Dario Vitale makes liberated, sexually-charged debut for Versace inspired by ‘bold attitude’ of Gianni Versace

The invitation for Dario Vitale’s debut runway show for Versace was a letter, unsigned, which instructed guests to ‘wear something reckless, as though mocking propriety… the curtains are drawn, the wine is chilled’. Delivered just the morning of the show – which for some weeks has been shrouded with secrecy as to what form the presentation would take – it was the first glimpse of what to expect from the former Miu Miu design director’s tenure, who in succeeding Donatella Versace is the first to helm the brand outside of the family.

Taking place at Milan Fashion Week yesterday evening, the show itself was a departure from the glossy, bombshell glamour which defined Donatella Versace’s tenure and has become synonymous with the Italian house – backstage after the show, Vitale said he was searching out something ‘real’. In the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, an opulent former home-turned-gallery housing works by Caravaggio and Da Vinci, the shift was signalled by signs of disarray: amid cabinets of antiques and curiosities, an unmade bed at its centre was surrounded with empty glasses, an ashtray and packets of headache pills, their contents spilling onto the floor.

Dario Vitale’s debut collection dives into Gianni Versace’s archive: ‘there are so many layers to celebrate’

What followed was a collection rooted in the 1980s – and Gianni Versace’s work during the era – in a heady mix-up of pieces which captured the idea of liberated dressing and raw sensuality which has long been a part of the label (albeit in undone style). There were colourful slouchy bombers and vests sliced away at the sides to reveal the torso; boldly printed and striped jeans, worn high at the waist (backstage, Vitale said that this was the way he liked to wear his own jeans); body-clinging all-in-ones for men and dresses which scooped dangerously low at the back for women, revealing the line of models’ underwear beneath. Tailoring was baggy and oversized, and came in boldly coloured hues – evocative of those you might find on the rail of a vintage store.

Vitale, who is 42, said he gravitated towards the 1980s because of his mother, who was an avid Versace client when he was a teenager. ‘I remember looking at my mum wearing Versace,’ he said backstage after the show. ‘[There was] this kind of bold attitude, Italian fearlessness, but always in control – there was always this austerity to Gianni’s collections which I wanted to bring back’. This ‘austerity’ was figured in more sober, almost bourgeois, brown-leather footwear and ladylike handbags, but also in a black dress and matching tailored suit in black satin which had been creased across its surface – the latter capturing the mood of twisted glamour which ran throughout ‘[Versace] is not just about an evening gown to the floor,’ he said, though intricately beaded skirts and bra tops – evocative of the house’s signature chainmail – will no-doubt satisfy the Versace consumer’s desire for dress up.

But he was also thinking about his contemporaries: how would they wear Versace today? He settled on the embellished waistcoat which had been teased earlier in the day via a series of Tyrone Lebon-shot images, which has a distinctly vintage feel. ‘We [made everything] a little more real,’ he said. ‘I know a lot of friends who would die to wear an embroidered leather vest, but to go to the disco club, not to go to the Met.’

Another reference was Pasolini’s ‘Theorem’, in which the arrival of a mysterious ‘visitor’ at a middle-class home shakes up the family inside. ‘There is this very proper, perfect bourgeois family and then at a certain point this person comes and destroys their life,’ he said. ‘But he does not actually destroy it – it’s an awakening for those people, because at a certain point they start to have sex, they start to drink, they start to discover food.’ At Versace, Vitale hopes to be a similarly disruptive force, stripping back conceptions and ushering in an energetic new vision: sexuality charged and ‘reckless’, one that harkens back to the dress codes of Gianni Versace without nostalgia.

‘When I went to Gianni Versace’s archive, it was more about the feeling of Gianni, the feeling of this company, the feeling of the legacy of Versace, more than the pieces themselves,’ said Vitale. ‘There are so many layers to celebrate, that’s what I wanted to do here.’

Stay tuned for more highlights from Milan Fashion Week S/S 2026 here.