Last updated: September 3, 2026
On Monday night in Los Angeles, Nicole Kidman walked the red carpet for the premiere of Practical Magic 2 in an asymmetrical gown that read, from a few feet away, as bare skin. Up close it was black lace, worked in hand intarsia directly over a nude base, with a deep rounded neckline finished in black satin ribbon, an asymmetrical thigh-high slit skirt, and a matching lace choker. It was the first publicly unveiled look credited to Pieter Mulier for Versace.
The dress is a single red carpet look, not a runway show or a preview of an actual collection. Right now it is the only public signal of where the Belgian designer intends to take one of Milan's loudest fashion houses.
Versace changed hands twice in the space of a year. Prada Group completed its acquisition of the house in December 2025, and within days Dario Vitale exited after a single, well-reviewed collection. Vitale had been hired under the label's previous ownership rather than chosen by Prada, and his departure was described as mutual once the new owners took over creative direction. On February 5, 2026, Prada Group named Pieter Mulier chief creative officer of Versace, with the move taking effect on July 1, once his final collection for Alaïa had shown in March.
Mulier spent five years at Alaïa reducing the house to what critics called reduced, sculptural, and precise forms: color minimalism, garments built to follow the body's actual shape rather than decorate it. Versace runs on the opposite instinct. Baroque print, gold hardware, saturated color and the Medusa head placed front and center have been the house's vocabulary for four decades. Putting a designer known for stripping things down in charge of the brand built on excess is the real story of this appointment.
What makes the Kidman dress worth reading closely is the specific construction choice. The lace is not an overlay sitting on top of a solid colored lining, the way most sheer eveningwear is built. It is worked in intarsia directly against skin-toned fabric, so the lace pattern itself becomes the only visible layer. The trick itself is old, illusion netting has been part of eveningwear for a century, but using it as the entire statement, with no color, no print, and no hardware, is a very Alaïa way to make a first move at Versace.
Structurally, it is the same premise behind a lace piece built for everyday wear rather than a red carpet: construct the lace so it reads as the garment's own surface, not as a decoration added on top of something plainer underneath. Our Black Flowers pieces work from the same idea, dense lace laid directly over sheer mesh with no lining to interrupt it, and the Lace Poetry collection treats lace construction as the entire design brief rather than a trim. Mulier's architecture training shows up the same way ours does in the Odri line, where precision in the cut is the ornament rather than an addition to it.
Mulier's actual runway debut for Versace will not happen for months. His first full collection is expected during Milan Fashion Week in February 2027, timed to the Fall/Winter 2027-28 season, after what the group has described as a deliberate period for him to work through the house's archive before showing anything. Until then, one dress on one red carpet is what the industry has to read from, and it is being read carefully for exactly that reason.
Whatever the full collection turns out to be, the specific choice for this first, unavoidably scrutinized look was quieter than Versace has been in years: black lace, a nude base, and nothing else asking for attention.
Atelier Notes is where the Lioness team writes about the wider fashion and lingerie industry: runway moments, craftsmanship stories, and the ideas moving through fashion that connect back to how we build our own pieces. Separate voice from the Lioness Studio guides, same team behind it.
