1994
GIANNI VERSACE
Dress
Spring/summer 1994, edition 2016
Gianni Versace, Italian, 1946–1997
Black silk-synthetic crinkle-crepe with gold metal safety pins embellished with crystals
Gift of Donatella and Allegra Versace, in honor of Harold Koda, 2016 (2016.633)
1977
ZANDRA RHODES
Dress
Autumn/winter 1977–78
Zandra Rhodes, British, born 1940
Black silk-rayon jersey and black nylon-rayon satin embroidered with nickel ball chain, brass beaded safety pins, and clear crystals
Courtesy Zandra Rhodes
Perhaps more than any other street style, punk has had the most significant and enduring influence on high fashion. This iconic dress by Gianni Versace subverts the traditional symbolism of the “little black dress” by drawing on the visual codes of 1970s punk style. Versace, however, has rendered the rips and tears as seductive, body-revealing side splits supported with boning, and transformed the quotidian safety pin into an elaborate golden kilt pin with crystal-encrusted Medusa-head closures. An exemplar of the designer’s signature brand of amplified sensuality, the dress represents the peak of the early-1990s phenomenon of street style meets high style.
At the height of the punk movement in the United Kingdom, Zandra Rhodes presented her “Conceptual Chic” collection, marking one of the earliest assimilations of the subculture’s aesthetic language into high fashion. Conceived as a three-dimensional representation of Elsa Schiaparelli’s surrealist 1938 trompe l’oeil “Tear” dress, the collection presented artfully torn knitwear with lettuce-edge finishing embellished with beaded safety pins and ball-chain fringe. “Rips and tears are as valid ways to handle fabric as pleating is,” Rhodes asserted, “and chains and safety pins are simply alternative, non-traditional decoration for the ’70s.”
At the height of the punk movement in the United Kingdom, Zandra Rhodes presented her “Conceptual Chic” collection, marking one of the earliest assimilations of the subculture’s aesthetic language into high fashion. Conceived as a three-dimensional representation of Elsa Schiaparelli’s surrealist 1938 trompe l’oeil “Tear” dress, the collection presented artfully torn knitwear with lettuce-edge finishing embellished with beaded safety pins and ball-chain fringe. “Rips and tears are as valid ways to handle fabric as pleating is,” Rhodes asserted, “and chains and safety pins are simply alternative, non-traditional decoration for the ’70s.”