Gianni Versace Vintage Atelier Versace Silk Crepe Medusa Head Blouse, 1992
View Similar Items
Gianni Versace Vintage Atelier Versace Silk Crepe Medusa Head Blouse, 1992
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Length: 29 in (73.66 cm)Marked Size: 44 (EU)Bust: 46 in (116.84 cm)Waist: 46 in (116.84 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Material Notes:Silk
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Cloverdale, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU584439971
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.
- Chantal Thomass Vintage 1990's Backless Lace Up Floral ShirtBy Chantal ThomassLocated in Berlin, BEChantal Thomass Vintage 1990's Lace Up Floral Shirt Brand: Chantal Thomass Designer: Chantal Thomass Collection/Year: 1990's Fabric: Cotton Color: Grey Size: Approx S Chantal Thoma...Category
1990s French Blouses
- Whiting & Davis Gold Mesh Blouse UK 14 US 10By Whiting & DavisLocated in Cheltenham, GBThis glamorous 1980's Whiting & Davis gold mesh blouse, is the perfect statement piece of fashion history for your cocktail wardrobe. The angular square...Category
1980s Blouses
- Yigal Azrouel Paisley Backless Turtleneck TopLocated in New York, NYSize smallCategory
1990s Blouses
- Dolce Gabbana 1992 bustier topBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in Annandale, VADolce Gabbana rare 1992 bustier top Top size 42 Excellent vintage condition, no rips or stainsCategory
1990s Italian Blouses
$595 Sale Price20% Off - Dolce Gabbana 1998 Stromboli heart topBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in Annandale, VACollector’s item! Dolce Gabbana 1998 Stromboli collection runway heart mesh top Size 40, fits like XS-S Good vi rage condition with some signs of wear and age. Please see photos ...Category
1990s Blouses
- Vivienne Westwood Museum Hercules and Omphale François Boucher CorsetBy Vivienne WestwoodLocated in San Diego, CABoned corset in a printed "Hercules and Omphale" by François Boucher, 1735. Part of the Vivienne Westwood collection on display at The Metropolita...Category
1990s British Blouses
Unavailable$40,000