![]() I’m not a person who goes on vacation to retreat or to relax, because relaxing makes me nervous. I like to look at people on the planes, I like to look at people in the streets in cities. I find inspiration in books, I find inspiration in memories. And then I go straight downstairs and just wander around. And then I go to the office and talk to my assistants, go through all the mail. I don’t look like this when I wake up, you know. I have a glam squad, who help me to do hair and makeup every morning. Not because I love it but because I need to do it to keep my body healthy. I wake up very early in the morning - 6:30 to 7 - and do a little bit in the gym. You see me more often in the center when I’m up and pounding the floor in this room. It’s me going on the website and seeing what happens. It was too light for the embroidery, so it was a little bit tricky when they walked. I saw two models walking badly, not because they cannot walk but because I chose the wrong fabric to embroider. You have to be ready to say, “This is old, go forget and start again.” I like to discover mistakes, to make it better. But I think you have to push forward and challenge yourself all the time. They are afraid that I’m going to fire them. I put myself in the place of these people. And I asked them, “What went wrong?” I have to challenge people and push people to tell me the truth. Yesterday, we were all sitting on the floor here, and we watched the couture show in Paris. ![]() We watch videos of shows here, usually to correct mistakes. I often sit here on the couch when I visit with my friends or a few of my designer teams. You’ve got three seating areas in your office: couches, a round table and a desk. Those are the moments I cherish in my life. The picture on the left wall is a joyful moment, when we were all in Miami: me, my children and Gianni, and we were having fun, having breakfast next to the pool, and doing taekwondo all together, and Gianni is in the water with Allegra. I need to surround myself with objects that remind me of something. It looked like a normal office for, you know, bankers. Wherever I go, I need to be - to feel I’m in a Versace place, and this didn’t look like a Versace place. When you moved in, did you have to do a lot of work to the building? Sometimes to plan a meeting is impossible, so we talk in the corridor. Now, you know, I’m tending to realize how many lines we have. Downstairs are all my design teams: first-line Versace woman, accessories, first-line Versace men, house, Versus, children, Versace jeans. people, my assistants and some of the marketing people who work with P.R. Now we use that garden to do fashion shows, and we have a floor to do showrooms, but in this building are myself and my P.R. Before, my office was in Via Gesù, in the building where Gianni’s house was. When most people think of Versace, they think of the palazzo on Via Gesù, but it turns out you work somewhere else.Ī. (This conversation was condensed and edited.) VANESSA FRIEDMAN ![]() ![]() MILAN - In the third of a video series on designers’ private working spaces, we go into the studio with Donatella Versace to discuss self-esteem, mistakes and why drawing isn’t so important. ![]()
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