Upstairs on the primo piano chez Versace in Via Gesù this afternoon, Donatella Versace was busy with the fitting for tomorrow evening’s first live show. Downstairs in the showroom of the second line, Versus, the action was differently dynamic.
“We are selling, darling—sorry!” faux apologized a smilingly satisfied member of the commercial team as she took orders from a buyer from Kiev. This season, Versus moved its selling schedule to align with menswear’s far more amenable-to-retailers rhythms: This is reportedly going down well among womenswear specialists, too.
Here, as upstairs, the label is leaning on the archive laid down by Gianni. It has introduced Versus’s original logo, which features his signature below the brand’s name, and built this collection around the monochrome checkerboard Damier featured as a backdrop in so many of his prints. One vintage piece—a pair of Damier jeans overlaid with a frond-y botanical print—was reproduced literally, then remixed into leggings, shirts, and even a down jacket (a category that has reportedly come in from the cold to prove a sudden hot Versus ticket).
A safety pin minidress, a safety pin belt originally produced at the special request of Jennifer Lopez, and a Gianni-design Versace opera gown slashed from floor-length to mini and presented in bead-puckered velvet were just a few of the archival-based pieces remixed and refreshed by the Versus team here. There were nods to Versus’s time under Anthony Vaccarello (the biker minidress) and Christopher Kane (the pleated, flared miniskirts south of bandage tops). Not unlike that first line, Versus is taking a long look at its history when concocting its collections for now—but it is also changing behavior. Versus products are now served to customers in totes and simple backpacks made in a holograph-finished, logo-emblazoned, superlight material. Both reusable and unmissable, they are reportedly proving almost as compelling to buyers and customers as the products for which they are meant to start their lives as the point-of-sale packaging.
