Donatella Versace, after years of search, has finally found a place to hang her heel. (A reporter at a preview of her new Soho shop this afternoon wondered whether she ever went for a flat shoe: “What’s a flat shoe?” she replied.) “I love Soho,” she said. “I walk up and down, up and down.” She’d wanted a Soho shop, she added, for a long time, “but I needed the collection to be good enough for it.” Now it is.
Unlike the mansionlike Fifth Avenue Versace store, downtown, at just under 1,800 square feet, is practically a studio apartment. The difference between it and her closet, Donatella joked (or didn’t?): “My closet is bigger.” Small or large, the store combines Italianisms—a marble mosaic floor, inspired by Gianni’s own taste for classical flourishes—and nouveau Soho sleekness, with curving Plexiglas panels.
In addition to the store design, one of the new boutique’s innovations is a selection of limited-edition products created and curated by a revolving panel of inspirational friends of the brand. For the first, Versace tapped her Versus collaborator Christopher Kane, who also made the trip to New York to christen the shop. They include T-shirts with images from the brand’s past, like the Avedon ones below. “I’ve been lucky enough to see the archive, and the pictorial archive is so large,” Kane said. “It would take weeks upon weeks to see it all. It’s a hard edit, but Donatella is a really good editor.” His capsule collection, sold exclusively at the Soho store, also includes Medusa-head goods aplenty: tees, ear buds (left), stationery, and even a board game à la Chutes & Ladders: Medusa & Greca.
—Matthew Schneier
Photos: Courtesy of Versace
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