Donatella Versace On “The Why With Dwyane Wade” Podcast

Donatella Versace reveals untold stories about Gianni Versace, Princess Diana, and more on “The Why with Dwyane Wade” podcast.

We share highlights from this week’s episode of the iHeartPodcasts series “The Why with Dwyane Wade”, a co-production of iHeartPodcasts and Wade’s 59th & Prairie Entertainment, featuring a sit-down interview with legendary fashion designer Donatella Versace who reflects on the challenges of her first fashion show after Gianni Versace’s death and the iconic 1991 fashion show with Cindy Crawford where Gianni told the models the importance of pushing boundaries and showing off their personalities.

Donatella delves into her personal relationship with Princess Diana, including the significance of creating clothing that made her feel feminine and delivering pieces directly to Kensington Palace.

Donatella shares the iconic backstory behind the Medusa logo, shedding light on the creative process shared by Donatella and Gianni.

Later in the episode, Dwyane Wade remembers attending the 2011 Versace show with fellow NBA player Carmelo Anthony.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [04:08] DWYANE TELLS DONATELLA HIS FAVORITE VERSACE MODEL IS GIGI HADID

Dwyane: “I got a chance to hangout with some of the models. Gigi is my favorite model.”

Donatella: “I adore Gigi.”

Dwyane: “Gigi is amazing.”

Donatella: “The first fashion show for me was at 16 years old.”

• [13:39] DONATELLA ON THE FIRST FASHION SHOW AFTER GIANNI’S DEATH

Dwyane: “In your tenure in the road that you’ve been in, do you have like a favorite fashion show that you’ve done to date that you’ve put on?”

Donatella: “…The one I did right after my brother’s death, you know, my brother died [at the] end of July and the show was in September and then all of a sudden Gianni wasn’t there anymore. I went through, you know, so many different moments and missing him. And then going, doing the show …was the most difficult thing I did in my life.”

• [16:35] DONATELLA ON THE 1991 FASHION SHOW WITH CINDY CRAWFORD; GIANNI TOLD MODELS TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES AND SHOW OFF THEIR PERSONALITIES

Dwyane: “I was probably nine years old when this fashion show happened, but please can you walk us down the 1991 fashion show? I heard this is one of the most iconic fashion shows, the one with Cindy Crawford.”

Donatella: “So, this supermodel, [was] at the beginning of our career. I never did a fashion show, we always did pictures. It was divided between pictures girls and fashion show girls. Who knows how to walk, who knows how to pose. I was doing the advertising campaign with Richard Avedon, one of the most iconic photographers in fashion with this kind of girl [Cindy Crawford]…The thing about this girl was their personality. They have a lot of personality. And Gianni was telling them, ‘Be yourself, don’t be a model of yourself.’ It happened so naturally [with] the song. They were backstage, the three of them talking in those three little dresses. And Gianni [says to] all of them. Why don’t you go out and sing, do whatever you want…You know, and this was not possible at that time. Nobody was doing that. Everything was so precise, you know, well thought. And Gianni needed the freedom to be themself.”

• [24:30] DONATELLA ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH PRINCESS DIANA AND DELIVERING PIECES TO KENSINGTON PALACE

Donatella: “Oh Princess Diana she was like amazing. She was coming over, she was like such a normal person. She was a princess. And she wore the clothes because she felt feminine. She was saying that I feel feminine in these clothes.”

Dwyane: “Was that a personal call? Like ‘Hey, I need y’all to make this.’”

Donatella: “Oh, yeah. That’s a personal call. When me and Gianni were going to Kensington Palace to deliver the clothes because we had lunch with her, the children. She was so down to earth and so amazing.”

• [25:15] DWYANE ASKS DONATELLA WHY SHE CHOSE HIM FOR THE CAMPAIGN

Dwyane: “Let’s talk a little bit about this global campaign that we have going on. A lot of people I know were surprised when our billboards last year popped up all over the world. One, why me? Let’s start with that.”

Donatella: “Because who you are. What you did in your career, in your life, your decision, your acceptance, many things. They make you really the only one I could work with…It’s very [important] for us when you decide to work with [us], to talk to somebody, I need to know more about them. So, what we do in the private life, how great you are in all of the decisions you make I would respect that…And you’re not bad looking, by the way.”

• [33:02] DONATELLA ON TAKING OVER THE BRAND AND BEING “PETRIFIED” TO FILL GIANNI’S SHOES

Dwyane: “When you took over the brand, what kind of pressure was on it?”

Donatella: “Oh my god, the king was dead. Gianni was the king. And I had to work on the shows. So I was petrified. I was petrified, insecure. I didn’t know what to do. But then you have a company around. Any people working at Versace I was not [going to] let down. And I wasn’t sure it would be me. You know, I was thinking about who could do it. And then I did it. I mean, the first show was no good. I didn’t like it… I don’t want to make a mistake. And when you start thinking like that, you may close that they’re not relevant, you know? I found that experience, I said no, no, no. but it’s not gonna happen this, I need to think differently, not to be afraid. But to fill Gianni Versace’s shoes was not easy.”

• [34:56] DONATELLA REVEALS THE REAL STORY ON HOW SHE AND GIANNI SETTLED ON THE MEDUSA LOGO

Dwyane: “Can you clear this up for me because I’ve heard so many different stories. The Medusa. Where and how did this become? I’ve heard like multiple stories about the Medusa and the exception, like the beginning of it and how it became the logo for the brand.”

Donatella: “So, my family, we are from the south of Italy, exactly Reggio Calabria, which is the last city in front of Sicily, so we’re seeing Sicily from our house. And we were a lot, a lot of antique stories in the south of Italy. great story especially Greek Gods and everything…And we were doing some research ..It was a Greek goddess, Medusa. [We said] ‘Oh my gosh, she’s strange. She’s strange, but you know what, Gianni, we can’t take the eyes off of her.’ And that was the Medusa was in the mythology, once you look at there, you can’t look at anybody else.”

• [40:43] DWYANE TALKS ABOUT HIS DAUGHTER ZAYA BEING PART OF THE FASHION COMMUNITY

Dwyane: “My family and I, we feel that we’ve gotten richer as a family because we’ve been lucky enough to get to know and be accepted by and added to the [fashion] community and our life has gotten richer because of it…And that’s the way we look at it. And we’re so thankful for our daughter to share a community with us allow us to be a part of it and to be allies and to be people who speak on and be a part of it because we understand the importance of it.”

• [47:50] DWYANE TALKS ABOUT ATTENDING THE 2011 VERSACE SHOW WITH CARMELO ANTHONY AFTER LOSING THE FINALS AND SNEAKING HIS PHOTOGRAPHER INTO THE SHOW

Dwyane: “So, 2011, in Milan, was my first fashion show that I attended with Versace. And I had just came off of losing in the NBA finals, maybe a couple days or a week before. So, I didn’t want to come to the show because I was a little embarrassed. Yeah, I was sad, I was embarrassed, all the things you had to lose in the NBA finals. But we did. We came to Milan. We attended the show…My first time meeting you I was sitting at the same table…I was a little guy and Carmelo Anthony and I both attended a show together. It was like– I’ve never experienced anything like that. I would say it was the first time I was like it felt like the NBA Finals with all the cameras and the flashing and just the whole show.

Bob is my videographer / photographer. Bob was shooting me around that time and we didn’t have a ticket for Bob to get into the show… and Bob actually snuck into the show. He was in the photographer row, front row. Like when the show started, I looked around and I saw Bob in the front row with the photographers.”

• [56:19] DWYANE AND DONATELLA TALK ABOUT WALKING IN A VERSACE FASHION SHOW

Dwyane: “Have you ever walked in a fashion show?”

Donatella: “No, too small.”

Dwyane: “So I want to walk one day. I’m just gonna throw that out there. I wanna walk one day. I think that would be such a rush.”

Donatella: “You can walk. Absolutely. Everybody said the same thing, all the models, especially when they start. They’re like, you know… we’re so afraid before, when we put the feet on the runway, and we love it, we get back, wow, because also they feel the people around, looking at them, they feel, you know, the power at that moment.”