Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Helena Christensen and Carla Bruni in Donatella Versace’s Milan show
Of everything Gianni Versace gave to popular culture – he invented the celebrity front row, the metal mesh cocktail dress and arguably the career of Elizabeth Hurley, who might never have found fame were it not for That Dress – the supermodel is his greatest legacy. So it was a fitting tribute that a supermodel reunion was the centrepiece of the Versace show staged to mark the 20th anniversary of his murder.
Versace invented the supermodel, plucking a few chosen models from the runway ranks and elevating them to a higher strata of glamour. Other models remained humble clothes horses, but this elite became goddesses. Versace, who was already conjuring the imagery of classical goddesses with his becomingly draped dresses, created the perfect women to wear them.