A survivor of the high-octane, fickle world of fashion, the designer celebrates her love of the male form.
Donatella Versace loves men. She loves to talk about them. She loves to dress them. She loves to undress them, too – sometimes more than dressing them.
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But that's a tradition of the house of Versace. Her brother, Gianni, created a book titled Men Without Ties – but they were also without shirts and trousers, usually with something like a quilted bedspread or free-falling serving platter splattered with the Versace Medusa logo concealing their nether regions like a cross between an angel in a Renaissance fresco and Austin Powers. "He liked sexy men," says Donatella Versace, frankly. "And men like to be sexy. And not only gay men. I realise that heterosexual men like to be sexy more than gay men, honestly!"
It's 24 hours before the Versace autumn/winterDonatella Versace loves men. She loves to talk about them. She loves to dress them. She loves to undress them, too – sometimes more than dressing them.
presentation, but Donatella Versace looks immaculate.
This sounds like a very, very funny conversation to be having with any fashion designer, let alone the creative head of one of the largest luxury-goods houses in the world. But Donatella Versace is very funny. She sends herself up. She camps, just a little. She does it in her shows too. She didn't send out a glitzy ode to Spartacus or that lace "him-gerie" on a cavalcade of muscled-up, polished male models without knowing the camp value of the imagery.
For all the fun and campy frolics, however, Donatella wants to deliver a specific message with this menswear show. "I was very determined that men today are liberated. With all this oppression going on in the world, through your clothes you can be who you are, or who you want to be in the moment." She pauses, the eyes twinkle. "Well, through my clothes."
1955 Born 2 May, in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Her mother, Francesca, is a dressmaker; her father, Antonio, is a personal financier.
1977 Studies literature and languages at Florence university, following the footsteps of her elder brother Giovanni "Gianni" Versace, who had studied architecture in Florence.
1979 A year after Gianni Versace opens his first fashion boutique in Milan, Donatella moves to Milan to work with him as a design assistant. She later assumes a public relations role as well.
1983 Marries the American model Paul Beck who becomes an advertising executive at Versace.
1986 Her daughter, Allegra Beck, is born.
1989 Her son, Daniel, is born.
1997 Gianni Versace is shot dead aged 50. He is murdered on the front steps of his Miami Beach mansion by US serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who commits suicide a few days later.
2000 Separates from Paul Beck.
2001 Launches the fragrance Versace Woman.
2005 Admits to US Vogue that she has been addicted to cocaine for "the last 18 years".
2008 Made the honorary chairman for London's Fashion Fringe.
2012 Hosted her first fashion show since 2004, Versace's Couture Comeback, in Paris.
2013 Donatella is played by the American actress Gina Gershon in the TV movie House of Versace, based on the novel by Deborah Mills, broadcast in October.
2013 Designs a new Versus collection in collaboration with award-winning rapper M.I.A.
