Donatella Versace's FW'18 Womenswear Outing Is An Ode To The Roaring '80s
“We are the Versace family and we have got different characters: mystery women in all the black clothes, cool ones with sneakers – it's for all kind of women, every generation.” – Donatella Versace
How do you top last season’s supermodel-themed SS’18 triumph? What makes glamour attractive? Donatella Versace decided confidence was sexy, but sexiness demanded comfort. And there she had the formula for her brilliant FW’18 collection for Versace in the Milanese building of Palazzo Reale.
As the Versace glamazons marched down the runway—showing their strength in numbers two by two and three by three, wearing fringed miniskirts, and draped bandeau column dresses topped off with sunglasses and scarves—it was clear that the show offered more than a few nods to the 1980s. The designer included a play on classics with a touch of Punk—a slick lamé trenchcoat (worn by Natalia Vodianova), a schoolgirl shirt collar, beige tailoring, and super-platformed brogues. There was a plaid mohair jacket tightly belted over a stretchy pencil skirt and Scottish Highland checks, splattered on everything—from berets to jewel-encrusted knee-high boots. A Versace logo t-shirt was tucked into a tightly fitted bodice, that erupted from the side seams into a digitally patterned asymmetric skirt. Bodycon sensuality was evident in high-intensity print mixes, sometimes head-to-toe—ultra-bright abstracts over swirling crystal-embellished cocktail dresses and leggings. And, a trio of cut-and-strut black dresses looked like an homage to the late Azzedine Alaïa.
Over the years Donatella, for all her quiet bashfulness, has produced work that roars with individuality. It wears its figurehead status well. It seems to have gotten better and better. She did it again by breaking the silence on a debate that’s painfully necessary at this point in fashion, this all-empowered image industry: what constitutes sexy clothes in a world where Time's Up? And are we even supposed to call them ‘sexy” anymore? Where do female designers exist in this debate?
In a fall/winter 2018 season that’s so far chosen to work through the sex-centric zeitgeist by way of glamour and its inevitable escapism, you’ve got to give it up to Donatella Versace for going where no designer has ever ventured until now.
Watch the full show here:
All images are courtesy: IMAXTREE.COM