Initial reaction:
Haute Couture goes to a night club and starts dancing on the tables under a mirrored discoball. These ball gowns tear into the rarified vision of models wafting around in salons holding up number cards. Duchesse satins slick with silicone are sculpted into asymmetric gowns and spliced into a metal clasped corset to reveal leg. A chainmail T-shirt body is encased in a black satin swimsuit that trails off into a sweeping skirt. Fringe, patchwork furs and nylon knitted in with crystal metal mesh are meant to look hot in da club. That's where the spirit of Atelier Versace lay as the music pounded away.
Put your best leg forward:
Underbum, side boob and now the hip bone. Red carpet paps demand that new erogenous parts of the body need to be on show and Donatella Versace has honed in on the hips. Dresses are dangerously slashed to reveal the entire leg and a mono-leg trouser look is sometimes incorporated to emphasise this asymmetric shape. Donatella looked to other ways though to minimise fabric to maximise impact. Bodies were sculpted with one-shouldered jackets, strapped in with corsets and clasps and rectangular metal cut-work revealed décolletage. "I wanted to celebrate construction and deconstruction, provoking by taking away fabric, to make couture modern," said Donatella in the press notes.
It's about J to the Lo:
The plunging green Versace dress, which Jennifer Lopez wore to the Grammys in 2000 has its own Wikipedia entry. It's fair to say that J-Lo and Donatella go way back and so it was appropriate that she should attend the Atelier Versace, rocking the thigh-split gown and one-legged trouser silhouette, which formed the core of this deconstructed collection. J-Lo got to mouth along to her own song as her track "So Good" from her album A.K.A. closed the show.
The soundtrack to Atelier Versace Haute Couture AW14:
Last season, Donatella took inspiration from Grace Jones in a collection of Grecian glamour. See it below:
 backstage at Atelier Versace Haute Couture AW14)
