31 Oct Donatella Opens Up About Versace For H&M

It’s a Versace moment. Donatella’s new collection for H&M, set to hit stores November 19, has sent the blogosphere into a near-unprecedented tizzy, and her Spring ‘12 collections (for women and men) were standouts of the season. In the first issue of Style.com/Print, Tim Blanks sits down with the designer to find out what’s behind the dramatic resurgence of the label and how she’s harnessed the Versace history for a new age.

Spoiler alert: A new crew of young British collaborators (including Christopher Kane) and fans (like Lady Gaga) who revere the Versace classics of the eighties and nineties both play parts. With her fast-fashion collection, Donatella set out to revive those classics. “All these people reacting to what was in the archives—Gaga, the people in London, the young kids in the office—they’re 25 years old, they’re obsessed,” Versace told Blanks. “They don’t know. So we did a best of Versace for H&M, a greatest hits, from the beginning until now.”