Donatella: Keeps Things in Proportion!

Donatella Versace Keeps Things in Proportion

by Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times

MILAN — The NY TIME's  VANESSA FRIEDMAN amazing and I always admire her work for the New York Times and this article was quite inspiring to share!

Donatella Versace to discuss self-esteem, mistakes and why drawing isn’t so important. And those were just the outtakes.

Q. When most people think of Versace, they think of the palazzo on Via Gesù, but it turns out you work somewhere else.

A. I moved here 10 years ago. Before, my office was in Via Gesù, in the building where Gianni’s house was. 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. people, my assistants and some of the marketing people who work with P.R. Downstairs are all my design teams: first-line Versace woman, accessories, first-line Versace men, house, Versus, children, Versace jeans. Now, you know, I’m tending to realize how many lines we have. It’s scary. I don’t want to count. Sometimes to plan a meeting is impossible, so we talk in the corridor. Sometimes we shout. 

When you moved in, did you have to do a lot of work to the building?

Yes. Wherever I go, I need to be — to feel I’m in a Versace place, and this didn’t look like a Versace place. It looked like a normal office for, you know, bankers. I need to surround myself with objects that remind me of something.

For example?

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. Those are the moments I cherish in my life.

You’ve got three seating areas in your office: couches, a round table and a desk. Do they have different purposes?

I often sit here on the couch when I visit with my friends or a few of my designer teams. We watch videos of shows here, usually to correct mistakes. Yesterday, we were all sitting on the floor here, and we watched the couture show in Paris. And I asked them, “What went wrong?” I have to challenge people and push people to tell me the truth. I put myself in the place of these people. They are afraid that I’m going to fire them. But I think you have to push forward and challenge yourself all the time. You have to be ready to say, “This is old, go forget and start again.” I like to discover mistakes, to make it better. I don’t think I’m that good. I think I can do much better.

What mistake did you make?

I saw two models walking badly, not because they cannot walk but because I chose the wrong fabric to embroider. It was too light for the embroidery, so it was a little bit tricky when they walked.

What happens at the round table?

That table is scary. When I have to do a meeting with my C.E.O. or C.F.O. or some of the management team, and it’s a serious meeting, when I have something to say that they won’t like it, the most difficult things to resolve, what I think is not going well in the company, we sit around the table. So this table is wide, it’s gold, it’s very glamorous.

And the desk?

It’s me going on the website and seeing what happens. Me and the computer. I am a very impatient woman. I cannot sit for long. I have to move. You see me more often in the center when I’m up and pounding the floor in this room.

Talk me through your day.

I wake up very early in the morning — 6:30 to 7 — and do a little bit in the gym. Not because I love it but because I need to do it to keep my body healthy. And I have a light breakfast. I have a glam squad, who help me to do hair and makeup every morning. I don’t look like this when I wake up, you know. I need a little help. And then I go to the office and talk to my assistants, go through all the mail. And then I go straight downstairs and just wander around.

Do you find inspiration in books?

I find inspiration in books, I find inspiration in memories. I like to travel. I like to look at people on the planes, I like to look at people in the streets in cities. I’m not a person who goes on vacation to retreat or to relax, because relaxing makes me nervous. If I go to relax, I get nervous.

You don’t draw, so how do you communicate your ideas for a new collection?

I think the drawing is the least important thing for today. I communicate through shapes. And proportion. Proportion is the most important thing in an outfit. If you are a really fashion victim, you don’t care about proportion — you’ll do, like, a huge skirt that nobody will walk in and go nowhere. But I’m a real woman, in a real life.

How much do your clothes reflect you?

They reflect me in the sense of a modern woman, probably. But I have a very special body type: I’m not tall, and I’m not — I wear certain things. I try to convey this through my clothes: Be determined. Fight for what you believe, don’t be afraid, and get ready to be viewed by critics.

How much does this work space reflect that attitude?

This office reflects my open mind, because it’s white. You know, white is endless; you can go in a white tunnel and always see the lights. I think it’s a color that opens your mind, opens your spirit, you feel totally free, looking at white. But it doesn’t have to be a minimal white. Nothing’s minimal here.

Do you have much distinction between your public and your private lives?

My private life, nobody believes me, is really — when I finish my work, working here, I’ll go to a show or after-party, but when I get home from those things, I lock myself in the apartment and I don’t want to hear anything. I’m the most antisocial person you can think about. Even if nobody believes me. This is the city where I work, you know. I don’t have too many friends here. Actually I don’t have any friends at all, out of this office. My friends are around the world. I call them on the phone and talk.

What’s the hardest part of your job?

It’s my self-esteem. I trained myself to hide my vulnerability and my insecurity for a long time. I give in to these two emotions only when I am alone. At the end of the day, I’m just kind of thinking, “Is it good enough?” The next day I wake up and I’m like, “Oh, yeah, that was fine.” But usually, in the evening, I have that half an hour that I think I did everything wrong.