H&M x Versace

The overall feel of the collection: Glamorous beautiful powerful Sicilian housewife meets Southbeach guido millionaire husband who happens to be best friends with Gianni Versace

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More Gianni than Donatella. More Miami than Milan. And I love it! Although after a 7th grade American Apparel lame legging obsession I swore to give those a rest for a while, there’s so much more to this collaboration collection than the spandex printed 80s leggings. Favorites are the black dresses with Versace’s signature coin studs which are clearly inspired by Elizabeth Hurley’s infamous (and amazing) safety pin dress…am I the only one who’s so sad they didn’t do a more literal version of that one btw? And last/this season’s Versace (http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/109442 and http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/170118) The neon colored body con dresses might look a little scary but imagine them with a tan next summer or in a dimmed London club this winter? Perfect amount of tackiness (and lets agree on that…it was gonna be iconic Versace so obviously it’s going to be iconicly tacky) mixed with body flattery, which is where Alber Elbax missed the mark last year. His mainstream collection is praised for being flattering while being subtle because he does sexy draping, but the H&M collaboration didn’t show of the body in the same way.

This fringed separate set below (yes! I’m pretty sure it’s a separate set!) is amazing but what is up with this weird print? Versace did the same thing in a red last season and I somehow find it hard to see anyone over 20 pull off a lot of pieces in this collection. Oo well…I guess Donatella set out to push the boundaries with the ordinary H&M customer and so she should! Because after this collaboration has been snagged up in probably no more than a few hours those ordinary H&M customers will have plenty of black/beige/white sweaters and pencil skirts to look at again so lets welcome this breath of fresh Versace air with open arms. The Sicillian housewife meets tacky guido millionaire man accessories are amazing, the choker and silk scarves especially.
(Versace for H&M available from November 17, for the whole collection click here)

Donatella has given us an amazing mix of boundary pushing pieces and (not so) plain old sexy Versace, she’s taken LOADS of nineties Versace references (which has got to be just about my favorite Versace era ever) and come on…those neon leopard printed boxers really just topped the whole thing of. The dissapointment lies at the lack of proper gowns, the type that made Versace famous. Those perfectly draped/tight thigh slashed gowns. This being a Christmas collection I expected at least one of those show stoppers. And a coat! Versace always does great structured coats and it would have been nice to see what they could have done on a budget. For the rest my final call goes out to all those girls who will be standing in line (myself included) and I just want to say to all those fashion-killing aggressive horrible woman on an Ebay mission: F*CK YOU. Just a few days after Missoni for Target ebay already has hundreds of listings on the subject, it’s just heart breaking.

x.Noa

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