<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Versace blazer and jeans that Julia Roberts wore during the Venice Film Festival \u2014 evoking consternation online about its new chief creative officer Dario Vitali \u2014 was probably no fluke.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never really been interested in fantasy. I\u2019m much more interested in reality,\u201d Vitale declared during an interview Friday, roughly eight hours before his debut show. <\/p>\n
\n\tSpeaking about his first collection for the storied Italian house, he said he \u201cwanted to make a statement on something that is very casual\u2026I wanted to start with something that was closer to people and relevant.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very obsessed with products,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
\n\tOf all the designer debuts this Milan season, Vitale\u2019s may end up being the most daring \u2014 and divisive.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf your idea of Versace is red-carpet showstoppers, there were none stalking the runway Friday night at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana museum, whose vast collection of art includes a Medusa bust.<\/p>\n
\n\tVitale\u2019s Versace \u2014 his first show at least, for he said gowns might appear later in other contexts \u2014 skewed more East Village disco than Met Gala, transposing Versace\u2019s reputation for color, audaciousness and sex appeal into more everyday garments like T-shirts, sweaters, blousons, vests and jeans \u2014 all with an unabashed retro brio.<\/p>\n
\n\tEmblematic of his more down-to-earth approach, he referenced the Warhol-inspired prints of Marilyn Monroe from Versace\u2019s seminal spring 1991 collection, but his hand-painted faces are not famous ones \u2014 even if they bear a fleeting resemblance to Jackie O, Sophia Loren or Rudolph Valentino.<\/p>\n
\n\tLikewise, Vitale deals with sexy in an upfront way, carving away T-shirts until they\u2019re more akin to muscle tanks or a tabard \u2014 and sometimes leaving the button flies of jeans sagging open.<\/p>\n
\n\tIndeed, there were so many jeans, hiked as high as possible to be tight on the crotch, you might think you were at a Versace Jeans show \u2014 or cruising through The Castro \u2014 circa 1985. The collection had a strong streetwear sensibility and a thrift-shop patina that might confound Versace\u2019s longstanding clientele.<\/p>\n
\n\tDonatella Versace, who lead the creative charge for 28 years following the death of her beloved brother Gianni, carried the torch for a polished, fierce brand of glamor very different from what Vitale paraded. (Named chief brand ambassador of the fashion house after the handover to Vitale, she did not attend the show Friday night.)<\/p>\n
\n\tPreviously Miu Miu\u2019s ready-to-wear design director, Vitale said he challenged himself to embrace vivid colors, bold patterns \u2014 and all that the vast legacy of the Versace house has to offer \u2014 but done his way.<\/p>\n
\n\tA soft-spoken, articulate young man with strong opinions, Vitale nevertheless acknowledged that \u201cthere is a lot to study\u201d at Versace, a pillar of pop culture. \u201cIt\u2019s really like Coca-Cola or Andy Warhol. It\u2019s something that belongs to everybody, and everybody thinks they know Versace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tVitale dug deep, visiting the founder\u2019s homes in Milan and Miami, poring over his art collection and even his hand-written correspondence to folks like Richard Avedon, and drawing new conclusions of his own. \u201cI think sometimes you get to know a person more from his stationery than from a dress,\u201d the designer mused.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo be sure, Vitale proved himself a formidable storyteller, scattering what was once a grand private residence with the detritus of an all-night bender: an unmade bed, makeup-stained cotton pads, and Versace clothes casually tossed here and there. George Michael and Prince were blaring from the speakers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen it comes to Versace, I always think that those people, they want to dance and to sweat and to have fun,\u201d Vitale said during the preview. \u201cIn order to do that, you need to have a look that fits right. For me, a beautiful pair of striped jeans and a fully embroidered leather vest that cost a million dollar is even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEveryone\u2019s fantasy is different.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Versace blazer and jeans that Julia Roberts wore during the Venice Film Festival \u2014 evoking consternation online about its new chief creative officer Dario Vitali \u2014 was probably no fluke. \u201cI\u2019ve never really been interested in fantasy. I\u2019m much more interested in reality,\u201d Vitale declared during an interview Friday, roughly eight hours before his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[291,226,289,292,290,133,163,288,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-4243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"tag-collection","9":"tag-fashion","10":"tag-ready","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-runway","13":"tag-show","14":"tag-spring","15":"tag-versace","16":"tag-wear"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegloss.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}