I spoke to Donatella Versace days after she had emerged from the quarantine she spent alone in Milan, kept company only by her dog. She’d just had her roots dyed (“I’d forgotten what color my hair was”) and was coming back to her very own amplified version of real life. Glammed to the nines and back in business, she sounded so happy on the phone, as if she’d experienced a rebirth of sorts. Four months on, in an email on the morning of her first show since lockdown, her words echoed that sentiment. “The world has changed and we have changed. We have been repeating this almost as a mantra for months, but at the end of the day, for a designer this means to start all over again.”
Because there can be no re-emergence without prior submergence, Versace seemingly staged her live-streamed show—closed to the public and attended by staff only—in the imagined ruins of Atlantis, water currents streaming down its projected walls. This was the remnants of an old world long gone, its mythical citizens rising from the deep blue in an oceanic make-do and mend of starfish, coral, and seashell motifs from Gianni Versace’s ‘trésor de la mer’ collection for Spring 1992. They were ready to take on a new reality like the Rebirth of Venus herself (starring Adut Akech in the title role, of course). Versace, who described the collection as having “an upbeat soul,” said her challenge was to give fashion meaning in a historical moment like this.
“I wanted to do something disruptive and to break the rules because I think that, what worked a few months ago, does not make any sense today. Creatively, that meant finding a way to bring the DNA of Versace to a new reality and to people who have undergone a deep change.” Under the archival sea, she found her ideal metaphor for a new world of diverse wonders, bringing them to life in a powerful co-ed cast that boosted her ongoing messages of body positivity and gender-nonconformity. Asked how she envisions Versace’s role in the post-pandemic landscape, she said as “an example of inclusion, of mutual support, and acceptance of what is different from us.”
Sometimes, of course, you’ve got to be seen to be heard. Versace’s collection did that, and some, in a pumped-up zingy-colored mix of Malibu Barbie’s summer wardrobe and that of the Little Mermaid if only Prince Eric had bought them a house in Miami. It was, on the women’s as well as the men’s side, high-octane sporty cocktail-wear for an optimistic future—hopefully only a few nautical miles away now. In all its sea-centric detailing, it also had its moments of ingenuity: micro-pleated dresses trimmed with twirly ruffles, which bounced like jellyfish in the waves walking down the runway; crazy cascading skirts layered like the lips of shells; and a bag constructed like a big fortune cookie. We could all do with some good luck these days.
