Born to a family of tailors in the southern Italian town of Reggio Calabria Gianni Versace came to define glamour and exuberant impracticality in fashion. He was born on December 2nd, 1946 and even as a small child showed a remarkable flair for design.

He learned the basics of sewing and design from his skilled family and sold his earliest creations in the family store. He supplemented his early apparel industry education by becoming a fabric buyer. This position while taking him away from his first love, design, it did provide him with valuable knowledge that contributed a great deal to his later success.

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Versace’s big break came in 1972 when the Fiori Fiorentini company hired the 25 years old Versace to design a line of women’s clothing. Fiorentini wasn’t the only company to recognize Versace’s impressive talent. He also worked for the De Parisi and Alma design houses. In 1974 he would finally see his own name on a line of apparel when the Complice Company hired him and for the first time the line was entirely Versace’s own creation.

He moved to the Milan and opened his own store on Via della Spiga the epicenter of Italy’s fashion world. At first he carried several other lines of clothing to compliment his own designs but quickly jettisoned them as his own lines gained in popularity and increased in number. His boutique was a smash success and before too much longer there were Versace stores all over the world.

While already well known amongst the elite of the fashion world and a tremendous success by any standard Versace exploded into the mass market in 1985 with the introduction of his Instante label. The new line was intended to appeal to a more mainstream and less affluent crowd than his previous efforts.

The success of the Instane line hurled Versace into the rarified air shared by only the very pinnacle of the fashion industry. From 1985 onward Versace took second place to no one, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren included.
It was during this period that Versace began a professional relationship with the incredibly talented American photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon, who’d started his carear as a photographer for the merchant marine during the Second World War, had an unusual knack for revealing emotion and movement in his fashion shoots. He complimented Versace’s unusual designs perfectly, contrasting the cutting edge mentality of Versace’s work with the staid elegance prevalent in other designer’s clothing.

Versace’s aggressive, eye-catching styles made him the darling of pop musicians and Hollywood stars alike. Elton John declared him his personal designer, as did the unbalanced Courtney Love and the highly coifed Jon Bon Jovi. His fame reached a crescendo when he designed the no-tie pastel Jacket look for the television series Miami Vice. An association the began his close ties with the Florida city.

In the early 1990s Versace moved to Miami’s fashionable south beach and soon became its most famous and definitive resident. He was the center of a minor scandal when he purchased the property adjoining his and received permission to demolish the somewhat historic Revere Hotel in order to add on to his palatial compound named Casa Cuasarina.

Gianni Versace’s life ended tragically on July 15th, 1997 when Andrew Cunanan shot him to death on the steps of his home. Cunanan, who committed suicide not long after the murder of Versace, was a psychotic who had already killed four others.

There has been much speculation regarding Cunanan’s motive since all of his victims were older homosexual men. Initially it was suggested that Cunanan was seeking irrational vengeance against the world for his HIV infection. However, post-mortem tests showed that Cunanan was free of the infection. His true motivation will probably never be known.

After his death control of the company fell into the hands of Versace’s siblings. His brother and sister had both held positions in the company and moved up to fill the void left by their brother’s death. Santo Versace took over the business end of the company and Donatella Versace took over the design end.

Donatella Versace’s glamorous image and many visits to the cosmetic surgeon has kept her very much in the public eye and enhanced the Versace label’s take no prisoners, hell bent for fashion image.

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Art Mickelwraith is the author of the Wholesale Buyer’s Guide at TopTenWholesale.com. He can be reached at artmicklewraith@gmail.com.