Versace's Greatest Hits

Everyone is going nutso over the H&M and Versace collaboration that launches on Saturday, myself included. Although I probably won't be lucky enough to get my hands on one of the sexy pieces, just the possibility of getting something Versace for a relatively inexpensive price is pretty thrilling. 

I've always been a Versace fan. Even though the super sexy look that dominates the Versace brand goes in and out of vogue, I will never forsake the bombshell style that is the brand's signature. 

I love love love that Donatella designed the collection based on iconic archival Versace pieces. The scarf prints, the bondage gear, and the metallics are all references to different Versace moments in time. In honor of this fabulous collaboration, let's take a look at some of Versace's greatest hits, shall we?

Gianni Versace in 1991 with Cindy Crawford, Carla Bruni, Nikki Taylor, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Yasmeen Ghauri, Nadège du Bospertus, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, and Nadja Auermann.

Gianni Versace has been credited for the supermodel madness in the nineties because he was the first designer to use all of the top models in his shows and ad campaigns.

Here is the full picture, in which you can also spot (from right) Beverly Peele, Susan Holmes, Stephanie Seymour, Tatjana Patiz, and Eva Herzigova. 

Thanks commenters for helping me out with some of these models' names! I'm still stumped on the model in between Susan and Linda though. My best guess is Nadja, but I'm not sure. I've also heard Karen Mulder, but I'm not convinced by that either...

March 25, 1991. Cindy Crawford with fiance Richard Gere at the 63rd Academy Awards.


In a recent poll for the Guardian magazine, readers chose this as the 12th greatest red carpet gown of all time. This is such an iconic and glamorous image that sums up the best parts of the decade: glamour, supermodels, sex appeal, and Richard Gere.

Top: Vogue editorial, September 1991 starring (from left to right) Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz, Helena Christensen, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Karen Mulder, Stephanie Seymour all in Gianni Versace. Photograph by Peter Lindbergh.

Ah... those were the days. When supermodels were required to be gorgeous and have the bodies to fill out biker babe clothes!

F/W 1991 Gianni Versace ads starring Stephanie Seymour, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Helena Christensen. Photos by Richard Avedon.

 

F/W 1992 Gianni Versace ads "Bondage" collection with Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Cambell.  Photo by Irving Penn.

This collection is back in a big way. Lady Gaga wore pieces from this collection in her "Born this Way" video. Doutzen Kroes and Giovanna Battaglia have also been spotted in F/W 1992 pieces recently.

Atelier Versace Fall/Winter 1992 ads starring Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour and Yasmeen Ghauri.

Warrior princesses! Love. Gaga has also recently been seen in the couture skirt pictured here on Ghauri.

F/W 1993 Gianni Versace. 

Stephanie Seymour was WAY too hot for Axl Rose. I actually am not sure if this is from 1993, or a lot later. It looks like it fits into the ads I have found from 1993, but this picture is a bit different. Anyone know for sure?

Elizabeth Hurley with Hugh Grant at his Four Weddings and a Funeral movie premiere in 1994.

Voted the most iconic red carpet dress of all time, Hurley's safety pinned Versace dress grabbed the attention of the world's media and brought her more fame than dating Hugh Grant. Only a Versace dress could do that!

 Gianni Versace Spring 1994 Ad campaign starring Christy Turlington, Nadja Auerman, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Claudia Schiffer.

Gianni Versace 1994 Fall Ad Campaign starring Nadja Auerman, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour; photographed by Richard Avedon.

Have you ever seen bobby socks and turtleneck cable knits look sexier?

Vogue magazine took this shot after a Versace fashion show in 1995. How many supermodels can you name?

1995 Versace ads starring Madonna. Photos by Steven Meisel.

Versace generated a huge amount of publicity by hiring Madonna as the face of its ad campaigns in 1995. Celebrity models were almost nonexistent at this time, and Versace jumpstarted the trend, to tremendous success. Compare these ads to Madonna's ads in 2005 (below). Which ones do you like better?

J. Lo wore a plunging sheer Versace gown to the 2000 Grammy's that left Americans shocked and covered in drool. 

I mean, seriously, who could forget this one?

Britney Spears wore a custom gown by Donatella Versace at the Versace Spring/Summer 2003 fashion show in Milan.

This pic is how I fondly remember Britney in the "good ole days." Overly made up, big hair, sequins, looking HOT.

In 2003, Donatella designed what was probably the most hyped dress of the year. Christina Aguilera wore it in the Versace ad campaign, Beyonce rocked it at the MTV movie awards and even Barbie wore a version of the coveted dress in gown form. Hell, I even remember Arden B. designing a knock-off.

Who wore it best? First of all, Christina Aguilera should never EVER be caught without makeup again. Shudder. Secondly, Barbie looks hot, but a blonde should never wear that shade of pink. I would know. I think I'm going to give this one to Beyonce.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City finale episode, "An American Girl in Paris: Part Une" in 2004. 

This Versace couture gown is one of my personal top contenders for best dress in the Sex in the City series. Reportedly it had a retail price of $79,000. A totally feasible price for a newspaper columnist, right? 

Madonna for Versace in 2005. Photo by Mario Testino.


Madonna posed for this campaign doing minute, everyday tasks like licking envelopes, sitting at the computer, and talking on the phone. Somehow still, this campaign was one of the most glamorous I've seen, and it made me want her life.

Versace is known for casting the most beautiful people in its ad campaigns. In 2006, Halle Berry was chosen as the face of the brand.

Gisele Bundchen at the 2008 Metropolitan Costume Institute Ball.

Gee Golly Gosh Gisele looked gorgeous in this dress. For real, that body is a sin. One of my personal favorite looks in Met history.

Spring/Summer 2008. Donatella cast Gisele for Versace's ad campaign.

The sexy Brazilian supermodel was a perfect fit for this body conscious Versace collection. So jealous of those legs!

Blake Lively at the 2009 Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Ball.


Lively is another sexy star who can carry off Versace's bombshell dresses amazingly well. This blue green gown looked fantastic on her.

Spring/Summer 2009 ad campaign starring Kate Moss.

I loved this campaign. Metallic bodycon dresses, sun kissed skin, tousled hair, and the world's most notorious supermodel. Quintessential Versace.

Christina Aguilera in Versace at the 2010 Golden Globes.

I miss how Christina used to look - classy and polished, yet sexy. Now she just looks like a tacky tranny mess.

January Jones at the 2011 Golden Globes.

This dress caused some controversy at the Golden Globes, but I was in love with it. So fringey, so red hot, so Versace. 

Lady Gaga, June 2011.

I'm not sure about the motive behind Gaga's summer obsession with vintage Versace, but I adored it. The pop diva devoted two months to only wearing archival pieces from the famed brand, including classic scarf prints and couture bondage pieces from Gianni Versace's heyday.

Fashion Movie Nights: Unzipped

Unzipped (1995), a behind-the-scenes documentary following the making of designer Isaac Mizrahi's F/W 1994 collection, is an honest and hilarious look at what it takes to make it in the oft-worshipped world of high fashion design. What sets Unzipped apart from other fashion documentaries is Mizrahi's larger-than-life personality, and made for TV sound bites scattered throughout the film. Douglas Keeve's beautiful black and white cinematography doesn't hurt, either.

Above: Mizrahi as a young boy

The opening scene shows a distraught Mizrahi, whose bandana and fro is an obvious sign of the grungey nineties. His S/S 1994 collection did not get good reviews, but has to immediately gear up for the next collection. The film highlights this journey, from his inspiration (chic eskimos in Nanook of the North) to his fabric selections ("I looked through thousands of sequins to find this one"), and from his let-downs (finding out from Women's Wear Daily just days before showing his collection that Jean-Paul Gaultier also was inspired by Nanook of the North) to his eventual vindication (a fantastic review of his F/W 1995 collection in the New York Times).


High Fashion Cred: If you yearn for the days of glamorous nineties supermodels like I do, this film is right up your alley. In Unzipped, the supermodels are the stars, and rightfully so. But while viewers are already familiar with their otherworldly faces, this documentary displays their personalities like you've never seen them before. 





Cindy Crawford is refreshingly down-to-earth, at one point discussing football games with Mizrahi like a true Midwesterner, a few scenes before then-boyfriend and movie star Richard Gere comes to watch her strut her stuff in the Isaac Mizrahi fashion show.




Linda Evangelista plays the brat with aplomb - when she realizes she has to change behind a see-through "scrim" in front of the entire fashion show audience, she throws a mini tantrum. "It's so crazy to dress nude by Naomi and Carla," she whines. "I must be out of my f***ing mind to dress next to the two best bodies in the business!"

Carla Bruni has a much different reaction to the see-through screen, shimmying seductively behind it before the show starts. "My natural exhibitionist now comes out of this situation," she giggles in a heavy French accent. "You really can see everything, oh yes!" After a film full of her come-hither glances, it's not hard to understand how Bruni seduced Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger in the nineties, or the President of France a couple of years ago (she is now the First Lady).





20-year-old Kate Moss is as cooly nonchalant as she is now, watching Linda and Naomi goof off backstage with total disinterest. The contrast between Kate, the poster child of the heroin-chic waif look and the early nineties glamazon embodied by supermodels like Linda and Naomi is captured perfectly in this one short moment.





Naomi Campbell seems fresh-faced and fun, a far cry from the terrifying diva that she is constantly portrayed as in the media today. During a fitting, she playfully argues with Mizrahi about taking out her belly button ring, and afterwards skips down a NYC sidewalk with him hand in hand.


Unzipped screen shots clockwise from top left: Shalom Harlow, Christy Turlington, Patricia Velasquez and Helena Christensen.

Other supermodel cameos include Helena Christensen, Shalom Harlow, Christy Turlington, Padma Lakshmi, Nikki Taylor, Veronica Webb and Karen Mulder. If models don't thrill you, several other fashion heavy-hitters make appearances like Andre Leon-Talley, Giles Bensimon, Kevin Aucoin and Linda Fargo.

Modeling in Mizrahi's F/W 1994 show, clockwise from top left: Carla Bruni, Shalom Harlow, Harlow in the 'best dressed' babydoll dress, and Padma Lakshmi

Best Dressed: This is a tough one, but my guests who watched Unzipped with me all agreed on the sparkly baby doll dress seen on Shalom Harlow.

Karen Mulder in yellow, Nikki Taylor in blue, and Shalom Harlow in pink

Most visually stunning scene: Most of Unzipped is filmed in black and white, so when the climax of the film, the fashion show, finally reveals Mizrahi's brilliant use of color, the effect is dazzling. At the fittings, each sparkly dress and shaggy fur look alike, but in color each outfit is totally unique. Campbell opens her shaggy black fur to reveal a sparkly canary romper; Evangelista stomps down the runway in glossy black sequins trailing her Pepto pink coat behind her; Crawford is a delicate ski bunny in a shiny pink party dress and wide matching headband and booties.

Most unexpected scene stealer: In one of the beginning scenes, Mizrahi meets with a bejeweled Eartha Kitt, the legendary cabaret star. The seventy-something is more energetic than a child on a sugar high and saucier than a jar of Prego. "Make me some gowns! Some gowns that I can mooove in," she purrs, before breaking out in an impromptu dance routine.

Models behind the scrimm getting dressed before the fashion show starts

Substance score: 7. Mizrahi's hilarious quips and the supes in all their glory will ensure that any fashion addict will enjoy this one of a kind documentary. Mizrahi's fashion show finale is such a visual feast for the eyes that viewers will understand that they are bearing witness to a spectacular moment in fashion history.

Cindy, Carla, Linda and Shalom closing the fashion show.

Here's the trailer for Unzipped. I promise that the quality of the actual film is not this grainy!

FMN celebrates both iconic films that have shaped fashion in a significant way and documentaries offering a behind the scenes look into the fashion industry. In a series of blog posts following our FMN viewing parties, I analyze the impact of each film on fashion.