Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was BOTD in 1946. Born in Reggio Calabria, he worked in his mother’s sewing boutique as a child, moving to Milan in the 1970s to work for ready-to-wear label Gennys. He launched his own fashion house in 1978 with his brother Santo and sister Donatella. He became one of the signature designers of the 1980s, favouring bright colours, bold prints and sexualised designs, incorporating bondage gear, vinyl dresses, and silver-mesh togas into haute couture. He was one of the first designers to embrace the music and film industries, courting celebrity clients including Madonna, Elton John, Princess Diana and worked regularly with supermodels Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell. His “safety pin dress”, worn by the then little-known actress Elizabeth Hurley at a 1994 film premiere, became an overnight sensation, and one of the signature fashion events of the 1990s. Versace expanded his empire into luxury accessories, homeware, perfume and jewellery. A theatre and ballet enthusiast, he also designed for productions at La Scala and the San Francisco Opera. He also expanded his popular appeal by costuming TV series Miami Vice, Pedro Almodóvar‘s sex comedy Kika and the X-rated titty-fest Showgirls (in which Elizabeth Berkley proudly refers to her Versace dress as “a Ver-Sayce”). Versace was in a long-term relationship with model Antonio D’Amico, becoming regulars on Miami’s gay circuit party scene. He was murdered in 1997 by serial killer Andrew Cunanan, aged 50, for reasons that remain unclear.