Gianni Versace SS1994 Safety Pin Backpack now online. By the early 1990s, what had defined Gianni Versace’s meteoric rise began to feel dated. Spectacle becomes staid when it's expected — and the silk-strewn sex and decadence he dressed the 80s with was a relic of an old generation. The tide had turned. Fellow oracles of excess like Brett Easton Ellis were lampooning the 80s, serving a death blow to the decade with his classic satire of it, "American Psycho," in 1992. And the designer whom its anti-hero Patrick Bateman most notably fixates upon? Gianni Versace. The Italian maestro had become something to rebel against. In fact, it’s hard not to see the emergence of the anti-fashion designers who dominated the 90s — Margiela, Lang, Yamamoto — as a purposeful backlash against what Gianni had built. His spring 1994 work felt, for once, like Gianni following the way the winds were blowing. It was still "Versace" to a V — gold accents, exposed skin, and a who’s who of the A list. Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Eve Salvail, Kate Moss — per usual he summoned superstars in spades in a way no designer has ever replicated. Yet the clothes themselves suggested he had eyes back overseas. Namely towards London. The ultra-short schoolgirl dresses, slashed-out sweaters, and unfurled shirting beneath all conjured images of Vivienne Westwood, who was at the height of her powers. And that’s without mentioning the safety pins, a punk staple Gianni turned on their head by oversizing, and adding his own Medusa insignia. A symbol of decadence atop a symbol of punk — a perfect metaphor for the collection which brought Gianni as close to perfection as he'd ever reach. #middlemanstore