Versace Silks and the Medusa: A Guide to the Prints, Jewellery and Labels

Our thesis: a Versace piece is read through three marks together, the print, the Medusa and the label, and the label decides which Versace you hold. Gianni Versace, the main line, the young lines and the jeans line each used the same imagery at very different levels of making. The watches have their own guide, our guide to Versace watches, from the Medusa to the DV One; this piece reads the silks, the jewellery and the labels, and sits within the wider luxury archive.

At a glance

From a dressmaker's shop in Calabria to Milan

Versace was born in Reggio Calabria and grew up with his brother Santo and sister Donatella; his mother, Francesca, was a dressmaker, and he began his apprenticeship in her business, which employed up to a dozen seamstresses. In 1972 he designed for Callaghan, Genny and Complice, and in 1978 he launched under his own name, opening a boutique in Milan's Via della Spiga. Calabria lay in the ancient Magna Graecia, the Greek-settled south of Italy, and the classical imagery that runs through the house begins there.

The family stayed at the centre. In 1993 Donatella added the Young Versace and Versus lines, and from 1994 the company referred to her as co-designer. After Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach house in July 1997, Donatella became creative director and Santo chief executive.

The Medusa, read closely

A museum history of Italian trademarks gives the order. The first logo, of 1980, was lettering by the graphic designer Mario Craighero, based on the Avant Garde typeface. From 1993 the Medusa's head became the emblem, framed in a ridged circle like a coin or a shield. In 2008 a restyling lightened the head and spaced the lettering; in 2016 the house returned to the Medusa of the 1990s, with softer features.

That chronology is useful on objects. The coin-framed Medusa appears on 1990s jewellery such as a 1990s Medusa coin link necklace in gold tone, with its original box, and a six-medallion Medusa coin bracelet with Greek key borders. The Greek key, or greca, is the border that most often travels with the Medusa, on clasps, bezels and the inner bands of rings such as a Gianni Versace Medusa ring with Greek key inner band. For other houses' costume jewellery, our costume jewellery shelf gives the comparison, and the Lexicon entry on the Medusa sets out the myth and the marble.

The baroque silks

Versace's printed silks turned the Italian decorative tradition into pop: gold scrollwork, chains, Medusa heads and animal skins on shiny silk, worn on shirts, bomber jackets and scarves. The baroque print's runway debut is dated to 1991, and in 2017 Donatella's Spring 2018 tribute show drew on archive prints from the years 1991 to 1995, including Baroque, Animalia and Tresor de la Mer, for the first time since she took creative direction.

The house holds silks from both ends of that history. A 1990s Gianni Versace baroque sunburst silk shirt in black and gold carries the founder's label; a baroque silk bomber, style A67108, in gold on white and black shows the print on outerwear; and a later baroque silk shirt with a Medusa on the back, unworn with tags shows the revival. More shirts sit on our shirts and knitwear shelf.

The labels, line by line

The label is the key, because the same print was used at very different levels.

Label What it is Example in the house
Gianni Versace The main line in the founder's lifetime a Gianni Versace Couture shirt in gold and black scroll print
Versus A younger line added in 1993 a Versus lambskin rider jacket with baroque-print lining
Versace Sport Sportswear of the 1990s a 1990s nautical print shirt with sun-medallion buttons
Versace Jeans Couture Licensed from the 2010 season; the only diffusion line from 2014 a Jeans Couture double rider jacket with baroque lining
Versace (current) The main line under the restyled marks a silk shirt, style 1003941, with medallion back

Versace Jeans Couture began under a licence with Gruppo Facchini from the Spring/Summer 2010 season, and from 2014 it absorbed Versus, Versace Jeans, Versace Collection and the other sub-lines as the brand's single diffusion line. In 2026 the house's new owner announced plans to end it. A pre-2014 label reading Versace Jeans, Versace Collection or Versus therefore places a piece before that merger.

Fendace and the partners

In September 2021 Versace and Fendi showed together in a show called The Swap: Kim Jones's vision of Versace and Donatella Versace's vision of Fendi. The collections, known as Fendace, put the baroque print on Fendi's FF monogram. A Fendace silk shirt in black and gold scroll print on the monogram ground shows the swap at its clearest; Fendi's own history is in our Fendi Baguette guide.

How to read a Versace piece

  • The label. Gianni Versace, Versace, Versus, Versace Sport and Versace Jeans Couture are different lines. Read the label before the print.
  • The Medusa. Compare the face with the period: the 1990s head, the lightened head of the 2008 restyling, or the 2016 return to the 1990s head with softer features.
  • The style code. Many pieces in the house carry a style number, such as A67108 or 1003941; record it, as it identifies the model.
  • The country of making. Main-line silks are usually made in Italy; some later pieces in the house are marked Made in Romania, which is a fact of production, not a warning.
  • The jewellery. Most Versace jewellery is gold-tone base metal; in our handling, genuine pieces carry a signed clasp or a Medusa plate, and the Greek key is crisp, not soft.

Each piece is graded on the letters explained in our guide to Japanese condition ranks, with silk checked for pulls and fading at the collar and cuffs.

Versace in Japan, in brief

Japan has kept Versace in its museums as well as its wardrobes. An Istante vest from the 1980s, given by Takashi and Keiko Sakaki, was among the Kyoto Costume Institute's acquisitions of 2011 and 2012 and went on show at the KCI Gallery from 28 January 2013. The house opened its first flagship in Japan at 6-7-12 Ginza on 23 November 2015, designed with the British architect Jamie Fobert on the idea of "a place where the past meets the future", with acrylic shelves that appear to float over a floor of mosaics drawn from ninth-century Byzantine churches. To mark the opening, a one-off pink python bag with a yellow-gold Medusa carried a tag engraved "KONNICHIWA VERSACE GINZA".

This guide is for reading a piece in the hand. For the house's longer story in Japan, from the bubble years to the Ginza return, read our companion piece, Versace: the Medusa, Barocco and Japan's long love of gold.

Where the record differs

Accounts differ on the baroque print. One account dates its runway debut to 1991; another places Versace's baroque turn in the late 1980s, in prints of gold chains, Medusa heads and leopard skin on silk. We print both: the baroque mood predates 1991, while the named print first appears on the runway that year.

A correction to the common story: the Medusa was not Versace's first logo. The house's first logo, in 1980, was lettering by Mario Craighero, and the Medusa head became the emblem in 1993. Medusa imagery appears in the work earlier, but the coin-framed emblem belongs to the 1990s.

Starting a Versace collection

Begin with the label and the decade, then let the print decide. A Gianni Versace silk from the founder's lifetime, a Versus leather of the 1990s and a Fendace shirt of 2021 all carry baroque scrollwork, yet each records a different moment in a house that started in a dressmaker's shop in Calabria and borrowed its emblem from a Roman marble. The coin-framed Medusa on a 1990s bracelet is the most compact statement of that story. That is our reading.

The whole Versace archive in the house is on our Versace shelf.

Answered plainly

When did Versace adopt the Medusa logo?

In 1993, in the standard history of its logos. The first logo, of 1980, was lettering by Mario Craighero.

Which Medusa is on the Versace logo?

The Medusa Rondanini, a marble head of the Augustan period copied from a Greek original.

What is the difference between Gianni Versace and Versace Jeans Couture?

Gianni Versace is the main line of the founder's lifetime; Versace Jeans Couture is a licensed younger line from the 2010 season, the only diffusion line from 2014.

What was Fendace?

The September 2021 swap between Fendi and Versace, in which each house designed a collection for the other.

Further reading

Sources

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