[ad_1]
Blonde peroxide, with a predisposition to tight dresses and sunglasses inside, Donatella Versace may not look like an archetypal businesswoman, but her brain is as sharp as her heels six-inch needles.
She overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles – from her brother's murder to crippling addiction to cocaine – to turning Versace, a company on the brink of bankruptcy, into a profitable business with over 200 stores worldwide and a turnover estimated at 592 million pounds.
Inexorably attached to the Italian fashion house since her brother Gianni was shot dead in 1997, 63-year-old Donatella insisted last year that she had no intention of giving up her role. artistic director and vice-president.
Donatella Versace, Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen during theVersace show parade, Runway, Spring Summer 2018, Milan Fashion Week
Yet this week, that's what it seemed to be doing when it was announced that Versace would have been sold to US apparel giant Michael Kors for an incredible £ 1.6 billion.
It is no wonder that the use of Botox has resulted in frowns, fans despising an acquisition that they believe will "ruin" the brand and "kill" the exclusive image on which it built its success .
Michael Kors, who last year bought Jimmy Choo for nearly 900 million pounds, plans to open 100 new Versace stores with the goal of doubling his sales, to focus more on the aftermarket and to group the three brands into a company called Capri Holdings. Donatella will lead the "creative vision".
The mother of two, who owns the label with her 73-year-old brother Santo, and her 32-year-old daughter Allegra, insists that the label had to be sold to "reach its full potential".
She also stressed that her "passion" had "never been so strong," even though her passion for what is unclear was she referring to her passion for Versace or the £ 200 million escalation on his bank account following the recovery? Her passion for luxury vacations that she likes to share on Instagram, and will now have more time for her or her passion for her family, which sometimes seems to have been pushed to the limit by the fashion world cut?
Either her decision to step back was sudden or she kept a fiercely protected secret. Last September, she insisted on staying in her role, saying, "I'm not going anywhere right now," and in an interview this month, Donatella became lyrical about her beloved brand.
So, what did she own to give the reins of her company?
Gianni Versace with her sister Donatella Versace in 1993. She would inherit the mark after her death
A FUTURE IN STONE OF BIRTH
Daughter of an Italian seamstress, Donatella grew up idolizing Gianni, eight years older than her. "He made leather mini-skirts for me, took me to nightclubs and treated me like a woman," she said. "I was his doll and his best friend."
Describing her youth as "the happiest time of my life", she was nevertheless hampered by her brother's success and was deprived of her autonomy from an early age.
By the time she had obtained a degree in languages, Gianni, who founded Versace in 1978, was already a successful designer and Donatella's fate had been sealed: "I have completed my university studies and I have just work with him. In fact, I had no choice. He said, "You come and you do not move anymore."
Perhaps, after tracing his life, Donatella finally cracked.
HIDDEN BY THE MURDER OF HIS BROTHER
As an "accomplice" and Gianni's muse, Donatella blurred the stars while Santo took over the commercial activities of Versace. With the help of the newly invented "supermodels" of Versace, who paraded George Michael's Freedom in 1991 and Elizabeth Hurley's pinned outfit in 1994, Versace's status was consolidated.
But on July 15, 1997, the openly homosexual designer was shot in front of his mansion in Miami by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who was apparently jealous of Gianni's success. Cunanan then committed suicide.
"The sight of my dead brother still haunts me today. One bullet hit his neck, the other his face, "said Donatella, then married to the American model Paul Beck, with whom she had Allegra and a son Daniel, now 28 years old.
She was shaken by both the grief and the responsibility to have her brother's company imposed, which she suggested as an unjust trick: Gianni, who idolized Allegra at the age of 11, had left her niece at 50% of her will, while Donatella inherited 20% and Santo 30%.
In doing so, Donatella says not only that he "imposed a heavy burden" on Allegra, but that he actually trapped his sister:
"Without this trick, I might have left society after his death."
Versace store in Milan. Michael Kors plans to open 900 additional Versace stores to double its sales
Doubts, debts and smoking
Now in charge, the first collections of Donatella have been analyzed. Having taken cocaine since the age of 20, his growing addiction has become an open secret in the industry and his leadership style is erratic.
According to Deborah Ball, author of the book House Of Versace, Donatella rarely went to meetings before noon and, on occasion, openly snorted cocaine in front of the staff. "For the first five years, I was lost," admitted Donatella later. "I made a lot of mistakes."
With sales of more than £ 400 million in 1997, the company faced debts of around £ 90 million in 2004. His clothes, capitalizing on an era of conspicuous consumption in the nineties, seemed less and less relevant in the selected Noughties and by the middle of the decade, the company was about to disappear.
"I wanted to succeed for Gianni because he cared a lot about society and I knew he would have wanted it to continue," Donatella said.
"But I was scared and I had no confidence."
ADDICTION TO THE INTERVENTION OF ELTON
Donatella discovered cocaine in the 1980s at celebrity parties, admitting that she was feeding the "best time".
According to Antonio D'Amico, Gianni's former partner for 15 years, the creator was "furious" when he learned that his common friend, Elton John, had taken the habit of his sister.
"He was shocked," says D'Amico, who describes Donatella as a "monster" because of his difficult behavior, and says that she "was angry, frustrated and distrustful of the people around her. She was very difficult to manage. In 2004, at Allegra's birthday dinner in Milan, Elton arrived by dragging Donatella to a private Arizona rehabilitation clinic by plane, where she stayed for two and a half months.
Donatella says, "Some nights I could not function and embarrassed myself in front of my children. My self-hatred has become more and more intense.
"No one thought I would accept Elton's offer, but a few minutes later I swapped my evening gown and diamonds for a jogging suit.
"I went to the airport with a ponytail and no makeup."
SAVED BY HER WOMEN'S REVOLUTION
After coming out of the rehab, Donatella focused on collections that contained less of her brother's brutal exhibitionism and were, as she said, "more feminine." The strategy worked: in 2006, the label earned a profit of 14.2 million pounds and, in 2007, its sales increased by 30%.
Recent decisions have proven equally fruitful since the appointment of UK CEO Jonathan Akeroyd, hired by Alexander McQueen in 2016, to Donatella to dress up his friend and model Gigi Hadid in a Versace suit this year. "My revolution has been successful," said Donatella, proud of her transformation – and her decision to cash less now.
CHILDREN THAT EXPLODE THE LIMELIGHT
Given that Donatella describes Allegra and Daniel as his "greatest achievement," it is painful that both feel deeply uncomfortable in the limelight. They are perhaps the biggest reason to sell.
Allegra – who will inherit some £ 558 million after the sale of Versace – is a director of the company, but does not seem to be very involved.
This former victim of private anorexia used her father's last name to escape her inheritance, but admitted in 2011: "Wherever I went, I was Versace. I could not escape and it hurt me. "
Musician based in London and having inherited the art collection of his uncle, Daniel also wants to stand out from his mother.
"He does not want people to know that he is my son," said Donatella, confessing that she had promised not to talk about him in public.
"I'm no longer a private jet dog & # 39; said Audrey Versace, Donatella's diva
LOVE AFFAIRS AND & # 39; GORGEOUS GUYS & # 39;
Predatory in his approach to men, but discreet about his love life, Donatella may want to distance himself from Versace to be able to go out in secret.
Not that it shows a lot of intention to install.
"Men are only needed for romantic relationships and for physical relaxation," she said recently, adding that there had been "others" since her divorce in 2000, but that "I do not have" I do not need a husband or a companion. I do not like living with anyone. I am very happy and satisfied with my private life. "
After divorcing Beck after 17 years together, she made few comments about marriage, except to say they were "separated" but "civilized".
His second marriage, in 2004, with businessman Manuel Dallori lasted only one year and remained even more secretive.
She is however vehement in her appreciation of the masculine form, evaluating a line-up of semi-nude models on an insolent Instagram video and shamelessly declaring that: "I like to be surrounded by gorgeous dudes".
'MASK' OF BLONDE MAKE-UP
Having had the first insights into Gianni's instruction at the age of 11, his peroxide wicks – sometimes enlarged at waist height with extensions – are synonymous with his demanding brand of care: his hairstyle, its permanent and its mark lined with black kohl an attempt to present a competent facade, especially in times of crisis.
"My hair has become thicker and thicker, my makeup getting thicker," she recalls the time after her brother's death.
"I had the impression that the whole world was looking at me with daggers in my eyes and I created a mask that would protect me."
Having created "a second Donatella: cold and distant, aggressive and frightening", she says she has not been tempted to change her hairstyle because "the blonde is a way of life". I've survived the disasters of my life because of the strength my blond hair gives me. "
Donatella Versace (photo) had this message for fans after Michael Kors bought the brand
PROTEINS AND EIGHT ESPRESSOS PER DAY
Donatella says she feels "naked" without high heels – at a depth of a meter – she even wears them in rehab.
Her thin whippet mount, usually presented in skinny jeans and dresses of her own line, is the result of a "hard work" – she claims to have exercised daily for at least five minutes and done a 45-minute cardio and weight routine four times a week.
Donatella – who left her two packs of Marlboro Red clothes in 2013 – once said she stopped seeing a personal trainer because he would not let her smoke.
In terms of diet, lunch consists of salad and protein, with eight espressos a day, as well as iced water sipped in a crystal glass.
PALATIAL HOUSES AND LUXURY HOLIDAYS
Donatella is a sumptuous two-storey Milan apartment belonging to Gianni, with marble columns, gold furniture and vases of his favorite red roses.
The holidays are happily presented to her 3.5 million Instagram followers, since the tour that she filmed from her private pool at Palazzo Versace in Dubai – the neoclassical palace that she opened in 2016 – worth £ 500 million – to video of her on a yacht with an unidentified topless piece of doe, and the picture of her bikini lying on her back in the aquamarine water, next to the caption: "Wake me up at the end of August".
One can only imagine that she could get used to a life of leisure.
Source link
