Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace: the anatomy of a style icon
The character of Donatella Versace makes her entrance - and it is an entrance - near the end of the first episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Clad in her signature spray-on jeans, black roll-neck and double-breasted suit jacket, she is impossibly glamorous, even while grieving.
With Penelope Cruz playing Donatella in Ryan Murphy's take on the Versace assassination, a follow-up to 2016's The People v OJ Simpson, the show offers a potted retrospective of the iconic style of the Italian house, and the personal style of the woman at its helm. Cruz’s transformation into Donatella is uncanny - he has the original's platinum-blonde hair, permanent tan, full lips and dark, smokey eyes - and a wardrobe of classic, covetable vintage Versace (or replica-Versace) pieces.
For a woman who once said, 'You can be too boring, but you can never be too seductive’, seduction and glamour are in her DNA. Day-to-day looks remain true to the tried-and-tested formula reflected in Cruz’s opening appearance: tight black trousers - which Donatella declares to be ‘essential’ for every woman in her US Vogue 73 questions interview - black boots, a tailored jacket, or shirt, accessorised with an endlessly rotating collection of gold jewellery.
In September last year, two decades after Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, Donatella, creative director of the Versace label since the designer’s death, turned her spring-summer 2018 show into a tribute to her late brother.
With five of the original supermodels returning to walk the runway in honour of the late designer, the show has already gone down in fashion history. At the centre of the five was the instantly recognisable figure of Ms Versace, dressed in her go-to daytime black with gold accents. Her own style has become as iconic as the gold chainmail sheaths worn by Cindy, Naomi, Carla, Claudia and Helena.
Though the Versace aesthetic has evolved, perhaps matured, during Donatella’s tenure, a flick back through 30+ years of her own looks demonstrate that, save a gradual exaggeration of her physical appearance - slimmer, more platinum, smokier eyes - her personal style has remained virtually unchanged. And, as Donatella, Cruz’s on-screen wardrobe is expertly judged. Daytime wear varies between minimal, streamlined silhouettes and sharply cut tailoring. For evening, she showcases a rotation of sheath dresses. The palette is minimal - mainly black, with a flash of red, metallic, and the occasional Versace print, always accessorised with her signature gold jewellery.
Donatella Versace's tribute to Gianni Versace- in pictures
The first three episodes have shown a grieving, business-like Donatella, though future episodes will reveal flashbacks to high-glamour appearances - a particular highlight promises to be the Belt dress worn for Vogue’s 100th anniversary party. For the red carpet, she ups the ante in ultra-slim fit (she is a fan of Alaia’s bodycon designs alongside her own label), corset-cinched waist, sculpted bust, floor-length silhouettes. Sequins/beads/feathers/rhinestones deliver maximum glamour. The Donatella version of her brother’s all-out glamour that plays out on the runway and in the Versace collections, is somehow more feminine - a modern evolution on the 1980s campaigns where supermodels draped themselves over mahogany muscle men. The same can be said of her own style.
In December, Donatella was awarded the Fashion Icon award at the Fashion Awards. She accepted her prize in a gown that seemed to fuse her own style with the aesthetic of the label she has led for the last 20 years. Nipped at the waist, sculpting and cinching of the torso and bust, sleeveless, floor-length, slashed to the thigh, the silhouette was pure Donatella. The all-over print - an instantly-recognisable motif from the Versace archive - perhaps, a tribute to her late brother?