A tribute to Gianni Versace eighty years after his birth and almost thirty years after his tragic death. In Reggio Calabria, where else? In London, where they cut the ribbon first. Last July 16th, exactly the day after the designer was murdered in Miami in 1997, a retrospective was inaugurated at Arches London Bridge. And in fact “Gianni Versace. Terra Mater. Magna Graecia Roots Tribute” (Rubettino catalogue), curated by the director Fabrizio Sudano and Sabina Albano, until 19 April 2026 at the National Archaeological Museum seems to present more than one derivation from the current exhibition across the Channel to think that these are independent solutions, such as the idea of the row of mannequins on a backdrop in which a monochrome architecture is reproduced or the series parade of shirts, a true object of collectors’ desire. Also in Reggio, the display includes, in addition to the iconic garments, original sketches, accessories, backstage photographs, videos of the catwalks, interviews and VIP testimonials.
Versace between classic myth and contemporaneity
But do you want to place a temple of the art of the ancient world such as the archaeological museum, which allows for a power of visual and conceptual references that are necessarily lacking in a former industrial space in London? In Reggio the legend of haute couture meets the classical myth in that same museum where he was able to directly observe the archaeological finds that would provide him with that repertoire of classic elements, such as meanders, volutes and capitals, which, together with the Medusa, logo of the Maison, would become distinctive signs of the Calabrian designer.
However, it would be reductive to limit to these classical figurative influences the sources of a creative universe that has given birth to clothes rich in stylistic contaminations also indebted to Baroque art and American pop art. Indeed, Versace’s vision certainly cannot be defined as classic and measured, rather baroque and exaggerated. Certainly, however, the operation of bringing it back to its origins, combining in the exhibition finds from Magna Graecia and proto-historic, Roman, late ancient and Byzantine Calabria, allows for a power of visual and conceptual references that are necessarily lacking in a former industrial space such as Arches London Bridge.
Set-up: between ambition and overload
However, the layout solutions could have better facilitated this objective. For example, if the exhibition had been held in the rooms with the permanent collections, rather than on the museum’s exhibition floor, what would have been lost in terms of freedom to compose the temporary exhibition in a space designated for it would have been gained in scenic effect, due to the dazzling white of the museum’s rooms, as essential as it is refined, perfect for highlighting, by contrast, Versace’s unscrupulous combination of colors and shapes. A similar effect was achieved in the exhibition just inaugurated in Rome for Valentino by the Valentino Garavani Foundation and Giancarlo Giammetti.
And instead the open space dedicated to temporary exhibitions ended up favoring a carousel of overlaps and visual interferences between the over 400 pieces, including clothes, accessories, furnishings belonging to the Home Collection and archive materials, coming from private collections, in which the archaeological finds also end up involved. The effect is one of accumulation, more swirling than lively. Versace taught that excess can be elegance. Excess, not chaos.
The iconic garments and the stylistic legacy
Yet the premises foreshadowed precisely the opposite: the valorisation through the rarefaction of the pieces. In the introductory room only two splendid antefixes of Medusa emerge from the dim light and introduce the exhibition with their semiophoric power. And even if the MArRC lacks garments that have become legendary such as those sewn on Naomi Campbell and the other supermodels of the 90s, Lady D, Elton John, Madonna or Prince, exhibited instead in London, how much more effective it would have been to highlight the individual creations, isolating them, making them emerge as epiphanic visions with the assistance of a dedicated enlightenment strategy.
Focusing on those that have revolutionized fashion. Like the model in oroton, a technological fabric in extremely light metal mesh, which made its debut with a collection of silver dresses and now on a catwalk in 1982, which earned Versace the “Golden Eye” award, a prestigious recognition awarded by the Italian press to the designer who created the most innovative collection. Famous “victim”, the first to wear these sparkling dresses, was Ornella Vanoni: she herself remembers this in the video tribute to the designer in the room that introduces the visit. Or the other dress that testifies to the bondage period, with chains and leather that sculpt the body, along with iconic details such as XL safety pins.
The exhibition itinerary and the protagonists
The route also follows a chronological order. At the beginning, a suit made by her mother Franca tells of her apprenticeship in her mother’s tailoring shop in Reggio Calabria, one of the most important in Italy at the time. In the end, however, the designer’s studio is reconstructed in a space box, with a nucleus dedicated to sketches for costume and ballet, testimony to the collaborations with Maurice Béjart, John Cox and Roland Petit.
The exhibition is completed by photographs by Roberto Orlandi, the two portraits signed by Helmut Newton and Alice Springs and, in the “Piazza Orsi”, a wooden sculpture by the master Marcos Marin, while among the garments and objects on display there is a tribute work by the master childhood friend Natino Chirico.
The relationship with the territory and the Versace family
The undoubted added value of the project on the banks of the Strait as a whole is the link with Versace’s hometown. The Reggio Calabria State Archives, the Department of Architecture and Design of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, the Academy of Fine Arts of Reggio Calabria, the PCC Order of Architects of Calabria and Sicily responded to the invitation of the Reggio museum and to the tribute, also with a series of collateral initiatives. Also the “T. Campanella – M. Preti – A. Frangipane” high school center (whose classical high school was attended by Gianni Versace), which with its students created clothes, installations, pictorial panels, graphic and ceramic works, inspired by the Calabrian stylist, exhibited in the spaces of the Museum as an exhibition in progress.
Yet, precisely because of this sought-after link with the territory, one would have hoped that at least here, unlike London, it would be possible to associate with the Versace family or with the brand, which returned to Italian hands at the beginning of last December with the acquisition by Prada. From this, Sudano tells us, “there was no interest”. Contacts are reportedly ongoing with Santo. In short, the museum tried.
How he tried to pay homage to the talent who rewrote the rules of global glamor at the end of the 20th century, dressing women like Greek goddesses, in a pop key.