“I don t think we ever thought to become huge - it was always a success born of making things that we liked.
“Gianni could do the same thing over and over again and still be successful, but he doesn t - in Italian there is an expression: We don t sleep on the fame. ”
So spoke Donatella Versace in summing up the global phenomenon that is Versace. Her brother, the late Gianni, who was born in Italy in 1946, began on the road to success as an apprentice in his mother s dressmaking business.
That piqued an interest in fashion, and he started working as a freelance designer shortly after, bringing out a range of ready-to-wear clothes by the tender age of 25. After supplying the likes of top fashion houses Genny, Complice and Callaghan, Gianni joined forces with brother Santo to found the Gianni Versace company in 1978, with his first collection, for women, being shown that very same year in Milan.
Versace s audacious, imaginative brilliance pushed forward the frontiers of fashion, and earned Gianni several accolades, including the Cutty Sark and Golden Eye awards for his 1982/83 women s collection, which included his now infamous metal chain-mail dress.
