“Those who fall in love with the Medusa have no way back,” cautioned Gianni Versace, the late designer who made the snake-haired temptress the emblem of his Italian fashion empire. His words rang true in Milan this month; the house opened its opulent palazzo headquarters to showcase its latest furniture collection during the design fair Salone del Mobile.
Here was Medusa reimagined through a pop prism. Her unmistakable visage featured on Neapolitan-hued thrones (cast in polyurethane and dotted outside on the vast terrace), ceramic vases, surfboards and hanging lights filled with coloured sand. Her face was even inscribed into the weft of the kaleidoscopic carpets, commissioned from the Radici carpet maker.
Versace’s fascination with the Medusa myth is said to have sprung from the historic mosaic floors that he played on with his sister Donatella as a child — and the heavy door-knocker of the Via Gesu headquarters he bought in 1982. The designer frequently compared the gorgon to his sister, even commissioning the artist Julian Schnabel to paint her as a modern-day Medusa. His was the Medusa of Ovid — she of “shining hair” and “charms” — and her persona represents a dynamic and adventurous beauty, an attitude that has been expressed throughout every aspect of the brand.