One of the most celebrated fashion designers of the twentieth century, Gianni Versace was born on December 2, 1946, in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Versace grew up with his two siblings, Santo and Donatella Versace. At a young age, Versace often helped his mother, who was a dressmaker and clothing store owner, with embroidering dresses. He originally studied architecture in university before moving to Milan in his mid-twenties to pursue a career in fashion design.

In the mid-70s, Versace began attracting the attention of other designers for his talent with textiles, although he considered himself to be more of a tailor than a designer. He began working with Complice to design leather and suede collections before debuting his own signature collection at the Palazzo della Permanente Art Museum of Milan. By the late 80s, Versace had expanded his empire to include a 600-square-meter showroom boutique in Madrid, Spain. In 1996, he opened his world flagship store in a 28,000-square-foot Vanderbilt townhouse on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Designing both men and women’s clothing, it was Versace’s sexy skin-tight, low-cut looks for women and cutting-edge use of leather and metal mesh which became his signature style. He became a favorite designer among Hollywood’s jet-setters, for both his professional work and his charming personality, and he enlisted such stars as Madonna, Jon Bon Jovi, Naomi Campbell, Tina Turner, and Tupac Shakur to model for both his runway shows and print ads. His clients were equally high-profile, and included Sting, Mickey Rourke, Jeff Bridges, k. d. lang, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Michael Jackson, and Diana, Princess of Wales.

In addition to designing for the runway, Versace also designed costumes for the theater, opera, and ballet; as well as designing his own line of accessories, jewelry, fragrances, furnishings, and china.

During the 80s, Versace relocated to Miami Beach to design costumes for popular series Miami Beach, which emerged as a trendsetting template for its decade-defining pastel blazers, shoulder pads, and sock-less loafer look. Although he owned four homes around the world, Versace continued to live in Miami Beach into the 90s, where on the morning of July 15, 1997, he was gunned down by a murderer on a killing spree outside his Florida mansion. Versace’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan, committed suicide shortly after, using the same handgun he had used to kill Versace, according to police reports. It is suspected that Versace and his murderer met in San Francisco while Versace was designing costumes for the opera.

Over 2,000 mourners showed up to pay their final respects to the designer at his memorial mass, including his favorite supermodel, Naomi Campbell, and his designing arch-rival, Giorgio Armani. In September of that year, Versace's brother, Santo Versace was announced as the new CEO of the Versace company, and their sister, Donatella Versace, became head of design.

Donatella had already been doing most of the design work for the company in the five years prior to her brother’s death, as he was recovering from a rare form of ear cancer. Four days before his death, Versace signed a contract to take his company public, leaving his $800 million worth of shares in the company to his eleven-year-old niece, Allegra Versace.

Versace has been credited with combining the exciting powerhouses of entertainment and fashion, and heralding the era of the supermodel.

YUDDY