Versace at the Met

"The time that we have at our disposal is elastic;

The passions we feel expand it" -Marcel Proust

It is this quote that is displayed on the entrance to the new exhibit, at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It sets the tone for what lies ahead, for within moments after entering the exhibit, one is bombarded with color, music, power, sex, and emotion. Upon wiping his eyes and regaining focus, the viewer comes to realize that the room is just filled with a bunch of faceless mannequins wearing second hand frocks. However, there is something different about this wardrobe; it is something vulgar, yet beautiful, disturbing, yet wonderful. It is Gianni Versace.

The Versace exhibit is a tribute to the slain designer, who was a frequent visitor and generous patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is in no way an advertisement or campaign of any sort, it is instead a display of art for the purpose of study and enjoyment. It calls for an analytic examination of Versace’s most famous works. The museum treats Versace as they would any other artist. What was most striking for me was the realization that fashion is one of the most basic forms of expression, and consequently, certainly worthy of intense research and introspection. Not only does it express the emotional needs and intellectual creativity of the mind, as other arts do, but it also is the primary form of bodily expression. We introduce our bodies to the world through our clothing, thus the art of fashion gives us unique insights into the delicate relationship between our minds and our bodies.

The horseshoe shaped exhibition hall is divided into six sections. The first is the landmark collection. This includes famous pieces that were exposed to the world due to their being worn by celebrities or models. Here they stand without being inhabited by the most beautiful and most famous; there are no pictures of the celebrities wearing the outfits, in fact, the faces of the mannequins are covered, all in order to enforce a new and sustained examination of the clothing itself. We are first introduced to Versace’s famous silk print gowns, and it is here where we see the audacity of Versace’s taste. He deliberately takes two seemingly opposing patterns and in full force imposes one on the other. He combines a zebra print stretch shirt with a hot golden leopard skin draped skirt. Versace prefers the surprise, even the initial dissonance and unexpected forensic combinations. The idea of extremities colliding seems to be a common theme among Versace’s clothing.

In the next few dresses, he combines a strong, confident punk look from the lower class streets with the glamorous and decadent formal look of the upper class society balls. It is like Versace to ignore the middle class, or as he called them, the bourgeoisie. As a designer and as a human being, Versace never sought the middle road or the middle class. This may explain why it is the middle class alone that still withholds its approval from Versace, often distancing itself from his purported vulgarity and his unabashed embrace of consumption. Nevertheless, the jelling of the spirit of the rich with the indomitable power of the poor forms a new and breathtaking creation. This is the inspiration for the trademark oversized punk safety pins on fancy evening wear, and the combination of draped silk with shorts, jerseys and leather. In an evening dress made famous by Madonna, Versace merged sweeping second empire silhouettes with the practical stitching and pockets of blue jeans. Perhaps the most amazing aspect is that in no way do these seemingly contradicting styles take away from each other, on the contrary, they come together to create a truly unique beauty.

One of the most important characteristics of Versace’s evening wear, is that the dress must honor the voluptuous primacy of the body. Clothing, according to Versace, is the celebration of the body and its desires. He accords fashion with desire rather than decorum. This is exemplified by Versace’s transfiguration of Chanel’s "little black dress" of the 1920’s, into what is now known as the famous Elizabeth Hurley dress (a black dress held together loosely by large golden pins worn to the premiere of Hugh Grant’s film "Four Weddings and a Funeral"). This version, triumphs over all other reincarnations of the Chanel dress, not in decorum, but in desire, bringing glittering metal together with bare flesh. In my opinion, the most beautiful pieces were the satin draped evening dresses. The material drapes so naturally over the body, it seems to take the form of liquid. The dress is alive; it moves and sings. The dress actually worships the body, and by so doing turns the lucky wearer into a goddess.

Versace is also famous for his combination of the extremely provocative and formal wear. Many of his gowns are made of black see-through lace and may have multiple leather straps or outer corsets. Symbols of prostitution and sadomasochism, as well as undergarments, are common themes amongst Versace pieces. Believe it or not, this idea actually has deeper meaning. Modern art found a great ideal in the prostitute. Toulouse-Lautrec, the 19^th century artist, (1880’s) prized her unlikely virtues and ambivalent freedoms. Versace located the prostitute as the last unexamined figure in fashion. He saw her as the symbol for the confident, gender proud, and sexually liberated. No one had taken the prostitute into fashion as Versace did. He seized the streetwalker’s bravado and conspicuous wardrobe along with her blatant sexuality and introduced them to fashion. He represented her glamour, as he supplied her with a new suppleness that made the body clinging apparel work in the same classy manner as the 1920’s Parisian designer Madame Gre’s styles worked. He dressed her in rich silk and a long gown with a train, a cross between Cinderella and Delilah. The strength of the free woman is such a strong force in Versace’s style that it seems as if the gowns hide all aspects of female vulnerability.

There is a separate history section, showing how Versace was influenced by different eras: the Greeks and Romans inspired goddess-like drapery; the Byzantine era sparked styles representing intensity and mosaic, while the French revolution kindled the beginning of the sexual revolution in Europe. The opulent 1920’s styles of Madame Gre’s symbolize posh and glamour. Following the history section were two abstract costume sections entitled "Art and the Dream," showing the full breadth of Versa ce’s talent.

The last section was the men’s collection. Versace describes in his book "Men without Ties" how men can be just as sexual as women are. He insists that the man too is a sex object, thus the style of clothing should follow. Versace shirts a re usually draped or bloused, and accentuate the upper torso. The male wardrobe may have brilliant colors, dashes of lace, or sexy straps. Much to my surprise, the resulting look is very different from the Versace clad female. While Versace’s style acce ntuates a woman’s strength and power, the Versace clad man actually looks more vulnerable, and seems more subservient than the regular Chaps-wearing gentleman. This phenomenon might be a ramification of the different roles that sexual expression take on i n man and woman. Either way, fashion alone can tell us a lot about the psychology of expression.

Recognizing Versace as the first post–Freudian designer, is honoring the truthfulness and utter lack of shame or guilt within him. The moral, religious, or decorous reticence and remorse of other fashion designers about sex is lacking in Versace. He accepts sex not merely as a fact of life, but as a celebration of life. The long tradition of fashion’s coy expressions of sexuality, alluding as by metaphor to sex, is ultimately grounded in the conventions of refinement. By those conventions, Versace is raw and impudent. But Versace, not being a particularly religious man, felt he had no reason to succumb to the taboos and sociological moral pressures. This does not make him right, but it does make him an important innovator and a creative genius. He shall always be remembered in the way he said he wanted to be, as the man who broke the fashion barrier.