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Announcing... The WINNERS of the 2nd annual theFashionSpot Awards:
Designer of the Year
Ready-to-Wear Collection of the Year
Haute Couture Collection of the Year
Model of the Year
Magazine Cover of the Year
Ad Campaign of the Year
Congratulations to ALL of our worthy winners! Thank you to our tFS forum members who voted and particupated.
Why do you like/hate Versace?
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Miss Galliano
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i loveversace.. alwayshave.. always will
Monochrome chic
By ONG SOH CHIN
Donatella Versace: ‘They are my favourite colours because it’s how I see life right now.’
Donatella Versace now sees her life in monochrome shades, as reflected in her Spring/Summer 2007 collection.
MENTION Versace, and 1980s-style rock star excesses, lurid colours and rococo flourishes come to mind. But that was then. Today, the house of Versace is a different, more sober beast altogether.
In an article in The Independent, creative director Donatella Versace declared her new affinity for the monochromatic: “They are my favourite colours because it’s how I see life right now. Either black or white.”
Her Spring/Summer ’07 collection, which she unveiled in Milan recently, bears testament to her words.
Instead of over-the-top Dynasty wear, she showed ladylike outfits with clean lines, in hues of black, white, pink, gold and even – gasp! – beige.
Ladylike outfits with clean lines, in hues of black, white and pink are the order of the day, from Versace.
Hovering around backstage before the show, Donatella, 51, is much tinier than her larger-than-life persona suggests.
Her body is taut, her skin famously tanned, and she is sheathed completely in black.
Apart from the vertiginous platform heels she wears – de rigueur this season for all the fashion houses, hers included – her look is sleek and streamlined.
This is all rather disconcerting, considering she is a woman known for wearing diamond rings the size of the Rock of Gibraltar, especially when she now lists “wearing too much jewellery” as one of fashion’s no-nos. The other, she says, is sporting “too much hair and make-up”.
When she sees my look of surprise, she quickly adds: “You can have one or the other, but not both at the same time.”
New and improved
It would be fair to say this new, improved Donatella is not the same as the one who went into rehab to cure her 18-year cocaine addiction two years ago.
But while you can take the glam out of the glamazon, you cannot take the glamazon out of the glam.
The fashion house which bears her name may have undergone a financial and stylistic streamlining since the appointment of its new CEO Giancarlo Di Risio in 2004, but Donatella is making sure it still bears her unmistakeable imprint.
No one, for example, throws a party quite like her. Versace’s after-show bash was arguably the best during the Spring 2007 collection shows at the Milan Fashion Week last September, thanks to another diminutive but larger-than-life personality – Prince.
Prince also put together the music for her runway show, during which he sat in the front row, flanked by his two blonde backup singers. Later in the night, he entertained 200 of Versace’s guests with a full 90-minute set, which included hits like Let’s Go Crazy, Purple Rain, Cream and If I Was Your Girlfriend.
Pic above and below: Models in monochromatic mode in some of Versace’s Spring/Summer ’07 designs.
It is a coup only Donatella could have pulled off. But Prince is the closest thing you will get to “rock star” in the Versace ethos today. While she herself still admits to being a rock chick – “I listen to my iPod all the time. I love all kinds of music” – there has been a concerted effort recently to get her label to grow up, so to speak.
Donatella took over designing duties at Versace after her brother Gianni was gunned down in Florida in 1997. While both siblings had been trained in knitwear design, Donatella’s importance to her brother, when he was alive, was as a muse, although he did give her a fashion line of her own, Versus.
When she took over after Gianni’s death, the company’s profits started sinking.
The company swung into profitability this year after two years of losses, largely due to Di Risio, whose entry into the Versace fold marked the transformation of the company from a family-owned to a manager-owned one.
Donatella and her brother Santo, who were former co-CEOs, are now vice-president and president, respectively.
However, sales remained essentially flat, dipping less than a percentage point to 148mil euros (RM695.6mil). And revenues are expected to be hit going into 2007 as the company refurbishes its boutiques worldwide to its new black-and-white retail concept, a task which should be completed by March.
Versace updated
It is these new concept boutiques that really drive home the updated Versace image to the casual observer. Step into one and you might think you had walked into Prada instead.
Gone are the gold hardware and ornate finishings. In their place are steel and glass displays against discreet pistachio walls.
As minimal as the Medusa is maximal, the revamped version is a series of angular lines which bend in and out to form an infinite lattice.
Versace is pitching itself as an elegant luxury label, not only in fashion but also in lifestyle.
Last year, it acquired a bag-making factory in Burago, just outside Milan, indicating its intent to muscle in on the lucrative market currently dominated by players like Prada, Fendi and Louis Vuitton.
It is also paying more attention to accessories, many of which will fall under the revamped Versus line, which will be repositioned as an independent high-end, futuristic and tech-inspired brand.
Then there are the bold new forays into the luxury lifestyle market, like the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Versace, a limited-edition sports car which comes with couture accessories like matching his-and-hers suitcases, a suit carrier, a pair of calfskin driving shoes, a pair of driving gloves, and matching his-and-hers chrono watches.
The ultimate marriage of luxury and technology, however, will be taking place in the skies. Versace recently became the first fashion house to hook up with an aviation company by inking a deal with TAG Aviation, a Saudi-owned private jet company, to customise plane interiors for the latter’s clients.
The Middle East, which favours the Italian house’s traditional baroque aesthetic, is, after all, a key market. And Versace knows this.
In 2008, it will open its second Palazzo Versace luxury hotel in Dubai. The other Palazzo Versace is in Australia’s Gold Coast.
On the public image front, it especially wants to regain its stature in the influential American market where it is largely seen as an overblown relic of the 1980s and 1990s.
Suffice to say there will be no more fash-trash safety-pin dresses of the kind that propelled model-actress Elizabeth Hurley into the public consciousness in 1994.
Donatella acknowledges the end of that era a little wistfully: “The fashion business is more precise now.” Yes, the new Versace is all about black and white – occasional showers of purple rain notwithstanding. – The Straits Times Singapore / Asia News Network
By ONG SOH CHIN
Donatella Versace now sees her life in monochrome shades, as reflected in her Spring/Summer 2007 collection.
MENTION Versace, and 1980s-style rock star excesses, lurid colours and rococo flourishes come to mind. But that was then. Today, the house of Versace is a different, more sober beast altogether.
In an article in The Independent, creative director Donatella Versace declared her new affinity for the monochromatic: “They are my favourite colours because it’s how I see life right now. Either black or white.”
Her Spring/Summer ’07 collection, which she unveiled in Milan recently, bears testament to her words.
Instead of over-the-top Dynasty wear, she showed ladylike outfits with clean lines, in hues of black, white, pink, gold and even – gasp! – beige.
Hovering around backstage before the show, Donatella, 51, is much tinier than her larger-than-life persona suggests.
Her body is taut, her skin famously tanned, and she is sheathed completely in black.
Apart from the vertiginous platform heels she wears – de rigueur this season for all the fashion houses, hers included – her look is sleek and streamlined.
This is all rather disconcerting, considering she is a woman known for wearing diamond rings the size of the Rock of Gibraltar, especially when she now lists “wearing too much jewellery” as one of fashion’s no-nos. The other, she says, is sporting “too much hair and make-up”.
When she sees my look of surprise, she quickly adds: “You can have one or the other, but not both at the same time.”
New and improved
It would be fair to say this new, improved Donatella is not the same as the one who went into rehab to cure her 18-year cocaine addiction two years ago.
But while you can take the glam out of the glamazon, you cannot take the glamazon out of the glam.
The fashion house which bears her name may have undergone a financial and stylistic streamlining since the appointment of its new CEO Giancarlo Di Risio in 2004, but Donatella is making sure it still bears her unmistakeable imprint.
No one, for example, throws a party quite like her. Versace’s after-show bash was arguably the best during the Spring 2007 collection shows at the Milan Fashion Week last September, thanks to another diminutive but larger-than-life personality – Prince.
Prince also put together the music for her runway show, during which he sat in the front row, flanked by his two blonde backup singers. Later in the night, he entertained 200 of Versace’s guests with a full 90-minute set, which included hits like Let’s Go Crazy, Purple Rain, Cream and If I Was Your Girlfriend.
It is a coup only Donatella could have pulled off. But Prince is the closest thing you will get to “rock star” in the Versace ethos today. While she herself still admits to being a rock chick – “I listen to my iPod all the time. I love all kinds of music” – there has been a concerted effort recently to get her label to grow up, so to speak.
Donatella took over designing duties at Versace after her brother Gianni was gunned down in Florida in 1997. While both siblings had been trained in knitwear design, Donatella’s importance to her brother, when he was alive, was as a muse, although he did give her a fashion line of her own, Versus.
When she took over after Gianni’s death, the company’s profits started sinking.
The company swung into profitability this year after two years of losses, largely due to Di Risio, whose entry into the Versace fold marked the transformation of the company from a family-owned to a manager-owned one.
Donatella and her brother Santo, who were former co-CEOs, are now vice-president and president, respectively.
However, sales remained essentially flat, dipping less than a percentage point to 148mil euros (RM695.6mil). And revenues are expected to be hit going into 2007 as the company refurbishes its boutiques worldwide to its new black-and-white retail concept, a task which should be completed by March.
Versace updated
It is these new concept boutiques that really drive home the updated Versace image to the casual observer. Step into one and you might think you had walked into Prada instead.
Gone are the gold hardware and ornate finishings. In their place are steel and glass displays against discreet pistachio walls.
As minimal as the Medusa is maximal, the revamped version is a series of angular lines which bend in and out to form an infinite lattice.
Last year, it acquired a bag-making factory in Burago, just outside Milan, indicating its intent to muscle in on the lucrative market currently dominated by players like Prada, Fendi and Louis Vuitton.
It is also paying more attention to accessories, many of which will fall under the revamped Versus line, which will be repositioned as an independent high-end, futuristic and tech-inspired brand.
Then there are the bold new forays into the luxury lifestyle market, like the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Versace, a limited-edition sports car which comes with couture accessories like matching his-and-hers suitcases, a suit carrier, a pair of calfskin driving shoes, a pair of driving gloves, and matching his-and-hers chrono watches.
The ultimate marriage of luxury and technology, however, will be taking place in the skies. Versace recently became the first fashion house to hook up with an aviation company by inking a deal with TAG Aviation, a Saudi-owned private jet company, to customise plane interiors for the latter’s clients.
The Middle East, which favours the Italian house’s traditional baroque aesthetic, is, after all, a key market. And Versace knows this.
In 2008, it will open its second Palazzo Versace luxury hotel in Dubai. The other Palazzo Versace is in Australia’s Gold Coast.
On the public image front, it especially wants to regain its stature in the influential American market where it is largely seen as an overblown relic of the 1980s and 1990s.
Suffice to say there will be no more fash-trash safety-pin dresses of the kind that propelled model-actress Elizabeth Hurley into the public consciousness in 1994.
Donatella acknowledges the end of that era a little wistfully: “The fashion business is more precise now.” Yes, the new Versace is all about black and white – occasional showers of purple rain notwithstanding. – The Straits Times Singapore / Asia News Network
KhaoticKharma
Amour Comme Hiver
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I love love love Versace! 
I love how sexy the clothes are... they are overtly sexual, but somehow less sl*tty than Roberto Cavalli. They are so bold, and in all honesty I would probably never have the balls to wear more than the accessories or one of the dresses with very subtle details.
I guess Versace represents the girl I wish I could be!
I love how sexy the clothes are... they are overtly sexual, but somehow less sl*tty than Roberto Cavalli. They are so bold, and in all honesty I would probably never have the balls to wear more than the accessories or one of the dresses with very subtle details.
I guess Versace represents the girl I wish I could be!
hahahahaha
Mr. Fabulous
Active Member
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I love love love love Versace. I am sooo excited to see what Donatella is coming up with next.
FW 06 was amazing, I absolutely adored the deep blue/dark colors..the dresses were impeccable and the shoesss
.
SS 07 was good too, very different than the usual Versace which is what Donatella might be going for but still good enough for Versace's loyal customer. (the shoes needed a little work on but they were still good)
I really hope Versace becomes a fashion house again, I know she can do it.
FW 06 was amazing, I absolutely adored the deep blue/dark colors..the dresses were impeccable and the shoesss
. SS 07 was good too, very different than the usual Versace which is what Donatella might be going for but still good enough for Versace's loyal customer. (the shoes needed a little work on but they were still good)
I really hope Versace becomes a fashion house again, I know she can do it.
Miss Galliano
Active Member
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just love versace..
Blanche DuBois
Active Member
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- Mar 5, 2006
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Well for me it is THE show to see every season
The music the venue, the casting of the models the hair and makeup, everything is sooooo glorious in the versace world that it makes me wish to marry a billionaire italian guy and wear it everyday!
For me that is a look I see as flattering to woman...They're sleek elegant rich, luxurious there is nothing wrong about showing your legs or have your hair in a beautiful way...
I identify myself with that type of woman
The music the venue, the casting of the models the hair and makeup, everything is sooooo glorious in the versace world that it makes me wish to marry a billionaire italian guy and wear it everyday!
For me that is a look I see as flattering to woman...They're sleek elegant rich, luxurious there is nothing wrong about showing your legs or have your hair in a beautiful way...
I identify myself with that type of woman
