House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival by Ball Deborah

House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival by Ball Deborah

Author:Ball, Deborah [Ball, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2010-01-27T05:00:00+00:00


Not long after he bought Casa Casuarina, Gianni drafted Bruce Weber, a Versace favorite, to gin up a gauzy testimonial to family life à la Versace for all the world to see. Weber shot Allegra, then six, and Daniel, not yet two, playing on the beach with their buffed parents. Donatella’s tiny black thong bikini showed off her trim and muscled legs and arms and her washboard stomach. In one shot Allegra holds a ballet pose while immersed in the water and in another she dances nude on the beach, her blond hair whipping in the wind while a guitarist plays nearby. In the book, titled South Beach Stories, the shots of the children were interspersed with pictures of drag queens, a male stripper, and male models wearing tight Versace bathing suits, bright silk shirts opened to the navel, and black-leather studded outfits.

By the time South Beach Stories came out in 1993, Gianni was increasingly channeling his familial devotion onto Allegra. From the time she was a toddler, Allegra was a precocious little girl. Blond with brown eyes, she had a seraphic, intelligent face and a sensitive character. She took up ballet early, and moved with a grace and poise unusual for children her age. Gianni fell madly in love with the little girl, even helping to choose her name. (Her brother, Daniel, who was born in December 1990, was named for the Elton John song.) Much more than just a doting uncle, he called her his principessa and showered her with gifts such as an antique tiara and a ruby necklace.

Allegra grew up a coddled, exceptional child in the red-hot core of Donatella and Gianni’s celebrity world. Gianni took her to his runway shows and to the dinners afterward, where she chatted with models and celebrities as if they were ordinary family friends. Her uncle’s supermodels, particularly Naomi, were like doting aunts. She hung out with the children of rock stars and world-famous actors. When Sting and his wife were guests, Allegra and their children made cookies together. She shared a desk with the son of Eric Clapton at her grammar school in Milan. For one birthday, Elton John sent her a grand piano, and when he visited he often serenaded the little girl. Donatella hired caretakers who treated Allegra like a fragile doll. She typically sent Allegra for visits to Calabria with an au pair, and on one visit, her old friends and family were horrified when the nanny refused to let them kiss the little girl and tested the temperature of the rooms Allegra stayed in to make sure they weren’t too hot or cold.

Both mother and uncle happily employed Allegra and Daniel in the Versace promotional machine. The children quickly grew used to being photographed constantly, at Versace events, in glossy publicity photos of models and celebrities, and in advertisements. Allegra and Daniel would become the faces of Gianni’s children’s fragrance. By contrast, Santo scrupulously shielded his children from the public eye. Gianni cared far less for Santo’s children, in part due to his antipathy for Cristiana.



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