Versace, before and after Donatella

The crisis in the luxury sector, with sales plummeting, is forcing most fashion houses to change their creative directors. A real game of musical chairs that, far from being a real transformation in fashion, is nothing more than a face lifting that keeps the same people but moved around. Pretending that everything is changing so that, ultimately, nothing ends up changing. These movements, in some houses, are precipitating the retirement of historical figures, the latest and most famous being that of Donatella Versace after three decades at the helm of the family firm. But what has been the importance of the House of Versace in the world of fashion?

After Paris dominated fashion since the 17th century, in the 1960s it had to begin to contend with strong competitors, such as the United Kingdom with figures like Mary Quant, and later the United States, with Halston and Oscar de la Renta. Italy during the 1980s, with a whole new generation of creatives such as Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Gianfranco Ferré, Franco Moschino, and Dolce & Gabbana, put the country on the world fashion map.

At that time, Italian fashion was torn between two stylistic and vital poles. The first, led by Giorgio Armani, represented restrained luxury and introspective, discreet elegance, whose tailored suits masculinized the image of women with the aim of emphasizing their professionalism. A belief deeply rooted at the time—and still alive today—that, under the motto of dress for success [dress for success], believes that women should move away from aesthetic femininity to gain respect in the workplace.

At the opposite extreme, there was Gianni Versace who, in 1978, flanked by his siblings Santos and Donatella, built a stylistic empire based on boastful luxury and tacky neo-baroque, totally in line with neoliberal hyperconsumption. In fact, the grandiloquence was already clear through his logo: a Medusa that linked him to the greatness of the Roman Empire. A fashion that acquired a very unique aesthetic, through the combination of strident colors and the mix of references ranging from Classical Antiquity to Futurism, through the Renaissance and the Baroque, all mixed with compositions in horror vacui Hard to digest. A new way of understanding luxury that, as never before, unashamedly boasted of unreserved economic power.

Versace also spearheaded a change in the conception of femininity, with ultra-sexy models with plunging necklines, very marked silhouettes and sexual references to bondage or in the dominatrixes. Gianni, who sought to empower women through sexual daring, brought them dangerously close to the idea of sexual objects. Women who helped shape the essence of the house, since Versace was the driving force behind the phenomenon of top models, linked to the birth of the parade understood as a spectacle.

In 1997, the fashion world experienced a major shock when Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami home. Consequently, Donatella, with no training in couture or business acumen, went overnight from being Gianni's muse (as he called her) to running the Versace empire under the long shadow of her brother. We can't deny that Donatella, over the years, has ensured the firm's survival, but it's also true that she has never made it shine again as it did under Gianni Versace. Thus, Donatella, more recognized as a pop personality (addicted to cocaine, platinum blonde, and ultra-tanned skin) than as a creator of relevance, has brought an era to an end. Now the baton is in the hands of Dario Vitale, who is leaving the house of Prada, a symbol of discreet luxury, with the mission of restoring the splendor and relevance that once characterized the Versace house.