Versace Resort 2012

"I'm not a Versace girl, but I'd wear that" is a phrase that's been echoing through the label's Fifth Avenue store-cum-showroom all week. 

Donatella Versace's renewed embrace of the house's heritage—the grommets, the bustiers, the scarf hemlines, and the exposed zips that her brother Gianni knew and loved—has given her Resort collection a vitality that seems to be making converts out of nonbelievers. It could've been the easy, breezy cut of vacation dresses in a tropical print inspired by Matisse's Bouquet. Or maybe it was the couture-level workmanship on a cropped-below-the-bust jacket handmade from stamped leather, knit, and raffia. But we tend to think it has something to do with how right Versace's unapologetically sexy vision feels in a season that's been dominated by sport.

Not that she can't do sportswear. Leave it to Donatella to give a button-down come-hither appeal (it was the cutouts). But it's her evening wear that's going to be pulled for shoots and photographed on celebrities. We're talking about the black and white dresses with the ergonomic, body-enhancing insets on the bodice that could give curves to a girl who has none to speak of. If you have curves? Well, let's just say these frocks are designed to produce results.