While most people might leave their job clutching a scented candle or a carriage clock, when you’re Donatella Versace, the event merits more than just a quick office whip-round.
To mark the release of her final collection for the fashion house she’s helmed for almost 30 years, the well-loved designer assembled a bevy of her closest friends for a leaving do, of sorts.
The fact that said friends are supermodels meant it would have been rude not to turn the party into a fashion shoot – and of course it featured her signature gold and silver chainmail dresses.
Luckily, famed photographers Mert and Marcus (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott) were on hand to capture the antics of 25 models including Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer and Amber Valetta, and make the images into Versace’s new autumn/winter ad campaign.
As befits the end of an era, the campaign features a ‘greatest hits’ compilation of the classic Versace chainmail dresses that over the years have found favour with fans including Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Blake Lively and Elizabeth Hurley.
While some in the campaign will be available to buy next season, others are archive pieces from the 1990s and early 2000s.
Seasoned fashion-watchers may recall a young Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell wearing silver iterations to the Golden Globes in 1999.
In 2017, to mark the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace’s death, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Claudia Schiffer made a rare catwalk appearance in matching silver chainmail evening dresses.
Gleaming: Models including Kate Moss, centre, and Claudia Schiffer, second from back left, in Versace’s final collection
And if you’re wondering whether to splash out on a new chainmail mini dress, which costs in the region of £3,000, it’s worth bearing in mind that the original nineties versions can fetch up to £15,000 on resale sites.
‘Empowered’ is how Donatella, 69, described feeling to her 12.4million Instagram followers on witnessing the shoot.
‘The energy was extraordinary,’ she added. ‘The dresses reflect the light radiating from these amazing women.
‘It was all about friendship, loyalty and love, created to celebrate the soul of the Versace woman.
‘Every collection is a story, and this is the story of Versace, inspiring the present and anticipating the future.’
For Donatella, who has helmed Versace since her brother, Gianni, was brutally murdered in 1997, the future is uncertain.
Polished performers: From left, Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen in silver dresses in 2017
In March, Versace was sold to Prada Group in a $1.375billion (£1.06billion) deal that unites two of the biggest brands in Italian fashion, cementing Donatella’s decades-long friendship with designer Miuccia Prada and furthering Prada Group’s plans to build a ‘Made in Italy’ luxury goods conglomerate in the vein of French giants LVMH and Kering.
While Donatella will remain chief brand ambassador, she will no longer be creative director, watching the new ‘Versada’ era unfold from a position of greater freedom, if not control.
