Today Gigi Hadid made a triumphant return to the runway since having her first baby as she walked in Versace’s autumn/ winter 2021 show.
Opening the pre-filmed catwalk video in a black crop top, black jacket and mega black platforms, Gigi looked fresh and fierce, with razor straight hair and slick of neon blue eyeshadow. She was last seen on the runway during the Paris shows this time last year, when she was already pregnant it later was revealed.
Joining her on the runway was her sister Bella, who made the case for opera gloves and a pirate-style black silk bandanna, accessories that were a theme throughout the collection.
Overall the clothes oozed Versace’s signature sexiness, with trim, teenier-the-better silhouettes a key theme for the womenswear and nipped-in tailoring, boxy puffer jackets and shorts worn with chunky lug soled brogues and knee-high socks a mainstay for the men.
With models hair flicking and grooving to the mood-boosting soundtrack, Versace’s latest digital spectacle certainly left us longing for a return to a vibier normality. Colourful chainmail dresses and minuscule minis with cinched-in waists and A-line skirts were date and dancefloor-ready, while wafting sheer maxi skirts, like the black ones Irina Shayk and Gigi wore to close the show, looked effortless paired with black bodysuits and berets.
Today’s spectacle marked the first time Versace had appeared off the official Milan Fashion Week timetable, which wrapped earlier this week. And yet for Donatella Versace, it felt like a natural move. While some designers have struggled with the digital format, the designer said in the show notes that she’s ‘realised it is the future, the new way of communicating collections.
Does this mean Versace will never return to real-life runway shows with audiences? If today’s video resonates with customers and Versace’s sales continue to perform as well into 2021 as they have done in 2019-20, then there’s no reason why not.
As Donatella says, ‘…this is what the present and future look like to me.’
