Because no great pop artist/half of a celebrity It couple/social media influencer is truly complete without at least a half-dozen fashion collaborations to his or her name, today the New York Times announced that there is a Zayn x Versus Versace capsule collection in the works. (On a related note, Zayn will star in the upcoming Versus Versace campaign.)
After former creative director Anthony Vaccarello’s departure for Yves Saint Laurent, Versace’s “younger, hipper” offshoot was a ship without a captain. Enter Zayn who, according to Donatella Versace, embodies the brand’s rock ‘n’ roll vibe. “Versus is everything that the Versace line is not. It is loud, it is rebellious — I don’t want shoppers buying both from Versus and Versace. The houses have different souls,” the grand dame of Italian fashion told the New York Times. “I wanted Zayn because he can help me talk to his followers. I want to listen to their language. I want to learn more about them, what they think and what they like. They are a new generation that without working with someone like Zayn, I will never reach.”
The two met through Malik’s bae and Versace’s frequent campaign star, Gigi Hadid. “He impressed me very much — he was so mature, so thoughtful, treated her like such a gentleman. They are very nice young people, a lovely couple, in fact. And then he told me how much he loved fashion. It was then I knew he was the right face for what I had in mind,” Donatella told the Times. Cue the awwws.
One can’t help but wonder if Hadid had any greater hand in orchestrating the collaboration. The see-now, buy-very-soon-after rollout plan sounds quite similar to the Reebok star’s recent Tommy x Gigi collaboration, sans the big fashion week blowout. Buyers and members of the press will preview the line in spring, the collection will hit Versus stores and e-commerce site in May.
Donatella anticipates this will be the first of many musician-fronted collaborations, lack of design training be damned: “Zayn is clearly our plan for now. But I think going forward I will keep doing collaborations with other musicians and rock stars as guest designers. It will be like our version of taking the brand on tour.”
The line will reportedly consist of menswear and womenswear. We also hear that some of the profits will be donated to charity. The rest remains up in the air (“I hope that I can develop a collection with Donatella that I can truly say reflects who I am and what I like,” Zayn told Vogue) but for now we’re hoping for some luxe “Mind of Mine” merch and a steamy couples campaign lensed by Mario Testino because, as with designer-influencer collabs, we never tire of Zayn x Gigi.
[ via The New York Times ]
