Versace had me with the opener-strapless, corsete evening looks with collected puffer skirts, such as portable black tie sleeping bags but it lost me with the cheetah-print teddy under a black packing jacket.
Or maybe it was the man in a coral overcoat covered in gold and turquoise side, shown with a clown strop in brown and gold? Or the muddy leather, somewhere on the color spectrum between caramel and stomach complaints, and knits with battle tram shoulders and sparkling Western V-bags worn with high-cut panties? The leopard and lingerie -mix? The net effect of the entire high-course Wattage Wiegje with brand archetypes?
There has always been a complete frontal flirt between elegance and vulgarity in a Versace show that makes it great to watch. At his best permission, this gives everyone to glory in their own kind of unabashed aspiration (and cleavage). But the joy was missing this time. Each piece looked more like Duty-Free Versace instead of VA-Voom Versace, the plot lost somewhere in the hectic zigzag between “Babygirl” Power Women who played sticky in the bedroom and Rieton Cowboys who did the tunnel walk.
You can understand if you look at the position in which the company is located. Capri, the American group that Versace owns (as well as Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo), is in trouble. It was taken over by Tapestry, the owner of coach and Kate Spade, in what was invoiced as a “luxury mega merger” until the deal was blocked last year by the Federal Trade Commission. Versace always seemed like a strange fit with Kors, a luxury line that rests on a cheaper stuff base. Income at Versace fell by 15 percent In the last reported quarter.
Report are now much that Capri Versace tries to discharge. Backstage on the Prada show on Thursday, Miuccia Prada answered, when asked if a Versace acquisition was on the table,: “Isn’t it on everyone’s table?” That must be a disturbing atmosphere to work.
Especially for Donatella Versace, a woman who has given so much to the brand and to fashion. She pulled the house back from a disaster after her brother Gianni was murdered and struggled with her own addictions and all the doubters who said she couldn’t. She triumphed by never losing her faith in the power of a chain evening dress (they were also in the show) and the gold medusa that doubled as the Versace motif.
She is the rare woman in a position of power in industry. Donatella had appeared the day before the show On stage in Milan During an event with the Vogue editor Anna Wintour in which she complained: “It was told what she had to do and it was told what is going to sell.”
Still, if this whistle stop tour through the archives would be a riposte or even a sales pitch, it wasn’t great.
(On the other hand, leaning in the most recognizable, most “Versace” prints and clichés of the popular home line was a smart memory that the fashion house was one of the first to come up with the power of brand extension.)
The show was held in a former train depot and the runway extended for what looked like miles. Perhaps it was meant as a representation of dominance – our catwalk is longer than your catwalk! – But by the end it seemed more like a metaphor: there is still a long way to go.
