My VERSACE Haute Couture 2016 review

The haute couture always requires some suspension of disbelief. For Versace, it was a huge 30-meter long plexiglass case housing 25,000 freshly cut orchids, highlighted by a magnetic purple light, and a series of chiffon gowns which were remarkably adorned by couture standards: hours of embroideries and a vast number of details such as hand-sewn pleats, drape techniques and structured corsets.

It was indeed predictable that Versace Haute Couture show would be extravagant. The color palette was a bracing mix of purple, blue, black, pink and printed orange hues.

There is always something harsh and seductive about Versace, something that can both move you and repulse you: the sacred and the profane, sex and romanticism, construction and deconstruction. The frayed, torn and re-embroidered chiffon seemed to convey this idea. The gowns were made of layers of exquisite material like threaded georgette and frayed chiffon.

The leggy silhouettes walked to the rhythmic music wearing chains, crystals and seven-inch platform shoes to highlight their strength. The corset as well is regarded as a symbol of power in Versace code. The corseted dresses, draped around sharp boned bodices with their structure delineated by strips of strass crystal, had something from Game of Thrones.

On the other hand, a sort of tender, more vulnerable vision of feminity seemed to prevail in some ways, through the choice of pastel hues such as lavender, baby pink and sky blue, and the flower fairy characters recalling the flowy romantic period of the 70s as if Donnatella were getting out of her comfort zone to define a newer, more modern vision of women.