The first comprehensive overview of Versace’s womenswear collections, from Gianni Versace’s debut in 1978 to today, presented through original catwalk photography

Founded by Gianni Versace in 1978, the family-run fashion house soon grew into a symbol of high glamour and luxury known the world over, dressing the biggest personalities of the 1980s and 1990s, from Madonna to Princess Diana. After Gianni Versace’s tragic death in 1997, his sister Donatella became artistic director of the brand, steering it into the 21st century and cementing its legendary status for new generations of fans.

Complete with an introduction, designer biographies and collection texts by Tim Blanks, Versace Catwalk offers a rare opportunity to chart the development of a daringly flamboyant fashion house.

This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house, followed by brief biographical profiles of Gianni Versace and Donatella Versace, before exploring the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images that showcase hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs – and, of course, the top fashion models who wore them on the runway, from Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer to Jennifer Lopez and Kaia Gerber. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes the book.

With 1200 illustrations in colour

Contents List:

GIANNI VERSACE: A Short Biography
1979-2020 S/S & A/W Collections; 2021 S/S Collection

About the Author:

Tim Blanks is editor-at-large of The Business of Fashion. During his 30-year career in fashion he has written for the industry’s most significant titles, including Vogue, GQ, the Financial Times and Fantastic Man. He is the author of The World of Anna Sui and has contributed to titles including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Versace and Dries Van Noten 1-100.

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Другие книги серии - Catwalk Series

Chanel Catwalk: The Complete Karl Lagerfeld Collections

Dior Catwalk: The Complete Collections

Louis Vuitton Catwalk: The Complete Fashion Collections

Prada Catwalk: The Complete Collections

Yves Saint Laurent Catwalk: The Complete Haute Couture Collections 1962-2002

Vivienne Westwood Catwalk: The Complete Collections

Chloé Catwalk: The Complete Collections

A long-awaited and highly intimate visual history of Versace, the glamorous and globally renowned Italian fashion house.

Versace — a name that epitomizes Italian opulence, bold sexiness, and a flair for the extravagant — holds its place firmly in the fashion world as a legendary and iconic luxury brand. Taking over the creative artistic direction of the family-run fashion house in 1997, the enigmatic and alluring Donatella Versace has since catapulted the brand into popular culture, cementing Versace as a go-to label for A-list celebrities. 

This richly illustrated tome chronicles Donatella’s interpretation of Versace in the twenty-first century and her remarkable work as the curator and face of Versace. Versace includes exclusive contemporary and archival imagery from runway and backstage shots to intimate scenes at the Versace atelier, with accompanying original essays penned by fashion’s most authoritative voices. 

Featuring arresting photography by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Steven Meisel, among many others; images of Versace fashions modeled by the original "supers," such as Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista; and red-carpet coverage of Hollywood’s elite wearing dazzling Versace couture, this glittering volume delivers the magnetic vibrancy, supreme luxury, and glamour quotient that define Versace.

About the authors:

Donatella Versace is the artistic director and vice president of Gianni Versace SpA. 

Maria Luisa Frisa is a professor at IUAV University of Venice, respected critic, and fashion curator. Stefano Tonchi is the editor-in-chief of W magazine. 

Tim Blanks is the editor-at-large for the Business of Fashion. Ingrid Sischy was a revered writer, critic, and international editor for Vanity Fair and Vogue.

A completely fresh look at the Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace

The latest in the series of fashion books from British Vogue, which tell the fascinating stories of iconic designers accompanied by world-class photographs and illustrations from the British Vogue archive.

Gianni Versace created a fashion house that, as British Vogue declared, defined late twentieth-century glamour, invented the supermodel and sanctioned in the public consciousness a supremely self-assured feminine sexuality.' His debut line in 1978 was instantly successful; in the Eighties, his extravagant designs and his vision of powerful women defined the era, and culminated in the Nineties with the supermodel phenomenon - his designs worn by those glamazons who featured on every Vogue cover.

Vogue on Gianni Versace explores how his childhood spent in his mother's dressmaker's shops, his Italian hometown of Reggio Calabria, and his family, particularly his younger sister, Donatella, influenced not only the designer he became - the insistent sensuality, vivid colours, classical motifs, clashing prints and daring cuts - but also the way he constructed his business: family first.

The book reveals how the more brazen elements of his design - the jewelled embroidery, the bondage straps, the safety-pin gowns - were predicated on supremely skilled tailoring, deft use of materials and innovative techniques. Alongside are Vogue's eye-witness accounts of the Versace lifestyle - the palazzos and parties, the art, the celebrity friends. Vogue on Gianni Versace is a celebration of a designer and a house that, in only 19 years, came to dominate the catwalk and the red carpet.

Extravagant and supersexy, the fashions of Gianni Versace (1946-1997) combined the expert craftsmanship and luxury of haute couture with the sheer creativity of the street. Instantly recognizable for their glamour quotient-who could forget Elizabeth Hurley in her slit-up-to-there "Safety-pin Dress"?-the deceptively fragile designs utilized innovative fabrics and meticulous construction to anchor their illusions. Although thoroughly modern, the clothes also drew inspiration from fine art: Versace counted Delaunay, Calder, and Klimt among his influences. This fun, flamboyant paperback befits Versace's duality-high art mixed with media hype, delicate garments built from durable materials. The two separate sections address Versace's artistry and skill individually.

Published to accompany a major exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, this colorful book celebrates the lifework and remarkable legacy of a perennially popular and highly respected designer.