“I Don’t Believe in Good Taste” - Gianni Versace
July 15th, 1997. Gianni Versace started his day like any other. Presenting his FW97 show at the Ritz Hotel in Paris just a week earlier, Versace was at the height of his career. Waking up at 6AM in his Miami mansion, the Casa Casuarina,Versace took the short three block walk to the News Café, to buy a coffee and a copy of Vogue and The New Yorker.
As he walked back to his home and unlocked the front gate at 9AM, Versace was approached from behind by Andrew Cunanan, a 27 year-old man who was recently included on the FBI most wanted list after killing four men across the US. Before Versace could react, Cunanan shot him twice in the back of the head, leaving him to bleed down the coral steps of his mansion. Versace was pronounced dead at 9:15am, only 50 years old at the time.
This is the story of the prolific life and sudden death of Gianni Versace.
Gianni Versace was a fashion icon. Not in the sense of his own personal style, but in the way that he approached fashion and revolutionised the industry. He essentially rewrote the rules, changed what fashion meant and its relationship with lifestyle, celebrity and popular culture.
Versace was born in 1946 in Reggio Calabria, Italy. From a young age, Versace was always interested in fashion, as his mother was a dressmaker. Making his first dress at age nine, Versace dreamed of evening gowns and luxurious fabrics, getting in trouble by his teacher in the fifth grade for sketching clothing in class. After graduating university with an architectural drawing degree, Versace worked at his mother’s boutique before moving on to many other Italian ateliers.
In 1978, he created his eponymous company Giannni Versace SpA, with his first ready-to-wear show and flagship boutique in the same year. The company was a family affair, with his brother Santo as CEO and his sister Donatella as designer and vice president.
Versace was inspired by the world around him and the world he wanted to create. Inspired by the Italian Baroque movement and mixing it with rock, pop culture and sexuality, Versace blended old and new to create a unique point of view. His move to the US turned up his use of bold colours and prints, showcasing Versace’s daring aesthetics.
His designs were often contradictory, a ball gown mixed with lingerie elements, soft lace combined with sleek leather. His FW92 collection titled Miss S&M (better known as the Bondage collection), was one of his best and most memorable runways, creating many motifs that Versace would become known for. His outfits were respectable yet controversial, mixing ready-to-wear elements with shocking and sensual statements.
Also in 1992, Versace developed its now infamous Medusa Head logo and launched in homewares and interiors, one of the first fashion houses to do so at the time. The Italian baroque style was continued into bold prints on pillows, charger plates and bedding. The logo was inspired by the ruins of Reggio Calabria that Gianni and his siblings used to explore as children.
Not only was Versace innovative in his designs, he was innovative with his fabrication. He created Oroton, an ultra-light metal mesh, clinging to the skin and draping like silk. It was made by attaching small metal disks to a mesh base, creating a mix between soft fabric and hard armour. Versace also made whats known as ‘that dress’, worn by Elizabeth Hurley. The black crepe dress featured a plunging neckline, with gold safety pins holding the sides together. It was daring at the time, and showed Versace’s combination of elegance and rock n roll. It also showed Versace’s power to showcase, as this dress helped Elizabeth Hurley gain traction in Hollywood.
“You have to break a barrier everyday. Fashion, to me, is born and dies every day.”
Versace was one of the first designers to invite celebrities to his fashions shows. He shifted the runway audience from rich socialites to celebrities and personal friends, including Elton John, Madonna and Cher. He was credited by Anna Wintour as the ‘first fashion designer to realise the power of having celebrities in the front row’. Versace, as a brand, also explored fashion through other mediums, having dressed the actors of Miami Vice and working with various ballet, opera and theatre companies to dress their performers.
Versace is also known for essentially creating the supermodel. Its interesting to think about a world of fashion where supermodels didn’t exist, essentially just walking mannequins before they turned into the celebrities and icons they are today. The media coined the term ‘supermodels’ due to the high amounts Versace paid them to be featured in his shows, leading to the rise of supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington. The Versace brand is all about celebrating and empowering women, showcasing Versace’s admiration for strong women.
And one more thing, Versace connected fashion to music in a way that was never done before. Working with Elton John, Prince and Jon Bon Jovi to promote his brand and bridge the gap.
In a time of 80s American conservatism, Gianni being openly gay was a risk. While he wasn’t overt with it, he never shied away from it either, talking with Brendan Lemon of the LQGT+ magazine The Advocate in 1995 to discuss his sexuality and relationship with longtime partner Antonia D’Amico. During the AIDS crisis, Versace personally funded medical research and hospital initiatives, a time when many other brands stayed silent.
After his murder in 1997, Versace’s funeral was held in Milan a week later. Over 2,000 people attended the funeral in Milan’s gothic cathedral, including Princess Diana, Karl Lagerfeld and Elton John. His funeral was just as star-studded as his runways, showing Gianni’s impact across all aspects of celebrity.
After his death, a 30% stake of the company was given to Donatella, with 20% given to Santo. The remaining majority stake was given to Gianni’s niece Allegra. As she was only 11 at the time, Donatella was in charge of her shares until she turned 18. Post 1997, Versace struggled. Donatella’s designed weren’t received as well, often being compared to her predecessor and the legacy he left behind. Versace as a company was struggling financially and their now head designer Donatella was dealing with drug issues, going to rehab in 2005.
“By giving half of Versace to my daughter, [Gianni] forced me to take responsibility for the company until she came of age. Without this trick in the will, I might have left the company after his death.”
Gianni’s sister and muse, Donatella, became the new artistic director after Versace’s death. The siblings were inseparable throughout their childhood, with Gianni creating garments for Donatella and creating her iconic platinum blonde look. Donatella was a designer at Versace since its origin, even being the head designer of Versace’s diffusion line Versus, with Gianni often needing her approval for many designs and Donatella selecting the models for the photoshoots and runways.
At the 42nd Grammy Awards, J.Lo wore what was known as the ‘Jungle Dress’, a chiffon draped dress held together by a brooch under J.Lo’s navel. It was sheer and scandalous, leading to the creation of Google Images due to the sheer amount of people searching for the image online. 20 years later, Donatella and J.Lo collaborated again to bring the Jungle Dress back in a new form, with J.Lo closing the show to a standing ovation.
For the 20th anniversary of Gianni’s murder, Donatella held a runway dedicated to her brother’s legacy. She incorporated the brightest and boldest prints, patterns and designs made famous by Gianni, with the same iconic models closing the show in gold oroton gowns. This lead to 2017 being named “the year of Versace” by various fashion journalists.
In 2025, Donatella Versace announced her retirement as Creative Director, as the Prada Group acquired the brand for $1.4 billion. Allegra Versace is still part of the brand, but slowly the family affair is shifting towards a generic company like all others, with Dario Vitale taking over as Creative Director. It’ll be interesting to see where all this goes.
To this day, it’s unknown why Andrew Cunanan targeted Gianni Versace. There’s no apparent connection between the two men and Cunanan was found dead before he could’ve been captured and questioned. I’m not going to write too much about Andrew Cunanan, he’s not who I want to focus on.
50 years of a powerful legacy, cut short in an instant. Versace was a complete revolutionary in the fashion industry at the time, imagine what he could’ve accomplished if not for that unfortunate day in 1997.
“He made fashion a pop culture phenomenon. We’d walk to an amazing Prince track with hundreds of photographers lining the catwalk, only to see him sitting there on the front row. He made his runway into a live show with choreography, great lighting effects and timings similar to a theatre experience.”