Versace - Well Recognized For Quality Fashions!
Gianni Versace was born in 1946 in Reggio, Calabria, in
Southern Italy. Versace received his love of fashion and first
lessons on dress-making from his mother. Initially Versace
trained as an architect, but soon he followed his mother into
the fashion business. Versace worked for a number of top Italian
fashion houses, but in 1978 with the help of his brother Santo
he launched his own label. Versace was a great fashion pioneer
who combined the worlds of high style and pop culture. He was a
charismatic and accomplished designer of clothing and theater
costumes. Versace appreciated a range of historic attire which
he incorporated into his designs and he was greatly influenced
by Andy Warhol and modern abstract art.
Wowzer! Best describes the fashions designed by Gianni Versace.
He was notorious for designing garments that would shock and
startle our senses. Versace saw his designing as an art form. He
initiated clothing that was visually excessive and provocative-
fashions that confronted accepted codes of taste, beauty and
sexuality. Fashion became entertainment, to be watched and
admired - not simply worn. For Versace nothing was too
extravagant too crazy or too risque. Yet no matter how
extravagant or provocative Versace's clothes were always
strikingly well designed garments designed to flatter the body.
Versace was the designer of choice for many of the rich and
famous: pop stars such as Elton John, and Madonna; film stars
such as Will Smith, and Elizabeth Hurley and even royalty -
Princess Diana. The wealthy were drawn to his clothes like
magnets, and that enhanced his reputation. However, Vercasse did
not design simply for the wealthy his clothes were very much
available to the average person. In 1985 he launched the Istante
label in 1985; and after years as Gianni's muse, his sister
Donatella became his co-designer and launched the Versace
diffusion range, Versus, in 1989. These labels featured clothes
within the budgets of many consumers; not only were they priced
lower than the custom-made clothes, but they were also aimed at
younger markets. In 1988 Versace received the Cutty Sark Award
as "the most innovative and creative designer in the world"; and
in 1993 the Council of Fashion Designers of America awarded him
the American fashion Oscar. On July 15, 1997 Versace was shot to
death outside his South Beach home in Miami, Florida by a crazed
gunman name Andrew Cunanan. Since his untimely death in 1997 the
Versace fashion house continues to grow under the creative
leadership of his sister Donatella and the business acumen of
his brother Santo. Donatella