Remixed And Remastered

Fashion’s storied houses are pushing their way into the future by reinterpreting and repurposing their iconic pieces and classic signatures.

- Nick Remsen

Fashion’s newest game: seeing if you can put a date on Miuccia Prada’s references. Recent collections have mixed everything from her early minimalist nylon pieces to mid-’90s geek-chic prints. Versace, meanwhile, couldn’t be more Versace. Or Gucci more Gucci. Or Chanel more—you get the idea. Fashion’s best-known names have been exploring their signatures—the visual cues that define their identity— like never before.

The Baroque splendour of the late Gianni Versace’s gilded extravagance? These days it’s streamlined by his sister, Donatella, into everything from draped and fringed cocktailiana to treadmill-friendly sneakers. The instantly recognisable Chanel doubleC logo? Forever reinvented—as a surfboard decal, a laurel wreath—via Karl Lagerfeld’s imagination. (Lagerfeld’s Chanel remains, after nearly four decades of reinvention, House Zero for the art of self-referencing.)