Donatella did always love a grand show-space, and few are bigger anywhere than Pirelli HangarBicocca, where Versace staged her first runway show since the merger with Tapestry.
A former tire factory so large it incorporates several six-story crumbling concrete art towers by the great Anselm Kiefer.
The show was the first since Versace became part of new luxury group called Tapestry, formed by merging Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo with Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. Making the biggest North American prestige products group, with $12 billion in annual sales. Though whether or not Tapestry is akin to a Real Madrid Galactico superpower, or a classic sixties supergroup like Blind Faith that doesn’t quite jell, well that remains to be seen.
Judging by this collection, Donatella rather likes the merger. The new board has clearly loosened the purse strings, considering the seemingly never-ending silver checkerboard catwalk and soaring white curtain set.
The collection itself was fairly classical Versace, though in a significantly softer color palette of beige, sand, eggshell blue, mat gold and cream.
Like the catwalk, the favorite material was a checkerboard print seen in silk schoolmarm jackets, shorts and even totes.
Democratically, in a co-ed show, the guys wore very similar fabrics and colors to their dates – like matching rust brown calfskin suits or wool chiffon mobster blazers. Even if the menswear contained a few posh trapper vests and cargo pants.
And just when all the color became too much, out came some beautifully draped crepe cocktails and columns. One sexy red carpet look on Imaan Hammam was truly perfect.
And in a season of returning supermodels, Donatella had Claudia Schiffer close the show in a clinging lime metallic checkerboard cocktail, looking in extremely fine form, her hair as bouffant as ever.
For footwear, Signora Versace favored silver flats and sandals; or some great new side-zipped boots with open heels, while plenty of emphasis was placed on bags, from blushing pink evening bags to checkered totes. No surprise there, seeing as that has made the fortune of Versace’s two key stablemates – Kors and Coach.
So, one left the show musing where exactly did an Italian couture house fit together with an American industrial luggage and downtown hipster label like Coach or a TV star-driven all American sportswear house like Kors. And, quite frankly, this show, even if a sensitively chic vision from Donatella, did not provide any real answers.
If one recalls, Blind Faith recorded one great best-selling album, played a first concert in front of 100,000 people and then disbanded three months later. The golden era Galacticos of Real Madrid, the team which Versace now dresses, from Beckham to Zidane won four Champions Leagues in five years. The jury is still out on Tapestry.
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