[crowd applauding]
- So, Donatella.
My first question is just a little bit personal.
I hope that's okay.
Can you tell us a story of what is
perhaps your most famous feature?
Have you been blonde forever?
[audience laughs]
- Inside for sure.
[audience laughs]
Outside maybe not.
But I was only 11 years old
when Gianni starts to ask somebody
to bleach my hair a little by little.
It took like a month and was totally bleached blonde.
And my manager was very upset to me and Gianni,
but I like it.
- And it was somebody that inspired him, I think?
- Well, Gianni was inspired by this Italian pop-signer
called Patty Pravo.
She was a star at that time and she was amazing.
- So, let's fast forward to the present day.
Last month, you presented the latest Versace show in Milan,
and you created what is by far
the biggest sensation of the season,
if not of entire year, that JLo finale.
- Yes, that was a, that was something you know,
we decide actually at the Met Ball,
at the last Met Ball,
we're seated together at the table,
and just, look at this, oh my gosh,
she looks so gorgeous, she's so sweet.
She hasn't changed a bit since the first time,
and I, look at me.
- You look great, you both look great.
- "Would you do this again, Jennifer?"
She said, "Why not, let me check my schedule."
And that afternoon like two seconds, it was a Met Ball,
it was Anna Wintour, it was under the stars
and she said yes right away.
This is what I like about her.
She is very assertive.
She doesn't have to ask too many managers what to do.
She decides that she did it
and she came to Milan, and as you know,
Everything was really undercover.
Nobody knew she was going to do that.
She never saw the next dress again,
the one she was trying,
but she tell me even the volition,
with the body she has after the movie and after,
I mean she has,
the volition was to make it even more.
- Well, it was amazing.
It was amazing.
It received a standing ovation,
which you don't often see in the bored world of fashion.
- It was very very surprise.
Yeah I never never hear, you know.
- Well it was for both of you.
It was for both of you.
So the world now knows it as that J.Lo dress,
but let's remember that actually Ginger Spice
wore it back in January 2000.
And you wore it, Donatella, to the Met Gala
a couple of months earlier
when we used to still have the Met in December.
Somehow, though, it was J.Lo wearing it at the Grammys
that broke the back.
Is it ever a concern, though, in situations like this
that become kind of a sensation,
that the celebrity can outshine the house?
- Well the celebrity,
outshine I wouldn't say but...
[audience laughs]
I'll never admit anyway.
Yes, they can take Versace name
all over the world in one second.
I didn't break the Internet
and Ginger Spice, she didn't either.
But J.Lo did it.
- But Versace's long been associated
with the world of Hollywood and red carpets,
but is there something else about the rest of the country,
about America in general,
or the way things are done here that you admire?
- Well, my son and my daughter are American,
I was married for so many years with an American
so with a house in America,
in New York for a long time and Miami for a long time
so I really feel half American.
I mean I feel even most American than Italian sometimes.
My mentality, the way I do things,
the way I take decision, like, very quickly,
like you do here,
not maybe everybody, but you for sure,
[chuckles]
this is it and it's very American way of thinking.
- I mean it's come up many times
over the last couple of days
that fashion should actually be something
that's not fleeting,
that the clothes that you make and that you believe in
should last a long time and become part of your life,
of really every woman's life,
and pieces can last twenty years, thirty years.
Cindy Crawford can pass the off to her daughter Kaia,
they have an emotional connection to who you are.
But of course, I also see fashions engagement
with sustainability for instance,
As part of history of fashion and leading the charge
on vital social challenges,
from the AIDS crisis
that I know that you were so involved with,
to the rights of women
that I know you've been so involved with,
diversity and inclusivity.
- Absolutely.
- We have been hearing a lot about over the past two days,
and fashion I think is actually by nature progressive,
because it reflects society.
So, just speaking of society,
I am curious to know your take
on American politics right now.
- You wanna hear?
- Yes, I do.
[audience laughs]
Go for it.
- Well, I love politics in general.
But American politics at the moment I think,
the world knows that America
is going through a very, very difficult time.
When somebody look back and doesn't look ahead
that is a mistake for everything,
especially for politics.
I have a friend historian,
who I talk about your president right now.
[audience laughs]
- Which one would that be?
- You know, we always work with the best photographer,
even when Gianni was alive,
with the best top model and celebrities.
We were the first ones to use celebrities,
to work with celebrities for fashion shoots.
So,
we rent Mar-a-Lago from Mr. Trump at the moment,
and we went with Steven Meisel and Madonna
and the huge team of make up and hair and stylists
to do this insane glamorous campaign.
And the second day,
after we did all the most important picture
with dog placed over there and laying on the you know,
back walls and the stairs
and metal meshed purple,
looking incredible,
rich blonde hair.
Yes, why I did it.
[laughs]
We were doing the last picture
and this gentleman, it was Mr Trump, came in
and said, with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
[audience laughs]
We were like, "Wow, Kentucky Fried Chicken."
- Of the current candidates,
apart from Mr. Trump,
is there someone that you are liking or you admire?
- I like very much Mayor Pete.
- Right.
- If that's his name, Mayor Pete?
I think he is so smart, so intelligent,
and America needs inclusivity and needs more...
You know it's always been open-minded America.
It's just the last period it's going,
like the rest of the world, step backwards.
So I would love to have somebody like Mayor Pete
to be the president of Unites States.
I think push, the whole world would gain from that.
- Right, I agree, I agree.
Was it tough at the start being compared
to the extraordinary talent of Gianni,
and could you ever see bringing somebody else
to work with you?
- Well to be compared to Gianni was not only tough,
it was, it destroyed me, because Gianni was the king,
Gianni was Gianni.
I mean Gianni created something incredible.
I mean you got to see his archive,
you always learn, everybody learns not only me.
Everybody is, you know,
you are going to see work indeed, everybody.
It was different times, you know, when no budget.
I didn't know what budget meant at that time.
The word didn't even exist.
We just create.
Creation. Creation.
We did incredible things.
So for me it was tough.
I think it was going to fail.
The whole world knew. You know that.
Where looking at me as she was going to fail.
But I don't know how this fear to me.
I say, " I cannot do this right now."
I need to keep going even if I suffer.
Second question, yes why not.
I mean I was the one who really embraced
a lot of young designers.
Even for the Versos line, when we filled Versos.
But the world right now is full of
new young talent.
And yeah I'll bring somebody, why not.
- I know you've had a great reputation doing that.
And of course, so many designers
hold you in really much of the nineties in thrall.
What was it about that decade that was such an inspiration,
and as you look forward Donatella,
I know that as a force, for the future
you are someone who never stop thinking
and never stops planning,
what are your hopes for 2020
and beyond for Versace
and for fashion in general
and for yourself?
- We are into sustainability
which is a big issue
and we all should look to make this world better
and less dirty.
But I am not going to lie and say
this is an easy thing for the fashion, it's not.
Especially for a established company.
We do little steps, little by little
but we will get there.
- No, but the important thing is
that the conversation is happening everywhere.
- Oh, it's happening.
We have a new headquarters now in Milan.
You've been there. - Yes.
- It's everything thought about sustainability,
with all the real material, nothing.
No plastic around, nothing like that.
We use real materials,
putting up real steel, nothing mixed.
All the hottest fabric I used to like
disappeared from my collection
and it's a step
and I am going to get there,
but I think the fashion is the most difficult place
to do 100%.
But it's important you start somewhere.
- I agree.
So, Donatella, we've spent a lot of time together
over the years.
We have ridden horses together on a Dude Ranch,
and we've gone white water rafting.
- The helmet, remember? - And we've had..
- I refused to put my helmet on.
- We have,
Yes, you should see Donatella on a horse.
Families...
She wears full lycra,
high heels,
and at that time she was still smoking.
She was looking at me saying
- And was smoking on the horse
- Anna, this is Marlboro country.
- I can't believe it.
[audience laughing]
That were the best times.
Our children are the same age more or less and um..
- Those are our children, all lined up
- Oh yeah, oh my God.
- They look small.
- They look small. So small in the picture.
Anyway, and I had to talk about that hurricane.
And we're rafting the Colorado River
and all of sudden huge hurricane,
two seconds everything was like bad bad bad.
Even the guides couldn't do anything, just hold,
try to hold to the,
everyone was like Oh my God, the children,
the other kayak, look at the children.
Anna, she was like,
Not a moment.
She was like we'll get there.
I am very talkative.
I am so fluent in Italian madden.
I was like I see a disaster going on.
She kept me together.
- Well perhaps my other favorite quote was
that we were on this Dude Ranch
which was quite difficult to get to
and you had to take quite the small plane
and Donatella took one look at it and she said
"Anna, this is not a plane, this is a hairdryer."
[audience laughing]
- But you brought me to do that dance.
What's that dance called?
In that club, do you remember?
- Yes.
- Was it Big Feet downtown, or whatever it was.
It was fun.
It was such an experience
to see another part of America that I didn't know.
I love it.
I mean... - Wyoming.
- Wyoming yeah.
I remember in the morning,
I was taking a shower, with the plastic thing in the shower,
I open one and a head of a horse inside.
AH, a horse is in my bathroom.
All because of Anna.
I thank her for this.
For all this experience.
- Maybe yes, skydiving next year.
Donatella, thank you for everything
that you've done for fashion.
For being a force here for us this morning
and for everything you've done for me personally.
You know you mean the world to me.
- You do for me. - And now...
- Can we talk about the next Met?
- Um.
- Get the idea ready.
[laughs]
- The next Met is under wraps
but I'll just give you a clue.
It's...
The dress code will be timeless.
- Wow.
That's great.
- That's all I can say or museum will excommunicate me.
- That's a great topic: Timeless.
- Thank you all for listening.
Thank you all for coming out.
Thank you Donatella.
- Thank you Anna.