Summary

Giovanni Maria Versace, known as Gianni Versace (Reggio Calabria, December 2, 1946 - Miami Beach, July 15, 1997), was an Italian fashion designer and entrepreneur. Considered one of the most innovative designers in fashion history, he was the founder of the Versace fashion house.

Gianni Versace was born in Reggio Calabria on Dec. 2, 1946, following the birth of his brother Santo Versace and anticipating that of his sister Donatella Versace, to Antonio Versace and Francesca Olandese, who named their son after his father. He made his first contacts with the fashion world as a young boy, working in the atelier of his mother, a seamstress by profession, at No. 13 Via Tommaso Gulli near the Duomo where the Versace boutique was located for a few years.

At the age of 14 he attended the Tommaso Campanella classical high school, without completing his studies. In 1972, at the age of twenty-five, he moved to Milan to work as a dress designer, creating his first collections for Genny, Complice, and Callaghan. In fact, in 1975 he presented his first collection of leather dresses for Complice. On March 28, 1978, at the Palazzo della Permanente, Milan, Gianni Versace presented the first women's collection signed with his name.

The following year Versace began a successful collaboration with American photographer Richard Avedon, and in 1982 he won the Occhio d'Oro as "best designer 1982-83 fall collection

At the same time he started a long series of collaborations with the theater environment; he designed, in fact, as part of the 1981 ballet season

The following year he creates costumes for Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Dyonisos, directed by Maurice Béjart at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, on which occasion a triptych danse is prepared in honor of the launch of Versace l'Homme perfume. In Paris, on the occasion of the European presentation of the perfume, works by international artists related to the Versace name, and to the style of its fashion, are displayed at the contemporary art exhibition. Young people have always been a major source of inspiration for Gianni Versace: in fact, in 1983 the designer is invited to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to speak at a conference on his style, to address a large group of students, and to present the exhibition Art and Fashion.

In 1986, Italian President Francesco Cossiga bestows the title of Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana on Gianni Versace; the National Field Museum in Chicago presents a retrospective exhibition on Versace's work of the past decade. In Paris, at the Gianni Versace Obiettivo Moda exhibition, illustrating the results of Versace's collaboration with many international photographers such as Avedon, Newton, Penn, Weber, Barbieri, and Gastel; French Head of State Jacques Chirac awards him the Grande Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris. In 1995 Versus, the Versace house's young line, debuts in New York and finances the Metropolitan Museum of Art's haute couture exhibition and one dedicated to Avedon's career. Gianni Versace collaborates with Elton John to help the British singer-songwriter's AIDS research foundation.

For his advertising campaigns and fashion shows Gianni Versace has always made use of the most famous photographers (especially Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts, Doug Ordway and Steven Meisel) and the most fashionable models of the moment, thus becoming the major architect of the supermodel phenomenon. For him, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Yasmeen Ghauri, Christy Turlington, Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, Nadja Auermann, Carla Bruni, and Karen Mulder have walked the runway and appeared in the fashion house's advertising campaigns. The partnership with photographer Richard Avedon culminated in the publication of a volume featuring the most beautiful images from Versace's advertising campaigns.

Always connected to the world of music and a friend of numerous rock stars, Versace has three times used singer Madonna as a testimonial for his advertising campaigns (the first time photographed by Steven Meisel, the following times by Mario Testino). Together his sister Donatella with the help of Nadia Cassini invited Tupac Shakur to show him in the summer of 1996 during the fashion week held in Milan, Tupac accepted the invitation and on June 29, 1996 he walked the runway for Versace in Via Gesù . Between 1980 and 1983, singer and actress Loretta Goggi was the first Italian artist to show off clothes designed by Gianni Versace, worn on many public and television occasions.

Versace was close friends with the famous British singer-songwriter Elton John and Princess Diana, who died a few weeks after him.

An avowed homosexual, Gianni Versace was romantically linked until the time of his death to fashion designer and former model Antonio D'Amico. The two spent vacation times, often in Miami, at the large 1930s oceanfront mansion, Casa Casuarina, purchased in 1992 for $10 million and on which Versace invested more than $33 million in renovations. Versace's Miami villa was purchased in 2000 by tycoon Peter Loftin, who turned it into a luxury hotel. In June 2012 it was again put up for sale for $125 million.

Murder

On the morning of July 15, 1997, Versace, about five months before his 51st birthday, was shot twice on the steps of his home in Miami Beach. The first to rescue him were his partner Antonio D'Amico, and his friend Lázaro Quintana. He was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and shortly thereafter pronounced dead. The murder was blamed on Andrew Cunanan, a drug addict engaged in homosexual prostitution who was suspected of having previously murdered others and had long been wanted for it.

Of Gianni Versace, friend Franco Zeffirelli said:

The Testament of Gianni Versace was published as a world exclusive in 1997 by journalist and writer Giancarlo Padula.

The first memorial service was held in Miami, July 18, 1997 at St. Patrick's Church. The second funeral commemoration, took place on the afternoon of July 22, 1997 at Milan Cathedral and was presided over by Monsignor Angelo Majo, archpriest of the cathedral. It was attended by Princess Diana, Elton John, Sting and Naomi Campbell, among others. Elton John and Sting sang The Lord is my Shepherd together during the celebration.

Gianni Versace's body was cremated in Miami, and the urn with his ashes was placed in the family tomb at the villa on Lake Como; it was later moved to the Moltrasio cemetery when the villa was sold.

In December 1997, the Gianni Versace (December 11, 1997-March 22, 1998) exhibition opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibition, curated by Richard Martin, was the first retrospective devoted to the designer's career since his death, displaying 50 dresses from his collections and theatrical collaborations. The opening night, attended by 2. 500 people, personal testimonies were given by Vogue America editor Anna Wintour, Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and choreographer Maurice Béjart, singers Elton John, Sting and wife Trudie Styler, Cher, supermodels Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigová and Valeria Mazza, actor Rupert Everett and photographers Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Bruce Weber who had always contributed with Gianni in creating the Versace image through famous advertising campaigns and photo books.

In June 1998, the exhibition Gianni Versace was opened in Italy, in Como. The Reinvention of Matter, an exhibition divided into two separate venues, Villa Olmo and the Fondazione Ratti. At the first venue, Villa Olmo, 120 dresses from the designer's entire career were exhibited, displayed in an exhibition itinerary that grouped the creations thematically rather than chronologically; while at the second venue, La Fondazione Ratti, some of the materials and fabrics the designer used for his creations were displayed, again in an itinerary divided by themes, here flanked by images of the advertising campaigns and catalogs of the clothes later made. The exhibition was repeated at the Museum of Modern Art in Miami in 1999.

The music channel VH1, in 1998, created the Versace Awards in honor and memory of the designer, to be given during the VH1 Fashion Awards to musical personalities who had made image and costume a key component of their careers. The first to receive the award was Madonna in 1998. Jennifer Lopez won the award in 2000.

In October 2002, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London dedicated one of the most comprehensive exhibitions devoted to him. Entitled Versace at the V&A, 130 directly selected pieces from the Versace collection were exhibited, including some of the pieces worn by Madonna, Lady Diana, Elton John and the unforgettable outfit with safety pins worn by Elizabeth Hurley, accompanied by photos and original sketches by the designer. Also presented to conclude the exhibition were some new creations of the Versace fashion house created under the artistic direction of his sister Donatella, such as the tropical print dress worn by Jennifer Lopez at the VH1 Fashion Awards in 2000.

On June 9, 2004, Elton John dedicated a concert organized at the Reggio Stadium to Versace. The concert was broadcast by Rai Due and Rai International under the direction of Gianni Boncompagni.

In 2006 it was the Mazzucchelli Museum in Ciliverghe di Mazzano that dedicated an exhibition to the career of Gianni Versace. Entitled simply Versace, the exhibition displayed some 60 suits juxtaposed with works of art from all periods in an exhibition divided into four sections: "The Ancient

Ten years after his death, on July 15, 2007, a ballet, conceived by his friend Maurice Béjart, dedicated to Gianni Versace, named Grazie Gianni con amore, was held at La Scala Theater in Milan.

The last exhibition dedicated to him was held at the Madrid Clothing Museum between the months of June and October 2012. The exhibition, entitled XV años sin Gianni. Homenaje a Gianni Versace (XV years without Gianni. Homage to Gianni Versace), to reconstruct the influence of classical art within the designer's career, displaying some 20 of the designer's clothes from the museum's collection alongside some reproductions of antiquity from the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid.

In 2017 he was awarded the Italy USA Foundation's Memorial America Award at the Chamber of Deputies.

The second season of the TV series American Crime Story focuses on the murder of the fashion designer, and has been aired since January 2018.

Sources

1. Gianni Versace
2. Gianni Versace
3. ^ Luigi De Angelis, La moda calabrese nel segno di Gianni Versace, in calabriaonweb.it, 19 gennaio 2013. URL consultato il 17 novembre 2013 (archiviato dall'url originale il 4 febbraio 2015).
4. ^ https://www.rebelmag.it/2021/06/16/tupac-e-stato-il-primo-rapper-al-mondo-ad-aver-sfilato-per-un-brand-di-alta-moda/
5. ^ According to a January 2018 Vogue interview with Donatella Versace, Versace is correctly pronounced /vərˈsɑːtʃeɪ/ vər-SAH-chay in English, closer to the native Italian pronunciation, as opposed to the popular pronunciation of /vərˈsɑːtʃi/ vər-SAH-chee.[1][2][3]
6. 1 2 3 4 Gianni Versace // Brockhaus Enzyklopädie (нем.)
7. Horyn, Cathy (6 de outubro de 2013), "Why Fashion Films Are Usually Cartoons", The New York Times , p. 13
8. Dirk Cameron Gibson, Serial Murder and Media Circuses, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. p. 138.
9. Tyler Stoddard Smith, Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession, p. 172