On her trips to Cuba, Donatella Versace fell in love with the people. Hard done by, she acknowledges, but still with a sense of freedom that she relishes. Versace is a multimillion-dollar business, and it s not hard to imagine the responsibilities and restrictions that attach themselves to the figurehead of such a thing. So some of that Cuban freedom kicked into gear with the collection Donatella showed tonight. It was a steamroller of a show, driven along by Señor Coconut s Latin versions of Kraftwerk classics "Showroom Dummies" and "The Robots." A few of the models walked shirtless in ice-creamily colored crepe de chine suits, a vial of perfume dangling round their necks. One carried a picnic basket laden with Versace housewares. Another had a backpack filled with the same, including bone china cups ready for tea. (How s that for product placement?) There was plenty of barrio fishnet, but there was also broderie anglaise in jackets and jeans, slumdog aspiration in loafers limned with gold link, a cardigan cabled in gold, and white jeans embroidered with gold leaves. The skyline of Havana was mirrored in a blinding white guayabera and an intricately detailed lace shirt. Leather jackets were artfully appliquéd with athletic forms, classical in appearance, but equally likely to be the football-crazed street kids Donatella saw on one of her trips.
Cuba providing the spine of a Versace collection? It sounds like yet another self-indulgent high-low fashion incongruity. Still, it gave the show a coherent, celebratory, maybe even aspirational core. And the clothes at their best (those leather jackets, say) looked as vivid and fresh as anything Donatella has offered of late.
