Versace

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Identity

"I've always said that I'd like to mix rock and simplicity because this is fashion, it's the extremes, chic and shock. That's why Lady Diana and Madonna - two of the most important women of the moment - wear Versace and I think I'm satisfied with it. Even though it took me twenty years, I got to where I wanted to go." – Gianni Versace

History

The history of the Versace brand is first of all a family story that begins in Reggio Calabria in the ‘50s when little Gianni played in his mother tailor shop, where he learned the basics of the trade, because if it is true that in the years of greatest success he was called with just about any appellative, he always called himself a tailor.

In the same shop grew his older brother Santo, whose interest in fashion will be directed towards the management aspect, and the younger sister Donatella who followed in Gianni’s footsteps and for whom she was muse and right arm.

In 1972 Gianni Versace decides to depart from Calabria to go to Milan and work as a free lance designer initially making up a collection for a clothing firm called "Florentine Flowers".

Versace's ready-made apparel was an instant success so the designer decided to stay on in Milan and the following year began collaborating with Callaghan, Complice, and Genny.

The idea of creating a "Gianni Versace" label was soon in the air and in 1978 the designer presented his first collection under his own name.

He next opened a boutique which started the ball rolling and business constantly growing over the following years.

His multifarious activities in this busy and expanding period included fashion shows, design and tailoring of the costumes for the "Scala Theatre" ballet in Milan, courses run for fashion students in London, and art exhibitions of his works and designs, all of which brought in fame, fashion awards, and accolades from the highest quarters.

From a  stylistic point of view the history of Versace is marked by the eclecticism of the collections in which elements of space and time far away and in antithesis are mixed in the creation of a woman which did not exist before, that is blatantly sexy and glamorous, an aesthetic which deeply marked the '80s and '90s.

In '93 the Versace Home line is created, since over the years Gianni and his sister Donatella have created a real  lifestyle that has enchanted rock stars ready to write soundtracks of their show.

Princesses willing to fly to Milan to pay them homage, movie star have never been so sexy on the red carpet (above all Elizabeth Hurley at the premiere of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" in the dress held together by the famous safety pins which became a must of the brand).

After the tragic death of Gianni in 1997 in Miami at the hands of a serial killer its up to his sister Donatella, former creative director from 89 of the second line Versus, the task of bringing Versace into  the new millennium, still enchanting just like the mythological figure of Medusa, symbol of the brand.

Today Versace is one of the leading international fashion design houses and a symbol of Italian luxury world-wide.

The importance of Versace in the history of fashion is measured also under  other aspects, it is in fact one of the brands that contributed most from the late 70s to make Milan the fashion capital of the world, to make it a pole of attraction also through the phenomenon of the supermodels of whom Gianni Versace is considered the be the father.

He stole from Paris the most beautiful models and them made stars who exported the Made in Italy in the world: the first was Stephanie Seymour, then came Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford , Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacPherson and others; they showed for him and group posed for the most unscrupulous marketing campaigns ever seen until, then created by the greatest photographers in history, from Richard Avedon to Mario Testino.

All this, together with the continuous mingling with art and the close ties with the best known personalities of each sector from music (Madonna, Elton John, Sylvester Stallone and Princess Diana to name a few), has revolutionized the world of fashion.

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