Gianni Versace – visions of high fashion, haute couture

Vanitas Author: Gianni Versace; Buy New: $47.25

Gianni Versace – just the name brings to mind visions of high fashion, haute couture, incredibly beautiful fabrics swishing by on colt-like mannequins with arched eyebrows and the highest cheekbones. Vanitas: Designs is glamour between covers as it presents the designs, ready-to-wear, accessories, jewelry and costumes by Versace.

The almost 300 folio-size, full-page startlingly colorful picturers are accompanied by texts penned by Hamish Bowles, Lady Julia Trevelyan Oman, Andre Leon Talley, and Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti. Quotes by Versace enliven the already quick paced commentary.

The section on embroidery, from buttonholes to ball gowns, features garments decorated with threads of gold and silver, bugle beads, all reflecting Versace’s eye for the imaginatively stunning.

Here is a beautiful, bold, sometimes brash collection of some of the most opulent designs in our world of fashion.

Related: All the Versace