When Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami villa on July 15, 1997, few believed that his fashion empire would survive. The chutzpah and flamboyance of Versace the fashion house seemed inseparable from Versace the man. And yet, a year later, Versace remained buoyant, its reputation and market position if anything enhanced by its creator's tragic fate.

This book goes some way toward explaining why. From his first 1980 collection, Versace cannily engaged a great photographer, Richard Avedon, who stylishly wedded his designs to a potent blend of celebrity, beauty, flesh, sex, and humor, which became instantly identifiable as Versace--poised, pansexual, tongue firmly in sculptured cheek. Whether in trademarked group shots of intricately entangled supermodels, Stallone nude and stone-faced, Elton gleeful in drag, or Bon Jovi proudly strutting his buff bod, Avedon equals Versace--to the extent that he can show Kate Moss, without a stitch of Versace (or anything else), and we know that she is thinking Versace. This gorgeous volume collects more than 170 photographs, and gives us, as it justly proclaims: "A glimpse of the impassioned shameful opulent titillating sewmanship of that daredevil magician of art and artifice who was and will always be Gianni Versace." --Alan Stewart

Book Description

This book is almost completely full-bleed photographs taken by Richard Avedon of the Versace collections. The book is divided into 8 sections, by themes: Rembrance of Flings Past; Lust & Found; That Obscure Object of Desire; Gathering Moss; Rocks and Other Hard Places; The Way of All Mesh; Look Homeward Angel; and A Quick Stitch in Time. The sequencing of the photographs makes for an amusing, sexy presentation.


From the Inside Flap
This book is almost completely full-bleed photographs taken by Richard Avedon of the Versace collections. The book is divided into 8 sections, by themes: Rembrance of Flings Past; Lust & Found; That Obscure Object of Desire; Gathering Moss; Rocks and Other Hard Places; The Way of All Mesh; Look Homeward Angel; and A Quick Stitch in Time. The sequencing of the photographs makes for an amusing, sexy presentation.

About the Author
GIANNI VERSACE was born in 1946 in Italy. He presented his first fashion collection in Milan in 1978. He was the winner of many fashion awards. He was also a designer of costumes for various theatrical presentations, including those of Robert Wilson, Maurice Bejart, Roland Petit, Twyla Tharp, and several opera and ballet companies around the world. Versace was murdered in Miami in 1997. His work was the subject of a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year.

RICHARD AVEDON was born in 1923 in New York City. He was the senior fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar between 1945 and 1966, when he moved to Vogue magazine. He is probably the most celebrated fashion photographer in history. He has published eight books, including two from Random House: An Autobiography in 1993 and Evidence in 1994.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This book is almost completely full-bleed photographs taken by Richard Avedon of the Versace collections. The book is divided into 8 sections, by themes: Rembrance of Flings Past; Lust & Found; That Obscure Object of Desire; Gathering Moss; Rocks and Other Hard Places; The Way of All Mesh; Look Homeward Angel; and A Quick Stitch in Time. The sequencing of the photographs makes for an amusing, sexy presentation.

SYNOPSIS