Now even Palazzo Versace's pool boy can wear Versace

Palazzo Versace opened in 2000 on Queensland’s Gold Coast, reportedly the world’s first first completely fashion-branded hotel (the second edition of which will soon roll out in Dubai). Where else would it open? The Gold Coast is the native habitat of Meter Maids – those permatanned and mostly blonde, gold lamé bikini-clad, tiara-rocking parking samaritans who were first introduced in 1965 in a bid to raise the region’s profile (and put coins in expired meters). Donatella Versace would be right at home there in other words. Anyhow, 10 years down the track Donatella has designed some new clobber for her staff. This is the first time, a Palazzo Versace spokeswoman insists, that Versace has focused her design attention on all 28 staff categories, from the front desk right down to housekeeping (whose uniforms apparently incorporate the same lilac deployed in Versace’s SS10 season) to the pool boy and girl. Front office uniforms feature structured, gathered shoulders and narrow patent leather belts. All uniforms boast the Versace Medusa logo on buttons and all womens’ uniforms will be adorned with the satin “Vanitas” bows that featured in Versace’s Fall Winter 0910 main women’s collection. Behold a first look at what we are told are Donatella's own sketches and photos of the various uniforms. Frockwriter loves the Olga Sherer legs on the illustrated figure with the pantsuit. The big question now is: when will Donatella turn her attention to the Meter Maids?

United in grief - and Versace

getty via daylife


It's a family that has spent 40 years in the spotlight. And yet these are the images that may remain the most deeply-etched in our minds of the Jackson clan: young, old, black, white, high-profile, low-profile - and, in the case of Michael Jackson’s children, finally unmasked before the world - as all were united in grief onstage at LA's Staples Center, following the two-hour celebration of the life of their fallen brother, father and son. And as it emerges, the entire family was dressed in custom-made Versace. With extraordinary media coverage of the event – which, in online terms alone, saw a web traffic surge of 30 percent and broke Yahoo and Facebook records - it was a powerful brand statement for the Italian luxury brand. But just what was the Versace/Jackson connection?


getty via daylife

In Style, which broke the news, reported that Janet Jackson made a personal request to Donatella Versace , “as a tribute to one of her brother’s favorite designers, the late Gianni Versace” - who died on July 15, 1997, coincidentally, also at the age of 50.

Versace dressed many celebrities both on and off the stage and to be sure, Michael ‘King of Bling’ Jackson would have been right up Versace’s flashy, and often trash-glam, alley.

But after doing a little digging frockwriter was fascinated to learn that the celebrity trajectory of the Versace brand – which has embraced the biggest names in showbusiness, from Elton John to Madonna – appears to have in fact originated with Jackson.

According to a 2003 story in WWD, Gianni Versace’s very first celebrity tie-in was in 1983, when he outfitted Jackson and Paul McCartney for the video of their Say Say Say duet (below).

Jackson himself never appeared in any Versace campaigns – as has Madonna.

However in 1996, Jackson’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley was shot by Mario Testino for Atelier Versace and Versace Jeans Couture campaigns.

The chic styling of the Jackson clan at yesterday's memorial may have reminded some fashionwatchers of an editorial spread called Silent that was shot by Steven Meisel for the August 2008 edition of Vogue Italia (see slideshow below).

A tribute to the late Yves Saint Laurent who had died two months earlier, the story was set in a graveyard at a fictitious funeral and featured a cast of "grieving" models, including 1980s icon - and Gianni Versace fave - Linda Evangelista.

Two of the models, coincidentally, wore a beret and wide-brimmed fedora, not unlike those worn yesterday by Janet and Latoya Jackson.

Silent by Steven Meisel (Vogue Italy, August 2008)

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Beau geste: Did the dog eat Versace's social media homework?

doug ordway for versace

Overnight Versace showed its SS10 menswear show in Milan. Inspired by the French Foreign Legion, the hallmark looks of the largely desert-toned collection were the safari suit, a series of loose djellabah shirts, many of them dip-dyed, and the now de rigueur manbag. In Versace’s case, this included both the megatote and the duffle bag, right down to small, square leather purses, worn belted at the hip. Below is a video of the collection from, once again, the good folk over at LA Times blogs. And just as well that someone had their eye on the social media ball at Versace, because in spite of the suggestion that Versace was “fully embracing the digital era”, including the promise of "doggie cam" - that's right, a camera-enabled pooch - Versace’s so-called exclusive live-streamed backstage access turned out to be rather confusing.

Is there anything at all on the Versace website? No.

Instead, there is a series of uncaptioned photos on the Twitter feed of Doug Ordway.

Who is that exactly? Ordway is a photographer who says he does a lot of work for Versace.

A few images of the hair & makeup stage were posted on Twitter prior to the show. The bulk of the images were however posted long after the show had wrapped - with no captions whatsoever.

Ordway also shot three maximum 30 second backstage videos backstage which also went up after the event (see below).

Another site called Ftape, which calls itself the "Ultimate Online Fashion Resource" - and whose connection to Versace is unclear – appeared charged with the role of promoting Ordway's coverage via its website and Twitter.

And at least Ftape has done a good job of aggregating all of Ordway's photos and video together in the one spot. But you had to really know what you were looking for to find it.

Perhaps the doggie-cam - and also touted model-cam - footage is to be used at some later date.

Memo to Versace: YouTube is not live-streaming video. Nor is uploading a gazillion photographs hours after the event.

It’s great that more and more fashion companies are interested in getting into social media and providing their audiences with content.

But try taking a leaf out of Dolce e Gabbana’s book.

Dolce e Gabbana manages to aggregate all its content under the Dolce e Gabbana umbrella.

The company does have a spinoff, magazine-style website - Swide - which pumps out a lot of exclusive content. Granted, the site has a rather baffling name - which, judging by its low Twitter follow count may confuse people. But at least Dolce e Gabbana is serious about social media and has dedicated resources to it.

And furthermore, of course, Dolce e Gabbana actually live-streams its runway shows to the net as they happen.

Kane and able

Word first leaked on Friday that Brit enfant terrible Christopher Kane (above, pictured with Donatelle Versace) has been involved in a collab project with Versace's 20 year-old diffusion line Versus, which is being relaunched after a four year hiatus. Yesterday the spectacular, crystal-encrusted accessories collection was unveiled in Milan and here are a couple of shots, courtesy Versace.



This is not the first time Kane has worked with Versace.

Prior to the September 2006 launch of his own signature collection in London, the St Martins graduate briefly consulted to Versace's Atelier haute couture line and the accessories line.

Given how closely-guarded the Kane intel was, you have to wonder how much more of an involvement he may have in the Versus fashion collection, which will bow at the Spring 2010 shows in September.

Or indeed, whether there may be anything in the pipeline with another Versace protege, Norwegian Kristian Aadnevik.



All images: Versace.

Hurley burley Versace girlies: Donatella arrivedercis Milan

And so to the last show of Milan. Well maybe not the last last show but with a handful of less stellar names such as Love Sex Money and Alviero Martini left on the agenda, some of us would like to go out on a high. I'm seeing the 6pm show at the Versace Teatro, and it's still a bit early so I am cooling my heels at an adjacent cafe. Unlike the refurbed cafe next to the Prada venue however, I would describe this particular decor as haute nouveau riche: red faux ostrich seat coverings, gold tabletops and arguably the world's ghastliest stucco effort on the ceiling and walls. It looks like someone has taken a large sheet of plastic, scrunched it up, glued it down and sprayed it gold. I look down at the receipt the waiter hands me for my absurdly overpriced Coke (eight euros) and can't help chuckling at the establishment's name: Cheese Cafe.

I'm now inside the venue's foyer facing two gargantuan urns stuffed with white roses and foliage. The displays are each about 4m x 2m and there have to be at least 500 roses in each one.

Bang in the middle of a circular vestibule between the foyer and show space stands a large black rectangular vase topped with a metre-wide pompom of yet more white roses - this time sprayed turquoise. It looks like a bridesmaid's posy from The Land Of The Giants.

A projection of Versace's medusa head logo rotates on the far wall, like a large Roman coin.

Everywhere I look there are smart Italian woman wearing black coats, pants, skirts and opaque stockings, with impeccable black footwear and handbags, not all of it Versace. The scene sums up the Italian luxury goods market in a nutshell: superlative quality, sexual power and big hair.

Into the show space and there's electricity in the air. Photographers and tv crews are trawling the runway for celebs. Trudie Styler and some Italian actress are already seated. And Liz Hurley is somewhere backstage.

Ten minutes to showtime and crews start to gather around two empty front row seats. The 20-strong pack, myself included, climbs onto the side of the mirrored runway - normally a major no-no at any show venue as it scuffs the floor and can ruin photos.

This is the biggest media scrum I've seen all week. And it feels like it could get ugly at any moment.

"Get down! Get down! The runway is about to crack!" screams a security guard.

I head for my seat but the photographers head back around to the other side of the runway to take their positions opposite Hurley's seat which is in the middle of the row. Hurley suddenly emerges from backstage at the far end of the runway with fiance Arun Nayer in tow - who she'll marry next week - and stands there for the photographers, who then rush en masse from the middle to the end of the room.

Adding to the farce: Jackie Frank, the normally dignified editor of Australian Marie Claire, leaps out of her seat on the other side and in fact crosses the runway - an even bigger no-no - to start taking happy snaps. "I'm doing it for Sunrise!" she tells me later.

At the pace Frank hauled ass, she should be working for Today Tonight.

Hurley heads to her seat. Yet more pics.

The show starts - with a graphic series of white and black dresses and suits in a 'techno' Duchesse satin, with horsehair padding and articulated seamwork that sculpt the fabric into subtle, bell-shaped curves, yes curves. Trapeze-line capes and coats reek of the Sixties, but with a modern, minimalist edge. Funny that - the colour palette was, according to the show notes, inspired by American minimalist artist Brice Marden.

There's a lot of grey and silver, shot with lipstick red and turquoise. Of note, some of the season's sharpest shell dresses - the Sixties-nosed sleeveless shift dress, but with a rounded neck and nipped-in waist - the best in lipstick red. It exits with a matching fox coat with sculpted waist. There are also some very urban, skin-tight, wetsuit-look dresses in shiny black techno jersey, a striking gunmetal grey croc zippered blouson and a turquoise mink puffball coat.

The eveningwear features both silver-sequinned microshifts with graphic square necklines and bold, graphic cutouts at the back, one in a futuristic metal mesh, and trademark Versace goddess gowns, in grey, black, violet, red and white, with diaphonous, flyaway chiffon panels that trail behind the models as they walk. Picking up on the season's emerging bondage theme, the gowns' plisse bodices feature galvanised Plexiglass chains.

Strappy Mary Janes and sandals boast Space Age silver platforms and skyscraper heels.

It's a knockout collection.

I spot Australia's next top model, 17 year-old Catherine McNeil, in the show.

Although modelling for four years - and seriously for the last one - in just one week McNeil has emerged from nowhere to become one of the world's hottest new runway stars. In her first international season she has walked for Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Anna Molinari, Pucci, Max Mara, among others. This morning I watched her open Missoni - a prestige gig (she also opened Alessandro dell'Aqua).

McNeil is no doe-eyed, baby-faced Gemma Ward. With her chiselled features and smouldering, Vampirella-esque runway gaze, she's more reminiscent of an old-world screen siren, albeit one with a tongue piercing - and a second piercing at the back of her head that proved impractical with all the hair styling, she told me. McNeil has a kind of fierce beauty that synchs with the image of a tough, urban warrior woman who suddenly finds herself so very much in vogue.

Backstage I ask McNeil what the show was like from her perspective.

"Well it was scary because the shoes are very high, but it was a lot of fun" she replies.

And her first week in Milan?

"I'm glad it's over" replies McNeil, who is now headed for Paris but says she has as yet no idea just which shows she will do.

It's packed - and hot. I track down Hurley and manage to throw a few questions her way, while minders tap my back to wind up.

What did you think about the show?
Elizabeth Hurley: It was beautiful. I really thought that if Gianni were watching he would be so proud. Such pretty dresses, such beautiful coats. Long dresses and coats have always been my two favourite things and it's always been two things that Versace, I've always thought, excelled at. And sexy shoes, always.

Apparently they were hard to walk in.
I have a pair of them in my hotel room. I only got them earlier today. They really are - but worth the struggle.

They're real Take-Me-Homes aren't they?
They do beautiful accessories at Versace, they always have and they're stunningly beautiful. And there were the most extraordinarily, I thought, sweet little cloaks, little furry cloaks. I know you can't have them in Australia.

What do you mean?
No... oh you can wear them in air conditioning.

You owe your career, in one way, to a Versace dress don't you?
Yeah, I've had a long association with Versace. I wear lots of other things but I always come back to Versace.

I'm referring to that dress.
[Evasive] Lots of dresses. Lots of dresses.

I'm talking about the Versace safety pin dress [worn to the 1994 London premier of Four Weddings and a Funeral, pictures of which went all over the world]. Where is that dress now?
I think it's in a museum.

Really?
Versace is the one designer that I can pretty much put everything on and it fits. It's quite something. Most other things would be too tight in the rear or too high in the waist or too something. Versace suits me.

Donatella [Versace - the designer] seems to be getting her act together [rehab tends to do that].
I think she really has. I think she's evolved a lot and every year, every season, I think things just get more and more special. And this one really, very special.

How is your new swimwear line going?
Very well. A humble comparison to where we are today but it's actually going extremely well, thank-you.


For some reason Donatella Versace is even harder to get to. I manage however to squeeze in and grab a couple of comments before she is whisked away.

You've seen the pictures - but what you might not know is that Donatella Versace sounds exactly how you'd imagine Catwoman would sound, with an exaggerated, hyper-sultry drawl. It's so sultry in fact that, combined with all the backstage noise, I can't understand a thing she is saying while I'm actually talking to her and pray that I'll be able to make it out on the tape later.

Back in my hotel room, the Donetalla conversation is marginally easier to understand.

Exacerbating the problem is a technical malfunction, the result of which is that my tape recorder has started recorded background ambiance as well as what is directly in front of it. I've grown accustomed to tape recorders going on the blink when I'm on the road - having had to replace three of them now on similar trips.

Here's what I could make out:

What was the idea behind the collection?
Donatella Versace: I try to look at the future, what women will wear next. But I really..... the shape of the women's body... First of all I look at the fabric....

Was there a bondage theme?
No bondage.

We're starting to see a lot of bondage..
It wasn't bondage. It was about finding new materials.


It's time for a new tape recorder - and some sleep.

Tomorrow is a new day. And it will end in Paris.


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