BACKGROUND: Think Vintage Library no. 2066
It is funny how retrospect can be clouded by nostalgia, provided that the distance of contemplation is lengthy enough. When it comes to fashion, nostalgia has an immense power to resuscitate what had once expired. By the end of the nineties millennium minimalism was encroaching, supermodels were getting older and Donatella had taken over following the tragic murder of Gianni Versace in 1997. As Versace teetered on the edge of fashion obscurity, Jennifer Lopez (or J-Lo as she was then known) arrived at the 2000 Grammy Awards in a plunging green jungle dress at the very height of her ghetto-fabulous phase, giving the house of Versace the final push. Suddenly the gold ropes and heraldic motifs, with flashes of yellow, orange, purple, pink and lime, made famous by the supermodel stampede that walked his shows, had become gaudy and garish.
Think Vintage 839 (Recoloured)
While it is safe to say that grunge has well and truly returned, as the look of the nineties (perhaps never really having left us), for a brief moment it seemed rose-coloured retrospect had forgotten the bold colours, leafy-baroque motifs and turbocharged femiminine sexuality of the nineties. Entering a new decade, colour in the brightest of bright is undisputedly fashion’s latest drift and if the collections from 2011’s fashion weeks are anything to go by ropes, chains and heraldry are sure to follow.
90s Versace ad
Linda Evangelista for Versace Couture
90s Supermodel Powerhouse for Versace
l-r Christy Turlington, Nadja Auermann, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Claudia Schiffer
Givenchy Fall 2011
Eniko Mihalik wears Versace for Vogue China 2010
Isabeli Fontana for June/July 2011 Vogue Paris; shot by Mert and Marcus who pay homage to a 1989 Steven Meisel shoot; styled by Emmanuelle Alt
Karla Spetic S/S 2011 at RAFW
