Twenty years after her brother\u2019s murder, the designer produces a Tribute show and considers what comes next.<\/b>
\nMILAN \u2014 When she began creating her Tribute collection, an ode to the work of her brother, Gianni Versace, that would become her spring women\u2019s wear show, Donatella Versace knew what people were going to think. Not of the clothes; of the rationale behind the clothes.
She knew the rumors that have been roiling the fashion world since January. \u201cRumors,\u201d she said, sitting on a dark, squashy sofa in an opulent reception room in the Versace Palazzo on Via Ges\u00f9 a few days before the show, rolling eyes rimmed in dark shadow and making exaggerated quote marks with her fingers. \u201cOh: rumors.\u201d
She knew people had been saying that she was going to step aside as designer and name a successor. First it was Riccardo Tisci (that was after he resigned from his job at Givenchy); then Virgil Abloh; and, as of this week, during the London shows, Kim Jones, men\u2019s wear designer at Louis Vuitton. The front row had been abuzz with the whispers.
She knew the risks: that a show premised on nostalgia would be seen as a farewell, a sign that, at 62, her era was over. That it would fuel the addictive speculation that has become the new normal in the fashion world, where designers come and go from brands so often that a month without some gossip about creative musical chairs has started to feel like a month gone cold turkey.
But she decided to do it anyway. Not as a goodbye. As a statement about what\u2019s next. And yes, there are multiple interpretations attached to that phrase. This is, after all, a brand that has specialized in the peekaboo dress.
It has been 20 years since Mr. Versace was shot and killed on the steps of his Miami mansion, and the world has been busy mining his narrative in time for the anniversary: FX\u2019s \u201cAmerican Crime Story\u201d has a Versace series in the works starring Pen\u00e9lope Cruz as Donatella and Edgar Ramirez as Gianni, set to air early next year; starting next month FarFetch is selling a selection of 500 Gianni-era Versace pieces curated by William Vintage.
Why should Mr. Versace\u2019s younger sister \u2014 who has been creative head of the house her brother built a year longer, in fact, than he ever was; who has overcome drug addiction, industry skepticism and her own platinum Barbie cartoon of an image; who, along with her older brother, Santo, has transformed her company from family-run house to professionally managed brand with private equity investment and a maybe-possible-future-IPO \u2014 why should she cede that territory to others? Instead, she decided to own it.
\u201cOver the years I\u2019ve seen so many homages to Gianni Versace and direct reference to Gianni Versace,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t have the courage to do it myself. I was always afraid to touch the work of Gianni. I thought I would be criticized: \u2018She isn\u2019t Gianni.\u2019 I thought I was going to fail. I mean, I did fail for a while! But then I realized: I was there for all of it. And the younger girls \u2014 Kendall, Gigi \u2014 kept asking what it was all about. Because you know, he died before there was social media.\u201d
So she went into the archives: a 10,760-square-foot storage facility in Novara, Italy, a town west of Milan, which houses 13,000 pieces by Mr. Versace. And she came out with a collection that would be a celebration of 12 classic prints her brother created between 1991 and 1997, including the \u201cWarhol\u201d (a primary-colored riot of Marilyn and James Dean portraits), the animali\u00e8re (leopard) and the baroque (ornate gold squiggles). And while she remade a few pieces in their entirety, most she decided to reclaim via her own specifications: more day wear, sharper shoulders, fewer slits.
What would her brother say about the result? Ms. Versace laughed. \u201cBitch!\u201d Then she added, \u201cNo, he\u2019d love it.\u201d
\u201cThe difference between my brother and me is I also love women and think clothes are a good weapon to show \u2018here I am, look at me,\u2019 \u201d she said, \u201cBut for me, it\u2019s not \u2018look at me, I am so gorgeous,\u2019 but \u2018look at me, I have something to say.\u2019 When I first started, I was doing 12 or more pieces of evening wear a collection. Now it\u2019s like two.\u201d
The result, on the Friday show schedule, was Versace past through the eyes of Versace present, with a riot of in-your-face prints given the platform to speak very loudly indeed, unrestrained by overcomplicated cut or concept. Every garment will come complete with a label that notes the collection and the year, so consumers will know the moment of origin.
And then, to top it all off, Ms. Versace invited some of her brother\u2019s favorite models, the ones who had been most associated with his glamazon ideal \u2014 Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Helena Christensen, Naomi Campbell and Carla Bruni (or Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, as she is now) \u2014 to create a finale tableau for the show that mimicked a 1994 ad campaign shot by Richard Avedon of many of the same models in gowns of gold chain mail.
In the original they were draped over or dominating the prone figures of naked men but Ms. Versace thought she would skip that part of the re-creation. It\u2019s 2017, after all. Besides, as an affirmation of the continued relevance of Mr. Versace to the fashion world, the grouping would be pretty convincing. How many brands could get the former first lady of France to return to their runways, after all?
\u201cShe said yes immediately,\u201d Ms. Versace said. \u201cFor me, this is a celebration of my brother, an opportunity to do something lively and fun, that creates joy. We need it these days.\u201d
Indeed, the effect may be almost distracting enough to overwhelm the rumors \u2014 except for the fact that invited to sit in the front row were a host of other designers: Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino and Alessandro Michele of Gucci; Anthony Vaccarello of YSL, one of the designers who worked with Ms. Versace in the past on her second line, Versus; and Mr. Jones.
Wait \u2014 what? Just imagine the freakout. Presumably they did, because he decided not to come.
Still, it was as if Ms. Versace, who has never flatly denied the talking-to-other-designers rumors was teasing the Kremlinologists of fashion, dropping bread crumbs to see who would follow. (She usually plays coy and falls back on phrases like \u201cat this moment\u201d and \u201cnothing is changing for the time being\u201d \u2014 the kind of things brands say when change may be coming but the legal issues have not been resolved, so who knows, it could all fall through at the last minute, which it occasionally does.) As if she had decided to make the gossip into a meta game.
\u2018Maybe I\u2019ll pick among all of them,\u201d she said archly, referring to her peers.
\u201cThis is not my last show, I\u2019m not leaving the company,\u201d she had announced back in Via Ges\u00f9 \u2014 which does not mean, of course, that she is not redefining her role.
But then she added, in reference to her work with Versus: \u201cI have always opened the doors of the house for others to come in. It\u2019s very interesting to bring people in to show Versace through their eyes. We learn from each other. And companies need to change. Gianni always took risks, and he taught me that.\u201d
Having done her take on her brother\u2019s work, having said that the experience of making the Tribute collection had liberated her to move on, that the result gave her closure, or as much closure as she can have \u2014 \u201cI\u2019ll never get over what happened, it was too brutal, but this helped me get through it some more\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s easy to see her considering the possibilities of someone else\u2019s (Mr. Jones\u2019s?) take on the brand.
\u201cTo replace me completely? No!\u201d she said. \u201cWhere would they get a platinum blonde like me? I\u2019m irreplaceable.\u201d But to work with her, or nearby? \u201cI\u2019ve never been afraid to confront myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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