Fame Trumps Fashion

Three dresses dominate the entrance to the new Gianni Versace show at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. From a design standpoint, the dresses are barely notable: each is a simple column embellished with beading or gold studs or safety pins.

The dresses have pride of place not because of their significance as fashion, but because of the celebrity of those who wore them — Elizabeth Hurley, Princess Diana and Naomi Campbell. To underscore that point, giant portraits of Hurley in the safety-pin dress she made famous and Diana in a powder-blue beaded sheath flank the entrance.

The show's emphasis on fame over fashion says a lot about the V&A's reasons for staging it in the first place. When the museum announced last spring that its largest exhibition devoted to a single designer would celebrate Versace, the fashion press asked: "Why?" The V&A's reply — that this year marks the fifth anniversary of Versace's murder — seemed less than convincing. There were other, more compelling milestones. For example, Yves Saint Laurent — a designer who did far more than Versace to change the way women dress — recently retired. Might not a retrospective have been in order?

The most likely explanation for the V&A show is that Versace's shimmering, flamboyant designs are guaranteed crowd pleasers in a way that Saint Laurent's tuxedos and trench coats are not. The exhibition, which opened last week, makes note of Versace's under-appreciated tailoring skills, but places greater emphasis on the flash and glamour that the house has come to represent. The fact that the women Versace was most famous for dressing were British also helps explain the exhibition.

The British have a unique fascination with Versace. The stereotype of the house — bold, brassy and tacky — goes against the stereotype of the polite and reserved British. When the two mix, headlines are made. Consider: if Liz Hurley had worn "that dress" in Los Angeles, Rome or Rio, would anyone have noticed? No. She would also have been seen for what she was: yet another unknown actress trying to make a splash.

While the show is a celebration of all that Versace was, it is also a reminder of what the house no longer is. When Gianni was alive, the company's sales were healthy and an IPO was in the works. Now the firm is looking for outside investors, and financiers who have seen the books tell Time the numbers are bleak. Part of the reason for Versace's troubled fortunes can be seen in the last room of the show.

Dresses by Versace's current designer, Gianni's sister Donatella, show that while she's done an admirable job of keeping the family name in the spotlight — her plunging palm-leaf dress made headlines when it was worn by Jennifer Lopez — she doesn't have her brother's world-class talent. If there's to be a Donatella Versace exhibition in the future, she'd be wise to partner with a designer whose creative skills match her networking ones