Versace for H&M

I'm not a huge fan of Versace. It's always too perfect and well, it's being lacking in creativity for a number of years now but 80's and 90's Versace is hilarious. If I was European and of questionable age then I would wear Versace all year round on my luxury catamaran.

Below is the video with Daphne Groeneveld, Lindsey Wixon and Queen Donatella. And she speaks! But there's no crazy speech impediment, just her glossy white mane and giant capped teeth. It's amazing.

Versace Spring Summer 2012 Review

It was business as usual for Donatella Versace. The collection was on-trend and had plenty of typical Versace touches : loud prints, sexy business attire that I’m fairly certain could only be pulled off at a Versace board meeting, pastels, and super jumbo stripper-approved Lucite heels. The high-waisted pencil skirt with crop top was here and has shown up in other designers shows too which editorially would look great but in real life probably not. But Versace isn’t for real life. It’s for Hollywood, for Jennifer Lopez music videos. (I’ve been shitting on J-Lo a lot lately, what’s with that?)
 There were pastel ocean prints with studded shells and seahorses. There were also many dresses that had layered and draped pieces of silk worked into them. Some of these looks were more successful than others. Flat gold studs were used to trace out the figure in a lattice design. Sometimes this veered into overkill perhaps out of fear that without them the dresses would’ve looked boring. I think it would’ve been cool if she’d left the studs out and let people appreciate the tailoring because it’s perfect. Oh and Lindsey Wixon fell over and sprained her ankle. Not perfect.

Fuuuuuuck

Alexander McQueen Spring Summer 2006 'Neptune' Review

THE RUNWAY

THE DETAILS

THE DISAPPOINTING

THE EDITORIALS

THE VIDEO

This week my Savage Beauty book arrived in the post. As you can imagine I was very excited to tear it open and gawk at all the pictures. It's an amazing book that any avid lover of fashion and art should have. My initial thoughts were that there wasn't enough information on each piece but rather than have a fashion historian critique the clothes they speak for themself. I haven't scoured the book thoroughly but I think they tried to have at least one piece from every collection but I could be wrong. Initially I thought there was nothing from the spring 2006 'Neptune' collection but there were two beautifully tailored black jackets.

And it was Neptune that got me to writing this post. After I'd flicked through the book and marveled at McQueen's genius I started to wonder what his worst collections were. Like any artist's body of work, some collections are burned into our psyche forever whilst others get lost in the mix. But did he have any? And should I be using the word 'worst' in the same sentence as McQueen?

I decided to hunt the web for some reviews and they were mixed...

For two seasons now Mr. McQueen has produced collections that are manifestly commercial - again, causing insiders to complain that the British bad boy has become lazy. This season his clothes have a hard, clean look redolent of the 80's.

"I've done Victorian, I've done romantic," he said. "I wanted to bring sexy back. It's what is missing right now. And Alaïa was sexy for me. It was classy sex." He added, "I have so much respect for him, and I don't even think he will mind." Mr. McQueen is also someone who can get below the fashion surface. Despite the rightness of the minimalist silhouette this collection was all about surface. It grasped the notion of sexiness technically but not with feeling or belief.-Cathy Horyn of the New York Times
[NYT]

Is this the fashion moment for warrior queens in curvy tailoring as sharp as a compass point; or for Grecian tunics cinched with leather harnesses? Alexander McQueen thinks so. He carried his show of Glamazon models by force of energy. But turn the pounding music off and what was there? An image that Azzdedine Alaïa created in the 1980s when the power woman look was a challenge to spacey flower children and a genuine reflection of burgeoning feminism.
The collection, played out in black and white with touches of silver and gold, included taut tailoring with tiny, fluting skirts, gilded chains filling in a scoop front or a goddess gown suspended from a silver harness. But at a moment when women are reasserting their right to look simply beautiful, McQueen's premise went against the movement toward fashion grace.-Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune

[NYT]

Alexander McQueen has changed. The commanding impresario who once took delight in scaring and astonishing his audience with stadium-filling shows and designing at the brink of scandal has—if we're to judge by the past two seasons—joined the regular ranks of ready-to-wear designers who line up their models like soldiers and march 'em on out with the collection.
For night, the part of the show McQueen said was inspired by Greek goddesses, things took a turn for the disappointing—tiny pleated silver lamé dresses, white crystal-beaded gowns and pieces made in bandage wrappings of white or gold elastic. The slot formerly occupied by his showstopping extravaganzas is now serviced by metalwork body costumes with all the finesse of something left over from an eighties sci-fi TV series. Gone, even, are the staggeringly made, couture-grade fantasy gowns that have brought so many brides banging on his door. Though some of his moves are clearly being made in an effort to sell—no criticism in itself—this show, from a designer whose capabilities have won such respect, was a letdown.-Sarah Mower of Style.com

[Style]

What made Neptune such an anomaly in McQueen's career was it's straight-forwardness both in the clothes and the presentation. 99% of the clothes were wearable. Like, off the rack and straight on your back wearable. No gowns and no real show-stoppers except for a white silk cape embroidered with a phoenix on the back. According to McQueen he wanted to bring sexy back (his words, not mine). I think a lot of his 90's collections featured sex but it was raw, aggressive, nails down your back sexy. Neptune to me was like Hollywood sex, like Versace and in that respect it felt hollow. I completely missed the Alaia references which I feel so stupid about now because they're so painfully obvious. The short skirts, the body-con bandage dresses.

The commerciality of the collection was quite shocking too. He showed everything you would expect from a standard runway show. Daywear, easy to wear separates, handbags, even swimwear. And no runway theatrics. No dress-painting robots, no snow-covered tundras or merry-go-rounds. I wonder what factored into this decision? Was it a financial decision? A push from Gucci Group execs to get some cash injected into the brand? I doubt it. Perhaps it was a psychological break? Season after season people had an expectation that a McQueen show was going to be an extravaganza. And for many seasons he delivered. The Man Who Knew Too Much preceded Neptune and that too felt like a bit of an artistic breather. Instead of dark romanticism he opted for sexy Greek goddesses, not exactly a thoughtful or mind-bending subject.
After looking at this collection several times now I do like it. I don't love it but there's some beautiful pieces and it should also be noted that there's an immense amount of detail in the pieces that is easy to miss. The beading and embroidery is flawless. My favourites were: The all-black jacket/skirt/tights combo worn by Emina Cunmulaj (which p.s. what happened to her? She's so beautiful), the black cape/dress with gold chain belt on Gemma Ward, an immaculately tailored jacket worn with leather shorts and a boxing-style belt, the long white cape-dress.
And the worst? I can't use that word. Call me a wimp, a pussy. Call me biased but McQueen was a genius and I love and respect his work so I'm going to say his most disappointing looks. What appears to be a white silk crepe wrap shirt with obi-style sash was just boring. The same shirt appeared again in black but this time with silver sequined pants. The slinky-somewhat sloppy-beige wrap dress. I think it was mostly the shirts that had me lost.

So while Neptune pales in comparison to McQueen's other collections I still feel that it has classic McQueen references such as harness-like details, leather, sharp tailoring and some ingenious draping. If you get a chance I recommend you watch the video. The show proved he was capable of doing wearable clothes and removing the typical McQueen runway theatrics forced people to focus only on the clothes instead of getting swept up in say, a video installation or what have you. The repercussion was that people felt ripped off. Most notably Sarah Mower who called the collection lazy. I agree with that statement to a point. I think perhaps it was mentally lazy and some of the pieces weren't structurally challenging. But also, why would McQueen need to prove he could do wearable? Anway, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I know it's quite exhaustive but I wanted to shed some light on one of McQueen's less notable collections because there really are some amazing pieces in here.

Rough Around The Edges for Versace Fall

Above: Soooo trash right?

This was quite a weird collection for Versace. There was just something about it that wasn’t quite right and I can’t put my finger on it.

It lacked polish giving the clothes a raw element and a certain drape I’d expect to see at perhaps Rick Owens. There were some very spare looks, like 90’s grunge straight skirts but they were zippered at the thigh. The notion of splicing clothes-something done at Alexander Wang, Marc jacobs and Christopher Kane- added extra movement to jackets.

The pants were ugly with leather inserts and zips at the ankle and the finale of dresses were formulaic Versace sex on a stick.

VERSACE SPRING 2010

Spring saw Donatella Versace return to her old design ideals and pump out a sexually charged collection. Over the past few seasons there's been a marked change in Versace’s designs. Gone were the acid-bright prints and glitzy trash gold Medusa head leaving a more sophisticated and approachable aesthetic. Insiders say this change was due to recently departed Versace CEO Giancarlo Di Risio. Apparently he oversaw the entire design process and encouraged a more commercial look. This is the first collection without his alleged input and, well, the change is evident. At first I thought ‘wow, Versace is making you re-examine what it is to be sexy right now.’ Now I’m thinking, ‘no she’s just doing what she does best, slutty clothes.’
When was the last time you saw a fresco printed plastic micro-mini on the runway? Donatella played with spring’s pastel palette using lavender, lemon and peach but threw in zestier limes and an acrid yellow on a perforated leather dress with metal draped inserts and studs. Sound terrible? It was. But not everything was Hollywood Champagne bar stripper garb. If you take away the mini skirts there were some beautiful jackets that’d look smart for the office and a good selection of tasteful leather bags.

The final looks were classic amped up Versace and red carpet ready. An aqua coloured dress with a side cut-out and a thigh/crotch grazing split left me thinking oh god, who’s gonna try and wear that?