The flamboyant Italian fashion house has teamed up with cut-price clothing retailer H&M to offer a Norwegians haute-couture at knock down prices. The collection goes on sale on November 17th and has been met with mixed reactions in Norwegian fashion circles.
“Versace is, to start with, very gaudy and generally a bit much,” fashion guru and editor of Vixen Magazine, Marianne Jemtegård , told NRK.
“That doesn’t quite fit the style of many Scandinavian women,” Jemtegård said.
H&M’s Versace line was run out on the boardwalk in New York on Tuesday night despite the reservations of fashion house heiress Donatella Versace herself who once said she would never work with low-cost retailers. Yet in recent years, H&M has made great inroads in North America and Europe, and the admission of Versace designs in select H&M boutiques is seen as a nod to the power of the Sweden-based clothing giant.
The collection is timely as the season for company Christmas parties, or julebord, is just around the corner. H&M and Versace will be hoping that well-healed Norwegians will be perusing stores and virtual boutiques in search of making a splash.
Jemtegård however thinks the exclusive line will be overlooked by julbord party-goers.
“(Versace’s H&M designs) are surely more for a select little group,” Jemtegård told NRK in reference to the deeply textured, pattern-rich Italian designer line started by Milan’s Gianni Versace in 1978.
The collection will be followed up by a further pre-spring collection which goes on sale in selected online stores on January 19th, 2012.
Jemtegård’s advice to women and girls has ranged from “remember rubber boots and sun cream” at music festivals to “don’t dress larger than you are” and is highly regarded in Norway fashion circles and makes regular appearances on TV.
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