From around the turn of the 2010s, Versace began to regain its vigour, with a revitalised Donatella emerging as a cultural icon, championing LGBT rights, directing Versace to cease the use of fur, and settling with knowing humour into character as a dazzlingly blonde, larger-than-life fashion superstar. Once, when asked about her beauty regime, she replied: “I sleep every night in the deep freezer.”
In 2014, the family sold 20 per cent of the company to Blackstone for €210 million. By 2017, the first rumours emerged that the entire concern might be up for sale (although Gianni and Santo had once discussed a merger with Gucci shortly before Gianni’s death). Asked about the prospect of another designer leading Versace’s future creative direction, Donatella said: “Yes, I am Versace. But also, Versace needs to mean change. And it needs to be an opportunity for others to express themselves.”
Yet Donatella would continue to lead the house, perhaps most memorably for a Spring/Summer 2018 collection that marked the 20th anniversary of her brother’s death by reuniting some of the key supermodels he had championed during the 1990s. Naomi Campbell, Carla Bruni, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Helena Christensen all appeared in signature gold chain mail for a mise-en-scene that epitomised Donatella’s ability to combine sexiness with self-determination. As she once said: “I want to design clothes that say ‘this is a woman’s clothes’. Women are strong, and sexiness does not have to go against power. I can be more powerful than you as a woman and keep what I like. I don’t have to change myself to reach you, to talk to you, or to be relevant. That is what I’m saying.”
