Because Versace is a brand associated with sex, glamour, rock’n’roll—and above all, family—the news of Donatella Versace’s transition to an ambassadorial role at the house of Versace (effective April 1) is truly head spinning. Donatella is the company’s single constant in all of its years of existence. Gianni’s beloved baby sister was by her brother’s side from childhood. His friend and muse, she also acted as a connection to rock’n’roll between the world outside of the studio. Versace was one of the first brands to link fashion and pop culture on a grand scale, most famously with the “Freedom ’90” show, featuring supermodels lip syncing to the George Michael video they had recently appeared in.
When Gianni was murdered in 1997, suddenly Donatella was responsible for carrying on the brand and the legacy, alone. It wasn’t easy, but she mustered courage many times higher than her platforms and triumphed. Along the way, the petite, platinum-haired, canary diamond-wearing designer became an icon in her own right and person. In 2001 comedian Maya Rudolph started doing a Donatella Versace skit—“Get out!”—on SNL, and was given tips by the designer herself. “I think that was a moment where fashion became pop culture,” Versace would later say.
The clothes that Donatella had always designed emphasize the female body and drip with glamour. (See Jennifer Lopez in DV’s jungle-print dress circa 2000, which led to the creation of Google Images.) Though she remained true to the house codes, and in recent years started mining the archive in a more deliberate way, Donatella’s Versace became her own. Sometimes models on her runways looked like avatars of the designer, with their long, straight blonde hair. Seeing Donatella in her own designs on the Met Gala red carpet and at other glamorous affairs was a masterclass in wearing Versace well and dazzlingly. Yet a scroll through the photographs of her designs in Vogue below, you’ll see the nuances of her work—how it can read as sporty, smart, suburban, subversive—as well as molto sexy.
