Versace switches to siren softness

MILAN - Ditch the spray-on hipsters, even Versace has softened up for spring.

At its summer 2005 fashion show on Saturday, the house known for its trashy brashness found new inspiration down by the sea as sirens washed up onto shore in floaty chiffon and shimmery jersey dresses, all painted in shades of pastel.

These were still Versace sirens with dangerously high splits up their legs, bare backs and plunging necklines a la Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys, but there was a softer look to it all.

"It was wearable but it wasn't very Versace," said one Italian fashion critic after the show.

Versace is trying to put together less risque clothes and push the profit-pumping accessories business to revive sales and pull clear of heavy financial losses.

Hence the array of handbags in every size a girl could want from a square satchel studded with pockets to squashy clutches with leather and metal trims. Shoes ranged from starfish decorated sandals to towering wedge platforms.

As part of its attempts to save money, Versace called off its haute couture show in Paris this year.

It seemed designer Donatella Versace, who spent the summer in drug rehabilitation, was making up for that loss as she paraded dozens of red-carpet-ready dresses.

Wraparound gowns in sea spray blue, oyster white, dawn pink and sandy brown flooded the catwalk, many of them decorated with diamante pearls or given a wet-look finish.

The marine motif also made it on to daywear with corals and starfish printed on creamy satin shirts and bathrobes worn over skimpy swimsuits that wrapped around models' bodies - half bikini, half all-in-one.

The sense that Versace has left behind the extravagant deviance that Gianni Versace proudly epitomised before he was shot in 1997 was exacerbated by the decision not to show its younger Versus diffusion line.

But there was still a nod to Versace's old figure-hugging fame in the form of a long white trouser suit that clung to every curve and a powder blue work jacket twinned with hotpants.

- REUTERS

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