Scene setting: In recent seasons Donatella Versace has favoured intimate runway shows, but for S/S 2019 she upped up the ante with an enormous showspace inside Milan’s Palazzo delle scintille. Guests for the evening-time show opened up a rubber-wristband-come-invitation emblazoned with the word ‘Versace’. Assembled on colourful seating, which evoked the zesty retro shades of the brand’s S/S 2019 collection, Quay Dash’s Queen Of This Shit blared out as the show began.
Mood board: Dash’s soundtrack encapsulated the show’s empowering and emboldening theme, and was an evocation of the host of queens on the catwalk, including Freja Beha Erichsen, Anya Rubik, Bella and Gigi Hadid, Kaia Garber, Natasha Poly and a stupendous final walk from Shalom Harlow. Versace’s gang of girls were all here. Their ensembles of choice? Retro ribbed knits and tailoring, draped floral dresses, micro mini skirts and dresses in neon hued and block colour leather. There was a relaxed bohemianism to the draped numbers, with Versace’s flower power messaging enhanced by bloom-detail tights and its acid hues translated into more everyday pieces, like a neon green leather coat and a boxy red satin jacket.
Finishing touches: Clumpy cylindrical heel shapes bought a wearability to the house’s overtly sexy codes, and silk foulard turbans added further oomph to an accessory trend noted at Tom Ford in New York and JW Anderson in London.§
