Vogue on: Gianni Versace

Gianni Versace created a fashion house that, as British Vogue declared, defined late twentieth-century glamour, invented the supermodel and sanctioned in the public consciousness a supremely self-assured feminine sexuality.' His debut line in 1978 was instantly successful; in the Eighties, his extravagant designs and his vision of powerful women defined the era, and culminated in the Nineties with the supermodel phenomenon - his designs worn by those glamazons who featured on every Vogue cover. Vogue on Gianni Versace explores how his childhood spent in his mother's dressmaker's shops, his Italian hometown of Reggio Calabria, and his family, particularly his younger sister, Donatella, influenced not only the designer he became - the insistent sensuality, vivid colours, classical motifs, clashing prints and daring cuts - but also the way he constructed his business: family first. The book reveals how the more brazen elements of his design - the jewelled embroidery, the bondage straps, the safety-pin gowns - were predicated on supremely skilled tailoring, deft use of materials and innovative techniques.Alongside are Vogue's eye-witness accounts of the Versace lifestyle - the palazzos and parties, the art, the celebrity friends. Vogue on Gianni Versace is a celebration of a designer and a house that, in only 19 years, came to dominate the catwalk and the red carpet.

Charlotte Sinclair is a freelance journalist and contributing editor to British Vogue. At twenty-two she won the 2001 Vogue Talent Contest for writing; she then spent three years at Harper's Bazaar as Arts and Entertainment Editor before returning to Vogue as Associate Features Editor.