Not so long ago the collections in Milan were dominated by suiting: You perhaps saw more ties here than on Wall Street at rush hour. So it was a bit of a shocker that one of the first truly suited-and-booted, office-ready (luxury) looks spotted this season were at Versace.
The investor’s adage buy low, sell high applies to fashion too, however. By including the front half of this show with an undoubtedly Versace-fied selection of suiting teamed with topcoats, skinny ties, and brogued, Vibram-soled boots, the brand was reaching out to a fraternity once saturated with choices from Milan but now starved of them. The sliced-hem pants (to accommodate the boots), the studded leather and the patent backpacks, and the patent gloves with exterior golden rings acted as nonconformist fashion roughage to this salaryman pitch.
There were many other tribes of man more overtly Versace-ish being played to here, though. Voluminous jacquard topcoats patterned with gently disrupted check worn over turtlenecks and chains looked both tough and sensual. Synthetically shiny black pants worn over a gray bomber with a fragment of antiquarian photoprint were austerely kinky: Every step emitted an unboxing video squeak of plastic under duress. Waistlines were extravagantly emphasized; outerwear fiercely cinched included a dark satin-shine mackintosh, a wide-hooded shearling, a lipstick-red leather coat, and two down jackets, one checked, toward the end. Apparently, Versace had been thinking about clans and their tartans, which is why check was a recurring theme through this show. Versace’s own tartan, its glorious archive of prints, was flown proudly at the last: A jacket featuring a vintage Luna Park–meets–heaven and hell design included Donatella Versace’s beloved dog Audrey looking up from a flight of stairs.
