“THE most Versace a Versace show can be,” said Vogue’s fashion editor Fran Burns after Donatella’s latest collection was unveiled in Milan this evening.
It was best shown off by the designer herself – sporting “the best blow dry in the whole of Milan” (added Fran) and rocking (because nobody simply “wears” Versace, it is only to be “rocked”), a studded white leather dress.
The entire collection oozed Versace sex appeal and the glossiest, poutiest glamour imaginable – the white leather dresses, much shorter on the models, were held on by snakes of studded leather and had bold zips up the back. Later, they came in pale lilac and sky blue in a puffy neoprene fabric that featured a sea bed print of star fish and sea horses – which later reappeared on full length evening gowns held on by glittering sea creatures across the body.
The neoprene made for little bloomer-shaped shorts with matching bra tops and bomber jackets and some mini dresses came with a curtain of gently pleated chiffon over one shoulder to soften the look. The girls, who had been preened and perfected for the show like no other, teetered on huge Perspex platforms – so they looked, said one fashion editor, “like Malibu Barbie”
Billy Idol rocked (sang), Hot In The City as teeny weeny mini dresses with a flirtation of pleated neon chiffon at the hem went by, followed by a sexy story that saw it all happen again in studded black and then, as ever, the show finished in a rainbow of full length gowns in yellow, then grey, then turquoise – with the requisite hip-high spilt in the skirt.
The Versus show on Sunday night – the fifth on which Donatella has collaborated with British star player Christopher Kane – is already being heralded as the one everybody wants to see. As her second line takes a bigger bite of the limelight, it feels right that Donatella is giving the mainline everything she’s got and reminding us what it’s all about.
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