Donatella Versace heats things up for a sizzling summer 2012

Donatella Versace heats things up for a sizzling summer 2012

If Donatella Versace has her say, next summer promises to be one long heat-wave.Everything about the latest Versace womenswear collection presented Friday night during the current Milan fashion week for the Spring-Summer 2012, from fetching mini dresses to clinging goddess gowns to aggressive platform sandals, was steaming hot.This round, however, Versace added a little sugar to her trademark fashion recipe, to come up with a brand new sexy but sweet style.

Walking down the runway to the beat of Billy Idol’s “Hot in the City,” the blond-haired models in pretty pleated chiffon mini-dresses and ultrahigh plexiglass platforms looked like mermaids stranded in the big city. Seashells and starfish printed or stitched in sequins on the pastel-colored dresses completed the demure look.Things got hotter when bold metallic studs replaced the sparkle, and fabric for shorts went from chiffon to clinging neoprene like that used in scuba.At night our little mermaid becomes a siren in goddess gowns with plunging necklines, bare backs and tempting slits up the side.

Several models found the 20-centimeter (8-inch) platform heels as cumbersome as a mermaid’s tail, stumbling and, in the case of one of them, even falling on the slippery runway.The fashion glory of celebrity dresses and knee length dresses offered cheaply online.This fall it will be Donatella Versace’s turn to design a collection for H&M, the Swedish fashion chain which calls in a different top designer each season to create a collection for its mainly young clients on restricted budgets. The collection will go on sale in H&M stores in November.