Paris Haute Couture | Atelier VERSACE Fall 2015 Couture

Fairies are real on the Atelier VERSACE runway, at least. For Fall, Donatella and co. sent out a parade of delicate pieces inspired by the flora and fauna of the forest. “It’s a bit romantic,” said Donatella Versace, sounding a touch surprised at herself. “I’m‎ not a piece of wood all the time!” So here was a softened-up, tendrilly vision for Atelier Versace: couture festival girls in garlanded headbands, vaguely Renaissance-medieval sleeves, and raw-edged chiffon trailing off in ethereal directions on a glass runway paved over hundreds of mauve, purple, and green orchids. 26,000 orchids were laid on the runway underneath glass panels, while a Medusa head made by the blooms framed the entrance to the runway.

One of Donatella Versace’s signatures is her smoky eye, but this season the designer and makeup guru Pat McGrath decided it was time to inject some color and brighten up. “We’re keeping it sexy but giving it a much lighter feel with pale, shimmery greens, using the same tone for every girl,” the face painter noted backstage before the show. “It’s much more romantic but still a little tough.” Continuing her thought, mane master Guido Palau added: “It’s about natural hair but very rock ’n’ roll and a little ’70s in a way really cool couture.” The pro left strands long and loose, then roughed them up with Redken Wind Blown texturizing spray. “They look like beautiful nymphs in gorgeous dresses with headbands,” he said. Speaking in chorus, the duo noted that once they saw the collection anchored by those leafy crowns, it instantly sealed the feel of their final beauty look: “It’s healthy, beautiful skin that glows to perfection,” explained McGrath of the high-fashion fairies who floated down the orchid-strewn runway. Based on high-gloss platform boots, thigh-grazing slits, and skin-baring cutouts, however, we have a feeling these otherworldly nymphs have a naughty side.

Discover Atelier VERSACE Haute Couture runway show at  the end of this post! 

LoL, Andrea 

Was Donatella channeling a fantasy somewhere out of Stevie Nicks via Game of Thrones? Wherever the ideas originated, the results the dusty pastels and grays, the appearance of drifty, almost disintegrating fabrics were dispensed without harsh color, hard silhouettes, and logos. Still, the underpinnings relied on signature Versace craftsmanship: the network of boned corsetry glimpsed through chiffon, as well as the embroidery and use of chainmail all superb. In a preview, Donatella said some of the dresses had taken four to six hundred hours of work days of labor to make something so fitted it almost appears to have grown onto a girl’s body‎ rather than sewn by human hand. That’s the mystique of couture.

 Amid the corseting and pastel flowers came a gown worn by Daria Strokous 

complete with a voluminous, tiered skirt and a cutout over the thighs all the better to show off her strut.

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories

Photo Credit/Source: The House of Atelier VERSACE

Stills by ANDREA JANKE via Instagram @andreajankeofficial

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'Impressions from Paris Haute Couture'

Paris Haute Couture Week will start on Sunday, July 5th to 9th, 2015, Excited to await this fabulous couture event, I'd like to present you a summary of my favourite Haute Couture shows for spring 2015 presented last January, starting with Dior, VALENTINO, ALBRECHT OLLENDIEK, Atelier Versace, ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER, Chanel, ELIE SAAB, LA PERLA Atelier, ARMANI Privé, Giambattista Valli, Maison Margiela by John Galliano - enjoy!

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Paris Haute Couture | Atelier VERSACE Spring 2015 Couture

Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams, Jane Fonda, Kate Hudson, no other designer dressed as many boldfacers as Donatella Versace did at the Golden Globes. If last night's Atelier Versace show is anything to go on, DV may score even more red carpet time at the Grammys two Sundays from now. The idea this season, as she put it, was "to go back to the shape of a woman's body, which is curvy." There wasn't a straight line to be found, not on the terrific black tailleurs that opened the show, nor on a trio of the youthful emoji-embroidered minidresses worn with matching knee-high boots, and definitely not on the evening dresses with their swirling arabesque insets of nude mesh.

The color palette was a bracing mix of black, white, red, and royal blue. And to start, at least, the clothes were remarkably unadorned by couture standards. That meant cut and fit had to count. Versace's experiments with a new, more generous volume seen on dirndl-style skirts and on a dress with a shorter-in-front and longer-in-back hem didn't quite gel. She's much more in her element with a body-hugging silhouette. And hug these clothes certainly did. Think Cher in her Oscar-winning days with an aerodynamic dash of Olympic ice-skater thrown in. The best numbers in this hit-and-miss collection were the most discreet: those black suits with the asymmetrical portrait necklines; one-shoulder jump suits with a slit up a flared leg; a gracefully clingy one-sleeve white gown.

Versace made up for the collection's early absence of beading as the show continued with a jet-embroidered dress so glossy it looked painted on, and a somewhat clunkier rubberized lace halter gown. By the end, Eva Herzigova and Amber Valletta's numbers were more cutout than they were dress. Apart from Kate Hudson, who sat in the front row with mama Goldie Hawn, Hollywood types may look askance at going nearly nude to a big awards show, or anywhere else. The music crowd is a much more freewheeling bunch: They're on a wavelength that Donatella is utterly attuned to. We expect to see multiple Atelier Versace gowns on February 8. 

Donatella Versace  

Selections by ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories 

Photo Credit/Source: Atelier VERSACE

 Photos by Kim Weston Arnold / Indigitalimages 

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'Maison Margiela Spring 2015 Couture by John Galliano'

Maison Margiela Spring 2015 Couture - You can usually tell how pleased a designer is with his or her collection by their end-of-show appearance. Last Monday in London, John Galliano took his first proud bow since his much talked-about leave from Dior in 2011. Wearing Maison Margiela’s signature white lab coat (his appointment there being another much talked-about incident), he was clearly happy to be back and rightfully pleased with his first couture collection for the house.

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