WTI Magazine #42    2014 September, 3
Author : Giuseppina Salzano e Giovanni Verde      Translation by:

There are many famous Italian names in the fashion world, but the direct link between Gianni Versace and the United States, the country where the great stylist decided to live, had and still has very few equals in the Italian artistic scene.

Gianni Versace was born in Reggio Calabria on December 2, 1946. His first contact with fashion comes true thanks to the work at his mother's atelier, a seamstress by profession, in the center of the capital of Calabria.

When he turns 25, Gianni decides to move to Milan, where he begins to design clothes for various international fashion designers until, in 1975, he gives born to his the first collection, for the brand Accomplice.

In 1982 Giani Versace wins the "Occhio d'oro" (Golden eye), the prize for the best Italian designer for autumn / winter women's collection. In that year, Versace introduces metallic elements in clothing, a feature that will be a trademark of his art in the years to come. From then on, the designer becomes more and more a point of reference of the younger generation, from which he draws inspiration for his couture creations. In 1983 he is invited to the Victoria and Albert Museum of London to speak at a conference about his style, and talks about his art to numerous students.

His fame quickly acquires international importance. After the decision of the President of the Republic Italian Francesco Cossiga, in 1986, to award him the title of Commendatore, Gianni Versace is invited first in Chicago, for a retrospective exhibition of his work of the previous decade, and then in Paris, for the exhibition "Gianni Versace Obiettivo Moda", which shows the results of his collaboration with photographers among the most famous, such as Newton and Gastel. On that occasion, the French President Jacques Chirac confers him the honor of the Grande Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.

1995 was the year of Versus, the younger line of Casa Versace; of his New York debut; and in the same year Versace finances an exhibition on high fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Besides, Versace collaborates in '95 with Elton John in his Foundation to help the research against AIDS.

On July 15, 1997 Gianni Versace is killed by gunshots in front of his villa in Miami Beach. The circumstances of the crime will never be completely clarified. Andrew Cunanan, addict and serial killer, believed by police guilty of murder, commits suicide before being captured by the agents.

The sudden death of Gianni Versace aroused the dismay in the world of fashion and
Show business. Franco Zeffirelli, the great Italian director and friend of Versace, says: "With the death of Versace, Italy and the world lose the stylist who has liberated fashion from conformism, giving her imagination and creativity".

The extraordinary talent of the Italian designer has dazzled for years the artistic and high-fashion world of the whole planet. Hundreds of celebrities have reminded Gianni Versace, surely for for his exceptional ability to continuously innovate and to read the younger generation, but also and maybe especially for the humanity that always has distinguished his character and for the several relationship of deep friendship he was able to build over the years.

A humanity, that of the great stylist, which has never disappeared in his creations, accompanied by a nobility of spirit that the same Versace once read this way: "In the past, people were born noble. Today, the nobility is derived from their actions".