When you look back to that time, did you have any idea how it would go, or what kind of impact did it all have?
No, I had no idea. Actually, I never set my goal that far away, I only set myself little goals, like
to achieve, for example, the cover of Elle magazine and then the cover of Vogue
magazine, and then to do an advertisement that I was really keen on doing, and then
one that was a little bit more important, so my goal was never too far away that I
could never reach it and I went from one to another.
Everyone realized something strange is going on, something different is happening. Now, to us this was
completely normal but to everyone around us, it was completely new because they
had never seen anything like that in the fashion industry.
Versace would have to supply you with a team of bodyguards to get you out of your car, to go inside.
Photographers were constantly around you, trying not to miss out on any particular
shots, and then even when you were changing you had to make sure you had a
little corner where no one could see you, and even then, when you went outside you
came back and your bra and underwear had gone.
At this stage just was very new because fashion shows used to be just for retailers and journalists and
editors just a few photographers, really. Gianni Versace was one of the first
people who changed all of that and made the fashion show into a spectacle.
It became a very desirable event. If you said, ‘You know what, now we're gonna let
anyone in and you just have to pay a good price for a ticket’, you could have made millions.
He sort of took the pop culture of the moment and mixed it up
with fashion and so you had music influences, movie influences, so you could
be walking down to a song of Prince and there'd be Prince sitting in the audience watching the show.
At the Chanel show, they used to be Inès de La Fressange
who did all the fashion shows and there was a certain way of walking.
Karl Lagerfeld asked me to be in the fashion show and I said I can't do it
because I've never done this before. He said, just do whatever you want, there are
no rules, they are all out the window. Again, one of those moments where you realize
there was a change happening and which embodied the sort of ’90s.
Working with living legends Gianni Versace, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix and
Karl Lagerfeld were stars in fashion, to be part of it was extremely exciting but
also you were very proud that you were chosen to be part of it.
The original gang of Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington, Stephanie Seymour and
Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Nadia Armand, I mean the list is long.
And so there was a camaraderie that, a sort of a bond that was created at the same time,
being very highly competitive about, you know, who gets the best position in a
fashion show, who would wear the wedding dress at the end, or who would be the
first one out or who got the special song or the special spotlight, so it was
an interesting mixture of where we all became quite close and not forgetting
that there, this is a business and everyone wanted to be the best.
This is the Valentino show and the Valentina red, which made Valentino and
the red very famous and recognizable instantly, so you don't even have to see
it's a Valentino show below it, you already know it (laughter) and that was the amazing
talent of these designers, that you could recognize their clothing without being
told what it was. And Valentino, who is extremely elegant, all his dresses are
fairytale dresses that women are dreaming about. So, 15 years ago was my
last fashion show, and Donatella recently asked if we could come in memory of
Gianni Versace. We all immediately said yes. We all arrived in Milan, we're told it's
a very secret operation and it was one of those moments that everyone was so
excited about because it was reliving sort of the moments that we'd had in the ’90s.