Versace Faux Leather Miniskirt Catalogue Entry

Gianni Versace c.1980/90s

Women’s white faux leather miniskirt

Designer Gianni Versace, born 1946 in Reggio Calabria, Italy, was not afraid to produce provocative and seductive clothing in both his high fashion looks and clothes for the everyday man or woman. His dresses were tight, his necklines low and his skirts short. This was a common theme throughout his expansive and affluent career and became something of a trademark of it. Versace himself spoke about his more risqué take on fashion design, saying ‘excess is entertaining, eccentricity stimulating. Only one rule applies, spontaneity’[1] and when asked if he thought ‘vulgar’ was an appropriate word to describe his designs he said, ‘what is vulgar? I don’t know what vulgar is’[2]. This suggests that Versace did not see any limits to his designs and didn’t view his designs as over the top or ‘vulgar’ but, in fact, that was the aim. In the Richard Martin book, Fashion Memoir: Versace, he talks about Versace’s designs and style and provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the great designer’s mind. Martin says, ‘what Versace in fact created was a sensual contemporary woman who despite her short skirt has the powerful authority of a traditional menswear paradigm. […] He is always willing to risk vulgarity’[3] once again using vulgar as the preferred term to describe Versace’s work.

The faux leather skirt shown in figure 1 and 2 are an example of Versace’s designs in more of a ready to wear style as opposed to haute couture. The skirt appears to be from the 1980s or 90s because the short length and overall look is very fitting to that time as it is well-known that miniskirts were extremely popular in the 1980s. The label on the skirt (fig. 2) shows it is from Versace’s line of jeans couture, a more casual line that is still sold today for a look more fitted to the everyday and – as the name suggests – includes a lot of denim products in modern times. Not a lot can be found about this particular skirt as it is no longer in production and/or sold on the Versace website or instore, however the skirt does speak to and provide an example of both the daring designs Versace was known for as well as his love and frequent use of leather or, in this case, faux leather. Richard Martin says, ‘leather is a recurrent motif in Versace’s collections for both men and women. […] It’s the strength of leather and its association with sensual and raw power, as well as its coloristic and textural richness that Versace enjoys’[4] and Versace himself says that seeing Diana Vreeland wearing leather in the 1970s ‘led [him] to an even greater love for leather, which remains one of the materials [he] loves’[5] explaining why the designer loved to use this material and reiterating the idea of his designs being sensual, the leather only aiding this.

Versace’s more daring take on fashion was in contrast to the popular and more accepted fashion of the 1980s, as seen through examples in the book, Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1980s by Tina Skinner. Figure 3 shows the cover and shows two examples of women’s dress at this time. Most of these items of clothing are long skirts and jumpers with high necklines as demonstrated on the front cover of the book. Everything is presented as modest whether designed for a teenager, child or adult. Although this is only what was sold and displayed in Sears at the start of the decade and doesn’t necessarily reflect the clothing choices of every woman and the clothing styles of every shop at the time, we can assume that fashion at this time – or at least what was widely accepted and/or expected for women – was, for the most part, modest and clean-cut. Thus, Versace’s designs would have caused a stir and shock to both consumers and other designers of this time, something that could arguably have worked in his favour and been a large selling point to his work as it would have stood out, as supported by Richard Martin who says, ‘Versace was, as always, designing the most confident clothing of his time’[6].

His designs were also in contrast to those of fellow designers. Armani in particular is mentioned and compared to Versace a lot in Lowri Turner’s book, Gianni Versace: Fashion’s Last Emperor. As the two were in what she portrays as fierce competition[7], it is not a surprise that Turner compares the two frequently. This also supports the idea that Versace’s clothes were not for the faint of heart and were oftentimes outrageous in comparison to designs being put out by other creators throughout his career. Armani’s signature beiges and tailored suits which are described my GQ as ‘elegant’[8] would have appeared plain and subdued in comparison to Versace’s slits, low necklines and short hems; things which Turner says made his designs be seen as ‘flashy hooker-wear for wealthy women who wanted to look cheap’[9]. Figure 4 shows Armani suits on the runway and figure 5, in comparison, shows a Versace love-cut dress from 1991. These images show how Versace’s racy designs looked when compared to Armani and other designers producing similar looks to him at the time and how they stood out because they were shocking and fresh. They two side-by-side also emphasises just how much Versace was willing to rock the boat of fashion and display flashy and daring looks to be consumed by the masses.

First written for University in April 2020.

Bibliography

Martin, Richard. Fashion Memoir: Versace. Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1997. Print.

Skinner, Tina. Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogue: Early 1980s. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1999. Print.

“Style Evolution: The Armani Suit.” GQ [24th Oct. 2013]. Web. 31st March 2020. https://www.gq.com/gallery/style-evolution-the-armani-suit

Turner, Lowri. Gianni Versace: Fashion’s Last Emperor. Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1997. Print.

Illustrations

Fig. 1-2 – Versace skirt, c.1980/90s. Italian. Faux leather/polyester and polyurethane. University of Brighton. Personal photograph.

Fig. 3 – Cover of Fashionable Clothing from the Sears Catalogs: Early 1980s by Tina Skinner. Image from WHSmith website.

Fig. 4 – Models wearing suits designed by Girogio Armani on the catwalk c,1987. GQ Magazine online.

Fig. 5 – Model, Claudia Schiffer, modelling a Versace dress on the runway for the ready to wear line, c. 1991. Vogue Magazine online.

[1] Gianni Versace quoted in Lowri Turner, Gianni Versace: Fashion’s Last Emperor (Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1997) 39. [2] Gianni Versace quoted in Turner, Gianni Versace, 13. [3] Richard Martin, Fashion Memoir: Versace (Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1997) 6. [4] Martin, Fashion Memoir: Versace, 5. [5] Gianni Versace quoted in Martin, Fashion Memoir, 5. [6] Martin, Fashion Memoir: Versace, 5. [7] Turner, Gianni Versace [8] “Style Evolution: The Armani Suit.” GQ [24th Oct. 2013]. [9] Turner, Gianni Versace, 24.