STARS, STYLE AND SIGNATURE.

 

WHO IS DONATELLA VERSACE?

Heloclub news stated that, If it had not been for the tragedy which took place on July 15, 1997, Donatella Versace might still be a bit player on the world's fashion stage. But the death of her brother Gianni, who was gunned down outside his Miami mansion, propelled the platinum blonde into the limelight. And in a few short years, she has upped the profile of the Milanese fashion house into the stratosphere, helping make Versace the label of choice for celebrities the world over.

 

Photo: Donatella leading one of her multi million Dollars shows.

Born in the Italian town of Reggio di Calabria in 1955, the daughter of a businessman and a dressmaker to the aristocracy, Donatella was the youngest of four children. Although Gianni was a decade her senior, the two were close, and by the age of 11 Donatella was accompanying her brother to discos and nightclubs. "Gianni was the wildest," she once told an interviewer, "Then he pushed me to be wild. Now I'm the wilder one; it's his fault." After attending Florence University in the Seventies, Donatella joined Gianni's fledgling fashion company. She started out handling his PR, but her involvement went much deeper and many credit her with being his muse, as her input was constant.  "If my sister wants to do something, okay," Gianni once told Vanity Fair. "If she doesn't like a sketch, I will cancel it." It was Donatella who came up with the idea of using well-known models for the catwalk shows, knowing that it would generate more press coverage for the Versace label, and in the Nineties she was given carte blanche to design a new line, Versus.  

With her unerring feel for the Zeitgeist, Donatella, who loved to frequent nightspots, was invaluable to Gianni, as she was able to tap into what the younger generation craved. Gianni's murder changed Donatella's life forever. Her first reaction was to take the family off to a private resort in the Caribbean where they could mourn the loss of the designer together. The Spring-Summer 98 collection was cancelled. Then Donatella had a blinding realisation: the show must go on. Gianni had told his sister – perhaps after he was diagnosed with ear cancer in the early Nineties – that if anything were to happen to him, she was to take over.

So she did. Her first collection, attended by a host of celebrities, was a triumph. But in typical Donatella fashion she credited its success to the seamstresses and models, and dedicated the show to, "Gianni's love of work and to our entire staff, whose incredible love and devotion was so precious to our brother and means so much to us." Heloclub News.