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Gianni Versace: Cuban-Plantation Chic
By: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
Milan, Jun 24, 2002/FWD/ --- This was a collection destined to cause Fidel Castro more
than one sleepless night.
Inspired by the decadent pre-Revolutionary style of the Cuban nobility, the spring-summer
2003 Versace men’s collection shown Sunday in Milan may one day prove to be a prescient
vision of how things will look after the Maximum Leader takes his final leave.
If Donatella’s vision comes true, then the Havana of the future will be crammed with crisply
tailored dandies and porn-star Amazons – the sort of gal you most certainly don’t bring home
to mother.
Take the outfit Carmen Kass appeared in, a barely-there white snakeskin swimsuit that
screamed “forget the revolution,” or Donatella’s exclusive model, the truly stunning Sharon
Genish, who vamped out in a revealing lacy frock with only one destination – the boudoir.
For dates the post-Fidel vamps will go out with some refined dandies, who saunter out into
old Havana in beautifully-cut white linen frock coats, like a plantation owner who has just
had a hit album.
The planter dandy was just one of a series of striking men’s looks that made this one of the
best Versace men’s collections in some time.
Highlights included wrinkled stonewashed, baggy pants, white leather jean jackets, blotchy
neon shirts and lacy nightclub tops.
And when private property is finally legalized, Donatella has ready a few great boardroom
suits in sleek pinstripes, and new inventive fabrics like seared wool, which give the fabric
a leather-like effect.
The decadent mood was further underlined by the white plastic squares and silver gothic
lettering that covered the runway and backdrop in the courtyard of Versace's via del Gesu
palazzo, where the show was staged.
"The show was great and the dresses beautiful. I thought Donatella was particularly inspired,"
Manolo Blahnik told FWD before slipping up to a post-show dinner upstairs.
Fidel would also probably have been uneasy about Boy George appearance.
The Culture Club clothes horse provided the soundtrack, even if he never went near a
turntable during the show.
Instead the singer sat front row bearing black and white face paint and wearing a bizarre
harlequin style outfit with a bustle.
Fidel, the days of fatigues are long over on the pearl of the Caribbean -- and the leisure
class will now have their day.
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