Looking at Donatella Versace’s spring collection, it was almost as if she had a schizophrenic streak run through her in the design room. But rather than go the route of Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” she channelled her creativity into a playful game of proportions and opposites: short vs. long, high vs. low, plain vs. patterned, dull vs. bright, and fabric vs. flesh. Beautiful high waisted skirts cut over the knee were combined with extremely short jackets that skimmed under the breast. The result: a look where a line of skin is visible between the skirt and the jacket, and where shoulders are rounded to give them a fresh emphasis. Fierce!
Indeed, the Versace shoulder achieved a new prominence within the collection and in many pieces is revealed, and framed, creating a new erogenous zone–achieved primarily through the use of decorative back-belts (martingales). These martingales, together with decorative buttons, join, embroider and shape the padded shoulders of dresses and tops, breaking up the expanse of nude back and gently and elegantly referencing “fetishistic” straps. A large part of this collection lied in the Versace Greek fret motif, which is used not as a logo device, but as a decorative pattern. My favorite pieces? The sold whites, reds, splashes of turquoise, and blacks interrupted by revealed areas of flesh seen through PVC inlays or sculpted shapes cut into fabric.
