Dresses are where Versace's body-conscious, high-shine instincts are easiest to see, a throughline from Gianni's original silhouettes to the house's later Medusa-branded era. The house introduced that Medusa emblem in 1993, and the drama of these pieces still traces back to that same era of maximal confidence.

Skirts here carry the same structured, sharply cut approach that defined the house before it ever touched furniture or fragrance, back when Gianni was still building the label collection by collection in the late 1970s. The tailoring is deliberate rather than casual.

Shirting and tops give a smaller-scale read on the same instincts, print and precision, that made Versace a fixture of 1980s and 1990s maximalism. It is a good entry point into the house's language without the full commitment of a dress.

Knitwear carries Versace's print obsession into a softer construction, a category the house had room to expand into once it moved past the tailored, four-year run of designer clothing it started with in the late 1970s. Expect pattern to do more of the work than shape.

Jackets and blazers lean on the sharp tailoring Gianni built his early reputation on, before the house expanded in 1982 into accessories, jewelry and home goods. The structure here is the most direct link back to that founding decade.

Accessories only entered the Versace business in 1982, four years after the house launched with tailored clothing alone, and they have carried the Medusa emblem since its introduction in 1993. These pieces are usually the easiest way into the house's visual language.

The rest of the current assortment, spanning what the house is offering this season beyond the categories singled out above. It is a useful view of how far Versace's range extends under its current creative direction.

Versace has survived a founder's death, multiple ownership changes and now a move into the Prada Group, and the throughline holding it together is still Gianni's original instinct for drama over restraint. It is not a subtle house, and it was never trying to be, so the pieces worth a second look are the ones that commit fully to that rather than softening it.