Gianni Versace Medusa Black bag
About the Item
- Designer:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Amsterdam, NL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU22126845681
Gianni Versace
The signature extravagance of legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace — forever aligned with glamour, sex, celebrity and spectacle — can overshadow the Italian couturier’s broad and deep engagement with history and culture. Today, his vintage dresses and gowns, handbags, sunglasses and other accessories look astonishingly fresh and freshly relevant.
More than any designer before him, Versace mined celebrity, music and Pop art for inspiration, and his subversive, maximalist and unabashedly seductive designs infused high fashion with an entirely new ethos. “I don’t believe in good taste,” he once explained. Instead, he had a sexy good time with fashion — as he did with life.
Gianni Versace was born in Calabria, Italy. His mother was a successful dressmaker who employed more than 40 seamstresses. As a child, little Gianni marveled at her workshop, which would become a university of sorts, where he learned the exceptional construction techniques that were at the foundation of his creative expression.
In 1972, at age 25, he moved to Milan to work in fashion. He launched his first collection — and his label — in 1978, with his older brother Santo managing the business concerns. Soon, sister Donatella, whom Gianni dressed and took to discos when she was still a child, joined the family venture, where she had a creative role and managed enormously popular ready-to-wear lines such as Versus.
Vintage Versace — and Gianni Versace Couture, which debuted in 1989 — has become catnip for modern fashion enthusiasts who seek out the now-iconic house codes that originated in the designs of the 1980s and 1990s. His glamorous and seductive apparel — the clingy skirts and slender, strappy party dresses, as well as the erotic magazine ads that publicized them — looms large, but Versace’s art and historical influences were also vast.
Versace was an art collector, and he took on commissions to create costumes for theatrical performances during the 1980s and spoke of looking to numerous cultures for inspiration. The New York Times noted in 1997 that the fashion industry “is now driven by contemporary culture because Mr. Versace made it that way.”
Insiders consider his 1991/1992 Autumn/Winter runway show — which featured supermodels Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista lip-synching George Michael’s “Freedom” — as the moment when the two worlds of fashion and pop culture became one, changing both forever.
Versace's adventurous spirit of design resulted in his creating jewel-toned prints rooted in Grecian motifs, Etruscan symbols, the Italian Baroque and Andy Warholʼs Marilyn Monroe. There were slinky dresses in Oroton, his patented chain-mail textile that draped like satin, and leather bondage ensembles. Sex sold, for both women and men. Wrote the late curator Richard Martin, “[Versace] became the standard-bearer of gay men’s fashion because he eschewed decorum and designed for desire.”
Following Versace’s tragic murder in 1997, Donatella took over the role of artistic director and continued to evolve the house codes with a twist of her feminine and feminist perspective. Today, Santo Versace is chief executive officer of Versace and Donatella is its chief creative officer.
Browse an extraordinary collection of vintage Gianni Versace evening dresses, handbags, day dresses and more on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Black Mink Fur Bag ClutchLocated in Amsterdam, NLThis black mink bag has silver hardware with a suède lining and crocodile print leather. Its in very good condition, made in Italy by Buti. Can be worn withou...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Shoulder Bags
- Gianni Versace black leather medusa bagBy Gianni VersaceLocated in Amsterdam, NLThis Versace bag is made with gold hardware. Inside with a zipper pocket and an extra side pocket. Size 23 cm x 19 cm x 9 cm Please note that vintage items are not new and therefor...Category
1980s Italian Shoulder Bags
- Versace Medusa Black Petite Round Hand BagBy Gianni VersaceLocated in Amsterdam, NLVersace round medusa bag clutch We offer more vintage exclusive items, view our frontstore Details: Made with silver hardware, medusa with litlle rhinestones Closes with a press bu...Category
2010s Italian Shoulder Bags
- Petite Lynx Fur clutchLocated in Amsterdam, NLThis vintage clutch is made of very soft lynx fur with a press button closure and a chain. measurements: 25cm /9.48 inch x 23 cm /9.05 inch Chain 138 cm/54....Category
20th Century Unknown Shoulder Bags
- Charles Jourdan Paris Art Deco Suede Leather Clutch BagLocated in Amsterdam, NLVintage Art-Deco Charles Jourdan Paris bag -collectors item- We offer more exclusive vintage items, view our frontstore Details: Color and mat...Category
1990s French Shoulder Bags
- Dolce & Gabbana Turquoise Leather Shoulder BagBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in Amsterdam, NLThis handbag is made of soft calfs leather "turquoise/ red" with gold leather lining and gold hardware. Inside is 1 zipper pocket. It closes with a zipper and there is a front pocke...Category
20th Century Italian Shoulder Bags
- Hermes Constance 18 Black Lizard Bag Palladium HardwareBy HermèsLocated in Miami, FLMightychic offers an Hermes Constance 18 bag featured in jet Black Lizard. Lizard saturates colour beautifully and gives this Black Constance fabulous ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Shoulder Bags
- 2000 Vintage FENDI Embroidered Wool Baguette Handbag GreyBy FendiLocated in Bangkok, THThis unusual Fendi Baguette shoulder bag is crafted of grey wool embroidered with orange floral tree featuring silver toned hardware and a ...Category
Early 2000s Italian Shoulder Bags
- HERMES black Liegee leather BOLIDE 35 BagBy HermèsLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Hermes 'Bolid 35' in black Vache Liegee (grained leather) with palladium hardware. Opens with zipper on top. Lined in black lambskin with one open pocket against the b...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Crossbody Bags and Messenger Bags
- HERMES black Toile Militaire & Box leather KELLY 40 LAKIS Bag w PalladiumBy HermèsLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Hermès Kelly 40 Lakis shoulder bag in black Toile Militaire and black Box leather featuring Palladium hardware. Lined in black goat skin leather. Has been carried and ...Category
Early 2000s French Structured Shoulder Bags
- Chanel Runway Caviar Quilted Multicolor Foldable Shopping Tote NEWBy ChanelLocated in Roosendaal, NLFrom the collection of SAVINETI we offer this Chanel Caviar Foldable Shopping Tote: - Brand: Chanel - Model: Foldable Shopping Tote with Chain - Year: 2022 - Condition: NEW (unused) ...Category
2010s French Hobo Bags
- HERMES Marron Fonce brown CROCODILE BOUTONNIERE BagBy HermèsLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Hermès Boutonnière bag in Marron Fonce (brown) crocodile with gold-tone hardware. The design features a slit pocket under the flap and the interior is divided in two c...Category
1960s French Structured Shoulder Bags