After a few shows in Los Angeles and Cannes, Donatella Versace was back on home turf with her new collection, in more ways than one. During a preview at the grand new headquarters in Milan the day before the show, she said she looked back to her brother Gianni’s fall 1995 collection as a starting point for this season. “I thought it looked fresh and contemporary,” she said.
As vintage Versace goes, fall 1995 was a blip, as ladylike as the collections that came before (safety pins) and after (J.Lo’s jungle dress) were dangerous. As we’ve navigated our way through the pandemic and its aftermath, many of us are feeling more inclined to dress up; So does Donatella, it seems, due to the fact that she has chosen to bring this show back.
The 1990s have thus far formed a continuous line in the spring 2024 collections. A quarter of a century has passed – gasp! – and a new generation has come of age, a generation that regards the 1990s as more or less ancient history. Although the Fall ’95 collection predated Internet coverage, it is now not that difficult to find online, and with the advent of The supermodels on Apple TV, interest in this era will likely only increase.
Versace took full advantage of these synergies and orchestrated Claudia Schiffer’s return to the catwalk. The German model walked that show all those years ago and looked more or less unchanged tonight in a lime green chainmail dress with damier checks. The clothes themselves, however, got a major update, starting with Versace’s rejection of trousers (shorts are the trend this season, in case you hadn’t noticed) and also with looser, more exaggerated jacket proportions, and the rejection of the clothes from the original show. little white gloves, a dated accessory if there ever was one.
The most pronounced change between Versace now and Versace then is what ‘dressed up’ means. While the old show featured more than a dozen evening dresses, this one highlighted printed silk twill pajamas, beaded twinsets and matching bikini bottoms, and near-bleached jeans and denim jackets adorned with pearls and crystals, for the girls and the boys. Fun fact: the men’s five-button suit worn over beaded boxer shorts was modeled after a tour suit Donatella made for Prince at the time.
