Marking her first runway debut since the global lockdown, Donatella Versace like many others, is counting her blessings, undoubtedly overwhelmed by relief, excitement, and newfound hope. As the world continues to evolve in unimaginable ways, the designer herself, contemplates her purpose and direction.

The Versace Spring 2021 Collection Reflects Immense Diversity and Inclusion

Based on what she describes as personal ‘rebirth’, the Versace Spring 2021 menswear collection reflects her journey of re-emergence and prior submergence as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Inspired by the imagined ruins of the Atlantis, a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato’s works Timaeus and Critias, the Versace Spring 2021 runway showcased water currents streaming down projected walls, mythical citizens rising from the deep blue, and mends of starfish, coral, and seashell motifs from Gianni Versace’s ‘trésor de la mer’ collection, dating as far back as Spring 1992.

The show which intends to represent the remnants of an old world long gone, bids farewell to the lifestyles we once knew, ushering in new practices of social distancing and enhanced personal hygiene. Deemed equal parts camp and chic, with glittery starfish adornments across the collection’s pervasive Trésor de la Mer sea-life print, Donatella Versace injects the Maison’s DNA into our new normal.

Presenting an ideal metaphor for today’s increased need for equal and fair representation, the Versace Spring 2021 collection showcases the diverse wonders of a powerful co-ed cast, encompassing a variety of races, body-types, sexual orientations, and gender identities. The Versace Spring 2021 collection thus repositions the brand, as “an example of inclusion, of mutual support, and acceptance of what is different from us.”