There was a new, architectural mood in the Versace autumn/winter
collection in Milan.
It was seen first in graphic, structured, navy and black daywear
where tailored military coats swung out from epaulette details on strong
shoulders. Fur and leather bombers were paired with slim, above-the-knee
skirts.
But it was most dramatic in a group of hand-beaded and
embroidered industrial city-scape fashions, illustrated by Timothy Paulus
Roeleff.
The Dutch counter-culture artist's paintings of Berlin were
printed on neon yellow, fuchsia and purple trapeze-line dresses, with a collage
of iconographic images from the Versace archive including photo-montages of
1980s supermodels with their faces replaced by cats and dogs.