On the sound system, Lou Reed was deadpanning his way through his Velvet Underground classic, "I m Waiting for the Man," but Donatella Versace s young men were waiting for no one. They sped down the catwalk in a flurry of urgency; there was no time for detail. The color palette was essentially black and white, with a secondary group that offered shades of brown. Textural interest showed up as strips of shiny patent on gloves or across the shoulders of a black suede blouson. Patent piping also bisected one leg of a pair of trousers, a graphic touch that was amplified in a black mock turtleneck carved on the diagonal with a slash of scarlet. There was something eighties-ish about such flourishes, equally so for a big, black leather military coat and another one of those diagonal bisections, which looked like a signaling flag. The show notes did mention the military parade ground as a possible venue for such items, but more intriguing was the reference to clerical garb. (Presumably that meant the black dog collar on a white shirt.) The same style appeared with tails in the finale. Rejigger it as a Nehru collar, and it was almost as though Donatella was thinking ahead to what the menfolk might need to wear for the upcoming Rajasthan nuptials of her friend Elizabeth Hurley.
