Karl Marx described religion as the opium of the people. Throughout history the statement was interpreted in different ways with some thinkers emphasising the fact that Marx intended religion as a pain killer with palliative and consolatory functions (the entire quote reads: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people") and with others looking into the original meaning of "opiate" and hinting at the fact that religion has the power of controlling people and the same escapist nature of a drug.
Used together with fashion - another opiate of the masses that could be intended both as consolatory (think about shopping as therapy...) and controlling - religion can produce lethally powerful results.
Think about Gianni Versace's fascination with religious icons or Dolce & Gabbana's obsession with rosary beads, religious medals, ex-votos or black dresses with gold embroideries inspired by the attire of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, and you'll easily realise that these inspirations spawned global trends with excellent selling power.
Riccardo Tisci probably had in mind such trends when he set to work on his Spring/Summer 2013 menswear collection for Givenchy. Delving again into the depths of his Catholic education (Tisci often highlighted the influence of his religious background in other collections that incorporated for example skulls and memento mori references) and risking of developing a Fellini-esque obsession with Catholicism, the designer mixed in his menswear garments images of the Virgin Mary (sampled from William Adolphe Bouguereau's paintings "The seated Madonna", "The Madonna of the Roses" and "The Madonna of the Lilies") - multiplied, smeared with paint, altered to resemble an evenescent (and at times sensual) ghost via graphic effects - with paintings of a beheaded Baby Jesus (again from Bouguereau's "The seated Madonna") or with parts of William Adolphe Bouguereau's 1876 painting "The Pietà", printing the pictures on duchess satin and organza tops characterised by a sporty edge.
The (copyright free) religious inspirations (surely nobody will sue you for using chopped up and remixed prints of religious paintings...), highlighted during the show by church incense and organ music, allegedly came to Tisci from First Communion, while his study on proportions and the layering effects (jackets over tunics over trousers/jackets over trousers-cum-skirts, etc - tricks that often reappear in Tisci's world) in his tailored and linear white, black and powdery pink suits in which some critics saw references to a priest's vestments (especially in the white collars wore under the black jackets/coats), came from the Bauhaus movement, the safe reference of bored designers (you can easily get away with the most boring collection in the world as long as you say a it was inspired by the Bauhaus, the movement that sadly turned in more recent years also into the refuge and the scapegoat of globally renowned trend-setting agencies who randomly use pics of Bauhaus works to illustrate or justify old trends regurgitated in new ways).
While this collection was a triumph for buyers and the fashion media, Tisci didn't really suggest anything new: one day he may be chopping up the American flag, another he may be using a picture of a Rottweiler or digitally reworked floral motifs, but the shapes of his sweatshirts, T-shirts and jackets are more or less the same.
Will Tisci win new converts with this collection? Probably yes, after all, we live in a fashion world mainly interested in designs that can instantly satisfy and gratify us on a visual level, in a nutshell in designs that, to paraphrase Marx, we could consider as "opium" of the masses (of buyers and consumers...).
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