YOU LIKELY KNOW WHAT THE LEGENDARY ITALIAN BRAND USED TO BE, BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TODAY?

BY HUNT ETHRIDGE

Last year, the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace’s death, was marked by renewed interest in the story of the famed Italian fashion house’s founder. Part of the buzz was attributable to ramp up publicity for FX’s true crime anthology series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, but also due to increased marketing efforts on the part of the Milan based style powerhouse overall, including co-hosting May’s Met Gala at Manhattan’s Mark hotel.

The name is legend, of course, and there has been recognition of its prowess since Gianni Versace Donna (the company’s original name) opened its first boutique in Milan’s Via della Spiga in 1978, but in the last two decades or so, a style aficionado might be hard pressed to say what Versace stood for, precisely. It had gotten so big, so diversified, that at times its lines seemed to lack cohesiveness of approach.

Donatella Versace, who took over the company after her brother’s death and is currently its vice president, has wrestled with how to pay homage to her sibling while directing the future as well as coping, as she has explained, with ongoing and complicated grief. Donatella has publicly spoken about how difficult charting that course is but couture’s current desire for nostalgia is helping fuel the 63 year old executive’s efforts. In fact, many of Versace’s new designs are actually old ones, just reimagined. The iconic Medusa head, the continuous Greek key meander lines, and gold chains abound in new pieces, but in novel presentations. One of the reasons that Donatella elected to mine the past is that many of the younger models, like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, never knew the brand under Gianni at all. A decidedly new direction the company is taking is getting into the profitable but crowded luxury athletic footwear market. In 2015, Versace teamed up with dancer Li’l Buck to create a successful line, and this year doubled down with the debut of the Chain Reaction sneaker. Its designer, and now head of Versace’s sneaker division, Salehe Bemburry, actually pitched Versace originally by approaching it via LinkedIn, and his pedigree was considerable. He’d worked for Payless, Cole Haan, Nike, and Kanye West’s Yeezy, and has a degree in industrial design knowing that he wanted to design generally and not just be pigeonholed into fashion. e results are fascinating, including using Cuban link chains as visual components of soles and twists on the Versace Greca pattern…even squeezing in some of the brand’s Medusa heads. To top it o , there’s Braille lettering for “love” on the side. With celebrities like 2 Chainz, Swizz Beatz, Ruby Rose, and the rap group Migos as fans, the new sneaker has become an object of fascination and desire.

And Versace’s newfound hype continued apace; Anna Wintour asked Donatella to co-host the Met Gala, along with Amal Clooney and Rihanna, with an evening theme of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Some might argue that fashion is so inherently hedonistic that it’s at conceptual loggerheads with Catholicism, but actually, there has long been Christian iconography in Versace pieces, including crosses and saintly imagery. In any case, A listers like Blake Lively, Zendaya, the rap group Migos (who performed their hit song “Versace” at the event), and Chadwick Boseman were on the guest list. And the ever beautiful Cindy Crawford wore a Versace dress selecting a design that was an homage to one she wore to the Oscars in 1991.

It seems, at last, that Donatella has made peace with her brother’s ghost at the company, and future is looking bright, or at the very least vibrantly hued.

Versace
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551.245.8111 / versace.com