Versace: Hitting it Just Right!
By Michelle Taylor
Photos by Giovanni Pucci

MILAN Jun 29, 2004/ FW/ --- It was a celebration of sex and rock & roll last Sunday at the combined Versace and Versus show; but if you’re thinking you’ll see a lot skin, don’t get your hopes up. Donatella proved that the brain is the greatest aphrodisiac of all by sending the models to the runway fully clothed.

With Keith Flint of Prodigy fame opening the show with a turbo-charged performance of a song full of sexual innuendoes, it was a signal that it will be the usual high energy Versace show. And it was, with a small difference… the clothes are all wearable!

With lots of references from the 1970s, Donatella toned down Versace’s baroque exuberance a notch, and she came out with a winner, a collection that 15 – 45 males would love to get their hands on.

The Versace collection featured close cut jackets and flared pants, double lapel trenches and double zipped side pockets on hip huggers. Donatella even found time to make a denim jacket look couture-ish by adding tattered patchwork and epaulets randomly.

But she never exaggerated, nor went over the top. She practiced restraint --- cutting the pants just a little flared, but not become bellbottoms, putting the beltline on the hips, but not making the pants “low rise.”

Donatella did not break any new grounds in men’s fashion this season, but she broke the most important ground of all – the cash register, because there is something for the Gen Y, Gen X and the young baby boomers in this collection.

And this collection just came in the right time. With a 100 million Euro bond due to mature in the near future, the House of Versace really needs a winner. And Donatella just handed it one!

Versace

Versace

Versace

Versace