Gianni Versace Baroque Fantasy Print Swimsuit Spring/Summer 1991
View Similar Items
Gianni Versace Baroque Fantasy Print Swimsuit Spring/Summer 1991
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 40 (EU)
- Place of Origin:Italy
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:W1, GB
- Reference Number:Seller: GV0541stDibs: AU14041356818
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. 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,” Versace once explained. Instead, he had a sexy good time with fashion — as he did with life. Today, vintage Gianni Versace clothing, handbags and other accessories look astonishingly fresh and freshly relevant.
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 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.
- Versace Bustier Plunging Open Back Cutout Denim Print Swimwear SwimsuitBy VersaceLocated in Naples, FLVersace Bustier Plunging Open Back Cutout Denim Print Swimwear Swimsuit IT 44 Excellent Condition. Like New.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Swimwear
- Esprit brown wool sweater / cardiganLocated in Capri, ITEsprit brown wool sweater / cardigan Size MCategory
1990s Italian Swimwear
- Vintage Hermès Pink Parrots Beach TowelBy HermèsLocated in Bilbao, ES1990's Vintage Hermès Beach Towel 100% cotton Fair Condition Measure: 150x90 cm or 59x35 inches Paris, Made In France Since 1984, when ...Category
1980s French Textiles and Quilts
- Bill Blass 1990s Black Sexy Cut Out Size 6 / 8 One Piece 90s Swimsuit BodysuitBy Bill BlassLocated in San Diego, CASexy early 90s BILL BLASS one piece Grecian style swimsuit or bodysuit ! Features a metallic gold and silver rope cut-out detail ( one side light gold, the other silver ) down the fr...Category
1990s American Swimwear
- Versace Medusa Logo Cutout Plunging Open Back Gold Metallic Swimwear SwimsuitBy VersaceLocated in Naples, FLVersace Medusa Logo Embellished Cutout Plunging Open Back Gold Metallic Swimwear Swimsuit IT 40 Excellent ConditionCategory
21st Century and Contemporary Swimwear
- Versace S/S 2005 Crystal Embellished Two-Piece Bikini Set Swimsuit Swimwear NWTBy VersaceLocated in Naples, FLVersace S/S 2005 Unworn Medusa Crystal Embellished Two-Piece Bikini Set Swimsuit Swimwear IT 44Category
Early 2000s Swimwear