Versace has never needed help being glamorous. Gold hardware, Medusas, body-conscious clothes and decades of celebrity have made sure of that. What Dario Vitale brought to Spring/Summer 2026 was something slightly harder to manufacture: the feeling that wearing Versace might get you into trouble.

His first collection for the house was also his last, which makes the experiment even more interesting in retrospect. Instead of polishing Versace into another immaculate luxury machine, Vitale pushed back towards the unrulier parts of its identity. Colour became more aggressive, tailoring loosened up and sexiness stopped looking so perfectly controlled.

Versace Spring/Summer 2026 by Dario Vitale.

VERSACE GETS A LITTLE DIRTY

The collection is full of familiar Versace ingredients, but they arrive slightly disturbed. Saturated turquoise, acid green, purple and red collide across the body, while tailoring is broken up by exposed skin, worn-looking leather, unexpected layering and pieces that feel as though they have already had a life before reaching the runway.

That imperfection matters. Versace's particular kind of glamour has always worked best when there is something excessive about it. Vitale understood that expensive does not necessarily have to mean pristine. Clothes can look worn, provocative or almost badly behaved and still communicate luxury.

SEXINESS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT

There are tiny tops, exposed skin, fitted dresses and clothes that deliberately follow the body, but the collection's sensuality comes as much from attitude as exposure. A loose shirt can be sexy. So can an oversized jacket, an aggressively coloured trouser or a dress that looks slightly undone around the body.

That makes Vitale's Versace feel younger without desperately chasing youth. It does not need predictable streetwear codes to prove that someone under 30 could want it. The clothes trust colour, proportion and the pleasure of getting dressed badly enough to look good.

THE HOUSE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET

The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana is crucial to the mood. Versace transformed the museum into something closer to an inhabited home, surrounding the collection with historic paintings, furniture and traces of everyday life instead of placing it inside a sterile runway environment.

That framing suits the clothes because Versace has never been at its strongest when it disappears into good taste. The house works when glamour becomes visible, physical and slightly excessive. Vitale's collection understood that instinct without simply copying the polished sexiness associated with previous eras.

ONE COLLECTION WAS ENOUGH TO LEAVE A MARK

There is something slightly frustrating about looking at Spring/Summer 2026 now because it feels like the beginning of an idea rather than its conclusion. Vitale never got several seasons to refine the colours, the tailoring or the tension between Gianni-era Versace and his own more lived-in approach.

Maybe that is also why the collection remains interesting. It captures Versace in a brief moment where the clothes feel less perfect, less predictable and more human. For one season, the house got messy again — and looked better for it.