Gianni has defined the way we looked at fashion & glamour. He gave us the fashion which was joyful. A world of fantasy & opulence. His style was glamorous, classic & extremely Baroque. He was an artist’s artist; very much inspired from Greek & Roman paintings. His garments were as colorful as his life; remember the butterfly printed toweling robes from his spring 95 collection very colorful, refreshing and very Greek.
His way of thinking was very Baroque because he loved ambiguity, luxury, extravagance, fantasy and the excessiveness of glamour. With bias cut and fluid silk.Born on December 2, 1946 in Reggio di Calabria Italy.Gianni was bitten by the fashion bug at a very early age right from age nine when he designed a one shouldered velvet gown, which means Glamour& Extravagance were great source of inspiration for him from a very early age. He was very much fascinated by Greek & Roman paintings and this can be found in all his collections and of course the Medusa head logo taken from an ancient Greek Legend. Medusa had snakes instead of hair.
Gianni had never attended any fashion college .His mother was a seamstress and it was her dressmaking business which served as a perfect ground for Gianni.Success was not an overnight journey for Gianni. He worked with Callaghan (Novara), Genny in 1973. In 1975 Gianni had his first solo show of leather collection for Complice.He launched the Gianni Versace label on 28th March 1978 at the Palazzo Della Permanente in Milan. In 1979 Gianni produced his first advertising campaign with photographer Richard Avedon and that became a long running collaboration Avedon and Gianni together gave very powerful pictures to the world of fashion.Giaani also worked with photographers like Irving Penn, Bruce Weber, Herb Rits & many others.
The Gianni Versace label was worn by the worlds most powerful people like George Michael, Elton John,Madona,the late Princes Diana, Lisa Marie Presley, Sylvester Stallone were a few. He established an empire of $1 billion.n 1989 he opened a couture workshop called Atelier Versace .In the same year he introduced his contemporary, alternative line for young people named Versus looked after by his younger sister Donnatella Versace. And the very next year Gianni held his first haute couture show in Paris at the Ritz hotel in 1990.He was the one who dared put Jeans on the couture runway of Paris and the French claimed ‘but it isn’t couture’ ,but Jeans rocked the fashion world & changed the course of fashion. In the same year he launched his classic V2 line his Men’s clothing collection for the American market.He also unveiled the new line “Home Signature” of Home furnishings and products, including crockery with his logo the Medusa head designed by him in 1993.
Gianni’s work was very much noticed by fashion observers like Anna Wintor, Liz Tilibries, Polly Mellen & others. I remember the words of Liz Tilberis “Gianni is one of fashion’s major world leaders. His signature is unmistakable: brave, bold, and always luxurious. His presentation is brilliant too-the Versace show is one of the great highs of the fashion calendar”.A Gianni Versace show in Milan or Paris was always a much awaited event. It was always an affaire to remember with tons of attitude, glamour and its shocking value spread in the air by the supermodels. He presented women not as sex objects but as sex subjects-Feminine, Sure, Strong & very much in control.
Gianni’s look was part grand opera, part Rock n Roll. His Fashion innovations include the chain mail as an evening gown fabric, computer generated knits, and molded Anatomical leather bodices. He used Marilyn Monroe & Vogue magazine covers as print themes.
Nobody can give the jaw dropping sexy and sleek cocktail pencil effect to a dress, as Gianni. Remember the black ‘safety pin dress’ which caused a sensation when Liz Hurley wore it in 1994 to the London for premier of the movie ‘Four Weddings & a Funeral’. That dress made the career of Liz Hurley & she got the multi million dollar contract with the cosmetic company Estee Lauder after that.
Gianni was also had a passion for theater which included every type of staging from ballet to opera, from classical to avant garde. He was lucky enough to collaborate with Italy’s greatest theater Milan’s La Scala in the very beginning. He did costumes for the theatre which required the most sumptuous, extreme & far reaching creativity. Gianni was capable of delivering all these things. He also dressed the cast of the popular TV show ‘Miami Vice’.In 1990 Gianni told to the Women’s Wear Daily-“in Italy i can not compete with anybody. There are only three designers who give me energy to fight-Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix & Karl Lagerfeld.”
Gianni was winner of many awards like L'Occhio d'Oro for the best fashion designer four times. In 1985 he was awarded the “Maschera d’Argento” award for his contribution to theatre ,In 1988 he was honored by the jury of Cutty Sark as “the most innovative and creative designer in the world, He was also awarded the coveted American Fashion Oscar on Feb. 1,1993.
He was tragically killed in Miami on 15th July 1997 & his sister Donatella Versace carried on taking over the empire.Gianni’s fashion is inspirational for many designers. He has created a world in which his designs and he became immortal. Today the kind of glamour which he created is seen everywhere with the joy of fashion and extravagance. He may be no more today, but his magic lives on.
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