Versace Couture F/W 2012
Versace S/S 2012 Couture
All images: style.com
Donatella Versace rarely produces clothes that appeal to my ‘taste’, per se, yet its hard to ignore their obtrusive glamour.
A Versace gown is about a lifestyle- a lifestyle of balmy hedonism on the Italian Riviera, from one decadent yacht party to the next, and looking fabulous every step of the way.
It’s not many brands that can claim to achieve such consistency in maintaining the ‘look’ of a certain way of life. Instantly, anyone will understand what you mean if you say, ‘That’s such a Versace print’, or ‘That’s sooo Versace’.
Even style.com’s Nicole Phelps stated that this recent Couture collection was ‘as Versace as Versace gets: the pastel chain mail, the hip-high slits, the scarf prints, the Medusa emblems, the bared skin.’
And of course, Donatella herself is the perfect spokesperson for the label- she’s the epitome of the Versace woman with her long blonde hair, striking make-up, always showing off the tiny proportions of her body in the luxuriously tight dress she tends to choose.
In fact, following the Atelier Versace Couture Fall 2012 show last night at The Ritz, Christopher Kane said; ‘Donatella should’ve modelled’, such was her striking, leather-swathed presence when she appeared after the finale.
The collection for me was typically Versace- the type of Versace I’m not afraid to admit I love. The models looked empowered in Donatella’s designs- like ‘sexy, strong, warrior[s]‘, as Jessica Alba described them.
You know you’re in the presence of a Versace show when you see the perfect movement of those gown trains as the models sashay. You know it when you see the flash of gleaming, tanned ‘race-horse’ legs (as I like to describe them). And finally, you know it has to be Versace when you see that lustrous Veronica Lake hair!
Versace’s Couture presentations are few and far between. But each one amazingly manages to be quite radically different yet also so aesthetically similar. If you compare with the S/S 2012 Couture show (above) there’s more movement, less rigidity, yet both achieve that ‘Glamazon’ look that’s nevertheless still so quintessentially Versace.
