9 Comments
User's avatar
Tamara's avatar

Fascinating as always, and this analysis deserves a second act of interpretation. To your point about Prada’s motivations, I’d argue this isn’t just about financial opportunism or brand expansion. It is a preemptive strike in an increasingly precarious luxury landscape that’s grappling with identity fatigue. Prada’s acquisition of Versace isn’t merely portfolio diversification, but semiotic diversification, at least this is how I see it. When a house like Prada, rooted in cerebral minimalism and postmodern irony, absorbs a maximalist myth-machine like Versace, the play is narrative power. Fashion, after all, is no longer just selling clothes…. it’s selling mythologies at scale.

Your observation about Miu Miu’s rise and Simons’ blunders at Prada is perfect. But here’s a twist: Miu Miu’s success isn’t just because Simons hasn’t touched it, but because it still feels emotionally authored. That’s what consumers are clinging to in the post-pandemic aesthetic drift: the illusion of auteurship. If Prada can resuscitate Versace not as a heritage label in rehab, but as a newly authored mythology with sensual intelligence and symbolic discipline, it could achieve something rare: a revival that doesn’t feel like corporate necromancy.

But only if, as you suggest, they get the quality under control. Because if Versace continues to look like a drag queen’s fever dream stitched in a polyester sweatshop, no amount of legacy will save it…..

Expand full comment
Martin's avatar

Great comment as always! While I don't disagree that this acquisition has the effect of semiotic diversification, I really think we'd be giving current leadership too much credit if we ascribed that thought process to them. Miuccia is indeed highly intellectual in her pursuits, but the company as a whole doesn't necessarily possess that same quality every time it does business deals. As you say though, I would love to see Versace come back to life. It has all the potential in the world. It just needs the right leadership.

Expand full comment
Tamara's avatar

You’re right to flag the risk of over-intellectualising corporate instinct. While Miuccia may traffic in semiotics, the boardroom traffics in spreadsheets, and intention doesn’t always trickle down the chain. That said, even if the Prada Group didn’t consciously pursue semiotic diversification, the effect might still manifest. Fashion history is littered with accidental genius… what matters isn’t the purity of motive, but the coherence of result.

Still, you make a crucial point about leadership. The revival of Versace hinges less on capital and more on curation. It would be easy to just find the next ‘star’ designer, but now what matters it’s architectural thinking, someone who can excavate Gianni’s deeper codes (the neoclassical drama, the androgynous tailoring, the erotic melancholia) and translate them into a language that doesn’t scream but seduces. In that sense, it’s less a question of “revival” and more one of transubstantiation: can Versace become a different kind of spectacle, one that feels less like self-parody and more like prophecy?

That’s the game: but new authorship, not necessarily leadership.

We do agree.

Expand full comment
Lisa Metcalfe's avatar

As always so well written and honest. John Idol destroyed this brand as he did Michael’s kors. Shooting low for mass appeal. Quality isn’t even a consideration for these brands.

Expand full comment
Martin's avatar

You're so right – quality isn't a consideration at all, which is beyond shameful when one is charging thousands for such products. And sadly, it's so prolific throughout the industry at this point.

Expand full comment
Sheila (of Ephemera)'s avatar

I so agree on the on the dearth of quality in high-end designer garments. Seriously, why are they using polyester at all? I mean, look at those wonderfully draped suits in that ad above. You can tell that that’s wool. I can almost feel it just by looking at the picture. And that picture of Cindy! The brand has lost the vision of aspiration for customers.

Sadly, I feel like it’s coming back to the “dumbing down” of fashion.

Excellent article as always, Martin.💕

Expand full comment
Martin's avatar

It's truly wild, but according to a good friend of mine who's worked in couture and top NYC brands for decades, textile mills try and sell polyester as this incredible high-tech, luxurious material. Of course, it has some amazingly versatile properties (because it's plastic lol), but the way they try to reframe it is insane. As you said, there's just nothing like the incredible drape of noble fibers. Thanks for reading, Sheila!

Expand full comment
Lisa Metcalfe's avatar

Yes and this goes back to the off shoring of manufacturing and the loss of understanding by 99% of current “production” people who don’t know how to make a garment

Expand full comment
Daniel Thie's avatar

As a non-marketeer, or journalist, but as a simple "former" Versace client, I always found their designs the pinnacle of luxury, quality and exclusivity. However, their quality dropped and is not in alignment with the price asked. And with Versace Jeans, that sometimes have even better designs, at the same level of quality (or lack of it), but at a much lower price, I've become an ex-client and now feast my eyes on LV and Hermes.

Expand full comment