The spring 1997 Versus show was Donatella Versace’s starting point for spring 2025. It was fashion’s pre-internet pre-history when elevated runways were still commonplace, as were the photographers who lined up against them. Can you imagine the clamoring today, if front-row content makers couldn’t get their iPhone shots?
Versus was Donatella’s baby, a diffusion collection she designed in her own image, while her older brother Gianni took care of the main line. At a press conference, she said she was drawn to spring ’97, which was shown in New York in October ’96, because “it was a joyful moment.” In the ’90s, “there was freedom, happiness, not too much thinking, and being more casual [about] putting your clothes together,” she explained.
That long-ago season she really lived up to Versus’s latter-day billing, clashing prints and patterns in energizing ways. Fast forward 28 years to a Milan night just balmy enough for the outdoor setting of the Castello Sforzesco, and she was at it again, with squiggly patterned knits and floral prints, some on silk and some on chainmail, which were near replicas of the originals.
Versace has been revisiting past collections, with varying degrees of specificity, since the 20th anniversary of her brother’s death in 2017. Fashion’s reissue phase has proved remarkably resilient. Ironically, it’s probably because the internet has helped make young people—or young fashion people, at least—so curious about the past. It’s all at your fingertips, and, with the right budget, in your closet.
This collection did feel quite youthful by Versace standards, more sweet than sexy with its baby pastels, slip dress and cardigan combos, denim and short-shorts, not to mention the perfume bottle and champagne stem heels. On the other hand, there was a deft and subtle use of color that that old Versus show could never match, nicely exemplified by a man’s caramel-colored camp shirt and lavender trousers, and a woman’s copper tank and lilac skirt. A men’s leather jacket in soft yellow and white worn with violet colored leather pants was another highlight.
One significant upgrade since 1997 is technology. What looked like a gold sequin strapless dress on Anok Yai was actually 3D-printed; apparently built without seams, its famous Versace hourglass shape was programmed by a machine. How cool would it be to see an entire Versace collection developed in that way? What kind of free-thinking would that experimentation open up?