What are the ways of looking at women’s strength? At the house of Versace, it’s always been posited as the power of glamour, the enjoyment of knockout dressing, in the context of nightclub and event entrances. But now, Donatella Versace seems intent on moving beyond that. Being satisfied playing the role of arm candy, glitteringly static under disco lights, isn’t enough any more. Strength can be athleticism, energy, a sense of sisterhood. That’s the agenda Versace’s Spring collection seemed to put forward, to a feminist soundtrack written by Violet and Photonz, exhorting an end to passivity. “Living is better than dreaming,” went one of the lines. “Take the leap!”
So Versace’s female crew—models of many ages and far more varieties of shape than per normal—strode out in a collection that majored on outdoor activewear. There were billowy nylon parkas; body-con leggings with tight sporty T-shirts; Teva flatform sandals. Not that this was exactly a camping collection. Versace techniques will out, and the nylon techno fabric was soon threaded with drawstrings, pulled and ruched into a couple of asymmetrically sexy dresses in green and navy blue. Beige rainwear came precisely chopped into a terrific roomy jacket and matching miniskirt diagonally bisected with snaps; leather was deployed as a cropped color-blocked motocross blouson with souped-up nylon track pants.
The casting ran from Edie Campbell to Naomi Campbell, newcomers to Victoria’s Secret stars Taylor Hill and Stella Maxwell, and a class reunion of the likes of Carmen Kass, Caroline Trentini, and Doutzen Kroes. The inclusive casting was underscored by the inclusive variety of Versace specialties on display—not just curve-sculpted black dresses, but also a clutch of the house signature checkerboard and scarf prints, ending up with a few terrific examples of the house crystal chain mail. In the past, those finale dresses would have progressed forth as a tableau of elaborate floor-sweeping gowns. Today, they just marched off at high speed, with Gigi Hadid swirling a navy parka over a flash of darkly sparkly beading bringing up the rear—and that looked modern.
