Va Va Voom Versace! Such a powerful collection for S/S 19. Donatella was celebrating the Versace woman; the woman who draws eyes everywhere she goes, who is both confident and vulnerable. A strong opening look with clashing prints - check tights and pants, striped polo and red and blue croc-bag - cemented the idea of a woman who needs no introduction. That the look was worn by the ultra-cool Freja Beha Erichsen was surely a double whammy.
The casting, in general, was spectacular; the likes of Anna Ewers, Kendall Jenner, Edie Campbell, Maria Carla Boscono, Irina Shayk, The Hadids, Joan Smalls and Emily Ratajakowski all walked in Versace’s layered printed sheers. Pencil skirts in leather and ditzy floral print, leather rushed mini dresses and skirts and vintage Versace print dresses all hugged the body and exuded strength and desire. For those who lean more towards the vulnerable than the confident, transparent printed tulle dresses had been layered over more conservative silhouettes - stack print on print and colour on colour until that confidence would build.
The colours themselves were bright and inviting - oranges, blues, beiges, reds - and felt almost seventies in their appeal. The chunky platform heels and asymmetric necklines felt a little disco in New York but were of course given that Donatella Italian flair with bright tights peeping from the toe, or kitted in bedazzled details.
The young shopper was certainly in mind with the logo t-shirt, the iconic Versace Metal Mesh, the medusa hairpins, and the mini box bags, but really, this collection had something for everyone. The icing on the cake was 90s model Shalom Harlow, who returned to the runway for the first time in years to walk. Harlow's presence lifted the whole room, she was the perfect embodiment of this collection: at once new and familiar, confident, sassy and sensational.
