Versace Fall/Winter 2015 Couture

By Liza Foreman

Models with straggled locks of blond hair, crowned in pretty flower chains, like those decorating the dresses, strode down the Paris runway for Versace with a nonchalance and air of Boho glamor, for the opening night of couture week in Paris.

It was as if Saint Laurent designer Hedi Slimane had taken his California cool aesthetic on show at his menswear collections and worked with Donatella Versace, with her beautiful craftsmanship and flamboyant detailing, to create a series of luxurious dresses that had a certain free love flair.

Indeed, love was in the air. In the show notes for the collection, the designer said, "The ethereal nature of these light as air dresses reflected a woman's passions exposed."

Sometimes she was a cute lioness, and at other times a prowling tiger.

In keeping with the Versace aesthetic, these luxurious creations were sometimes floor length and flouncy and at other times slight and sexy, think dresses that revealed sensual strips of flesh.

The idea was, "A new Versace evolution. Elevated deconstruction, softness," the house said in the show notes.

They continued:

"Stripped of detail, transparent silk chiffon gowns flow from boned bodices lined in velvet, the fabric free to float as if pure air.... Lightweight chiffon layers bring softness to tailoring, especially with the drape of bell sleeves. The tailoring is punctuated by metal staples that define the silhouette....Cut-out chiffon layers create raw-edged flowers that decorate chiffon dresses in dove grey, powdery pink, faded green and lilac....Fil coupé velvet and hand-painted flowers are floating on a long gown as if destroyed, with boning lined in velvet. A string of flowers trails up to hold the dress at the neck and the head....A new sense of ease comes from an oversized embellished sweater which hangs off the shoulder, worn over a floor length embellished slip dress, held just by slender shoulder straps."