Versace 2008 Spring Collection

***jacquelyna*** · 09-30-2007, 01:19 PM

MILAN, September 27, 2007 – Versace for Spring was one of those idea-confirming shows where a designer picks out a latent trend and coheres it into critical mass before your very eyes. This season in Milan, it took Donatella Versace to get hold of drapey, flowy, goddessy dressing and make it look hot, easy, and believable. Her beautifully constructed silk jersey dresses—from short togas to open-backed draped shifts and full-on drop-dead gowns—ran the gamut from day to night in a rainbow of colors, with each piece gorgeous in its own right.

In days gone by, she might have loaded bling and busy prints onto dresses like these, but if there's one thing Versace has discovered in herself in the last couple of years, it's that she can also make glamour radiate from restraint. So for day, she balanced the collection with a vaguely safari-esque sequence of structured tops with floppy satin puffy-pocketed shorts or hybrid pajama/jog pants. Somehow, all this looked luxe and sophisticated—and in these clothes, the models radiated classy sex appeal. When a girl walked out in a drapey beige jumpsuit, the photographers—normally indifferent to wan, blank models—suddenly went nuts. This male form of accolade hasn't been heard on any runway for longer than most people can remember—and for a beige jumpsuit? No, it doesn't sound feasible. But click to the photo, and there you have it: proof that Donatella Versace is at the top of her game.

– Sarah Mower