Riccardo Tisci's sisters inspired him to become a fashion designer.
Riccardo Tisci
The 42-year-old Italian creative mastermind has admitted he has only ever been "educated" by women, and during his youth growing up around a house full of females led him to discover a fascination with his siblings "transformation" for an evening out, and was interested in how they applied make-up, styled their hair and chose their ensembles.
Speaking to W magazine in about his influences, the fashion mogul said: " I love women because I grew up with women. And I never met my father because he died when I was a child. And so, my daily life, my energy, my everything - I've been educated only by women. I had women around me - my mommy and my eight sisters. So I'm inspired by that because I know we all come from women. I'm very feminist in that way. I'm get very upset when all I see is the abuse of women or no respect of women.
"I've always consulted on how my sisters dress, yeah. I actually got into beauty and into creativity because I used to watch my sisters getting ready to go out and they were always very over the top. And I was interested in all of their metamorphoses, like putting make-up on, doing their hair, putting their clothes together. And it was interesting for me, the transformation.
And Riccardo - who is Givenchy's artistic director after being with the luxury fashion house since 2005 - has revealed his love for designing began at a young age, and led him to create unique garments out of a "Victorian dress" for his friends.
Speaking about his first creation, he said: "I customized some very old clothes on my best friend, a woman. I put together a man's shirt with a lace, Victorian dress. I was 13. I used to work in the clubs and I used to dress my friends in the costumes to come to the club.
"I have always been very independent. I started working when I was really a young kid, nine or 10, and I worked with the brother of my mom because I didn't come from a very wealthy family."
Meanwhile, Riccardo has admitted he used to have a "strong look" and wore gothic make-up because he was "obsessed" with the English rock band The Cure.
He explained: "I used to have a very strong look with long black hair. I was obsessed with The Cure, so I was making this very goth make-up. And I was making my clothes like out of very crazy stuff - with black capes, vinyls. It was always very Goth not so much fashion. And then, I was started discovering hip hop, like a more sexy music."