By Namya Sinha
Copyright timesnownews
Dario Vitale made his low-key debut as Versace’s new creative director with what the house called an “intimate event.” Spring 2026 was always going to be high-stakes. With Donatella stepping aside, Vitale had big shoes to fill. Expectations were enormous, but he leaned fully into the house’s maximalist DNA, and brought in a lot of sexiness. The venue was Milan’s Pinacoteca Ambrosiana museum, spread across two floors. The guest list brought together actors, Chinese pop stars, adult film icons, and rock legends. Many wore archival Versace, nodding to the house’s past while the future unfolded on the runway. Colleen Barry for AP wrote that “Vitale’s debut collection was a full-throttle return to the overtly sexualised Versace of the 1980s and 1990s, seen in the snug high-waisted jeans cinched as tightly as possible, the revealing open-sided T-shirts, the dresses left carelessly open in the back, and the joyous bursts of primary colour.” The mood was amplified by the soundtrack: George Michael, Prince, Eurythmics. The volume, the energy, the nostalgia all pushed the collection into hyper-charged territory. Robert Williams at Business of Fashion wrote that the show offered “a more diverse take on eroticism.” That tension between history and reinvention seemed to sit at the centre of the collection. Vitale is the first creative director outside the Versace family. Barry wrote that “he looked for ways to express sexiness, like the dress left completely open in the back expressing the moment just before it drops to the floor, or reworking the Italian uniform of undershirt, shirt and sweater into something provocative.” Two hundred guests packed the space, but Donatella wasn’t among them. She has shifted into the role of chief brand ambassador. Her final show was staged in Milan last February. Vitale, who previously led ready-to-wear at Miu Miu, was announced as Versace’s creative director in April. His appointment coincides with Prada’s acquisition of the label, a deal expected to close by the end of the year.
