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| Gianni Versace was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, on December 2, 1946. After an apprenticeship at his mother's dressmaking business, he began working as a freelance designer. At age 25, Versace was creating pret-a-porter collections for top fashion houses of the time, including Genny, Complice and Callaghan.
In 1978, with the help of his brother, Santo, he founded the Gianni Versace company. Later that year, the first Gianni Versace collection for women was shown in Milan.
There are several lines which make up Versace Group. They are: Gianni Versace, Versus, Versace Jeans Couture, Versace Ceramic Designs, Versace Collection (which replaced Versace Classic in 2005), Versace Sport. It also operates a hotel, the Palazzo Versace.
Gianni Versace is the mainline, which contains the high end apparel, jewellery, watches, fragrances, cosmetics and home furnishings. This is the only line which is presented on the runway which is shown during Milan fashion week for both men and women. As its a mainline a dress might cost about $10,000 and a suit $5,000. Donatella Versace directly heads this line and designs a vast amount of the very high end items in the line. Home furnishings are licenced through Rosenthal for ceramics and through other companies for home fittings such as sofas and beds. Most have the unique Versace Greek print of Medusa or similar Greek emblems.
Versace Collection, Versace Jeans Couture and Versus are all licenced diffusion lines. This means clothing lines which take elements of the main Gianni Versace mainline and build on the current seasonal trends, they are made by another company for Versace Group and in some cases may be designed by such companies.
Versace is favoured by many of the world's most famous. Elton John has long been a wearer of Versace often favouring specially made items covered in diamantes or Swarovski crystals. Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Hurley who wears it almost exclusively to events favour the brand.
Versace is unique among Italian houses to use a "face" for the house. That is, a famous person paid to feature in the vast majority of advertisements. Other houses rely on the press attention given to who is wearing their apparel at events and who designs it along with usual campaings done by models. As part of a such a deal with a celebrity they will be paid and given the right to have free Versace for a period of time. Madonna, for example was paid $10.5m and given free Versace clothes for 2 years.
Some of the celebrities that have been the face "for Versace" are Madonna (1995 and 2005), Demi Moore, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. Halle Berry is the face of Versace for Spring/Summer 2006.
Versace are reported to start using models to front campaigns instead of celebrities, such as Carolyn Murphy, Christy Turlington and Kate Moss.
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