For La Vacanza 2025, Italian luxury fashion company Versace reconnects with its oceanic roots in Women’s and Men’s Collections steeped in a lifestyle suspended between sea and land.
Fusing coastal dress codes for day and evening, the proposals transition from swimwear into leisure and formal wear in wardrobes adorned with new adaptations of the House’s historical Trésors de la Mer motif. Applied to travel objects – towels, wraps, slippers – the patterns evolve the ongoing exploration of Versace Home within the context of fashion.
Illuminating the adaptation of Versace’s visual language from fashion to ambience, a campaign photographed by Zoë Ghertner illustrates the transition between shore and city central to the collection. Imagery shot on the beach pays homage to the antique genetics of Versace with nods to the archaeological artefacts that inspire Versace Home, while interior settings conjure swimming pool culture and spatial design.
The collection’s sea-centric motifs serve as symbols of a commitment to the preservation of the treasures of the ocean initiated by Versace as part of its devotion to all aspects of diversity, including biodiversity. For La Vacanza, the House is adopting nine thousand coral fragments in French Polynesia with Coral Gardeners – an organisation which restores damaged reefs.
Silhouettes
The collections embody transitions from sea to land – or shore to city – in adaptations of the elements of the beach and its dress codes. In the Women’s Collection, draped swimsuits morph into corseted tops, bodies and dresses worn with tailored jackets or shorts. They cut a Grecian line mirrored in cowl-neck dresses as well as tank tops and gowns draped with the safety pins emblematic to Versace.
Bathing suits are dressed up with pleated skirts, while the pareos of seaside living evolve into knee-length buttoned cover-ups posing as translucent dresses over bikinis. The effect echoes in printed silhouettes in jersey and poplin informed by the House’s eternal silk shirts, which also adapt into blousons and cardigans.
In the Men’s Collection, the silk shirt inspires new manifestations of twin sets, from printed bowling suits to shirts paired with sarongs and windbreakers matched with shorts. The delicate sensibility is reflected in lightweight cotton-wool tailoring cut loosely in the statuesque lines of Versace’s heritage, with elements of beachwear taking form in tailored gilets with zips and Medusa ’95 hardware details. The enhanced silhouette reverberates in lightweight nylon coats and cropped, broad-shouldered blousons as well as in denim suits with sleeveless or capsleeved shirts.
Techniques and Materials
Surfaces and embellishments mimic elements of the coast and the ocean. Inspired by the notion of the treasures of the sea washed ashore and hidden in the sand of the beach, slips – tops, skirts, dresses – are adorned with aquatic crystal, bead and sequin embroideries.
Similarly, dresses – some constructed with shell-like folded cups first presented in the Spring-Summer 1996 Collection – are ornamented with sea glass. Creating a wet look, clear and shiny sequins overlay chiffon cowlneck dresses with Medusa ’95 hardware straps as well as denim trousers. The georgette of a pink print gown draped with a safety pin is interwoven with lamé for a liquid effect.
A lightweight development of the House’s metal mesh appears in draped tops, skirts, dresses and gowns, including a re-edition of the Atelier Versace Spring-Summer 1994 gown recreated and worn by Naomi Campbell in the Versace Spring-Summer 2018 Show. The crushed effect of shirts in jersey or poplin imitate the memory of creases and folds created in the suitcase. Swimsuits transform into crochet two-pieces and ribbed viscose tops and cover-ups.
In the Men’s Collection, Barocco motifs are woven into the jacquard of tailoring while mohair wool evening suits are embellished with stitch embroidery and rhinestones in the images of the treasures of the sea.
Prints and Palette
Celebrating the influences that shaped La Vacanza itself, the collection’s motifs draw on the seaside culture central to the Mediterranean roots of Gianni and Donatella Versace. A salute to the family’s native Reggio Calabria – one of the southernmost cities in Italy which served as a Greek colony in antiquity and is also known as Magna Grecia – materialises in a very Versace meeting between neoclassicism and baroque.
In the Women’s Collection, the Trésors de la Mer motif – first introduced for Spring-Summer 1992 in homage to French rococo painters – is re-imagined in a string of Underwater Barocco prints. Tops and swimsuits are emblazoned with vivid souvenir graphics portraying under-the-sea scenery as well as an underwater Medusa (whose name is Italian for jellyfish).
In the Men’s Collection, a graphic of a mermaid riding a seahorse from Spring-Summer 1993 – a tribute to the illustrations of Erté and inspired by Greek mythology – is adapted into a Coral Theatre print, which appears in a number of colours and patterns including a pinstripe. A Medusa fountain crest featured on preppy pinstripes formalises the cultural stamp of Versace.
Set against a backdrop of black, the collections are rendered in the colours of coastal life: the sea green, azure blue, coral and metallics of the ocean; the vanilla, butter and marigold of the beach; and the pink of the sunset.
Accessories
Accessories interpret the season motifs through the savoir-faire of Versace.
In the Women’s Collection, the Tag bag appears in the sea green and dragon fruit colours of the collection. The nuances echo through La Medusa totes and Kleio bags, which are also interpreted in sequin embroideries, printed leather, leather patchworks and crocodile treatments evoking the treasures of the sea and sand.
Bag charms crafted from deadstock leather portray sea creatures including the Medusa. Stiletto or flat sandals with straps that spiral around the ankle feature in leather as well as silk twill, while rubber Medusa pool slides manifest as flats or elevated on rubber heels.
Jewellery plays on the theme of hidden sand treasures in charm, faux coral and belly chains as well as macro expressions with seashells, seahorses and Medusas.
In the Men’s Collection, the Medusa Biggie debuts in a curvaceous shape, its messenger iteration in tortoise shell leather, and the Medusa Tote in the Coral Theatre print. A multi-pocket nylon line is adorned with Medusa hardware.
The new thick-laced Biggie Basket sneaker features a zip compartment in the tongue fit for the beach. Similarly, the Mercury sneaker appears in a new scratch-closure manifestation alongside a high-frequency leather slide embossed with the Medusa.
The Luciano boot is crafted in marigold suede and white leather. Jewellery is garlanded with faux corals and the symbols of the House.
Impact
The sea-centric motifs of the collection – adapted from Versace’s archival Trésors de la Mer pattern – serve as symbols of the House’s commitment to ocean conservation and support to Coral Gardeners.
The international organisation is dedicated to the restoration and conservation of coral reefs across the ocean in French Polynesia, Fiji and Thailand. Coral Gardeners cultivate corals and transplant them onto damaged reefs to help restore marine biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Versace has committed to adopting nine thousand coral fragments in French Polynesia, directly supporting Coral Gardeners’ restoration efforts. Throughout June 2025, clients who purchased collection items from La Vacanza 2025 had the opportunity to name and later follow one individual coral adopted by Versace.
Each client received a unique code and link to name and follow the coral’s journey to the reef. Additionally, clients also receive emails with pictures and personal updates from the field.
Coral Gardeners and biodiversity are instinctive causes for Versace. While the House’s ties to marine life are figuratively evident in its archival motifs and mythology, the company also reflects its human values of inclusivity and diversity in all its activist initiatives. Mirroring the value of diversity in biodiversity is a natural evolution within this premise.