The new Versace Pre-Fall 2019 Menswear line just marched down the runways of Milan earlier this week, and the hair stole the show just as much as the actual clothing. Versace sent leopard-print hair down the catwalk to match their faux leopard fur coats, loudly layering prints in the kind of way the luxury fashion house is known for.
The first half of the show revolved around the 1990 bondage iconography that Gionni had a penchant for in the early years of the label, but instead of weaving the buckles and straps expertly through blazers and pants, they made their appearance as graphic T-shirts, adding a modern spin to the subversive look.
The second half of the show is where things became playful, and that's where the streetstyle part of the collection made its debut. Beetlejuice-like black and white striped blazers decorated with button pins were paired with neon sneakers, and collared shirts printed with the blue and white Ford logo were layered underneath leopard print coats and matched with striped pants. This particular look is where the leopard print dye job came in, debuted on the head of model João Knorr.
Hairstylist Guido Palau was behind the style direction and look, who also happens to be the legendary stylist that helped create the disheveled bedhead look that models donned in the '90s grunge era. Not one to slack on creativity, Palau decided to take Knorr and mimic the same pattern found on his faux-fur coat, and transfer it to his bleached buzz cut head. According to Allure, Palau had colorist Davide of Italy's Blance salon bleach the model's hair, and then hand paint the black and brown leopard dots with non-permanent hair dye.
"Backstage, Knorr’s bleached buzz got artfully spray-painted with brown and black spots—making for an end result that read sophisticated club kid," Vogue reported.
“The hair-coat match was everything,” Donatella Versace wrote underneath her Instagram photo of the final result.
But as Vogue pointed out, this wasn't the first time that leopard prints made their way onto closely shaved crops. Right after the show, stylist Katie England Instagrammed a picture of a photo shoot she worked on in 1995, featuring bleached hair and animal spots that looked similar to the ones walking to Versace's Milan show.
In a way, it's almost poetic that the fashion label's leopard print hair channeled the '90s, especially seeing how Versace has recently begun to focus on bringing back their cult-classic collections from the past. This homage to Gianni's creations wasn't only noticeable in the house's dalliance with bondage in the Pre-Fall collection, but with Donatella's ode to her brother's archives. Just in December of 2018, she brought back the iconic safety pin dress that Elizabeth Hurley wore to the Four Weddings and a Funeral movie premiere in the '90s, as well as Jennifer Lopez's iconic bellybutton-baring Grammy dress from 2000.
The fashion house is having fun with a walk down memory lane, and if it brings us more pieces from the '90s, who can complain?
