MILAN (AP) — Versace’s “intimate event” to launch Dario Vitale as the new creative director during Milan Fashion Week on Friday sprawled over two floors of a 17th-century palazzo and attracted hundreds of screaming Chinese pop star fans outside waving bunches of green and light blue balloons.

Vitale’s debut collection was a full-throttle return to the overtly sexualized Versace of the 1980s and 1990s — seen in the snug high-waisted jeans cinched as tightly as possible, the revealing open-sided T-shirts, the dresses left carelessly open in the back, and the joyous bursts of primary color.

The flamboyant energy of that decade was echoed in the show soundtrack of George Michael, Prince and Eurythmics.

Transition time

Vitale’s ascension at Versace marks a dramatic turn for the fashion ho

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