In recent years, Versace catwalk shows have well and truly broken the internet. For the label’s Milan Fashion Week S/S 2022 offering in September, the house’s campaign star Dua Lipa opened and closed a scintillating runway show, which featured a profusion of its signature motifs: tropical foulard silks, oodles of neon, safety-pin embellishments and a steamy hit of bare skin.
For S/S 2020, Jennifer Lopez sashayed down the Versace catwalk, sporting a version of the cleavage-revealing chiffon jungle dress she wore to the 1999 Grammy Awards – the one that prompted Google to invent its Image Search function, after the dress design became the most popular search term ever. The house’s S/S 2017 show, meanwhile, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the murder of founder Gianni Versace, and recreated the brand’s infamous A/W 1999 runway show, when Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Carla Bruni and Helena Christensen swirled down the catwalk, mouthing the words to George Michael’s ‘Freedom! ’90’.
Title: Versace Catwalk: The Complete Collections, by Tim Blanks
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Price: £55
Publication date: October 2021
Now, with the release of Versace Catwalk: The Complete Collections, fashion fans can ogle their favourite catwalk collections from the brand – be it the animal-print and power-shouldered silhouettes of the S/S 1983 offering, or the cyber glamour of the S/S 2012 Couture show. The volume, authored by esteemed fashion critic Tim Blanks, is paged chronologically and brings together more than 40 years of fashion shows, kicking off with Gianni Versace’s 1978 debut, in a carefully curated edit of some 1,200 images.
‘There comes a moment in one’s life or career when in order to evolve, you need to draw a line and acknowledge where you come from. This book is exactly this for me,’ says Donatella Versace of the tome, which is cloth bound in a metallic cover, and accented with alluring foil blocking.
Keen to revisit every Versace viral moment? With Versace Catwalk: The Complete Collections, you might just discover a few more. §
