Versace

Gianni Versace started learning the art of dressmaking by his mother's side. By the age of 25, he was already developing ready-to-wear fashion collections for some of the top houses in Italy and Europe. Thanks in large part to his early successes, he was able to start his own business, the Gianni Versace Company, with the assistance of Santo Versace, his brother.In 1978, Versace debuted his collection for women in Milan, and his show won wide praise both from critics and consumers. What set Versace apart from other designers of his day was his vibrancy and unconventional outlook on style. For instance, he debuted a dress made of chain mail in his 1983 women's winter collection. This chain mail dress shocked and stunned the fashion world and earned the brand a tremendous amount of worldwide exposure.Versace won major awards, such as the Golden Eye and the Cutty Sark awards and sponsored many artistic performances and productions. He was a major theater patron, and he designed costumes for some big stage events, as well, such as Doktor Faust in 1989 and Chaka Zulu in 1989.In the 1990s, Versace won a prestigious award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and published several books, including Men without Ties and Rock and Royalty, and sponsored a prestigious exhibition of new fashion lines at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although Gianni Versace has since passed on, his brand continues to set the bar in terms of men's and women's haute couture apparel. Under the helm of his sister Donatella, Versace's fashion label offers sexy dresses, pants, blouses, jeans, and accessories.