Versace, Didion, & the Idea of Restraint

Restraint, the process of control maintenance, is an exercise through numerous life struggles. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s memoir chronicling her husband’s death, focuses on the development and control of grief. Working through this change leads to questioning her psyche and in turn drives the struggle to keep many thought processes under control.

A battle of restraint demonstrated in strikingly disparate form is Gianni Versace’s bondage collections of the early 1990s. With critics questioning and attacking the designer’s notion of sexuality and violence, Versace chose denouncement rather than announcement of restriction, still discovering a sense of independence similar to Didion’s.

Following her husband’s death, Didion proves restraint to be a challenge, frequently questioning her sanity. She deems publications that soothe these concerns impossible to find and as a result dives deep into writing in order to challenge existing work on the subject as well as her personal struggle.

Defining one’s independence through control of the psyche is a process with powerful results. Didion’s evaluation of a marriage lived, analysis of what could and couldn’t be done, brought a sense of finality and true understanding to her husband’s death.

Versace’s examination of sexuality allowed for an appropriate grasp to the dynamism of design, with a liberated ideology as a result. Analysis of the collection’s pieces are intended to exude a sense of empowerment rather than repression. Like Didion, Versace found no other outlet for those with similar struggles and boundaries, and sought a change.

Going through the process of restraint in order to adopt a sense of liberation may seem counter-intuitive, but has worked for these two very influential people in their own right. While restriction does quite frequently tighten its grip, thorough analysis and comprehension can truly be liberating.