Gianni Versace was an out-of-the-ordinary couturier: this Italian knew how to make something beautiful, even sublime, out of something ugly. Following all that glitters, he was brought to create in close line with the style of Calabria, an Italian region located in the far Southeast of the peninsula. From this heritage, Gianni built the Versace empire, summed up by a desire to bring the body up into the ranks of an Italian idol. He indeed liked to say: “I like the human body. I like to create everything that could touch the human body.” And that’s just what he did.
In the 80s, fashion was excessive, baroque, and pushed to the limit. Within the fashion sphere, Versace dominated: in 1982, the couturier had the idea for a creation that would give the illusion of the wearer being covered in precious liquid metals. It is thus from this fascination for metal that the Oroton dress was born. With a German artisan, called on to work with a fabric that would combine the suppleness of silk with the unique texture of metal, Gianni Versace brought into the world a number of pieces so sensual that they become the prerogative of the heroine of the 80s.
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