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Versace: 'Hips Dominate the Scene'
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: FWD-Gruber
Click on image to see bigger photo.
Paris, Jan 20, 2001/ Fashion Wire Daily/ ---There was a great deal going on in the Versace collection that effectively opened the Paris haute
couture season Sunday night.
But not, unfortunately, to any great effect.
Perhaps the problem was the nebulous inspiration: "Art - Nouveau Pink: The Diva Allure."
So models spouted frizzy mops for haircuts and clothes came with garish converging color
strips, oddly-placed web panels and overwrought graphics, producing a collection ideal for
a futurist disco, but little else.
Another problem was the cut.
Donatella favored high-waisted, to-the-knee skirts and dresses in a tulip cut that looked
awkward and frequently made the models look chubby.
To be fair, the program notes did warn, "hips dominate the scene."
There was the occasional flash of consummate technique - an eye-catching dress in black
leather lace over a lime-colored silk column or light green leather coat dresses with salmon
splashes.
Donatella may start a trend with faux tortoiseshell.
She used it splendidly on the invitations, mega-wide belts, handbags and mini-boleros.
It worked everywhere.
And a Versace show still draws a famous front row: Pamela Anderson, Salma Hayek, Jemina
Khan-Goldsmith and Lil' Kim, into whose blond hair was dyed the classic Versace roman grid.
A great deal of bowing and scraping greeted the arrival of Robert Altman.
The director of "Pret-à-Porter" swept in like some grand duke, head held high as he posed
for the photographers at the Theatre de Chaillet, whose huge windows overlook the Tour Eiffel.
But like Altman's flawed fashion film, this collection never really worked.
The cut, choice of colors and mood did not jell.
On the illuminated catwalk, Stella looked particularly ill at ease in a ruched,
fuchsia cocktail item, then downright impatient in a black velvet bouffant ball gown
with pointless panels.
By the time a lumpy pink swimsuit/dress with a few wilted flowers reached the end of the runway,
the sighs had turned to barely stifled groans.
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