Capturing the rebellious vibe of street culture has always been at the core of Versus. Gianni Versace’s antennae were attuned to the voices of a younger generation and its latest trends, his rock ’n’ roll spirit naturally responding to provocative attitudes and unconventional, out-of-the-box mind-sets. The label was born in 1989 from his desire to communicate a less luxe yet still glamorous message to a new demographic—and who better than his younger sister, Donatella, a music lover and quite the free spirit herself, to be its fairy godmother? She was put in charge of the newborn line’s artistic direction from day one.
Keeping a keen eye on the picture is still paramount today; Versus’s 20-something and multicultural design team is often dispatched to London and Berlin, iPhones in hand, mapping the scene and looking at what people are wearing. “We design the clothes that we actually wear,” they explained during a Resort appointment. The focus is on the feel of comfort; quoting the press notes, you have to look good, sexy, and agile while “slam dunking the street points.” Performance sports were the obvious inspiration, injected with a look-at-me attitude and morphed into pieces assembled through the cut-and-paste process that the design team practices.
The original 1989 Versus logo was reedited and strapped on elastic bondage tape, then patchworked with a stretchy fabric printed in black-and-white abstract motifs, which was inspired by an archival Richard Avedon image of Nadja Auermann and Kristen McMenamy involved in a glamorous catfight, dressed to the nines in Versace polka dot suits. Since logomania doesn’t seem to be fading out anytime soon, the collection banked heavily on Versus’s signature roaring lion’s head insignia, which was enlarged on the back of sequined nylon bombers, or transferred on 3-D silicone forms onto basketball-inspired cotton jersey minidresses or else displayed on metallic buckles on leather straps, somehow holding the shortest bustier dresses in place. Archival Greek-inspired signature prints were boldly mixed with a riotous, irreverent feel, complementing coated-cotton miniskirts and biker jackets in a fierce shade of flame red.
The bold vibe of the women’s collection was toned down a notch for the guys; the inspiration here was less athletic and more leisure, translated quite literally in no-nonsense, comfortable pieces for everyday, speaking the current vernacular: tracksuits, oversize logo-ed denims, quilted nylon bombers and parkas, reengineered camouflage prints. It was all well and good, but it lacked the gutsy energy that the women’s collection had in spades. Is it a sign of the times? Girls are definitely having more fun these days.
