Many of the world’s top supermodels (dubbed the ‘new supers’ and the ‘Instagirls‘) descended on Paris fashion week for Atelier Versace’s fall 2015 couture show. Versace’s gang of supermodels, including Lara Stone, who opened the show, Jamie Bochert, Fei Fei Sun, Doutzen Kroes, Joan Smalls, Anja Rubik, Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss, shined as they walked down a runway made of 26,000 orchids underneath glass panels.
With soft colours like lilac and moss green, it was a softer collection compared to what we’ve seen from Donatella since she relaunched Atelier Versace (the fashion house’s couture line) in 2012 – although it still had a distinct Versace flair. And it was one of her better reviewed collections to date. It was part-music festival, part ethereal/fairy, part 60s go-go girl. The bohemian flower crowns were intricate and sure to be popular with Versace’s famous celeb clientele but the platform go-go boots were all sorts of wrong – I didn’t think they worked with the flowing gowns.
The casting of many of today’s top models reminded me of the late great Gianni Versace during the reign of the original supermodels in the 90s. Gianni was long credited with being one of the first major designers to recognize the power of working with the all the top models in the world and featuring the same models in his runway shows as the label’s print ads. And while the house of Versace has long been associated with supermodels since his death, their presence hasn’t been quite as obvious in the last few years.
Other Versace supermodel muses like legend Naomi Campbell (one of the original supermodels from 1990s and a long-time friend of the Versace house), Natasha Poly and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley enjoyed the show from the front row. For fashion lovers like me, it was fun to see many of today’s top models walking the runway together. Because anything that’s reminiscent of the legendary supermodel era in the 90s is always a good a thing.
For more on Gianni Versace’s undeniable influence of the creation of the “supermodel” and one of the most famous supermodel runway moments ever (and hands down my favourite fashion show ever), check out the video below.
Photos in slideshow via style.com
Casey Wagar 