Donatella Reveals a Stunning detail about MADONNA and the Aftermath of Versace's Death

April 9, 2020, 11:03 am

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0ver Twenty years removed from her brother's tragic death, Donatella Versace is more comfortable in her own skin than she's ever been and seems sick of others trying to tell both her story and the story of her family. Especially because when they do, they often get it wrong, according to Donatella, at least. Following the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace's murder, this past July, a new batch of documentary specials, news stories, and, most notably, Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace have purported to give audiences the inside story of what happened. Versace, meanwhile, has been on her own tear of candid interviews; in her latest, which also touches on her struggles with addiction, her love life, and succession plans, she drops a stunning detail about the days following Gianni's murder that none of the books, documentaries, or fictional takes have included before: Madonna was there.

"After identification, I drove to Gianni’s villa on Ocean Drive. Madonna was waiting for me inside," Versace tells fashion journalists Michael Ebert and Sven Michaelsen in a new no-holds-barred interview with Ssense."I will never forget that she was trying to comfort me during these hours. There were FBI agents everywhere in the house. They interrogated each of us and opened all the drawers, a nightmare. My brother had just been murdered, and we were being treated like suspects. But that’s probably what FBI agents have to do."

Of course, American Crime Story did show its take on the exact moments Versace describes. They were pivotal scenes, and, obviously, Madonna wasn't anywhere to be found in their telling. Had Ryan Murphy known that the Queen of Pop was there, he surely would have figured out a way to include her in the narrative (after all, he managed to controversially shoehorn the Kardashian sisters into the anthology series' first season, about O.J. Simpson, even though the then-young sisters were only tangentially related).

The reason for Madge's presence? Somewhat amazingly, this wasn't widely known by the public before, though it had been hinted at. On the day of the murder, Donatella was in Rome preparing for an upcoming fashion show. Madonna was in a recording studio, presumably in Los Angeles, working on her album Ray of Light. During interviews about the making of the album, producer William Orbit revealed that indeed Madonna was one of the first people Donatella called, on the very same day she recorded the vocals for the album track "Swim."

“We were recording ‘Swim’ on the day Versace was murdered,” Orbit told Q magazine in 2002. “Madonna was very friendly with him and his sister, Donatella, who was in the street, distraught, on her cell phone to Madonna. But she did the vocal, which is probably why it has such an emotional impact.”

Quite a story, indeed.

At the time, Madonna had an expansive house on the Miami mainland, and was a frequent guest at the Versace mansion. It would not have been a stretch to imagine her stopping work on the album upon getting news of a close friend's death and flying to Miami. But how would she have gotten into the home without anyone knowing until now? One of the things the show did get correct is that it was a media circus outside of Casa Casuarina following the murder. Yet the scene in which Donatella Versace walks into the house through the front doors at the main steps was complete fiction: The home had far more private entrances in the back. It's likely Madonna was able to sneak in, and if someone had found out then, we all would have known about it by now. If they hadn't, well, we would only know when someone inside the actual house told us, which appears to be the case now.

"Penélope called and told me about the project. She said that she has great respect for me, so I should write her if there are untrue things in the script."

Reportedly, one of Versace's more urgent requests was that they leave her children out of the series, though she did communicate other gripes with the producers that weren't honored.

"I had not heard of the book until last year. After reading it, I sent a list of factual mistakes to the production company working on the TV series. They replied that they were filming the book by Maureen Orth, so they could not take my findings into account. Viewers should know that the series is fiction, not a documentary." (The book being Orth's Vulgar Favors, and while Versace herself claims not to have heard about it, representatives for the family did dispute its claims when it was originally released.)

On the fact that Gianni left 50 percent of the company to her then 11-year-old daughter, Allegra, in his will:
"The will was crazy, but all creatives are crazy. Gianni idolized my daughter and always called her 'my little princess,' but he put a tremendous burden on her with his will. Making headlines at the age of 11—I wouldn’t wish that on any child."

On her noted  style Innovation after her brother's death:
"My hair got blonder and blonder, my makeup thicker and thicker. I felt like the whole world was looking at me with daggers in their eyes, and I created a mask that would give me protection. I didn’t want anyone to see what I was going through."

On her former career goal of becoming a college professor:
"I was a very good student, so professors suggested that I pursue a career at the university. I had a great desire to become a lecturer, but Gianni told me I should design fashion with him."

On Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell:
"They are rightly revered as role models because they made the leap from celebrity to globally successful businesswomen. I know few men who are as smart and enterprising as Cindy or Naomi. Their biographies can make any women’s rights activist proud."

On how younger designers with egos just need to chill out:
"Ridiculously inflated egos only exist with the old guard. A designer under 50 who thinks he’s a god would make a fool of himself. A scientist who invents a drug to cure cancer can exalt himself and feel like the greatest, but we’re just making fashion. We love it, but it’s not a deity worth worshipping."

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Donatella Versace: Not Who You Think She Is!!

April 9, 2020, 8:14 pm

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Donatella Versace Is Not Who You Think She Is

With a blockbuster spring collection, a passion for sustainability and social justice (oh, and that J.Lo moment), the fashion legend is more relevant than ever.

Shortly before  interviewed Donatella Versace, I ask my colorist to bump up my already-straining-credulity blond by a shade. That’s the effect Versace has on you before you even meet her: Some people make you stand up straighter in their presence; she has a way of drawing out your inner Italian bombshell. In a world taken over by penitent Marie Kondo–style bloodletting of our gladdest glad rags, she is a beacon of maximalism, an old-school practitioner of Fashion with a capital F, a full-throated defender of glamour. And isn’t that refreshing? Today, when so much high fashion looks like what you’d wear at a particularly progressive convent, when we’re apparently expected to don outfits that resemble scaffolding on a Brutalist building, don’t you want to be a little sexier? Flashier? Versace-er?

J.Lo definitely does. For the house’s spring 2020 show, she re-wore her 2000 Grammys look, a jungle-print dress that didn’t so much break the internet as remake it, spurring Google to create its image-search function. With her bronzed, toned body and her confident strut, J.Lo, if I may, made that dress her bitch. And the audience raised thousands of iPhones in tribute. “There was so much energy in the room, and you could feel the power of us creating a special moment in time,” Lopez says. “The power of women behind it, the power of fashion behind it, the power of putting beautiful things out into the world and celebrating beautiful moments in life—that’s what it was.”

Or in Versace’s own summary of that moment: “I’m here. Look at me: I’m not afraid, I’m not 20 years old, but I’m much better.” That’s the kind of empowerment Donatella Versace stands for. Not necessarily the bland boardroom, PowerPoint connotation of the word, but the ability to say, “Hey, world: I’m 50, I’m fabulous, and I’m here.”

Versace’s kingdom, I’d hazard to guess, has room for the inner circle of fashion Illuminati and the people who, like Elizabeth Berkley’s character in the seminal Showgirls, pronounce it Versayce. She’s a big-tent kind of girl. And she has a self-professed knack for spotting people on their way up. “You have to have an eye to see behind the way they look. I look for what they represent,” she says, offering Gigi Hadid, who has walked many of her shows and starred in several Versace ad campaigns, as an example. “I met Gigi when she was 16, and she was gorgeous, of course, but she wasn’t a typical model at that moment. But there was something there: a kindness, a tenderness, the beauty inside, not just outside. One of her first fashion shows was for me.”

So many designers start out modestly—the perfect white shirt, the perfect little black dress, a wide tie—and build from there. When Gianni Versace founded the house that would bear his name, he was already thinking in epic terms, doing what a science fiction author would call “world-building.” Growing up in Calabria, Italy, a former Greek colony that retained its classical motifs as well as its Roman glory, he drew on the might and myth of those traditions. He would make the Medusa his logo, and dress his “girls” like some combination of (sex) goddess and gladiator. Donatella was his muse and right hand—he dedicated his perfume Blonde to her.

The vision has only gotten bigger. Now you can stay in a Versace hotel; lounge in a logo bathrobe with a Barocco-printed belt and matching slippers (next to Fido in his coordinating dog bed); and, if your vice decrees, flick cigarette ash into a Medusa-head ashtray. They’ve truly thought of everything.

The brand is larger than life, and so is its current figurehead. Given the way she looms over our culture—there are few designers well-known enough to be identifiable by a first name, let alone a Saturday Night Live impression—it was hard to believe the received wisdom that Donatella Versace is shy. (“That’s the most uncomfortable thing for me,” she’ll later tell me, of her own celebrity.) But it’s true. She is soft-spoken, small-wristed, elfin.

When we meet, it’s hard to put this petite woman in the context of the sprawling hotel penthouse she’s sitting in, let alone the massive international brand she sits at the helm of. Her voice is subdued, the discreet growl of a domesticated tiger. She excitedly talks about her recent pilgrimage to see the Downton Abbey movie. (Imagine Donatella Versace at the ticket counter saying, “One for Downton Abbey, please.” Just sit with that image for a moment. Consider it my gift to you.) I like the Crawleys as much as anyone, but none of this jibes with my conception of Milanese excess. Where are the gold Medusas? The gold safety pins? The...other gold things? But then I ask for tea, and it’s conveyed to me in a gilded Versace cup with a winged handle, and I’m officially whisked off to Versace-land.

So I say hello to the woman behind the curtain of pin-straight platinum-blond hair and the daytime smoky eye—who, it seems, actually is deeply introverted. At least, according to the woman herself. She conceived the look as armor, “so people would talk about how I look, not about what I have inside.” There were, she says, “things happening in my life, and I didn’t want to explain.” She retreated even further into the image during the most difficult season of her life, Gianni’s 1997 murder, which thrust her into the spotlight as she took over the brand. (Her brother is never far from her mind; her spring 2018 collection was a tribute to him on the twentieth anniversary of his passing, and today she’s wearing a navy sweater imprinted with his signature.)

She developed a tough outer shell as a coping mechanism—not just the hair and makeup, but the whole package. At one point, she kept the same trainer for 18 years. She imitates herself whining, not wanting to do another rep: “He didn’t listen to anything I say! I love that.” But despite her protestations, fitness gave her discipline and mental clarity. Ever image-conscious, she would even bring the trainer on vacation with her.
Recently, though, she’s felt more comfortable being herself. On Instagram, she kicked back in a pair of novelty turkey slippers (Caption: “You see...I don’t always wear high heels!!”), and she made a cameo appearance in a campy soap opera for the brand’s holiday campaign. You might say she’s embracing her extra-ness. “Toned-down, that’s not me,” she shrugs. “Take it or leave it.”

She contributed to the rise of the supermodel, hardly a toned-down creature. Long before Gigi was a glimmer in Yolanda’s eye, models were sharply divided into “print” and “runway” girls, but Donatella chafed against the distinction. “I brought them to Milan, and Gianni was like”—she imitates their easy sibling back-and-forth—“She can’t walk.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“She’s not tall enough.”

“Doesn’t matter. Put that dress on her; you’ll see that she’s going to be tall enough.”

When I mention the period in the mid-’90s when designers opted for scores of anonymous, interchangeable models, she sputters, “Oh God, I couldn’t take it anymore!” The Versace girl has always been a supermodel. For the house’s fall 1991 show, a band of mononymic glamazons—Linda, Cindy, Naomi, Christy—strutted to the strains of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” (a watershed moment Versace nodded to more than 25 years later by reuniting some of those supermodels at her spring 2018 show). Versace was prescient, about that and other things, too. She foresaw the friends-with-benefits relationship that would spring up between pop music and fashion, forging early alliances with Madonna and Prince; the latter made CDs of then-unreleased music especially for the Atelier Versace couture show in 1995. “This kind of clash of culture, it was very interesting to me,” she says. “And I thought, ‘Fashion, if it doesn’t go into this world, it will become irrelevant.’ ” And before politicians and fashion mingled so seamlessly, she invited Chelsea Clinton to her spring 2002 fashion show and gave her a mini-Donatella makeover. (“I saw her recently. I adore her. She’s a smart girl,” she says of Clinton.)

Her interest in politics hasn’t abated. She imitates her phone, going, going, going with its fusillade of push notifications. Her morning news-gathering routine goes like this: Politics first. “And then fashion, and then music, and then art.” She has a lot to say about, for example, Greta Thunberg. (“I’m very happy a 16-year-old girl said, ‘How dare you take my future away?’ I really like the youth in this moment; there are a lot of young people with great ideas.”) They remind her of her student days at the University of Florence: “I was into protesting. I was outside in the street.”

She’s also been outspoken regarding the #MeToo movement. (“I’ve always defended women. I’m finding a lot of women more interesting than men right now.”) While she says she didn’t face sexism when assuming her mantle at the company, she acknowledges that this is probably because “I was in a [more] privileged position” as a family member. When I mention the wave of covered-up fashions that followed in the wake of the #MeToo allegations, she purrs, “Not on my runway.” She’s a firm believer that a woman should be able to dress however she likes. She wants to live in a world where you can command the C-suite in a corset. And why not?

Versace is an ardent supporter of LGBTQ rights; because of her brother’s legacy, she says, “I can’t not be.” Last year, she was named a Stonewall Ambassador, making the scene at New York City’s Pride March in a rainbow-sequined dress and matching go-go boots. We commiserate for a bit about the rollback of LGBTQ rights in the United States. “I wish people would fight more. People fight in New York, people fight in L.A., but the other places in America, they need help,” she says. “They need to be pushed to fight, because this is not right. The country is not moving forward. It’s going backward.”One thing that is going forward, in a big way, is the house of Versace. In 2018, the company was acquired by luxury group Capri Holdings, also the parent company of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. “I was very careful about deciding something like this, which could change my life completely,” Versace says of the sale. “I think the company needs to move ahead. I’m very happy about my choice, because Versace can grow faster.”

Indeed, Capri is pursuing an aggressive expansion of the brand, with plans to open dozens of stores each year. Beyond that, she doesn’t know what the future holds. “I cannot live forever, I’m not gonna be here forever, and things change in fashion. I’m the first one open to changes.” But there are none on the horizon just now. She jokes, “Nobody wants me to step aside, and that’s terrible!”

Instead, she’s gone full bore on aligning the brand with her beliefs. Versace ceased using fur in 2018, and the company is striving to be more sustainable, having just opened a new green headquarters in Milan constructed from ethically sourced materials. As they’re opening all those new stores, they’re asking all the nitty-gritty questions. “Where do you source the materials? How do you recycle the water?” she says. “How can you use less electricity? All of these aspects are taken into consideration now.” She’s also taking steps in her own life. This famous jet-setter? She says she’s no longer flying private.

And when it comes to her designs, she sees quality and craftsmanship as the antidote to the fast-fashion mind-set. “We cannot forget the value of heritage, because today fashion is like, ‘Wear today; throw it away tomorrow,’ ” she says. It’s rare to see someone who’s so squarely a part of the old-school fashion world and yet so engaged with everything new. She says she keeps herself surrounded with young, creative employees, a posse of anti–yes men and women. “It’s so easy to surround yourself with people who think like you, who say yes [to everything]. That’s the moment you should retire. You should go do something else.”

Antonio D'Amico: The Versace Boyfriend

April 9, 2020, 8:56 pm

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Antonio D’Amico was one of the first people to find Gianni Versace's body after the fashion designer was shot by serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 1997. While D’Amico, now 59, has kept to himself in the years since his then-boyfriend’s death, he has since recently spoken about Gianni’s legacy and the hit season of American Crime Story. Here’s what you need to know about D’Amico in the aftermath of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story on FX.

Who Is Antonio D’Amico? What to Know After American Crime Story

He was not thrilled with his portrayal on the show.

1) D’AMICO AND VERSACE WERE TOGETHER 11 YEARS.

They first met at La Scala, an opera house in Milan in 1986, they were together 11 years at the time of Versace's death. During their time together, D’Amico worked alongside Versace, designing for Versace Sport and Istante. D’Amico moved to Miami with Versace in 1992 after the couple were together six years in Milan.

2) D'AMICO HAD A STRAINED RELATIONSHIP WITH VERSACE'S SISTER, DONATELLA.

''My relationship with Antonio is exactly as it was when Gianni was alive," Dontalla mentioned."I respected him as the boyfriend of my brother, but I never liked him as a person. So the relationship stayed the same.''

3) D’AMICO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE TO SEE GIANNI VERSACE AFTER THE SHOOTING.

In an interview with Dateline, D’Amico said Versace went out to collect the morning newspaper, something D’Amico would normally join him for. According to The Guardian, D’Amico “was drinking coffee on the veranda close to the mansion’s entrance when he heard the shots.” D’Amico and one of Versace’s butlers ran out to see what happened.

“The house had stained glass windows so we couldn’t see what had happened from inside, so we had to open the gate,” D’Amico told The Guardian. “I saw Gianni lying on the steps, with blood around him. At that point, everything went dark. I was pulled away, I didn’t see any more.”

4) VERSACE WILLED D'AMICO THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN ANY OF THE VERSACE RESIDENCES, BUT DONATELLA REPORTEDLY VOIDED THAT.

Before his death, Versace had crafted a will while receiving treatment for a rare form of inner-ear cancer. The Insider reported that Versace left D'Amico $57,000 a month and the right to live in any of Versace’s residences, including the Miami villa. But The Guardian also reported that since the properties were owned by the Versace company, not Gianni, Donatella prohibited D'Amico from moving in, and he only received a portion of the stipend.

5) D’AMICO SUFFERED FROM DEPRESSION AFTER VERSACE'S DEATH.

He told  the Insiders, “I had never been through a depression and never saw a therapist as I was advised to: why did I need to tell someone else what had happened when I knew I was this way because Gianni’s death had torn me in two? I was in a nightmare, I felt nothing and gave no importance to anything...the house, the money...because it felt false to have expectations of life."

6) D’AMICO RELEASED HIS OWN FASHION COLLECTION IN 1999.

He presented his first collection in Milan, and friend Elton John came out to support him, the New York Times reported. D’Amico told reporters he didn't use the money from Versace's will for the line. "I'm using my own money that I saved to start the business," he said. In 2012, he released a denim line called Pump with Italian soccer player Massimo Lotti. He also went back to sportswear, releasing his own line of golfwear in 2017 according to the Insiders

7) D’AMICO HAS MOSTLY KEPT TO HIMSELF OVER THE YEARS.

He revealed to The Guardian that found love again and has been living with his partner in the northern Italian countryside. He also told the newspaper that he still feels close to Versace: “Sincerely, after two decades, I will always be connected to Gianni as a person I loved for more than 15 years,” D’Amico said.

8) HE SPOKE OUT AGAINST AMERICAN CRIME STORY.

Before the Versace family released a statement about ACS, D’Amico revealed that he did not agree with how the show was handling certain scenes.  Ricky Martin, who played D’Amico in ACS, spoken with Entertainment Weekly about a scene in which Versace does not want D’Amico to touch him because of the paparazzi. D’Amico said Versace would never do that, as he was already out. “We lived like a natural couple, there was never a problem,” he told TheGuardian. “It was the right moment for him to come out in public, but everyone involved in our world knew. He never tried to hide who he was.”

What Dontalla said: An Appreciation Iconic Quotes...

April 13, 2020, 10:52 am

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On May 2nd,  her 65th birthday, it's hard to imagine that Donatella Versace wasn't always one of the fashion industry's most beloved icons. But in the years after her brother Gianni Versace's death in 1997, when she took over his role at the helm of Versace, the response was lukewarm, to say the least; for a long time, she was barely even considered a designer, and instead dismissed as her late brother's "muse."

These days, of course, it's a different story. Donatella has officially stepped out of Gianni's shadow, and both she and the house are as successful and respected as ever. (It's hard to imagine that supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Carla Bruni would have so enthusiastically reunited on the runway for anyone else.) The industry has come to embrace her ultra-blonde, ultra-tan, and ultra-sassy persona with open arms—as has Donatella herself, who's expanded the reach of her outsized Donatella-ness via platforms like a deliciously ostentatious Instagram account and a book that read like a love letter to herself.

Thanks to her self-awareness, all that has conspired to somehow make Donatella even more delightful. As happy as she is to joke about her absurd attachment to heels, she's equally open to discussing how the image that's turned her into an icon was her way to protect herself from public scrutiny in the throes of her cocaine addiction, and in the wake of her brother's death. As much as she's been through, she's never forgotten to have fun being Donatella. In celebration, let's revisit some of her most memorable quips and quotes.

On flats: "I never, ever wear flats. Every time I wear them I fall over! The only flats I own are my sneakers, which I only wear when inside the gym and always with black and diamonds."—in  i-D 

On what she was like as a little girl: "I was never a little girl. My brother Gianni would dress me and I would go out with a ciré jacket, a patent leather miniskirt, and tall boots."—in  W.

On her menswear designs: "I am surrounded by impossibly sexy men. Sorry! That’s my reality! How can you think about not making them sexy?"—in the Independent.  

On the youth: "Many of the young people I speak to now are obsessed with me and I don’t know why! I like to talk to young people and see students at school. They look at me and go, 'Wahhh, Donatella!'"–  GQ

On her height: "I am 5'2"—me and Bruno Mars, the same—so I wear high heels all the time, to be tall."—in the  Guardian.

On men: "Why do women need men nowadays? Certainly not to prove strength, determination and independence anymore. Men are needed only for love affairs and for physical relaxation."—in  SSENSE 

On what would happen to Versace if she suddenly died: "Ninety percent of the employees will applaud loudly."—in SSENSE

On comfort: "What is comfortable fashion? To be comfortable, that can’t be in the vocabulary of fashion. If you want to be comfortable, stay home in your pajamas."—in INTERVIEW

On nature: "I love the sea. I love the ocean. I mean, I was born in the south of Italy. But I get bored. After one week I’m so bored I want to kill myself. I start looking at trees and nature... It’s all so orgaaan-eecc. [Laughs.] I need some chemicals, you know? I’ll bleach my hair. I’ll feel so much better."—in  GQ 

On selfies: "The selfie thing kills me. I hate selfies, but young people really like them, so I’m like, ‘OK, let’s do a selfie.’ I find it incredible when I go to rock concerts. I went to one recently and all these young people were screaming, 'Donatella! Donatella!' I was like, 'Let’s leave.'"—in  GQ

On what she would be doing if she weren't a designer: "I would like to be a rock star, if I had talent. But I don’t."—in  W

On her 1995 men's show, where Robbie Williams and Tupac performed: " Liam Gallagher  was in the audience. He got up and started to walk with the models and I was like, 'Sit down!'"—in GQ

On Marilyn Monroe: "She was sexy, she was brave, she wore makeup. Love her."—in  Interview

On her interior decorating choices, like faux Louis XIV fauteuils: "I can’t sit in a super-modern chair. I like the rich."—in the Independent  

On the blimp of Donald Trump  that flew over Parliament during his state visit: “I love the big baby blimp. It’s genius. We should do all our windows with the baby Trump when he comes to Italy. In diapers!"—in GQ

On the first thing she does in the morning: "I wake up and check all my devices. Cling cling! Email. Italian phone. American phone. iPad. I leave everything on at night. Cling! I want to know what is happening."—in  W

On her style: "My style is not that big. I wear heels, tight pants, and I wear diamonds."—at the  2013 Vogue Festival. 

On her grades: "Mine were very good—even though my mother would often keep me from going to school. In the mornings when I came down to the kitchen with Cleopatra eyes, she would shout: 'You are not leaving the house like that! Either wash off the make-up, or you stay home!' I was obstinate and locked myself in my room."—in  SSENSE 

On health: "I stopped working with a personal trainer as he wouldn't let me smoke."—at the  2013 Vogue Festival 

On her son Daniel's choice not to use the name "Versace": "He believes the name Versace would damage his integrity as a musician and give him an undeserved advantage. I don’t really understand that reasoning, because you’re either a good musician or a bad one. But it’s his life."—in  SSENSE 

On American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: "I don’t discuss fiction."—in  SSENSE 

On being blonde: "To be blonde means to be caressed by the sun, and to be your own sun: strong, full of energy, bright, warming."—in  SSENSE 

On her image: "I’m not beautiful, but I have a look: blond hair, high heels, lots of makeup."—in the  Guardian 

On her go-to survival technique: "Blond is a way of life. You face the world like an Amazon. I survived the catastrophes in my life because of the strength that my blonde hair gives me."—in SSENSE 

On money: "When I'm shopping I don't even look at the price, I'm ashamed of myself, I just sign the credit card."—in  i-D.

On Versace's customers:"The [couture] clothes I did in Paris are not for a grande dame de Paris. She can’t wear it. I don’t want her to wear it, basically."—in the Independent. 

On her appearance: "I'm not like this genetically. I use tons of cream and take care of my hair and skin."—at the  2013 Vogue Festival. 

On Elton John's offer to escort her to a rehab facility in 2004: "I had no idea what a rehab clinic was like, and I wasn’t exactly sure where Arizona was, either."—in SSENSE  

On whether or not she wore flats with her jogging suit on the plane to rehab: "No! No way!"—in  SSENSE 

On whether or not she thinks she's an icon, in 2008: "I don't think I'm an icon, when I think of icons I think of dead people, and I can assure you, I'm not dead."—in  i-D.

Donatella Versace Loves to Talk about: MEN!

April 13, 2020, 11:11 am

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A few days before her S/S19 menswear show, Donatella Versace is reclining in the creosote-coloured confines of the sumptuous Versace apartment, all gilt and marble and lush barocco-print cushions sandwiched between the design studio above and the show space below. We’ve met to talk about men, which always feels like one of her favourite subjects. Because while Donatella obviously relishes designing clothes for the Versace woman (namely, herself I once asked if she wore clothes by other designers. She replied: “the house of Versace is my wardrobe”), she simply loves men.

“I like to dress women, of course,” Donatella states. “But I don’t understand that much, what really men want. Because the kind of men I like shouldn’t wear these kind of clothes. He should actually wear whatever. But of course I don’t do that.” She grins.

Very few designers would say something so honest about their work; but Donatella Versace isn’t like other designers. This years is her 20th anniversary as creative director of Versace, a post assumed when her brother Gianni – the original Versace man – was shot outside his Miami Beach mansion, Casa Casuarina. Her S/S19 collection is, in a sense, an homage to Gianni, using the prints he devised and adored, and shown in the old-fashioned style, up close and personal around the courtyard of Palazzo Versace, the 18th century mansion Versace bought in 1981 and made an emblem of both his success and style. “It’s to make a statement,” says Donatella. “This, here, is where everything began for Versace.”

“THE KIND OF MEN I LIKE SHOULDN’T WEAR THESE KIND OF CLOTHES. HE SHOULD ACTUALLY WEAR WHATEVER” – DONATELLA VERSACE

The wonderful thing about Versace – the thing that makes it feel pure, which is a word Donatella was using a lot around her S/S19 show, but which always feels applicable to Versace – is its honesty. Just like those comments about her ideal man actually not wearing her clothes – as she spouted, grinning from ear to ear from under her preternaturally peroxided bob, you expected a PR rep to smother her into silence with a quilted Versace bedspread. But there’s no stopping Signora Versace. If Donatella believes it, she’ll say it; and if doesn’t like an outfit, it won’t go on the runway. It’s a matter of taste – and Donatella trusts her instincts.

Speaking of taste, another indomitable woman, Diana Vreeland, once stated that bad taste is better than no taste. She also said, “Never fear being vulgar, only boring.” Donatella once gave me her own spin on that: speaking of the early years of the label, working alongside Gianni, she reminisced, “A word I heard a lot at the beginning was ‘vulgar’” She skipped a beat. “Which was better than ‘shit’.”

From those early good taste-bad taste shows, the word fearless has always been synonymous with Versace. That’s stayed the same – it’s how Donatella likes her Versace man – the kind who’ll wear, say, a hooded jacket in silk twill patterned with balletic angels in a dozen pastel shades, or a suit finely pinstriped with filigree chains.

“NOWADAYS, WE TALK ABOUT GAY MEN AND STRAIGHT MEN. NOW GAY MEN WEAR STRAIGHT MEN CLOTHES. STRAIGHT MEN TEND TO WEAR GAY MEN CLOTHES. THEY’RE NOT AFRAID, AND THAT I LIKE VERY MUCH” – DONATELLA VERSACE

Ironically, she doesn’t see him as a ‘fashion’ man. “You know, many young designers do these kind of different shapes…” begins Donatella, with something of a pensive looks on her face. She sips some water, from a Versace goblet like a crystal chalice, etched with the same swirly-whirly motifs that coil across half the spring collection. As she lifts it up, there’s a flash of a three-dimensional Medusa etched into the bottom. She carries on. “Shoulders like this, short sweater’ – she mimes Dynasty padding, and karate-chops her own ribcage. “That’s fine. But I like men – if I see a man dressed like that, I’ll kill him!” Donatella cracks up. “But I understand, fashion-wise, they’re right. And I admire them. But I’m a woman, looking – I’m a straight woman looking to have a man. I want to see a man with a different proportion, but still a man. A masculine proportion.”

Her Versace man has, undoubtedly, evolved. “It’s just completely different to the Versace of my brother,” she says. “It was a different time. It was the 90s, always fun. Nowadays, we talk about gay men and straight men. Now gay men wear straight men clothes. Straight men tend to wear gay men clothes. They’re not afraid, and that I like very much. It completely changed, the man. Completely changed.”

Sexuality is one thing Donatella doesn’t care about. “I find so many gay men attractive,” she muses. “And I find a lot, a lot of straight men attractive.” Another megawatt grin, sparkling like the diamond the size of a pigeon’s skull that weighs down her right hand. “I grew up in a family where a brother was gay and the other was straight – and a womaniser! So I have both examples.” Donatella shrugs. “Of course, I love both of them. They are different but the same. For me, maybe for me it’s easier because I grew up in a family with a gay brother and a straight brother, to understand that there is not gay or straight, he is a man. In general, it doesn’t define you.”

As long as you’re having sex – lots of sex – with someone, Donatella’s happy. It means she’s doing her job.

Taner Sigirtmac for Versace by Baldovino Barani

April 13, 2020, 11:37 am

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Taner Sigirtmac Models Versace for FACTORY Fanzine

The handsome Taner Sigirtmac at Model One HK teams up once again with fashion photographer Baldovino Barani, this time for Viva Versace! story coming from the pages of FACTORY Fanzine‘s latest edition.Discover the  story captured by photographer Baldovino Barani

Naomi Campbell: World's Catwalk Queen

March 26, 2020, 6:16 am

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Here she was at Madison Square Garden introducing Rihanna in late August at the Video Music Awards. There she was the next weekend at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of “Franca: Chaos and Creation,” a documentary about Italian Vogue’s longtime editor, Franca Sozzani.

Seventy-two hours later, Naomi Campbell returned to New York and Madison Square Garden, where she took selfies with Kim Kardashian West at the Kanye West concert before heading off to Beyoncé’s “Soul Train”-themed birthday party at the NoMad Hotel.

A day later, she made a guest appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens: Live,” then attended a slew of events for New York Fashion Week, including Tom Ford’s show at the Four Seasons restaurant.

Beyond the party circuit, Ms. Campbell can be spotted on the current covers of Paper and Another Magazine, as well as in a fashion spread in the August Italian Vogue, where she is photographed with a mammoth new coffee table book, simply called “Naomi Campbell,” which chronicles her 30 years in fashion.

Ms. Campbell can also been seen on TV, with roles in two hit shows: “American Horror Story: Hotel” and “Empire.” In each, she dialed up the camp and then died so glamorously, it was a wonder neither of her onscreen murders was captured in a noirish spread for W, the kind she has done numerous times.

Less than a decade ago, this fiery supermodel was one of the industry’s most notorious bad girls, an Azzedine Alaïa-clad diva on the verge of becoming a tabloid joke after pleading guilty to aggravated assault twice in 17 months, first in New York for lobbinga Blackberry  at her housekeeper and second for scuffling with two British police officers at Heathrow Airport when her luggage went missing.

Today, at 46, Ms. Campbell is ubiquitous once again, walking her signature walk here, there and everywhere, while enjoying a career peak seldom seen in the youth-obsessed fashion world.

But Ms. Campbell’s breakneck pace raises questions: How far can she ride this wave in a business that traditionally has had limited use for models over 40? Did her breakup with a certain Russian oligarch propel her to focus again on career? And what exactly does Ms. Campbell hope to achieve from all these appearances, all these campaigns and all these interviews?

Even she doesn’t seem clear on the answer.

“There’s no plan,” Ms. Campbell said on a recent afternoon. “There’s no agenda. I know. There probably should be, right?”

Maybe. Maybe not.

Everyone in fashion knows Ms. Campbell’s walk and the cock of the head to the right as she peers with insouciance at the photographers standing in front of the runway.

Growing up in a poor area of South London, Ms. Campbell took dance lessons, and that training is evident in her modeling.

“She feels the music like no other,” said John Galliano, the fashion designer. “When she appears to do a show, it’s actually not so easy for the other models. Because she commands. She slays.”

While in high school, Ms. Campbell was discovered by a modeling agent.

From there, things moved quickly. By age 22, she had been on the cover of multiple editions of Vogue; starred with Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford in George Michael’s “Freedom 90” video; and disrobed for the photographer Steven Meisel in Madonna’s “Sex” book.

“I didn’t even tell my boyfriend I was doing it, because I knew he wouldn’t approve,” said Ms. Campbell, whose famous partners over the years also included U2’s Adam Clayton, Mike Tyson and Robert De Niro.

She was also notoriously difficult, a temperamental celebrity and an admitted abuser of cocaine and alcohol who arrived at photo shoots hours late.

Even people who stuck by her do not deny experiencing this side. The producer and director Lee Daniels recalled meeting Ms. Campbell for the first time in the early ’90s, when he cast her for a public service announcement for Rock the Vote.

“She showed up to the shoot three hours late,” he said. “The limousine door opened and she came out like Cruella de Vil. And I was screaming at her at the top of my lungs at the audacity of coming that late to my set, and she was screaming back at me. I fired her on the spot and fell in love with her there and then.”

Her temper became legendary in 2007, when she pleaded guilty to hurling that cellphone, then opted to have her community service for the New York City Sanitation Department captured by the photographer Steven Klein as a fashion spread for W Magazine.

That imperial sense of pride was on full display in 2010, before the International Criminal Tribunal against Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, who had gifted Ms. Campbell three gemstones (possible blood diamonds) in the late ’90s.

Until the trial, Ms. Campbell had been often seen but rarely heard. But she wasted no time confirming the public’s image of her. Wearing a cream-colored Alaïa cardigan and matching dress, Ms. Campbell sneered at the suggestion that she was somehow impressed by the gift, dismissing the diamonds that two men handed her in an unmarked pouch as “dirty looking stones.”

“When I’m used to seeing diamonds, I’m used to seeing them shiny and in a box,” Ms. Campbell testified.

And the clothes stunned. “She looked like Lana Turner,” said Bethann Hardison, the pioneering runway model from the 1970s and a longtime friend. “To me, that was the ultimate Naomi Campbell moment.”

It burnished her image. “Naomi’s fun to watch, because there is a little bit of the unpredictable,” Ms. Crawford said.

Over the next few years, Ms. Campbell’s life slowed somewhat. She was entering her 40s and less frequently in the spotlight.

She took on activist causes, including a push to increase diversity on the runway. She signed on to host the Oxygen reality show “The Face,” on aspiring models. And she found love with Vladislav Doronin, the Russian oligarch, said to be worth around $1 billion.

The two met at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and they had a romance that was well documented by the paparazzi, who trailed them around the Mediterranean and wherever jets landed and yachts moored

Ms. Campbell even brought him along to visits with Nelson Mandela, who had been a kind of honorary grandfather. In 2012, Mr. Doronin held a giant 50th birthday party in Jodhpur, India, attended by many people in her formidable address book, among them Kate Moss, Bob Geldof and Diana Ross, who came out of semiretirement to sing before the crowd of 200.

By this point, Ms. Campbell had largely gotten a handle on her addiction and her anger issues. She even began operating as an unofficial sobriety captain for some of fashion’s biggest names.

“You know, I took a bit of a break from the industry, and she was there at every turn,” said Mr. Galliano, referring to his 2011 exit from Dior.“It’s thanks to Miss Naomi Campbell that I actually got to Arizona,” he added, referring to his time in rehab.

“Well, me, too,” Marc Jacobs said. “She teamed up with my business partner Robert Duffy, and Anna Wintour, and the three of them did my intervention. Naomi started it all. She recognized I was having terrible problems. When I’ve relapsed, it’s been like telepathy. I mean, she’s parked in front of my house when she thought something was wrong.”

Then, in 2013, the relationship with Mr. Doronin imploded.

In an “All About Eve” moment in a reality show era, Mr. Doronin was photographed aboard his yacht with a model named Luo Zilin, who represented China in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant, and who had been mentored on “The Face” by Ms. Campbell.

As friends tell it, she was devastated.

“It was a tough one,” Mr. Galliano said.

But as Ms. Campbell has proved time and time again, she is a fighter who knows how to bounce back. Her singular ability to get into trouble is superseded only by her knack for getting out of it.

“When disaster hits, I’m actually quite calm,” she said, speaking of her various ups and downs. “I just think: ‘What’s the action? What’s the solution?’”

In this case, it was jump-starting her career.

Days before the yacht photographs were published, Ms. Campbell made a triumphant return on the Milan runway, walking in her first Versace show in 14 years, wearing a black leather micromini, her hips swaying, her hair sashaying as people in the audience rose to applaud.

When “The Face” was canceled in its second season, and Ms. Campbell heard that her friend Mr. Daniels had a new drama for Fox, she lobbied for a part.

“One of the things I so respect about Naomi is that she has incredible drive, and she’s not embarrassed to ask for things she wants or to say, ‘I deserve this.’” Ms. Wintour said. “Didn’t she pitch herself to Lee for ‘Empire?’ I think she did. Girl power, right?”

“Yup,” Mr. Daniels said. “That’s pretty much what happened.”

After “Empire” became a hit, Ms. Campbell was invited to a dinner for the Burberry designer Christopher Bailey at the Los Angeles home of Bryan Lourd, the Hollywood power agent, and was seated next to Ryan Murphy, one of the hottest producers in television.

The next day, Mr. Murphy’s team began writing a part for Ms. Campbell as an aggressive fashion editor on “American Horror Story: Hotel,” while her friends in fashion signed her up for all sorts of gigs.

A spring 2016 Balmain campaign featured her primping and posing with her fellow supermodels Ms. Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. Then came Ms. Campbell’s book with Taschen and a commercial for Beats, where she drove a Rolls-Royce Phantom with DJ Khaled while whispering sweet nothings in his ear. (Never mind that she can barely drive.)

Over the last year, Ms. C ampbell became a steadfast fixture on the social circuit, appearing at dozens of charities, galas, music festivals and fashion events in New York and elsewhere, where, rather than treating her as if she were a carnivalesque curiosity, people acknowledged her as a survivor of numerous setbacks who had come out on top.

The breakup with Mr. Doronin, however, still stung.

As Ms. Campbell said in one unguarded moment backstage at “Watch What Happens: Live,” “I’m friends with all my exes, except the last one.”

Some may wonder just how far a 46-year-old model breaking into acting can take all this, but it’s clear people are rooting for her.

One is Ms. Wintour, who said of Ms. Campbell: “There’s been a lot of talk about Naomi over the years. But what’s always impressed me is how motivated she is and how hard she works. She’s a fighter for herself, for women of color and for the causes she believes in.”

Another supporter is Mr. Daniels, who said that part of the reason people remain in her orbit, despite all the ups and downs, is because she’s fiercely loyal, surprisingly attuned to others and great fun. “I think she’s just getting started,” he said.

Vestiges of the old Ms. Campbell remain. As with many addicts in recovery, she is both preternaturally driven and utterly disorganized. She vacillates between extreme confidence and near-paralyzing insecurity, and friends say they cannot predict which they will experience: Naomi, the fiery tiger; or Naomi, the meek schoolgirl. “Neither can I,” she said.

At an April release party at the Diamond Horseshoe for her book, Ms. Campbell was a puddle of tears at the prospect of giving a toast, surrounded by friends like Ms. Wintour, Mr. Jacobs, André Leon Talley and Gayle King. “She’s a Bambi,” Mr. Galliano said. “She collapses.”

She is late to appearances so often, she could best Mariah Carey in a contest for world’s most tardy female celebrity.

Part of this may have to do with her inability to leave the house without a glam squad. Her black Escalade shuttles her between appearances like a chariot, and woe to those who ride alongside and disrupt her delicate equilibrium.

This happened in June, when Ms. Campbell was leaving a Midtown gala for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, for a late-night bite at Cipriani Downtown, talking on the phone to a trans-Atlantic mystery man (who may or may not have been her newest boyfriend), with the stylist Edward Enninful, and Javier Salgado, and a member of her managment, in tow.

As the car turned left onto Bleecker Street, Ms. Campbell’s tuxedo-clad companions got noisy, talking among themselves. Soon, she’d had enough.

“Will you shut up?” Ms. Campbell said, bellowing. “Do you even know how loud you are? Can’t you see I’m trying to talk on the phone?”

Mr. Salgado and Mr. Enninful burst out laughing, and so did she.

The car pulled up to Cipriani. Mr. Enninful waited on the curb, while Ms. Campbell remained inside the car, still talking on her phone. Who was taking up all this time? “This one, that one, the other one,” Mr. Enninful said. “I’ve lost track.”

She emerged 20 minutes later, her phone still glued to her ear, though she had changed out of her heels into a pair of gray Alaïa ballet flats. She did not apologize for the wait, and simply announced in charming, unprintable language how hungry she was.

The group bounded up the stairs to a V.I.P. section of the restaurant, along with her bodyguard, Mike, whose job this evening mostly involved holding her purse. Music from Grace Jones blared, and waiters rushed to take her order.

When Ms. Campbell’s lamb chops arrived, a look came across her face. Something was missing. “Mike,” she screamed. “Can you bring me my purse?”

Her bodyguard brought over her black bag. She pulled out a silver vial and placed it on the table. It looked like a fancy storage device for something illicit, but Ms. Campbell made clear there was no cause for alarm.

“Hot sauce,” she said, handing it to a tablemate. “Try some.”

Kacey Carrig: Male Model Talk Interview!

April 17, 2020, 9:41 am

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Kacey Carrig was raised in Shamong Township, New Jersey. During his college education he decided to pursue a modelling career and contacted some agencies. Ford agency asked him to enter the "VMan 2011 model search", in which he became a finalist and subsequently got a contract.

In 2012,  Versace enlisted him for the brand’s F/W ’12 campaign. Since then, he has worked for a number of editorial ad campaigns and modeled for shows like Mert & Marcus, ErmanoScervino, Italian GQ, and Parke & Ronen.  He has also modeled for Bloomingdale's, Milan Vukmirovic, Chevignon and Tom Ford.Carrig is a Business Marketing major at the College of New Jersey.

The next time you open Vogue or GQ, you may recognize a familiar face. Once TCNJ’s first ever Campus Cutie and a recent graduate of TCNJ’s Class of 2014, Kacey Carrig now graces the runway from New York to Milan. Carrig began his modeling career after he became a finalist in the Vman Model Search. It was through this competition that Ford Models discovered him and signed him to their agency. Known to be one of the most prestigious agencies in the world, legendary models such as Twiggy, Christie Brinkley and Janice Dickinson have walked through the doors of Ford.

Balancing college and a blossoming modeling career takes a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication. It also requires the help of a nurturing team of individuals who have one’s best interest at heart. In an industry of superficiality and self-interest, Carrig describes his relationship with the agency and his agent as genuine and supportive.

“I am truly grateful that the people who are out getting me jobs and fighting for me are the same people I know will answer my phone call in the middle night to answer or help with anything going on in my life.” They understood school was a priority and accommodated his needs while he was pulled in countless directions at once.

The attentive approach of Carrig’s team of agents played an integral role in the success of his career. Whether it’s walking in fashion shows or landing an international editorial campaign, he shared that “working with Ford has opened doors and has given me countless opportunities and experiences that I never could’ve imagined possible.”

It is undeniable that the camera gravitates towards Carrig’s immaculate jawline and glistening smile. This past fall he graced the runway at New York Fashion Week walking for Parke & Ronen. Doing runway is one of his favorite things in modeling. He compared the feeling to playing in a large sporting event describing it as getting the “same kind of butterflies.”

When Carrig isn’t walking the runway he’s modeling for international editorial campaigns for designers like Donatella Versace. Last year, he worked alongside one of the most iconic models in history, Kate Moss. Together they created a visual masterpiece that was seen by fashion connoisseurs everywhere. Versace enlisted Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott to direct and photograph this campaign. Some of their other major fashion clients include labels such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Givenchy, just to name a few. Collaborating with artists of this caliber was surreal for Carrig. As someone from a small town in New Jersey, this was an unbelievable opportunity that could never be forgotten.

Aside from all the glitz and glamour of the fashion world, Kacey Carrig holds remains humble. Carrig is one supermodel that appreciates all the blessings he has received. As he continues on his journey, our original Campus Cutie looks forward to the future. When asked about his next endeavour, he expressed his hopes of breaking into the acting world.

Ask any college student – balancing school, sports, and a social life is tough. Now imagine doing all that PLUS traveling around the world to model for brands like Versace and Tom Ford. That’s how Kacey Carrig spent his four years in higher education, and now that he has graduated, he continues chasing the dream. Get to know Kacey better and check out his hottest pictures…

Height: 6’3

Waist: 32″
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue

Hometown: Shamong, New Jersey

College & Year You Graduated: The College of New Jersey, 2014

Major: Business Marketing

Job You Wanted As A Kid: Besides being a cop like my dad, I always wanted to be an actor, but it was such a far-fetched dream for me.

Favorite Sport To Play: Basketball and tennis (played for my college tennis team)

Favorite Sports Team: Phillies/Eagles

Favorite Boy Band: N’ Sync…but if anyone knows who Soul Decision is, then they are my new best friend.

Favorite Female Celebrity: Nina Dobrev  

Favorite Male Celebrity: Charlie Hunnam

Movie That Makes Me Cry Every Time: Besides the beginning of Up and the end of Toy Story 3, I ugly cry to Armageddon and Titanic.

Favorite Song To Sing In The Shower: Any and all Weeknd songs

The Last Text I Sent Says: “Should we get tickets to Firefly?”

The Last Person I Called Was: My agent

2 Words My Friends Would Use To Describe Me: Enthusiastic & outgoing.

Favorite Drink To Order At The Bar: Besides beer, I like a good whiskey.

Coolest City I’ve Ever Visited: I really fell in love with London.

Place I Want To Travel But Haven’t Been Yet: Ibiza

Favorite Halloween Costume I’ve Worn: I’d have to say last Halloween when I was a vampire because I wore white contacts that scared the crap out of both myself and everyone around me.

What Have Been Your Favorite Modeling/Acting Jobs: My favorite modeling job was doing the Versace campaign with Kate Moss. I haven’t done too much acting yet, but I did an izod commercial in Punta Cana which was basically just a vacation in paradise.

What Can We Look Forward To From You? Hopefully seeing me on TV or film. I’m very new to it so it’s a lot of work, but I have a great acting agency and I have been doing a lot of auditions lately.

Thank you for the interview for my blog!

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Thierry Mulger: King of Follies!

April 17, 2020, 12:53 pm

≫ Next: Jean Paul Gaultier: Larger than Life

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Some designers blend in with the styles of others, and some develop their own unique approach and image that stands out even among the thousands of designers living in the world.

Thierry Mugler is a fashion designer and perfumer from France. He was born in 1948 in Strasbourg. Since he was a young boy, Mugler was passionate about design, art and fashion. This is why he spent more time in drawing various ideas than on his formal education in school. When he was nine, Mugler started learning classical dance. By fourteen, he began his training in ballet corps for Rhin Opera. Around the same time, he studied interior design at Strasbourg School of Decorative Art.

As he turned 24, Mugler shifted to Paris and started designing apparel for Gudule, a Parisian store. Two years later, he began designing for a range of prêt-a-porter fashion stores in different parts of the world.

At first he only designed for women but as of 1978, he focused on menswear as well. Two years earlier, an influential editor in the fashion industry, Melka Tréanton assisted him in launching his career. She made him exhibit his work in an event by Shiseido in Japan. During the 80s and 90s, Mugler turned out to be a renowned designer internationally and his work garnered a great deal of commercial triumph.

Apart from designing, he has also published books, such as Thierry Mugler: Photographe, 1998; and Thierry Mugler: Fashion Fetish Fantasy, 1999. In addition to print media, he is involved in short videos and films as well. Mugler recurrently creates costumes for concerts, theatre, opera and musical comedies. He has collaborated with artists like George Michael, and Robert Altman; and entertainment companies, including Cirque de Soleil to direct a scene from Zumanity.

Almost all designers engage in designing and inventing perfumes with fragrances and their bottles to their likes, style and image. Mugler also introduced his perfumes, such as Angel in 1992; Angel Men in 1996; Alien in 2005; Mirror, Mirror in 2007; and Womanity in 2010. Additionally, his company launched a range of exclusive cosmetics, Thierry Mugler Beauty.

Focusing on his family, his mother was the most elegant woman in their town, according to Mugler; and his father was a doctor by profession. Mugler’s childhood was spent in making costumes, writing dramas, watching films in the cinema and detesting school.

Mugler took a break from fashion but continued with his bodybuilding. In 2013, he did a show called Mugler Follies in Théâtre Comédia. The entertainment included models, acrobats, singers, dancers. There was eroticism, technology, lights and fantasy filled in the venue. Guest were served with champagne and dinner – a lavish comeback. Mugler has no doubt re-invented himself as Manfred.

Celebrities who wear the Thierry Mugler brand, include Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce Knowles, Courtney Cox, Kim Kardashian, Eva Mendes, Nicole Richie, Kate Upton, Kim Cattrall, Gwen Stafeni, Alessandra, Dita Von Teese, Jessica Biel, Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry, Kristen Dunst, Naomi Watts, Lara Stone, Leighton Meester, Abbey Clancy and quite a few others.

Mugler was included in the top seventy-five companies of France, when he was officially invited by the French Couture Syndicale to present his couture line. These high-end brands share the commitment and passion for creativity, luxury and excellence in the creation and production of each of their merchandizes. Being among the high-ranked fashion designers of France is most certainly an honor since the country is known for its style and trends around the world.

Jean Paul Gaultier: Larger than Life

April 17, 2020, 1:08 pm

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A French prêt-a-porter and haute couture designer, Jean Paul Gaultier was born in  Arcueil on 24th April 1952. He never formally got educated or trained as a designer; instead Gaultier sent his sketches to popular couture designers from an early age. In 1970, after being impressed by his drawings, Pierre Cardin hired Gaultier as an assistant. A year later, he took a break in order to work with Jacques Esterel before returning to administer Pierre Cardin fashion house for a year in Manila.

In 1976, he released his first collection and since then he has been recognized as the enfant terrible of the fashion industry in France. His designs have been developed using diverse approaches based on popular culture, street war or have reflected playfulness and bizarreness. Most people at the time found his creativity as decadent, but individuals like Melka Tréanton from Elle, Catherine Lardeur and Claude Brouet from Marie Claire were impressed and seduced by his designs and helped Gaultier launch his career.

By the end of 1980s, he suffered from personal losses. His business partner and lover Francis Menugue died of some causes related to AIDS. Although this was heart wrenching for Gaultier, he made himself busy with his business. In the 1990s, he created some extraordinary sculptured outfits for Madonna for her Confessions Tour and Blond Ambition Tour. Other musical artists for whom he has designed outfits, include Mylène Farmer, Marilyn Manson, Kylie Minogue, and Leslie Cheung

In addition to this, he designed wardrobes of many films, including The Fifth Element by Luc Bresson; Kika by Pedro Almodóvar; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover by Peter Greenaway; and The City of Lost Children by Jean Pierre Jeunet.

His choice of models is shockingly eccentric for the fashion industry, since he uses old men, fat women, tattooed and pierced models in his shows. Because of this, he faced criticism and popularity simultaneously.

Apart from fashion designing, Jean Paul Gaultier associated himself with the music industry as well by releasing dance singles and a music album that included mixes by George Shilling, Norman Cook, Mark Saunders, Tim Atkins, David Dorrell, Latin Rascals and so on.

Moreover, he is known for sponsoring an exhibition entitled Brave heart: Men in Skirts, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a retrospective of works by Rudi Gernreich, Vivienne Westwood and Dries van Noten. Gaultier designed a collection of skirts for men in 1985. He also collaborated with Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2011 to organize a show called The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.

In 2012, Gaultier was included in the jury panel at the Cannes Film Festival. This was the first time that a person belonging to the fashion industry was made a part of the jury. The same year he participated in Cali in the Expo-Show, flaunting his collection of fragrances and classic outfits. In the same year , he was appointed as the creative director of Diet Coke and his job involved tasks like pitching in creative ideas for the commercial campaigns of the company, as well as for the online projects and retail events. Following the footsteps of Roberto Cavalli, Gianfranco Ferre, Matthew Williamson and  Larl Lagerfeld ,he designed limited edition bottles as well.

Jean Paul Gaultier collaborated with Puig to create a perfume line. They created fragrances like Le Mâle, Classique, Fragile, Ma Dame, Kokorico and some more.