He just lives on.
Gianni Versace is as present on Via Gesù as if he had just left.
When Donatella Versace presented her men's collection for spring and summer 2023 in the garden of the Versace house in downtown Milan four weeks ago, the sons of Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Angela Lindvall, among others, walked the catwalk - and the memory was there immediately the nineties when these women were among the models who rose to fame with Gianni Versace.
Now, as the 25th anniversary of her brother's death approaches, Donatella said his death was the worst experience she's ever had.
And on Friday morning she wrote on Instagram for the anniversary: "Every day I wish you were still here."
Alphonse Kaiser
Responsible editor for the department "Germany and the World" and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin.
Follow I follow
On July 15, 1997, Gianni Versace went outside his mansion "Casa Casuarina" on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach to get newspapers and have a coffee.
As he returned and was about to unlock the gate, 27-year-old serial killer Andrew Cunanan shot the 50-year-old designer twice from behind.
Eight days later, on July 23, 1997, police found the perpetrator, who had killed four men on a murderous tour of the United States in the previous months, nearby.
Cunanan was hiding on a houseboat.
When the police stormed the property after an administrator heard a shot, they found the body of Cunanan, who had shot himself with a pistol.
Incidentally, the houseboat belonged to the dazzling Hamburg entrepreneur Torsten Reineck,
Fashion for the beloved
Gianni Versace was then at the height of his fame.
The son of a seamstress, born on December 2, 1946 in Reggio Calabria, moved to Milan in 1972, worked there for several fashion brands and finally founded his own label in 1978.
Even more so than Giorgio Armani and Gianfranco Ferrè, with whom he helped Italian fashion to a stylistically new language alongside the dominance of French, Versace redefined the mode of fashion.
He used the new social freedoms - emancipation of women, acceptance of homosexuality, celebration of youth - in an impartial, even ruthless manner: "Tradition is something wonderful," he said, "but you have to break with it."
He countered the world of silk fashion with metallic fabrics.
His rubber and leather designs were fetish allusions.
He also flaunted nudity.
He juxtaposed the aging Alta Moda of Roman style with Milanese modernism with inspiration from pop culture from Boy George to Take That.
This fashion designer, it was said at the time, outfitted everyone – from Madonna to Madonna.
"Vogue" boss Anna Wintour once aptly remarked: "Armani designs for the wife, Versace for the mistress."
Ultimately, Armani and Ferrè remained committed to the post-war tradition with moderate designs.
The wild Gianni from Calabria followed the pre-war avant-garde with his extreme fashion.
His chain people and leather figures are reminiscent of the "vestito antineutrale" of the "Futurist Manifesto" of 1914, which set the aggressiveness and dynamics of radical modernity against the calm, indecisiveness, statics and neutrality of the beginning of the century.
In this respect, Versace's mission at the end of the century fulfilled the unfinished futuristic program of his compatriot Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
kitsch and crisis
In the 1990s, the Medusa head of the company symbol no longer shone in the fashion sky with glaring impertinence.
The sensuality suddenly seemed bombastic, the modernity looked baroque, the emerging minimalist black turned its garish colors into pure kitsch.
Medusa's gaze froze even more when Donatella, who had previously assisted her big brother, now took over the design.
The fashion designer herself was shyer than her brother, underwent too many cosmetic surgeries, her daughter Allegra suffered from anorexia, the crisis was palpable, the collections were weaker - and the criticism took her away.
"I always had the feeling that I had to fit into his shoes, and Gianni was a giant," Donatella Versace told FAZ-Magazine three years ago about the difficult times that followed.
“In fashion, he did incredible things in a different time.
Everything sold, prices didn't matter.
That has totally changed.
Today, quality and costs play a completely different role.
You have to look carefully at how much customers are willing to spend and what they actually want to wear.
There are a lot more labels these days.
Everyone wants to make fashion.”
On the 25th anniversary of her brother's death, which also marks her 25th anniversary as chief designer, one can say that Donatella Versace has left false claims behind.
The sale of Versace's majority stake to the Michael Kors group of companies three years ago was like a liberation, also for their creativity.
Allegra works in the company and her younger brother Daniel, a rock musician, has just married.
She learned from Gianni never to give up, Donatella once said.
So she just keeps going.
The constant work on the myth helps her to process the trauma of her life.