Shalom Harlow’s finale walk around the carpeted quadrangle at the Versace show had all the surprise value of an apparition from heaven; a goddess from the ’90s pantheon of supermodels who simply chose to disappear at the height of her fame, returned to earth. Wearing a swathed micro-flower-print dress with a long, sheer black lace skirt, head held very high, walking with her dancer’s poise, Harlow projected a combination of power and amusement at the effect she was creating in her wake. At the end, she actually laughed.
It was always fun, being part of the Versace gang. In 2018, it’s a different kind of a gang—far more multigenerational, its diversity a built-in Donatella norm, which is what her collection celebrated: something for everyone under the Versace sun. For those who didn’t register Harlow’s significance to the elders, there was a brace of Hadids, Binx, Iman, Edie Campbell, et al.
The collective spirit centered on reworking Versace microfloral prints—unusually soft and fluttery at times—that were swathed and draped into club-worthy body-con shapes. It used to be that Amazonian Versace glamour dictated towering heels with everything. Now, not so much. Girls in teeny-tiny chain mail or leather dresses are just as likely to want to go dancing in trainers as ankle-strap sandals. There was something about the way Bella Hadid walked around in her one-shoulder fluoro-yellow leather dress—all legs and sneakers—which showed her genuinely at home with it, acting her age.
Donatella is tuned into that reality. She also cut some incredible black satin dresses, plunging, slit, strappy, and asymmetric, to which only a grown woman can do justice. If it was a show which lacked theme, it made up for it in empowering variety.
