Photo courtesy of beyonce.com.
The world’s gaze is firmly on Beyoncé, and, true to form, the pop superstar is meeting it in a wardrobe of custom-made fashion and couture commissions. Last week, it was Riccardo Tisci’s refreshed take on Burberry checks in New Jersey, last night a Versace “Barocco” look created not only for her, but for her entire dance troupe in Chicago.
The black-and-gold ornately-printed bodysuit was beaded all over with Swarovski crystals and topped off with a loose hooded jacket in the same print. A pair of thigh-high black leather boots from Versace’s Spring 2018 Tribute collection, which Donatella created in homage to the life and work of her brother Gianni, completed the ensemble, which was duplicated by tens of dancers wearing lycra bodysuits.
The graphic swirls, also mirrored in the stadium-size screens behind Bey, brought a slice of Versace fashion history to the Soldier Field venue. Gianni Versace premiered his Baroque print during his Fall 1991 show, which made fashion headlines when Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista walked arm-in-arm down the runway. As Donatella relived the moment – supermodels and all – for the Tribute show in September 2017, she reintroduced his iconic prints to a new generation of models showing the same charisma as the original supers, and a new generation of customers responding to nostalgia.
Beyoncé’s nod to the family print brought the brand philosophy firmly out of the past and into the progressive pop forum. It was, as the brand aptly put it “a whole Versace experience”, and whether or not you’d wear the Renaissance-inspired motif IRL, the thought of Beyoncé and Donatella collaborating to show who runs the world is a powerful message.
