Remembering Gianni Versace on the 20th Anniversary of His Death

Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Italian designer Gianni Versace, an event that the world will come to learn much more about when Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story series about his assassination debuts early next year.

Versace was 50 and at the top of his game when he was murdered at his Miami home. Much of what is considered de rigueur about fashion in 2017 he put his stamp on in his 1990s glory days—the splashy, expensively made ad campaigns; the star-studded front rows; indeed, the entire fashion-celebrity nexus. The difference between then and now is that those celebrities—Elton John, Sting, Madonna—were his genuine close friends, while many of today’s A-listers are paid exorbitant sums to attend shows. Much of what we’re nostalgic for are his innovations, too. As has been pointed out by Vogue in the past, Versace crystallized fashion’s supermodel moment when Linda, Cindy, Naomi, and Christy strutted their stuff, lip-syncing to George Michael’s hit song “Freedom! ’90” at the finale of his Fall 1991 show. (It was a reprise, of course, of the musician’s genre-busting David Fincher–directed video.) When was the last time you witnessed runway models emoting on a level like those ladies? Perhaps only at Donatella Versace’s shows; Gianni’s baby sister has made sure that glamour and passion have remained the defining characteristics of the house she inherited at his passing.