Be yourself. Believe in yourself. Break the rules. The Versace Fall-Winter 2025 Women’s and Men’s Collections affirm the House’s eternal ethos in an instinctive and authentic expression reinvented for a new mentality. Empowered by visual and emotional motifs intrinsic to the House, Donatella Versace employs the past as a road to the future, paved with the timeless values of Versace: freedom, individuality and integrity. As a metaphor for what’s on the inside, the furnishings of Versace Home – one of the first homeware lines created by a fashion brand – are rewoven into wardrobes charged with new energy. The transformation alludes to a symbiosis inherent to the House: blurring the lines between wearing a work of art and being a work of art. Evoking the interiors of Gianni Versace’s own residences, the approach inspires an amplified juxtaposition of the neoclassical and the contemporary. With theatrical flair, the Women’s Collection takes form in sculptural silhouettes intercepted by punkish deconstruction. Possessed by the irreverent spirit of the House, archival memories – silhouettes, prints, materials – are cut up and repurposed into innovative manifestations. The Men’s Collection cuts a statuesque frame enriched with graphic and opulent adornment. Expressed in leather and silk, it illustrates the House’s inimitable tension between the strict and the sensual. Unapologetically their own, the collections are statements founded in the enduring philosophies of Versace: do what you do best, stay true to yourself, and make your mark.

SILHOUETTES

Archival lines are re-sculpted from a contemporary perspective. In the Women’s Collection, ballerina silhouettes crafted from the memory of Gianni Versace’s costumes for the ballet take shape in corseted Atelier Versace dresses with gravity-defying skirts constructed on crinolines and lined in prints. The sensibility imbues printed pouf skirts for day – worn casually with Spencer jackets or voluminous knitted jackets – as well as tailored coats and the jaunty skirts of quilted evening dresses. Informed by the duvets and upholstery of Versace Home, printed quilting further drapes into bustiers, puffers and shawl jackets, and culminates in dramatic ballgowns. The volumes are contrasted by the lace-trimmed lightness of lingerie elements – slips, leotards, knickers – and the silky tactility of blouses and shirt dresses. Emboldened in form, blazers and tailored dresses adapt the offset shoulder first proposed in the Atelier Versace Fall-Winter 1997 Collection. In the Men’s Collection, a neoclassical spirit inspires statuesque tailoring with enhanced frames, contrasted by the fluidity of silk shirts. The volume expands in sculpted trench coats and the vigorous and virile lines of denim trousers.

MOTIFS

The colours of rock ‘n’ royalty render a palette of golds, scarlet, ultramarine and daffodil against black. Prints, the graphic grammar of Versace, re-energise archival motifs – including those of Versace Home – with new exuberance. In the Women’s Collection, quilting and the linings of ballerina skirts are adorned with five prints created from elements of cheetah spots, Barocco curlicues and the gem colours of rock ‘n’ royalty. They appear alongside four expressions of the frieze-like duvet stripes print native to furnishings, while Medusa medallion artwork graces tops. In the Men’s Collection, four leitmotifs are adapted in several nuances: a Wild Cats print fashioned from Barocco elements, cheetah spots and images of cheetahs; a Hall of Statues print based on neoclassical imagery; a Versace Safari print collaging wild animal illustrations with opulent forms; and a leopard print. Employed in clashing constellations, they adorn the linings and back panels of coats and emblazon Versace silk shirts styled with original printed neckties from the archives in sensory concoctions of colour and pattern. Solid colour suits and outerwear extract the nuances of the prints.

MATERIALS

Cut from the cloths at the heart of Versace, the collections hone the materials on which the House was built. Stretched over ballerina dresses and tailoring, velvet evokes Gianni Versace’s childhood memory of pre-empting his mother’s every move as she cut a velvet dress before his eyes. It also appears in evening dresses with sculptural borders covered in crystal mesh twisting around the physique. Tailoring conjures the embellished pockets of the Fall-Winter 1991 Collection in fully-studded V-shaped pockets and collars. The detail is echoed in rip-and-repair Japanese denim trousers, some adorned with crystal studs. The V-shape is mirrored in the cups of deconstructed corsets applied to tailored jackets, bodies and dresses in contrast colours. In the Men’s Collection, leather embodies a Versace code in outerwear and suiting. Japanese denim is washed for a timeworn effect, some over-embroidered with strass. Printed silk shirts and superfine knitwear posing as silk trigger a material tension with the rigidity of the leather. It creates an opulence reflected in a tuxedo crafted in tonal leopard-motif wool lurex jacquard with crystal embroidery.

TECHNIQUES

Memories are deconstructed and given new life through the savoir-faire of Versace. A spirit of resourcefulness permeates dresses crafted from repurposed printed material bonded with tailoring and fluid fabrics, and cut into strips spiralled into dresses and skirts. A similar technique appears woven into knitwear, twisted into fur-effect coils, and interpreted in metal mesh dresses. Similarly, cocktail dresses are sculpted on the body in tiers of leather or satin. The notion of mending reflects in metalwork patch worked from upcycled chainmail, metal mesh and crystal mesh employed in dresses and deconstructed knitwear. Coloured like car-paint, an Atelier Versace bustier dress, bustier and flared skirt are forged in 3D-printed recycled nylon polymers with crystal inserts. Replicating creations presented in the Atelier Versace Fall-Winter 1998 Collection, two dresses woven from unravelling silver and gold threads – embroidered with beads, crystals and tubes – embody a rock ‘n’ royalty sensibility.

THE NEW V SIGNIFIER AND THE VIRTUS BAG

The collection debuts a new V-shaped emblem, the newest signifier in the Versace iconography. Forged in hardware, the emblem captures the majestic geometry of the House’s initial and embodies Versace’s tension between hardness and softness. Alongside belt buckles and jewellery, the V ornaments the new Virtus bag, a rounded semi-circular top-handle silhouette designed to create a rocking movement when worn, in sync with the rhythm of the House. Proposed in two sizes, it is crafted with three dimensional bombé and stitching founded in the artisanal practice of saddle-making. The bag appears in smooth vitello leather with a subtle natural grain dyed in the colours of the collection – some adorned with stud and coin embellishments – or ponyskin versions animated with animal prints.

ACCESSORIES

Bags honour the iconography of Versace, exemplified in the new Virtus, a semi-circular top-handle bag adorned with the new V emblem. The Versace Tag line takes form in bowling, mini-hobo and drawstring pouch shapes crafted in metallics, shearling and studded suede. The Kleio re-emerges in an evening bag in tweed upcycled from archival Barocco prints. Saluting the Versace stature, towering banana-heel platforms with industrial metal caps enveloped in rubber manifest as Mary-Janes, boots and booties. The heel shape echoes in a series of metal-heeled stilettos including evening sandals in chainmail or mesh and hand-crafted Atelier Versace chainmail sock shoes. The Medusa pumps appear in primary colours or studs, while a Medusa kitten heel features as a pump or bootie. Jewellery is forged in industrial geometric gold and brushed silver blocks imbued with a punkish attitude. Bijou and belts adapt the new V-shaped ornament, while loaded Medusa chains pay homage to the House’s history. Classic Versace coin interpretations appear across women’s and menswear. In the Men’s Collection, men’s clutch, tote and hobo bags are crafted from pleated print foulards. Santiago leather boots are sharpened with a cut-glass V-shaped metal toe, while the Luciano boot is adorned with buckles.