Never before have so many items from Gianni Versace collections and his life been displayed at a Museum

Groninger Museum to open largest-ever retrospective of Gianni Versace’s work.

Groninger Museum to host Gianni Versace Retrospective: Largest-ever exhibition of Italian Designer’s work (From Saturday 3 December 2022 to Sunday 7 May 2023). The Groninger Museum is an art museum in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The museum exhibits modern and contemporary art of local, national, and international artists.

One of the most influential couturiers ever comes to life at the Groninger Museum in Gianni Versace Retrospective. This colourful, daring, emotional exhibition takes visitors inside the eccentric Italian fashion designer’s world of extravagant clothing and lavish catwalk shows in which clothing, pop music and design come spectacularly together. Gianni Versace was murdered 25 years ago, but his revolutionary spirit lives on in the fashion of today. From 3 December 2022 through 7 May 2023, the Groninger Museum honours Gianni Versace and his trailblazing designs.

Gianni Versace Retrospective showcases outfits, accessories, fabrics, drawings, interior designs, and footage of legendary shows harking back to the Italian designer’s glory days between 1989 and 1997, all testifying to his extraordinary creativity. Gianni Versace linked fashion with music, photography and graphic design and led the way in the transformation of fashion shows and advertising campaigns into works of art. He succeeded in bringing the arts together as no one had before. All the items in the exhibition are original pieces, sourced from international private collections.

Self-confidence and supermodels

Gianni Versace (1946–1997) was a pioneer in the fashion world. He challenged traditional images of masculinity and femininity, designing clothing for both sexes and referencing sexuality and power in his collections. As an openly gay man, he became a key figure in the LGBTQ movement. He also encouraged women to be self-confident enough not to hide their bodies. A clever marketer, Gianni Versace recruited celebrities to promote his brand. At the same time, he turned previously unknown models into superstars. Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford owe their supermodel status to him. He worked on his advertising campaigns with forward-looking photographers like Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh and Bruce Weber. Gianni Versace created a new status quo in the fashion industry.

“That dress” – the one that sparked a media frenzy and made the actress Liz Hurley world-famous overnight – is coming to Groningen Museum. The garment goes on view on 3 December as part of Gianni Versace Retrospective, the largest-ever exhibition of the fashion designer’s work. Never before have so many objects from Gianni Versace’s collections and life been displayed together as in the Groninger Museum’s forthcoming show.

In 1994 an obscure actress named Liz Hurley accompanied the movie star Hugh Grant on the red carpet at the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral. What was everyone talking about? Not Grant, not the film, but “that dress”. Hurley was wearing a revealing black silk Versace creation with giant gold safety pins up the sides.

The designs of Gianni Versace

According to the exhibition’s curators, Versace experts Karl von der Ahé and Saskia Lubnow, the dress is the ideal garment to illustrate the impact Versace had as a designer. The famous garment is on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Another exhibition highlight is a catwalk showcasing key looks from Versace’s 1991 Freedom collection. The Freedom Fashion Show turned supermodels Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington into global sensations.

Gianni Versace understood the power of the media better than anyone. He laid the groundwork for the influencers of today. Versace seated celebrities rather than fashion journalists in the front rows at his shows. He also dressed them for red carpet appearances and performances. The rapper 2Pac often wore the designer’s silk shirts on stage and performed at a 1996 Versace Show in Milan. Versace’s strategy was hugely effective at reaching a mass audience.

Ancient Greece, pop art and bondage

Gianni Versace’s groundbreaking combinations and strong patterns sprang from his vast knowledge of visual culture and art history. He brought together classical and pop art imagery and found inspiration in figures from ancient Greece as well as subjects like bondage and SM. Gianni Versace worked with artists like Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Julian Schnabel, raising the profile of the marriage between old and new like never before.

1997 murder

On 15 July 1997, Gianni Versace was murdered at age 50 in front of his house in Florida. He had left a unique mark on the fashion world and won multitudes of fans, and numerous pop stars and other prominent people, including Princess Diana and Elton John, attended his funeral. With his death, the fashion world lost one of its most important designers of the 20th century.

This exhibition was curated by Dreamrealizer and Groninger Museum. It is not affiliated with the company Gianni Versace S.r.l. or the Versace family.

The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the leading private collectors of the work of Gianni Versace: Antonio Caraveno (with Sabina Albano as collection curator), as well as Salvatore Alderuccio and Franco Jacassi.