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How would you describe Versace's vision or his style? Versace is, as is the case with all of fashion,
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he he comes from a time and a place. Fashion is very different from clothes because fashion happens in a context and
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it's societal, it's historic, it's cultural, it's economic, and it's political. Versace, I think, was all in
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favor of removing the shackles. And that was new at the time. That was very new.
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clothes were, I would say, fairly stayed, fairly predictable. And when Johnny Versace appeared on the scene, it
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he woke everyone up. He was a trailblazer. And also, he brought an entirely new dimension to the fashion
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show by doing something that today we just take for granted, but at the time it was rather controversial. What was
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that? He put celebrities in the front row of his shows. And suddenly there was this buzz and this excitement about a
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Versace show that went went beyond the editorial pages of fashion magazines. And that was that was never done before.
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Well, it may have been, but he put it on steroids. I was going to say that must have driven the other designers crazy.
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Well, yeah. I mean, of course, they all followed suit. He really understood the power of celebrities. And was that for
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sizzle or for sales? Well, Richard, it had to be for both. Um, but it was certainly for sizzle and there was a lot
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of sizzle. Versace shows were so captivating that I can't believe you could sit front row and not want to own
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one. What effect did his murder have on the industry? I just remember thinking this is a tragic loss. He should still
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be alive and with us. And what's next for the Versace brand? and and I just I pictured it being shuttered. I don't
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even know that I had an awareness of Donatella Versace at that time. Um and and suddenly she rose like a phoenix.
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And for the Versace brand, of course, we know it it carried on. It continued 20 years now after his death, history has
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affirmed that he has a very significant place in the fashion chronicles.