Donatella Versace for Atelier Versace. Gold metal mail evening dress over nude slip. Fall-Winter 2012-3. Worn by the designer.

Full length evening dress in gold-coloured metal mail, over a nude-coloured slip and inbuilt corset which bears the weight of the metal.

Given by Donatella Versace

This evening gown was worn by the fashion designer Donatella Versace to the Met Gala in 2012.

The Met Gala is a major annual red-carpet event, with a star-studded guest list, that accompanies the launch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's fashion exhibition. Donatella, who has become as much of a high-profile personality in her own right as her celebrity clients, is a regular attendee, always attired in spectacular Versace. The 2012 Gala marked an exhibition celebrating the work of two of Versace's fellow Italian female designers, the couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, known for her surrealist and art-influenced work in the 1930s, and the equally iconoclastic, thoroughly modern Miuccia Prada. Like both Schiaparelli and Prada, Donatella frequently wears the best examples of her own designs and acts as an ambassador for her brand. For the 2012 event she wore this metal chain-mail dress from her last collection, which is immensely heavy and relies upon the interior support of a firmly boned nude-coloured corset to keep it anchored on the body.

- Daniel Milford-Cottam,
27/06/2017

T.1603-2017