2 Chainz aka Tity Boi was in the audience at this show to see the first steps of a new Versace sneaker whose molded, interlocked chain sole is an ode to his nom de guerre: His tunes provided the preshow soundtrack, too. Then the first model walked and the Versace production team swerved into EMF’s “Unbelievable” via The Fall’s “Blindness” plus the briefest sample from “Versace on the Floor.”
Here, there, everywhere: The musical breadth of this show reflected a collection that foraged far and wide within the Versace canon. Old-but-new logo pins glinted on the outerwear; there was animalia aplenty in zebra- and tiger-stripe overcoats for men and women; and Versace tartan, colored every which way, was cut into fringed-edge strips on men’s overcoats, used in women’s kilts and thigh-highs, and splashed in bold red and blue on suiting. The most abundant source material in this lineup, though, was Versace Home, the anything-but-minimal homewares division of the label. Bracelets were fashioned from twisted cutlery; the Amore e Psiche and Sipario house prints decorated velvet minidresses, women’s suits, and men’s silk shirting and velvet jackets; and hoodies for men and women featured print panels edged with cushion fringing.
Silhouettes veered from gathered-at-the-sternum minidresses for women—sometimes in printed silk, sometimes in bead-punched black velvet—to rustically wide corduroy pants with padded and patched tartan work shirts for men. There was an almost ’70s emphasis (2 Chainz’s sneakers apart) on substantial footwear, delivered via gold-buckled black boots with gold-edged casa-shaped cutaways in the heel. Looks do furnish a room, especially when delivered with as much light-touch verve as here.
