Suzanne Kapner
Appearances
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
She's kind of the last of a breed of designers that have, you know, their own name on the front door because, you know, we've seen in recent years these conglomerates snapping up all the family-owned fashion brands.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Well, assuming he doesn't sell the brand, you know, he has said he's dedicated to, you know, keeping Versace, you know, at the high end of luxury. He doesn't want to cheapen the brand. He wants to make it even more luxurious, to focus on craftsmanship.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
you know elegant designs so i think you're going to see more of that and less of the bright prints and the baroque patterns and the kind of outrageous flamboyant designs that versace was known for in the past and you know versace now is going to be sort of a little bit less like versace
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
It's lots of bold colors, vibrant prints, outrageously sexy designs.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
If you remember that safety pin dress that Elizabeth Hurley wore back in the 90s.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
That dress kind of, you know, was a moment for a lot of us.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
That one, that jungle dress. Yes. When you think of iconic outfits worn in the 2000s, this Versace dress worn by Jennifer Lopez always makes the list.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
It's really this culture clash, one between the Americans and the Italians, and then two between the corporate suits and sort of the creative types.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
You know, the house had been under creative control by Versace since it was founded by her older brother Gianni in 1978. So Versace going forward is going to look different than Versace of the past.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Well, I mean, she is the Versace brand. She's incredibly central. She's very recognizable for her platinum blonde hair and her dark eyeliner. You know, you would know her almost as a celebrity, almost as one of Versace's celebrity clients. That's how recognizable she is.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
But it wasn't until Gianni's murder in 1997 that she was sort of thrust into, you know, the crucial key role of chief creative officer.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
And, you know, from everybody I talk to, people have the nicest things to say about her, that she's just, you know, a sweetheart and professional, and, you know, she's sort of mild-mannered. She's not like the screaming diva type. You know, people who've worked for her just really sing her praises.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
So Versace was like one of the last remaining independent players, and it was really dwarfed by these giants that had formed around it. And the family, Versace family, had to sell some Picasso paintings, some leases on its stores. They sold Gianni's Miami mansion to kind of help plug operating losses. So, you know, they struggled for a while.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
John is a businessman who has been very successful. He is very smooth. If you see pictures of him, you know, he looks like a CEO out of Central Casting, you know, very buttoned up in his suit. And he started his career at Ralph Lauren. And then he became CEO of Donna Karan in 1997 and went on in... 2003 to join with some investors to buy the Michael Kors brand.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
And he, along with the designer Michael Kors, really grew that into just a powerhouse of a brand.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
The way he grew Michael Kors was he really sort of democratized the brand and made it more affordable to younger, less affluent customers. He opened outlet stores. He introduced kind of lower price products that were sort of entry level for the brand to sort of attract that younger customer. And that's how he sort of broadened its appeal and turned it into a large business.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Donatella met John for dinner in Milan. And after that conversation, she said she was convinced that John could really bring some business acumen to help grow the business, particularly its online sales and to help open stores. And she agreed to sell the company to what was then called Michael Kors.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Initially, the Versace executives I spoke with were happy and excited that they had this new parent to bankroll, you know, an expansion that they were going to be able to roll out new product categories, open new stores, really build the business. They would have the resources to do things they hadn't been able to do before.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
You know, the American executives would come into design meetings. You know, the designers would be trying to explain their inspiration for the latest collection. And the Americans would say, look, what are the key performance indicators? And the designers would be like, I don't, we don't know what you're talking about. You know, it's just, they weren't speaking the same language.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Right. American businessmen love those, you know, those jargony terms.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
To grow a true luxury brand, you know, takes decades, not quarters. And people say, well, Americans, they look at the next financial quarter. Europeans, they're thinking along about generations. You know, they just take a much longer-term view of things.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Coming out of COVID, two things happened. One, this so-called quiet luxury trend became very popular. And this was like understated, no logos, you know, very kind of sleek, minimalistic designs. The highest quality materials, but very sort of understated. And then secondly, the luxury industry started to go into a bit of a slump.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
You know, people, they had stocked up on a lot of luxury goods during the pandemic. They started spending on other things like travel and entertainment and luxury sales started falling at a lot of brands.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Here's where the clash starts to kind of develop. He wanted to make it less Versace, more Palm Beach, less South Beach, so to speak. Tone down those bright colors, get rid of those bright prints, make it more like Dior, you know, little black dresses, elegant and sophisticated, not, you know, as flashy as it had been.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Well, you know, it's like, you know, calling your baby ugly, right? It's like, you know, I think she was not pleased, especially because, you know, her idea of partnering with John was that he was going to bring his business chops to the partnership, not weigh in on all the creative stuff. I mean, he was not trained as a designer.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
He does not have a background in design, yet he would, you know, go to design meetings and he would give lots of feedback
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
My sense is, you know, he had a sense of what would sell and he would go into design meetings and he'd say, this is not going to sell. And sometimes he was right and sometimes he was wrong.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
I think Donatella tried to deliver what he wanted, and then if it didn't work, she would revert back to more traditional Versace designs. And if you look at runway shows, you can see this fluctuation. You know, one season it's a lot of black and browns, and the next season it's all the bright colors again, and then, you know, it's back to the blacks and the more muted designs.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
So, you know, this was like a brand kind of going through this transformation. that created a lot of confusion about what Versace stood for.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Well, they turned off a lot of their core customers and they didn't attract enough new ones. So, you know, the changes are not showing up favorably in the numbers. In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the sales are down something like 20%.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
So now we are really going to enter a new era for Versace where there is no Versace at the helm.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
So the day before her last fashion show in Milan, Donatella spoke at a Vogue event, and I thought what she said was very telling. She said, being told what to do, being told what's going to sell, if you try to please too many people, too many managers, creativity is gone.
The Journal.
Arrivederci, Donatella Versace
Yeah, I think she was being given a lot of direction by the managers of what to do. But she really, you know, has been the creative vision behind Versace now for the past, you know, almost three decades.