Tarot Fashion

Normally, when I hear the phrase "tarot fashion" I think about costumes for tarot-themed banquets and parties where we dress up as tarot cards. It 's always fun to rummage through the closet thinking "Now what would the Queen of Cups wear?"   But last week, Donnatella Versace changed all that.

On July 1, Donnatella held the first Atelier Versace show in fifteen years, and she held it at the last place she had seen her brother Gianni alive, the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

While all this is remarkable, the most remarkable aspect of the show is this.  The new Versace line includes pieces inspired by tarot cards!  In her press release, Donnatella said this about the line. “Inspired by the imagery and decoration of tarot cards, powerful symbols such as the sun, moon and world are reproduced on weightless fabrics with a glass effect.”

The dresses are spectacular, although it is hard for me to figure out which card is which, so subtle is the tarot influence.  A few of them have the Roman numeral of the Major Arcana card on a wide belt, so that makes it easy to identify the cute gold-and-white jacket dress as the Sun, for instance.

Versace is actually not the first designer to draw inspiration from tarot. A few years ago, Dolce & Gabanna unveiled a wardrobe of eight tarot-inspired perfumes.  I did go to Macy's to sample them, but I couldn't really say that the scents reminded me of tarot in any way beyond their names.

The Amy Zerner Couture line, one-of-a-kind wearable art available through Bergdorf Goodman, is definitely spiritually inspired and tarot-esque.  This is no surprise, since Zerner is the creator of the well-loved Enchanted Tarot.

I am really happy to see tarot inserting itself into the fashion world.  Whether or not the fashionistas understand the significance of tarot doesn't matter.  That the world's top designers see tarot as a thing of beauty and inspiration absolutely does.