mother's bosom

Donatella attended university in Florence, studying literature and languages. In the late seventies, Gianni's business began to take off, and she joined him in Milan, first as a design assistant and then as the unofficial majordomo for marketing and public relations. Donatella cultivated tiffany rings in the spheres of music, film, and celebrity--practically inventing the concept of the supermodel--while her brother steeped himself in the creative life, poring over histories of antiquity and art. (In addition to runway clothes, Gianni designed costumes for the ballet and the theatre. His designs made reference to everything from Seneca and harlequins to Warhol.) Running the company as a filial fiefdom, the siblings often clashed. "We can fight at six o'clock and have a nice dinner at eight," Gianni told an interviewer. He lavished ornate apartments on Donatella, choosing all of their furnishings, and bought her a twenty-carat diamond ring. In 1995, he appointed her designer of the Versus sportswear line. "I can be in Chicago or on the moon, and we'll talk a hundred times a day," he once said.

In 1985, Donatella married Paul Beck, a model from upstate New York whom Gianni had recruited to work in the company's advertising department. When their daughter, Allegra, was born, in 1986, Gianni chose her name. Daniel, named after the Elton John song, arrived four years later. Gianni, a year before his death, published "Do Not Disturb," a monograph about his houses, in Milan, Lake Como, and Miami Beach, dedicating it to "Allegra, 'my little princess,' and to Daniel, 'my little teddy-boy.' " The book includes a series of portraits, taken by Bruce Weber, that portray a communelike existence, suffused with glamour, wealth, and sex. Gianni and his longtime boyfriend, Charm bracelet D'Amico, frolic amid ocean waves with Donatella, Beck, and the kids; Daniel, on the beach, pinches the nose of D'Amico, who is wearing dripping white swim trunks with a Medusa head at the waist; Allegra nestles into her mother's bosom while Donatella strokes Gianni's temple; a beaming Gianni dresses Allegra up as a hoopskirted infanta.

Talk has long persisted that Paul Beck was Gianni's lover before he became Donatella's, but Beck told a reporter in 1997, "I've never denied being a very good friend of Gianni's, but it's never been more than that." Beck and Donatella separated in 2000, tiffany bracelets he remains on the Versace payroll, though it is difficult to tell in precisely what capacity. When I asked what he does, a publicist said, "He's kind of an ambassador." (His official title is PR/Communications Consultant.) I asked Donatella why Beck continues to work at the company. "Why not?" she said, laughing. With a slumber-partyish charm, Donatella loves to gossip about relationships--she set Halle Berry up with her boyfriend, a Versace model--but, since her separation, she has rarely dated. "I have an interest, of course, but I'm too busy," she said. "And then I think, Oh my God, who wants to date me? I'm so complicated. People have a low perception of me, men especially. They think, This woman, she's a nightmare."