Dario Vitale Is Out at Versace After Just One Season
The designer behind one of the most polarizing but critically beloved debuts of Fashion Month is out of a job. Versace and Dario Vitale, the label’s first successor to Donatella Versace, have “mutually agreed to part ways,” according to a statement from the brand.
Usually, even the most impatient luxury houses give their new designers a few seasons to figure out their vision for the brand. But much has changed since former Miu Miu design director Vitale joined Versace in March. The Prada Group announced just a few weeks later, in April, that it would buy Versace from its American owner, the parent company of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. That acquisition finally closed on Monday in a $1.375 billion cash deal. Miuccia Prada and her husband, company chairman Patrizio Bertelli, have appointed their 37-year-old son, Lorenzo Bertelli, as the head of Versace.
While Vitale seemed like a natural fit for Versace under Prada, given that he had already worked for the group, there was industry speculation that he might not last through the transition when neither Miuccia Prada nor Donatella Versace, who retired from her role as chief creative director in March after three decades, attended his debut runway show in Milan in September. The collection he showed there marked a stark change from Donatella’s aesthetic, featuring hiked-up high-waisted denim and silver-beaded bra tops worn with striped cotton pants in a distinctly 1980s color palette. “He took a great name away from the deadly trappings of luxury and put it back into fashion with a genuine new feeling,” wrote Cathy Horyn in her review for The Cut. “I can’t wait to see what he does next.” Whatever that is, now we know it won’t be at Versace.
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