of Givenchy.

Because that was the moment Umbrella just come out.

We had this journey because I was growing

as a young designer and she was growing

as a amazing singer that she is today.

And I think actually this work probably

was her first fashion show that she attended.

We collaborate step by step

the high boots with the t-shirt, the couture brown dress.

We done so many looks

like the cover face at the menswear show

like super oversized men look and the fact

of Rihanna is that she knows how to take a risk.

She feel it and she feel what could be next.

At the time not many celebrity was doing that.

Oh wow.

Shot by Mert and Marcus and Miss Lea T,

a good friend of mine, she's a transgender Brazilian.

At the time was the beginning of a journey.

So we want to celebrate this moment

because I want to support her

and I want to make a statement.

We got a lot of trouble because of this campaign.

A lot of people were not very happy about me

having a black transgender

in a campaign of a couture house.

We fight together as a friend and we won.

We break down boundary, we break down walls

to all the girls to come after to have like, you know

opportunity to have a voice to open the door

for what's coming next.

Rottweiler Collection, that is another historical moment

of Givenchy.

Rottweiler is one of the dog that I really love

and that was where I start bringing like

sport wear on the couture house.

And it was a moment where nobody was talking

about young generation because you come

from a very like a simple family and from nothing.

And I always make sure

that you have a sweatshirt, T-shirt, trainers

enterprise for kids to have opportunity to be part

of Riccardo Tisci/Givenchy dream.

Whoa Madonna!

Superbowl, I think is one

of the biggest moment and achievement for any big artist.

And this actually is one of the Madame Tussaud looks

because it's one of the iconic moment

of her career and she want to do something that was

between Liz Taylor and Egyptian style,

but then it was have to be very Madonna

have to be very contemporary

because she's like me, like you know, she always pushing

she want to break down more and more and more

and she's really helping.

She teach me a lot.

And this was a very emotional moment of my career.

So this is the Bambi Collection at Givenchy.

And this is Irina Shayk.

Anna Wintour told me the first time about her

and I met this girl, ask her to come for casting

and now we become very close friends

and she's inspired me as a woman a lot.

And this was the first show with Irina.

It was very, not a really iconic moment

because of the famous Bambi jumper

[chuckles] Kim at the Met.

She was not included in the list.

She was the plus one of the Met.

Now, it's not a Met without any Kim Kardashian.

She has a very iconic dress.

She was pregnant, which is represent a lot for me.

Pregnancy is something very beautiful

and the fact that it was a dress, that it was all one piece

gloves attached to the dress.

And then the fact the roses which represent femininity.

This moment was iconic because was the time where Kim

she was not accepted by everybody.

I'm so happy that she made it because she's a woman

and she's strong woman and she's a hard worker.

We see how much she achieve in her life and her career.

I'm very proud.

This is like, one of the biggest love affair

I had in my life, Nike.

I was a basketball player first things,

and then I decided to do fashion.

But I had the career as a basketball player.

When I was going to play basketball,

doesn't matter where you come from,

you could wear Nike.

So I felt I was cool when I was 13 and 14.

And this picture is very important pictures

because it's the beginning of couture mix sport.

And I was the first couturier to do a collection with Nike.

Today is, everybody's doing collaboration

that time nobody was doing it.

That is the first time I felt I could really

start writing history of fashion.

The 10-year anniversary of Givenchy.

And we decide to do this show in New York

and ask Marina Abramović, which to help me

my mother slash best friend

to collaborate with me on this show.

The decoration was a recycling wood

and metal from Favelas in Brazil.

It was a lot of hard work.

I want to be very democratic.

I want all the religion to be there,

skin color, everybody, every sexual difference,

everybody to be in one platform like to say we all together.

It was raining and Marina and the scene of the time

was Givenchy.

They came up to me the day before said,

Probably you have to cancel the show.

And I said, I'm sure God is going to stay outside.

Two hours before the show, stopped rain

and at six o'clock was an amazing sunset.

And I remember when I come out

on the runway and then people screaming

and I was so shocked and I couldn't believe it.

Beyonce, Queen Bey,

the day before my first show at Burberry,

I've been called to make the company more sensual

and more feminine.

It was the first time that people they were

seeing my interpretation of the heritage check of Burberry.

It was very strong moment because it came the day

before the show and then it was

many other costume that we did for her.

Really big, big moment for the company

and for a tour, was fantastic.

It's easy when you're working with a legend

and with the legend as a friend

because they give you the opportunity to express yourself

and to believe in you.

That is another emotional time.

The first Burberry show, so I'm back to London

not anymore as a student

but as a successful man.

It was really me taking this house very classic

but make it more contemporary.

'Cause I came back to the country that believe in me

and I start to understand I want to be a designer.

So London what help me

is to be not judged and to be just free.

People got shocked,

not everybody understand straight away again.

Because I think in general when something is new

and different, take time to understand.

My mother, is two years ago,

Christmas.

Covid has been a very difficult moment for everybody.

But one thing that was very good is this image.

Because I went back to Italy for a few months

and I had the best three months of my life.

I could wake up and go to sleep every day next to my mom.

93 years-old, an amazing woman.

She always was telling me, Remember this,

if you do something good forget it.

If you do something bad, remember.

That probably she was not capable to write,

to read properly,

but she was an intelligent woman that she inspired me

and inspired a lot of people.

Billie Eilish,

another voice of young generation that she have

something very strong to say.

This was a big moment that she done with British Vogue.

And [indistinct] falling all the team.

The first behind the shoot was about her always being

very posh and actually she's a very feminine girl.

You can see the images look amazing and the fact

to deliver this femininity and to be not ashamed

and to not be scared, to show way to be sexy and feminine.

Naomi TB,

and this very symbolic image because Naomi,

she's been one of my let's say muse and sister

since the beginning, since Givenchy.

And this where she's wearing a TB.

TB monogram, which is when arrive at Burberry,

one of the things that made a success this five years

it was like, Okay, we have the trench, we have the check

and then now we have a monogram, we have a TB.

And here is very like, you know

one of the monogram campaign that we shot.

We Danko Steiner, the iconic historical moment

of Burberry because you built a a bigger wardrobe

for house that's got a heritage.

This British woman wearing a monogram collection.

It was very strong, is the future.

Wow. Byork.

I never fought in my life,

to really arrive in my career and dress in Byork

with Burberry for a launch of an album.

I was super proud and I got very emotional when I come out.

It is not only selling clothes, it's not only selling bags

it's really selling emotion to people.

And the reaction on the world was very shocking.

When it came out that so the pictures that my PR

send to my WhatsApp, I was like, Wow!

And literally I got tears on my eyes.

So that made me happy because the day I'm not

going to have an emotion anymore of what I'm doing

is about the time that I'm going to holiday

and stay in holiday for good.

Oh, the grand finale.

These amazing beautiful woman and one beast. [chuckles]

It was my last show at Burberry

and was beautiful because I knew what was going to happen

and then all these amazing women

they always been the Belle America, Carla, Irina.

It was a beautiful finale

and a beautiful moment to celebrate.

This picture represents a moment of happiness

which is rare sometimes in society we live today.

I wish I was less scared to show my face before.

For a young generation that is scared to express themself.

If you do really believe in yourself,

what you're doing is very special.

For the next chapter, I wanna take break.

I just moved in in my new house in London

which I'm so proud.

Trying to have a child

and spend time with my family, traveling and simplicity.

Thanks for watching.

[scribbles]

[laughs] Big! [laughs]

[elegant jazz music plays]