Milan Fashion Week: Versace brings sexy back

The sexpot is back at Versace, where Donatella Versace showed a bang-up collection Friday night. With the 1980s revival in full swing, Versace smartly returned to some of her brother Gianni's most iconic design codes, and yet everything felt fresh and modern.

Baroque prints in fluorescent brights were splashed across tight-fitting jersey tops and postage-stamp-sized miniskirts, some with a layer of peekaboo plastic on top. (Start trolling vintage stores for those old Versace Medusa prints now).

Form-fitting jackets in black-and-white optical prints, worn with leggings, were a nod to the collection's "Alice in Wonderland" inspiration, as mentioned in the show notes. (With all the hype surrounding Tim Burton's coming film version, Versace's timing couldn't be better.)

Mini-dresses were seriously body-conscious, detailed with corset lacing, metal mesh or pink triangle leather insets. The show culminated in an impressive tableau of gorgeous gowns in candy-colored chiffon, with metal mesh insets or silvery chain details highlighting every curve.

These clothes were about as bare as you can go, but what saved them from being tacky, or even trashy, was the quality of the workmanship. This was Versace at the top of her game. And later that night, when she hosted an after-show dinner in the garden of her brother's palazzo, you could imagine him smiling down on her.

-- Booth Moore

Photo: Donatella Versace's spring 2010 runway. Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

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Comments

[Jillian Rueter]

This collection is so bright and appealing. The colors are beautiful and lively.

[sparkey]

Yum, Yum. And I ain't talkin' about the dress.