According to fashionista.com’s Hayley Phelan,
“This morning, Donatella Versace and H&M creative advisor Margareta van den Bosch sat down with moderator Tim Blanks for a chat on (what else) the Versace for H&M collaboration, which will hit stores in (OMFG!) just over a week. Here’s what we learned.
The collection is an homage to Donatella’s late brother, Gianni:
“Yes, it was an homage to Gianni. I couldn’t [pay homage in the same way] in my own line [the main Versace line] because it’s too archival, but I wanted to give it to a whole new customer, especially the younger crowd, through H&M.”
Working on the collaboration was difficult for Donatella emotionally:“[Before the collaboration] I never went back [into the archives] to look because it’s something I have in my heart and it’s very painful. It was a hard process for me but then I said, ‘No, everyone should see what Gianni was.”
Her daughter Allegra helped out:“Absolutely [Allegra has been a part of this], from day one. She helped with the video, with everything.”
Donatella’s motto is to say “yes”:We’re fearless and it’s very, very hard to find people who are fearless in fashion. Sequins, fringe, I say yes to everything!
Donatella liked the quick turnaround of the collection–seeing it on the runway and then in store a week later:“I think this is what we all dream about, like you show the collection and the next day it’s in the shop…[Now for my Versace line] I want to show and then have it in the store the next day [like with this collection].”
(ed note: Tim Blanks said: “Don’t worry, those days are coming”)The collaboration came about because Margareta van den Bosch wanted something crazy:
“This time, there’s been a lot of minimalism [in fashion] that I felt we should do something a little more crazy, maximalist, and I felt this [collaboration with Versace] was really right.”
And, finally, Donatella says she shopped at H&M (even before the collab):Yes, of course [I’ve shopped at H&M]!
[Ed note: she’s just kidding, right?] – Fashionista.com
