First's For Versace
Versace held its first ever pre-A/W show on December the 2nd in New York City. A tale of two firsts for the brand, Versace decided to show this special collection on the date of late founder Gianni Versace’s birthday. Now headed by Gianni’s sister Donatella Versace, the brands first pre-A/W collection was filled with nostalgia, references, celebrities and accessories.
The first ever show in New York comes three months after the purchasing of the brand by American giant Michael Kors holdings (now renamed ‘Capri Holdings’), for £1.64 billion. Once the traditionally and essentially Italian Versace, now has American roots. Donatella kept all creative ownership and shares in the trade deal and using this power chose to show this collection in NYC to recognise their new identity and “pay homage to this incredible city”.
The show, held in the NY Stock Exchange, featured plenty famous faces to walk the collection including Emily Ratajkowski, Hailey Beiber, Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber. Attending the show included the likes of Kim and Kanye, Lupita Nyong’o and Teyana Taylor. But the biggest celebrity of all; the statue of liberty’s torch, described by Donatella as the “symbol of New York and female strength”.
The clothes were an eclectic collection of references. “I heart NY” T shirts referenced the new relationship of the brand to New York. All through the collection were allusions to the Versace brand and its previous infamous and symbolic garments. This included a renewed version of the black dress held together with safety pins featuring the brands symbolic medusa head.
Similarly, was a modern re-invention of the dress J-Lo wore to the 2000 Grammy’s.
The dress originally was designed by both Donatella and Gianni and at the time of J-Lo’s wearing, achieved the most popular google search. The re-designed dress features a multi coloured heart print, drawn from the Jim Dine artwork that Donatella and Gianni featured in their joint New York home.
Evidently, the collection is an emotional, landmark one for Versace. The quality of this show follows suit of others in the industry who are placing more emphasis on their ‘pre’ season collections. As demand for fashion turnaround becomes quicker, brands are producing faster their consumers. Other brands include Valentino who are showed in Tokyo on November 27th, and Dior’s first men’s pre-A/W show in Tokyo on November 30th.
Words by Charlotte Edmonds
References
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/versace-pre-fall-fashion-show-new-york