“Hurry, come quickly,” the show notes sent to guests–written by CULTURED contributor and critic David Rimanelli—read in the moments before Dario Vitale’s debut for Versace.
As Milan’s Pinacoteca Ambrosiana bore witness to the designer’s first looks for Spring/Summer 2026—color-blocked in brazen shades, with tucked tops and taut torsos—a field guide of louche themes quickly became evident as pillars of this first Versace turn.
The designer, who cut his teeth at Dsquared2 and Bottega Veneta before a nearly 15-year tenure at Miu Miu, seems to have employed a similar sense of audacious sophistication to the house that Gianni and Donatella built. It’s transportable to a city street, but with a lick of come-hither sensuality.
For detractors asking whether the sex-forward fashion dialogue sweeping the discourse is at a saturation point, Vitale smiles and assures us that we can carry on. Biceps work as (highly-toned) accessories to the thinnest collared tank-tops in layered striping and brown gingham, while a glowing collarbone serves as the finishing touch to a creamy, white midi-dress with sweeping form. British Vogue’s Mahoro Seward called it, “sex and sensuality, not as an aesthetic, but one’s stature.”
Accessories speak to a different lane of the designer’s background in mastering storytelling with a sales approach. Bags are glossy, bright, and in an array of sizes from card wallet (gold-chained in a deep green tone) to the carry-all that purports some of the most conservative shades of the collection in black and brown, but with a sturdy assuredness and broad reach that will likely draw fans all its own.
Vitale’s debut was both calculated rupture and recalibration—an embrace of the body and its rhythms, yes, but also a recalibration of Versace’s lexicon for a new era. If the air has shifted, as Rimanelli and Seward suggest, it’s because Vitale has managed to make the house’s audacity feel both inevitable and freshly urgent.
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