London
NCS
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From bondage types to security pinned dresses, daring celebration frocks are broadly thought of to be the important thing protagonists of Gianni Versace’s sartorial legacy. But the late Italian clothier was additionally chargeable for among the most majestic silk shirts of the Nineties, and his shut pal Elton John owned one in each print. “They’re just works of art,” shared the acclaimed singer-songwriter in a promotional video for public sale home Christie’s final yr, characterizing his deep affection for Versace’s patterns. “I never wore half of them, I just wanted to hang them. It was like an art installation with shirts, and it looked so beautiful.”
Now, they’re getting their second within the highlight. Versace’s spectacular line-up of shirts will likely be among the many 450 unique clothes, equipment, sketches, interviews and images exhibited within the largest retrospective of the designer within the UK. Pulled from non-public collections and held at Arches London Bridge within the British capital (working via March 2026), the present options appears worn by Princess Diana, Sir Elton John, Kate Moss, George Michael and Naomi Campbell, amongst others.
Versace, who based his eponymous label in 1978, made his identify shaping the style panorama within the Eighties and early ‘90s with glamorous and infrequently provocative designs. And his affect continues to be pervasive in trend and tradition in the present day.
In an e-mail to NCS, Dutch-Swedish mannequin Marcus Schenkenberg recalled that the primary piece of Versace clothes he ever owned was additionally a colourful inexperienced and yellow silk shirt. “It was one of my favorite shirts,” defined Schenkenberg, who gained prominence within the late ‘80s and is broadly thought of as one of many first male supermodels. Introduced to Gianni Versace at a casting in 1990, three years later he would entrance a couture marketing campaign for the home with Stephanie Seymour, shot by Richard Avedon.
Though maybe much less visibly transformative than a few of its female counterparts, the silk shirt is nonetheless emblematic of Versace’s fondness for ostentatious design (many have been adorned with the home’s signature Barocco print). One of the standout options of the retrospective is a black wall embellished with the busy silk shirts. “It’s an homage to both of them (Versace and Elton John), their friendship and to London,” mentioned curator Saskia Lubnow, talking on a video name alongside her colleague and co-curator Karl von der Ahe, and Liz Koravos, managing director of Arches London Bridge.
Since 2017, Lubnow and von der Ahe have poured over the designer’s work, constructing a powerful archive of items borrowed from very long time collectors, and subsequently showcasing the retrospective at museums throughout Europe, first in Berlin, Germany in 2018 and most not too long ago in Málaga, Spain.
The newest London iteration nonetheless, feels significantly particular, not least due to the expanded providing (it boasts 50 more items than its Spanish counterpart), but in addition the connection Versace had with town, staging an exhibition on the V&A museum in 1985 (when the home was nonetheless in its relative infancy), and surrounding himself with individuals primarily based within the capital, from Elton John and George Michael to trend editors Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes, in addition to Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, and naturally Princess Diana. “It had a very strong impact on him, and London was also a kind of bridge towards the USA,” famous von der Ahe.
The exhibition’s timing is additionally important, arriving just 4 months after Gianni Versace’s sister Donatella introduced she was stepping down as chief creative officer of the house, a task she has held since Gianni’s homicide in 1997. The information that her successor could be somebody outdoors the household for the primary time — former Miu Miu design director Dario Vitale took over in April — marks an vital new period for the model. The retrospective feels significantly apt in consequence.
“It was always nice to work for Gianni,” Schenkenberg continued, reflecting on his experiences with the designer within the Nineties. “He was always very kind and he was really one of the hottest designers at the time — everybody wanted to work with him, it could really make your career.” Indeed, whereas a duplicate of Versace’s “Men Without Ties”, a guide about menswear fronted by Schenkenberg and authored by the designer in 1994, is amongst the featured ephemera; so too is the January 1990 situation of British Vogue. Cementing the age of the supermodel — an idea largely engineered by Versace — it featured Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford on the quilt (the next yr, 4 of the 5 would lip-sync to George Michael’s’ “Freedom” at Versace’s fall-winter 1991 present).
Versace was instrumental in marrying trend and superstar, a observe typical by in the present day’s requirements however groundbreaking amongst his friends on the time. “Elton John was basically his billboard, he wore (Versace) on the street, on the stage — he was always advertising,” mentioned Lubnow.
“He revolutionized the relationship between fashion and celebrity,” agreed Schenkenberg. “Versace was one of the first designers to merge fashion with pop culture. In doing so, he made fashion feel glamorous, accessible, and alive in a way few others had done before, especially with celebs like Madonna, Prince, Tupac Shakur, Demi Moore, and of course all the supermodels.”
This affinity for fame and dressing influential artists can simply be learn as a precursor to in the present day’s influencer tradition, and von der Ahe noticed that Versace was aware about a novel place throughout his tenure. “He was in-between the old and the new. He had a profound knowledge about making fashion and the background of Italian manufacturing, but on the other hand, he started to separate the product from the brand,” von der Ahe mentioned. “He was coming from the old world, but opened the doors to the new world.”
Central to the exhibition are the collections from spring-summer 1988 via to fall-winter 1997 that are curated in chronological order. Versace “changed so much from collection to collection, but there is a red thread,” defined Lubnow. “He had the ability to mix patterns and colors. You never looked like a clown, but actually quite sophisticated, and that’s really an ability he had, and this vision he took from his culture — from his mother and from the tailor shop into street style, putting jeans on the haute couture runway; all these things he meshed together.”
Versace himself was keenly attuned to the assorted influences that knowledgeable his work, as soon as commenting, “There is a Versace who is very conservative, there is a Versace who is very crazy, there is a Versace who is very theatre … I haven’t decided yet which I choose to be.”
“The depth of what you can learn from him and his work is amazing,” mentioned von der Ahe, talking to the influence of Versace. “You might think everything is superficial, the bold fashion, but when you work with it, you really understand a lot about Italian culture, Italian history, about the time. And with Gianni Versace, you remember pieces that perhaps you only briefly saw in a magazine, a book or on TV. You remember it, even if you don’t know why, and that is really the magic with him.”
Or, as Lubnow merely described Versace’s designs, “they are showstoppers.”