For the autumn/winter 2019 show, Donatella Versace sought inspiration from the brand’s archives and what better way to celebrate its history than enlisting the help of ’90s supermodels?
Shalom Harlow, 45, kick-started proceedings in a baroque print-emblazoned trench coat, belt bag and knee-high cowboy boots. It was only last season when the model broke free from a six-year modelling hiatus and made her runway return on behalf of the brand.
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But if that wasn’t enough to get the front row desperately digging for their iPhones, Gianni Versace’s former muse, 50-year-old model Stephanie Seymour, was given the responsibility of closing the show in a black slinky gown.
Though the nostalgia didn’t stop there, as the collection was a not-so-subtle celebration of the brand’s famous iconography.
The millennial model pack – we’re talking Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber – stomped through a supersized gold safety pin firmly planted on the runway.
The gram-worthy set comes 25 years after actress Elizabeth Hurley famously wore that safety-pin strung Versace dress to the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere back in 1994.
Further proving the runway throwback is more popular than ever before, chunky safety pins held everything together this season with some clamped through neon mini dresses and others adorning the lapels of power blazers.
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In a further nod to the nineties, Versace also teamed up with the Richard Avedon Foundation and splattered the 1995 campaign for its perfume Blonde (which starred Donatella herself) across t-shirts.
But it’s not the first time Versace has revisited its roots on the runway.
In recent seasons, the Italian fashion house has been responsible for welcoming a handful of famous faces back to the industry.
For the 20th anniversary spring/summer 2018 show for instance, ’90s supermodels Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford all donned the famous gold chainmail gown in tribute to the late Gianni Versace.
