Gianni Versace: The retrospective exhibition of the Italian fashion designer at the Maillol Museum

Paris goes glam this summer with the "Gianni Versace Retrospective" at the Maillol Museum, running June 5 to October 31, 2026. Between baroque opulence and an overload of prints, the fashion retrospective promises color and extravagance, true to the legend.

Baroque, sultry, sun-kissed: this summer, Paris goes full Versace. From June 5 to October 31, 2026, the Musée Maillol, nestled in the 7th arrondissement, rolls out the golden carpet for the Gianni Versace Retrospective, the first major French exhibition dedicated to the designer since 1986. Following showings devoted to Dolce & Gabbana or Rick Owens, the capital continues to lean into grand-format fashion celebrations, paying tribute to one of its most flamboyant and iconic figures.

A towering figure in international fashion, Gianni Versace never did things by halves. Glamour, sculptural sensuality, baroque opulence... the designer forged an aesthetic in which excess becomes the signature. The result is a retrospective with nearly 450 pieces—iconic silhouettes, accessories, sketches, decorative objects, photos, videos and interviews—offering a panorama of his work.

However, one should not expect an immersive scenography of the same kind as the Dolce & Gabbana exhibition. Unlike the latter, imagined by the fashion house itself, this retrospective brings together pieces from private collections of major collectors. The route presents the creations according to different themes that unfold through the rooms, in a relatively simple layout, more focused on the works on display than on a spectacular experience.

It sweeps through almost every corner of the museum, tracing a hands-on career from humble beginnings in Calabria to Parisian breakthrough. For Versace, Paris was the ultimate catwalk. While helping shift fashion’s energy toward Milan from the late 1970s, he chose Paris Fashion Week in 1989 to launch Atelier Versace. At the Ritz, in Place Vendôme, his shows became legendary—more than mere spectacles, true royal processions—right up to his final appearance, surrounded by his supermodels, before his tragic death in Miami in 1997.

Thus, the fashion exhibition sparks a whole world of inspiration: from a family workshop in Calabria to its major visual obsessions, blending Catholic iconography, Greek statuary, Italian opera, and a fascination with the Baroque. Its creations converse with Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Canova or Pablo Picasso, cross the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and resonate with the world of Julian Schnabel.

The Versace image also makes its mark through the lenses of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Patrick Demarchelier and Mario Testino. It also comes alive on stage, carried by Madonna, Elton John, George Michael, Grace Jones, Prince, the Princess Diana or Elizabeth Hurley. Not to mention the supermodels — Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Karen Mulder and Linda Evangelista — who helped usher in a new era of fashion, captured in show videos, shoots and archival footage.

Having already toured London, Berlin and Malaga, the exhibition finally lands in Paris. From punk and bondage eras to late-career minimalism, from Miami’s sun-soaked energy to a flood of prints, Versace’s work promises to set fashion, art, and pop culture in motion all at once.

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