The exhibition features nearly 450 objects, from iconic runway looks to rare photographs and archival interviews
A major retrospective dedicated to Gianni Versace opens this week at Paris’s Musée Maillol, bringing together nearly 450 objects that chart the designer’s career and lasting influence on fashion. Running through September 6, the exhibition offers an expansive look at the Italian designer’s creative legacy through clothing, accessories, photographs, homewares, archival materials, and rare video interviews.
Organized by Berlin-based exhibition producer Dreamrealizer, the show has been conceived specifically for Paris, focusing on Versace’s relationship with France and the city that played an important role in his later career. Versace began presenting haute couture collections in Paris in 1989, staging shows at the Ritz hotel and building connections with some of France’s most prominent cultural and political figures.
At the center of the exhibition are nearly 100 garments displayed on mannequins arranged along a runway-inspired installation. Organized thematically, the looks explore recurring elements of Versace’s design vocabulary, from Baroque ornamentation and vibrant prints to bondage-inspired silhouettes and celebrity dressing. Accompanying labels identify the original wearer—whether model, musician, or actor—as well as the collectors who loaned the pieces for the exhibition.
The retrospective also revisits the era that helped define Versace’s cultural impact, spotlighting the designer’s close relationship with the supermodel generation of the late 1980s and 1990s. Archival footage, photography, and garments recall the period when figures such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington became synonymous with his glamorous and highly visible runway productions.
A dedicated section explores Versace’s connections to music, film, and royalty, featuring pieces associated with Princess Diana, Elton John, Madonna, Grace Jones, and Demi Moore. Elsewhere, books, magazine covers, and press clippings document both the admiration and controversy that surrounded the designer’s work during his lifetime.
Among the exhibition’s highlights are previously unseen photographs sourced from the archive of longtime press officer Doris Brugger, as well as a recreation of Versace’s Milan studio. One gallery also presents footage from the Winter 1998 Atelier Versace show, considered among the final public images of the designer before his death in Miami in 1997.
Notably absent is one of the most famous garments associated with the brand: the black safety-pin dress worn by Elizabeth Hurley to the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral. According to the exhibition’s curators, the original dress remains unaccounted for, with a digital reference standing in its place.
The exhibition marks the first fashion-focused presentation at Musée Maillol, a venue traditionally associated with fine art and photography exhibitions. While the retrospective is independent of Gianni Versace Srl and the Versace family, it offers one of the most comprehensive examinations of the designer’s work to date, revisiting a career that helped shape the visual language of contemporary luxury fashion.
