The name Versace is synonymous with sexy clothes and glorious, bold prints. For her Spring 2018 tribute show, commemorating the 20th anniversary of her brother Gianni’s death, Donatella Versace included many archival prints, including some from this Spring 1992 collection. Their reissuing, it turns out, was a meta move, because all those years ago, Gianni had launched his Signatures during this Spring ’92 presentation (see the finale images in the collection’s slideshow). The main selling points of the line, which also featured lots of colored denim, were the printed silks he first designed between 1977 and the 1990s. Signatures was developed, Gianni explained at the time, not in service to the past, but to meet customer demands. “We cannot give in to nostalgia,” the designer said. “The challenge is always to look ahead and make clothes modern.”
Versace’s self-set challenge this season was to pass 18th-century romanticism through a Baroque lens. One of his stated inspirations was Jean-Honoré Fragonard; the show opened with a long-haired Milla Jovovich perched on a flower-bedecked swing, a reference to the painter’s masterpiece, The Swing. The following look out, on Carla Bruni, was a short scarf-print dress, with a tutu-like fullness supported by petticoats, accompanied by a cropped denim jacket. This high-low look is so prevalent today as to be taken for granted, but in 1992, fashion “rules” and conventions still existed. “Some might call it fashion anarchy,” wrote Vogue of the designer’s iconoclasm. “Versace calls it ‘romantic rock’ or ‘chic and shock.’ ”
The designer combined a baroque swirl and leopard spots into a dramatic print, and developed his “trésors de la mer” motif beyond printed silk to include coral-beaded pieces notable for their workmanship. Still, this season’s stand-out looks were the simplest: bouffant ball skirts paired with denim shirts. Here was an unexpected yet felicitous mix. “Fashion is no longer about night and day,” the designer explained to Vogue. “It’s about how you feel, what you are, and how you express yourself. Today women have the confidence to mix extreme opposites.”
