Versace’s “Dark Gothic Goddess” S/S'23 Show

For its spring/summer 2023 offering, Versace put on a gothic spectacle in Milan. Here, British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen recaps the darkly glamorous highlights.

It was a gothic dream

Teasing a gothic experience, the Versace invitation came wrapped around a bundle of black candles gold-stamped with the house’s logo. Upon arrival in one of the vast outskirt-y show spaces increasingly favoured by the designers of Milan, the candles multiplied a thousand-fold. Lined up and lit inside a glass box on a purple runway like a wedding in a mausoleum, they set the mood for Donatella Versace’s “Dark Gothic Goddess” show, which opened with a holy trinity: Gigi Hadid, Mona Tougaard and Rianne Van Rompaey clad in black asymmetrically-cut dresses, some with priestly hoods, others with assertive slashes across the front. They were Donatella’s dark angels.

There was lace and leather galore

Icky Blossoms’s “Sex to the Devil” and Viagra Boys’s “Punk Rock Loser” scored an attitude-filled show that explored the depths of the gothic wardrobe through Versace’s obsessive-compulsive glam-core lens. Slick black leather coats segued into fringed biker jackets and trousers from the rock ’n’ roll wardrobe, which transitioned into spiky ’90s tops worn with little miniskirts cut as low on the hips as the Y2K trousers that followed. “I have always loved a rebel. A woman who is confident, smart and a little bit of a diva. She wears leather, studs and frayed denim and she has enough attitude to mix them with chiffon, jersey and a tiara!” Donatella said.

Purple reigned supreme

Before the show started, guests were serenaded with Prince’s “Purple Rain” – an anthem for Donatella Versace, who counted the superstar amongst her friends and had him perform at a show in 2011. A series of purple dresses mid-show paid further homage by way of zebra-print lace dresses, head-to-toe supple leather outfits, and shaggy coats upcycled from off-cut chiffon and lace that resembled fur. “She is a strong liberated woman,” Donatella said of her goth-glam season muse. “She is gorgeous, she knows it. She is the goddess of freedom.”

Paris Hilton closed the show

Before the show’s grand finale, a series of bridesmaids including Bella Hadid, Kiki Willems, Steinberg and Vittoria Ceretti walked down the aisle in purple, neon green and pink negligee dresses and veils, paving the way for the heiress – or, in this case, the goddess – of them all: Paris Hilton, strutting her stuff in a plunging pink glitter dress, lace gloves and a matching veil. She may not have been a dark gothic goddess, but she is the eternal Y2K goddess of brains and beauty, girl power and endurance.

Donatella debuted a bunch of new accessories

In the accessories department, Donatella adorned her gothic goddesses with Greca Goddess bags in the purple and green colours of the collection, and La Medusa Repeat hobo bags in all the studs, leather fringe and mirror embellishment of the season. They were elevated on strappy sandals, Mary Janes and huge rubber platform sandals for the neo-gothic princess that lives inside us all.