Gianni Versace

Italian fashion designer and founder of Versace, an international fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-up, home furnishings, and clothes. He also designed costumes for theatre and films. A couturier who made Milan a fashion center for his theatrical, outrageous styles, metal-mesh dresses, wide-shouldered suits, casual luxury and lots of skin. Graduating from high school, he traveled frequently to London and Paris to study fashion. In 1972 he moved to Milan and began designing ready-to-wear apparel. He launched his Gianni Versace label in 1978, moving into perfumes in 1982 and theatre design costumes from 1983. Most of his exhibitions were accompanied with an art exhibit, a ballet expressly written for his collection or a documentary of the fashion industry. He opened his own exclusive N.Y. shop in 1990, branching into jewelry, eye frame fashion and wall tiles. Versace has received over 12 international awards and enjoys his art collection, music and attending the theatre for his leisure time.

After returning from a cafe where he had morning coffee on Tuesday, on 15 July 1997, at 8:44 AM, he was shot twice in the back of his head at point-blank range. He was gunned down outside his ocean front villa in posh South Beach, FL, and rushed to the hospital, declared dead at 9:15 AM. Whatever link he had to his assassin is unknown, as Philip Cunanan, captured a few days later, killed himself before he could unravel the mystery of why he chose Versace.