Givenchy
fashion designer Riccardo Tisci has opened up on casting actress Julia Roberts
in the fashion house's latest Spring/Summer 2015 campaign. Tisci has explained
that he reached out to Julia because he felt she perfectly embodied his latest
collection, and he wanted to use a powerful, confident woman in the new images.
He commented that he was very surprised when she said yes because she rarely
does campaigns: "The first time Julia contacted me to work with me was for
the red carpet and she wanted my tuxedo. I thought it would be amazing [to get
her] for the campaign. I respect her a lot as a beauty and as a woman. She’s a
very intelligent girl. And a very funny girl. Super-funny. And very confident
of herself, which is very much my woman, you know like Marina [Abramovic],
Mariacarla [Boscono]. I thought it would be difficult because Julia really
doesn’t do [campaigns], so I was surprised that she said yes."
Riccardo
added that he wanted to have a balance in the new images - between sexiness and
also a sense of androgyny. He felt Julia perfectly captured this idea while
also being a big iconic face. He believes the campaign is one of the most
"honest" yet by the label: "I wanted it to be an honest
collection, true to myself and true to Givenchy, of course, but more to myself.
It was a very pure message. Very black and white. A powerful woman, with sex
appeal but at the same time with masculinity, which is my style. And I wanted
an honest campaign. Every house has a show—you sell that, of course, but you do
have in the shop what are your icons. I always start from my icons."
