Versace is really the originator of all things related to the twenty-first century celebration (and sometime disdain) of fashion. Acute marketing, a disinterest in the high Avant Garde and the shadow realm, and a heavy leaning towards maximization and opulence have made Versace, since its inception under founder Gianni and continually with daughter Donatella, the perfect brand for the red carpet, the Swiss clinic, and the members only club-yacht.
Inasmuch, themes consistently rise to the surface: muscular sexuality via leather, hardware, heels, and shoulders. Extroversion as a necessity – Versace’s role as the brand of the rock star means that performative and colour-rich elements must hold the attention, even if they don’t always win people over.
The Versace Jeans Couture imprint – originally formulated by Gianni and Donatella – also predicted the inevitable taste for all things branded on the high street and still features a similar bold-is-beautiful aesthetic via big hardware and the proudly adorned label.
Of course, with the Jeans Couture diffusion line you’re entering the world of aspiration: where a draped mini dress is the item of choice for those with a stylist and a premier to drink and smile through, Jeans Couture’s get-up in dresses, jackets, shoes and accessories has always been about making the street your personal red-carpet event. But with a continued merging of those two worlds [The runway and the street] it’s becoming increasingly harder to tell who’s aspiring and who has actually made it. More power to you!
Versace Jeans Bags should begin with one of two quintessential brand reference points: The Medusa-head buckle [symbol of adoration and entrapment] as exemplified in the black logo cross-body bag. The material is polyurethane, but the boxy nature and ostentatious metal trace a straight line back to the leathered luxury model. Alternatively, the blue polyamide cross body bag is wrapped in Versace’s meander/baroque pattern, here without the medusa adornment. A kind of tipping point for fashion lovers, the pattern either confirms the gaudy and hyperbolic nature of the brand or is the signature-point of its care-less attitude to what the intelligentsia may whisper.
Versace Jeans Couture Bags are also trending with a slight bohemian take on the classic baroque: less ornate, the colour combination vaguely references YSL’s neon nights of late, the rucksack or cross-body bag firm friends with the Medusa covered t-shirt dress or with any jeans/casual ensemble.
Versace Jeans Couture succeeds in never being completely aspirational (which would be counter to the whole Versace ideal of either having made it or wearing something else). The synthetic black backpack plays it relatively quietly, aside from the comforting bulk of the design, which provides an obvious reference-point in the synthesis of main brand and diffusion label; we’re not saying Versace doesn’t do sophisticated – the silk midi dress, with the right shoes, could work any uptown appointment – but the silhouette across lines is angled and powerful: sexiness by association, not a complimentary enhancement.
Finally, polyurethane tote bags are something of a Versace concession to fine lines and a Francophile leaning. High shine and mesh/skin effect create a close-to-leather façade that is – of course – dynamic and practical , whilst you can also add a little summer cognoscente courtesy of the interlinking black baroque scarf tote with branding kept conservatively restrained.
Indeed, Versace Jeans Couture bags are worth the marginally higher cost for a premium/diffusion accessory. While shy of the construction values of circa £2,000 Versace bags, the same design elements feature: Medusa and/or Baroque patterning and a silhouette that is boxy and bold. With the diffusion line you’re certainly not stepping down in the style stakes either, but into a more casual and street-friendly mode that allows for easy transitions between events. However, for the most part, you’re buying Versace because of what the name and label implies: a luxury look that stands out in any crowd, not that you really care what the masses think.
