MILAN, Feb 23 — Versace married luxury with grunge at Milan Fashion Week yesterday, presenting an Autumn/Winter 2019 line featuring leather, faux furs and ripped jumpers, as well as plenty of the Italian luxury label’s signature safety pins.
Creative director Donatella Versace, sister of the fashion house’s late founder Gianni Versace, sent models including sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner down a catwalk with a giant safety pin sporting the label’s Medusa logo, where they were joined by 1990s models Shalom Harlow and Stephanie Seymour.
The line, which also featured Barocco-style V logos, nodded to the golden safety pins that adorned a black dress from Versace’s Spring/Summer 1994 line, made famous when actress Elizabeth Hurley wore it to the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere.
Safety pins were omnipresent on the runway — securing cut draped mini dresses, on jumpers and skirts and as earrings.
Several looks also paid tribute to “Versace’s storied relationship with fashion photography”, with tops printed with portraits of Donatella Versace by American photographer Richard Avedon, who shot campaigns for the brand.
There were plenty of vibrant colours on tops, tights, stockings, dresses and bags. Outfits were layered: ribbed tops under silk shirts, dresses and jackets, all in different shades.
“Bold women feel free to stay away from what is expected,” Versace said in a press release.
“With this collection, I wanted to show that side of a woman that isn’t afraid to step outside of her comfort zone because she knows that imperfection is the new perfection.”
Knits, sometimes with silk straps on top, had ripped sleeves and hems, and were matched with a mock croc quilted leather two-piece or slit tweed skirts. Barocco prints appeared on sleeves of a trench.
Lace was used for neon coloured hems on silky slip dresses, usually in contrasting colours or on black trousers suits.
Evening gowns were luxurious — a sparkly orange number with Medusa medallions straps or black frocks with plenty of golden embellishments and belt buckle straps.
The brand, which was bought by Capri Holdings Ltd, formerly Michael Kors, last year, also presented herringbone coats and dresses and Vittoria print silks. Footwear was embellished with buckles. — Reuters
