If there was any question that Versace would lose any of its racy spirit under the new creative direction of Dario Vitale, who made his debut at the storied Italian house on Friday night, he made it clear that he intends to keep sex very much on the agenda.
“To me, it’s not the sex itself, but the experience of it,” he said backstage of his approach. “For me, when you have good sex it’s about the tactile aspect of it, the souvenir of the day after, so it’s more the idea of something than the thing itself.”
The sentiment was realised in a suggestive collection comprising tight denim that was left unbelted at the waist, bottom-baring dresses held with a single button, bejewelled backless bras, and vests cut out at the sides.
While Versace has never been a brand for wallflowers, Vitale’s offering remained a bold statement for a designer debut. Formerly the design director for womenswear at Miu Miu, he is the first creative director outside the Versace family.
Following the Prada group’s acquisition of Versace in April, Donatella Versace – who held the creative reins after her brother Gianni’s death in 1997 – stepped back into a chief brand ambassador role. She was, however, noticeably absent from Friday night’s show.
It was, in any case, not Donatella’s take on the Versace man and woman that Vitale mined for inspiration, but the Gianni years. “I remember my mum wearing Versace in the 1980s and 1990s – she was one of his best clients,” said the 42-year-old designer. “[I remember] the bold attitude and very Italian fierceness but always in control.”
It translated to high-waisted Miami Beach-ready denim, muscle T-shirts, harlequin sequined dresses, patchworked leather bomber jackets and power shoulders that impressed a front row of famous faces that included Bianca Jagger, Hyunjin and Jon Hamm.
“Growing up as a kid in the 80s and 90s you couldn’t escape the Versace name and so I’m glad to see Dario getting back to what Gianni had done – it’s very cool,” the Mad Men star said post-show.
Granted access to Gianni Versace’s personal archive, Vitale said he focused more on objects than collections to inform his new direction.
“When I went to the Gianni archive, I wanted to find the spirit of Versace. I didn’t want to look at clothes, more the letters [Gianni] was writing, the ephemera that he had, the artwork he was collecting … the paper he used to send letters. I got to know him more by his belongings than his actual clothes.”
Clearly invested in conjuring a world around the clothes he designs, Vitale staged the collection across several rooms at the art gallery Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Micro sets comprising writing desks, unmade beds, powder rooms, and grand dining rooms were deliberately imperfect, inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 thriller Teorema, in which a mystery guest disrupts the perfect lives of a bourgeois Milanese family.
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It’s this same level of beautiful chaos that Vitale hopes to infuse in his chapter at the house.
“At Versace, the storytelling has always been The Olympus, beautiful women and men, but they were gods and goddesses – so I wanted to see those gods and goddesses having affairs with mortals. When gods and goddesses were a bit bored of having affairs in Olympus, they descended and had fun.”
On Saturday evening, British designer Louise Trotter also made her creative director debut at Bottega Veneta. Following in the footsteps of Matthieu Blazy, who is waiting to make his own debut at Chanel next week, Trotter went back to the beginnings of the brand that was founded in 1966.
“This show was really about the journey and life of Bottega Veneta and I wanted to talk about the journey the house has been through,” she said backstage.
Trips to the archive in Veneto identified a clear period between 1966 and 1977 that Trotter wanted to focus on which she said “included a liberation of women at that time” alongside a celebration of the brand’s signature woven intrecciato leather technique.
On the catwalk it played out in oversized tailoring with glossy leather lapels, nappa leather trench coats, and romantic figure-contouring dresses that the brand is well known for. Later, came more innovation, with huge sweaters crafted from recycled fibreglass in bold primary hues that bounced down the catwalk.
Previously creative director of Joseph and Lacoste, this is the first time that 56-year-old Trotter has had access to the resources that a superbrand such as Bottega Veneta can provide.
“I’m in the candy box,” she said backstage. “It’s been unbelievable to me, it’s the most wonderful entrance to this house to discover the hands, the craft, the willingness to always say let’s try. It’s a wonder.”