Gigi Hadid
For Donatella Versace, her latest winter 2023 collection is all about creating clothes that protect women’s bodies, like armours do. And on this note, Versace’s spectacular show in LA’s Pacific Design Center kicked off with an array of all-black looks, where hips and shoulders were enanced, with cinched waists.
However, more than just an armour, the sobriety of the looks (and also austerity, if you want to add), symbolize a new chapter for the House, and a new search for a more sleek identity that is also transforming other verticals of the Versace business, specially the home division. On the runway, you saw no gold hardware, almost no Medusa heads, no screaming logos, and no over-the-top baroque prints, which have been part of the DNA of the brand since it’s creation in 1978. It seems very unfitting to call Versace a minimalist brand, but as any label, the house seems to be in a moment of evolution – and maybe even revolution – still being sexy without being shouty.
Irina Shayk
This doesn’t mean the show was boring, or shy. Smartly organized just a few days before the Oscars, the event amassed an exciting crowd of supermodels and A-list stars, inside and outside the runway. Cher, Elton John, Dua Lipa, the Hilton sisters, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Naomi Campbell, and Anne Hathaway were some of the many celebrity sightings that made the show trend on social media, proving once again that Versace equals star power and hype. Fashion wise, as the show progressed, black gave way to denim, and denim gave way to an array of party looks in a rainbow of colors. Cocktail dresss were shown as mini as they get, sometimes full of movement and beautifully draped, or more structured, with pointy busts.
Draped silhouette dress
The palette was brushed with striking greens, pink, orange, and a polk dot motif (with irregular dots that seemed hand painted on the dresses). For the romantics, fabrics also featured black roses, maybe hinting that Donatella Versace is fine to buy herself flowers, which seemed perfectly suitable as Miley Cyrus was also sitting in the front row.
Pop pink florals
Among the many standouts of the show was the statement eye makeup created by beauty queen Pat McGrath. XL black eyeliner, pointy and feline, was generously applied to the eyes of models, making sure the Versace woman is ready to seduce from head to toe. And that will always remain, even if for Versace less is finally more.
Below, take a closer look at some of the key looks from the show.
Imaan Hammam
Hints of denim
Naomi Campbell
Not-so-basic polka dots
Kendall Jenner
Gigi Hadid
