Versace Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2011

The Versace-show gave a slightly baroque feeling due to the enlarged motifs at dresses. Lots of white, black and dark-blue, and a little red and green. Donatella Versace kicked things off with military precision — a black admiral’s coat with bold, gold buttons that was as chic as it was streamlined. Then came the LBDs, sharp and angular in silhouette, and more jackets and coats in the season’s soldierly vibe. To both, the designer added a pretty baroque motif of large-scale swirling floral scrolls in bright purples and yellows.

The pleated skirts and jackets, cut from hard, thick leather, worked the pretty side of tough chic while  a long white coat sported patchworked fur sleeves. And if Versace showed fewer eveningwear contenders than usual, no matter. The sexy goddess gowns she did send out, with bondage-y busts and gentle feathered trains, were striking.

Groupielove # 8

Vivid pastels, geometric prints, baroque curlicues, short-short skirts, and slinky, sexy chain mail: Where else could this be but Versace? For Spring, Donatella Versace was telling everyone who went backstage that she’d been inspired by Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (which comes out next March). “I loved the idea of that fantasyland,” she said. Really, though, you didn’t need to know that to appreciate the fact that this was Versace redux—the Gianni heyday of the early nineties retooled in a gloriously confident way.