Versace Thinks B.I.G. With Sabrina Carpenter

Nearly thirty years ago, Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace sat on a Brooklyn staircase rapping ‘I Poppa/freaks all the honeys/from dummies/Playboy bunnies/those wantin’ money’ under the flashing lights of a star-studded music video. Aaliyah lip-syncing in Isamaya Ffrench cardinal red satin. A starry-eyed Mary J. Blige rocking a beta version of Ariana Grande's ponytail. Tyson Beckford saying who knows what to a girl in a corner. This moment marked the rise of Italian fashion ubiquity in East Coast rap lyrics: Iceberg, Coogi, Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana. Nas in a Pantone colour not too dissimilar from Jason Lewis on a Gucci men’s catwalk for A/W 95. Yet nothing mattered more than Versace in 90s-era rappers’ lyrical and videographic ambition. Biggie Smalls — Wallace’s original rap moniker before legal action necessitated the ‘Notorious’ reset — possibly sensed this before his contemporaries made the pivot. And so in the Hype Williams-directed clip for ‘One More Chance,’ Biggie sat on a gilded baroque throne, head nodding to the remixed beat of its absurdly raunchy original source, wearing Versace 424 black sunglasses. Biggie even pointed to the glasses during his ‘Versace shades watchin’ ya’ moment. Biggie wore a purple denim suit in the clip. The colour was a slightly darker shade of Kirsty Hume’s lavender midi dress from the same exact season this video premiered in, spring-summer 1995. You cannot make this stuff up.

Biggie wore Versace 424 sunnies frequently after ‘One More Chance.’ They appeared at that summer’s Source Awards show. They made a cameo in Lil’ Kim’s first ever music video. The Versace 413A style featured in his clip for 'Hypnotize' name-checked with a lyric we likely all know by heart: Miami/DC/Prefer Ver-sah-chee. In Biggie Smalls’ final interview for BET in spring 1997, he wore Versace 413 sunglasses for an entire two hour conversation with Joe Clair on Rap City. Three years later, Biggie’s protégé-gone-pop Lil’ Kim was photographed fondling a gleeful Donatella Versace (Donatella wore the almost infamous Jennifer Lopez chiffon dress) playfully in an Interview magazine supplement. Versace has 360º roots, reverence and ghetto fabulous authority in 90s rap lore. Everything you knew, or now know today, falls into place as the legendary Italian house revisits its storied legacy with a new product launch appropriately titled Versace Biggie Sunglasses.

Versace promotes what Christopher Wallace exemplified. That life is simply better in Biggies. The new eyewear range reconfigures attitudes around label worship from the past to embody the feelings that Biggie projected in Versace 424 frames — trendsetting music influencers author style and impact that Versace has on contemporary cultures. Or as Donatella Versace puts it ‘Fame on fame means more fame!’

‘From Notorious BIG to the extraordinary talent of today, the Biggie community are rebels, groundbreakers and champions of the true Versace spirit.’

— Donatella Versace

Versace taps 2024’s primary tastemaker Sabrina Carpenter to join NBA player Alex Sarr in the Versace Biggie Campaign. Shot by Martine Rose collaborator, the filmmaker Rosie Marks celebrates the individuality from distinct ways of wearing. Placing the aspirational heritage from Versace Biggie sunglasses inside a pop cultural, global basketball cauldron of self-expression is how Versace cooks up the next generation of superstars in portraiture for their Versace Biggies community. Sabrina Carpenter’s song ‘Taste’ hovers powerfully over spirits of style Biggie authored nearly thirty years ago. Where his lyrics introduced Versace to an unexpected community, Carpenter’s innuendo-dusted bravado cements Biggie’s legacy she personally hopes to amplify with Versace's new Biggie Sunglasses: Every time you breathe his air/Just know I was already there…If you want forever/and I bet you do/Just know you’ll taste me too.

And if you don’t know/Now you know.

— Notorious B.I.G. ‘Juicy’