If we try to make a ranking of the most famous people from Reggio, a place certainly goes to Santo Versace. Although his brother Gianni, one of the greatest stylists there has ever been in the world, who tragically passed away in Miami on 15 July 1997 (killed in circumstances that have never been fully clarified), is an international myth, his older brother too, who yesterday he turned 80deserves this recognition.
Because at the time of the then most famous fashion house, Santo was always one step behind Gianni, but never in the shadows, because his role in the family company, first president and then CEO, was fundamental. It is certainly no coincidence that the phrase has remained famous Giorgio Armani, Gianni’s historic competitor (examples of two completely different styles), who said: «The only thing I envy in Versace is his brother Santo». He also had the heartbreaking task of having to recognize his brother’s body, still with his bleeding head: “A pain that will never end.”
We remind Santo of Armani’s words on the occasion of his birthday, celebrated at Villa Miani, in Rome. «Gianni and I – he says – have always worked together. He was the absolute genius, he created and took care of collections, fashion shows, photographic campaigns and communication. Everything else, production and distribution, was entrusted to me. We were an apple cut in half. Donatella was always next to him.” Now, he says, his fourth life beginsalso thanks to an MRI which established that his brain is “very young”.
He continues to be super active with his film production company, which has just created the TV series (we will see it on Raiuno) on the life of Oriana Fallaci, «Miss Fallaci», and played by Miriam Leone, and with the Foundation which brings its name, dedicated to charitable works and created with his wife, also from Reggio, the lawyer Francesca De Stefano. Married “surprisingly” ten years ago (civil wedding, to which a religious one was added last year) on the day of her seventieth birthday, which has been a double celebration date ever since.
But his early life, full of affection, is inextricably linked to Reggio Calabria. “When I traveled the world, I always sent a postcard to what I always considered my home.” Of course, he must have sent a lot of postcards, given that Maison Versace has opened 120 boutiques all over the world and he, Santo, was able to travel by plane to four different cities, and even to different countries, in just one day.
«Ours was a beautiful childhood despite the pain of losing my sister Tinuccia at 10 years old, which was then partly compensated by the birth of Donatella who brought smiles back home. I started working at the age of 6, at my request, in my father’s shop, who at the time was selling coal.”
When it comes to family, Santo likes to start from afar. He says that his grandfather, Giovanni Battista Olandese, was an anarchist socialist and for this reason he ended up in exile in Lipari. He met them and then married Maria Bertè: to them was born Francesca, the mother of the Versace brothers, at the time a famous dressmaker in Reggio with a very well-known atelier. «The atelier – he says of his first life – was in via Domenico Muratori and functioned as the most important tailor’s shop in the Strait with an extraordinary clientele in Reggio and Messina. Gianni was born in the house we lived across the courtyard. Then it was moved to via dei Correttori, then to via dei Pritanei. The shops followed, the first opened in June 1965, and then those for women, men and children. For Gianni, tailoring was like a Renaissance workshop, where he learned the art and was pampered by all the women who worked there. He was a true son of Magna Graecia.”
And, if he talks about his father Antonino, he does so as if he were a kind of Superman: «He was a great athlete, he played as a starter, left wing, for Reggina, in Serie C. He also won cycling races and was a cross-country champion. As a boy he ran the 100 meters in 11’03”. Not only that: he loved talking about the great Greek and Latin classics and was enthusiastic about Orlando Furioso.” Then for Santo there were the years of basketball, first in Piria and then in Viola, and those of his degree in Economics and Commerce at the University of Messina, then his studies, which he immediately started, as an accountant in his city. Ahead of him was a quiet professional career. But no, because there was a brilliant brother in the family.
Already noticed while living in Reggio, Gianni was signed in Milan by Florentine Flowers and naturally the contract was supervised by Santo. It was the beginning of the adventure (the second life) that led to the creation of the Versace brand. «The first company – he says – was a limited partnership and was established in Reggio Calabria in 1972/73 in my studio. Gianni, I, my father and my mother were partners. My brother was starting a new adventure and I was sure it would be successful. I felt it, I saw how he was already being asked by various Italian ateliers.”
So Santo left with him, amidst some opposition from his father (“Who’s thinking of your accounting firm?”) and favor from his mother (“Don’t leave Gianni alone”), starting what would have been a beautiful story, which never he deserved that tragic end. These are all episodes that Versace loves to tell and which, together with many others, he included in his book «Fratelli. An Italian family”, published by Rizzoli two years ago. A book, it was written, «honest and direct. Nothing appears either antagonistic or idolatrous with respect to Gianni.”
He kept the accounts, tried to limit his brother’s spending, especially when he wanted to purchase works by Picasso, and also when very expensive contracts had to be made with the most famous models (“Naomi Campbell was like a sister to Gianni; Christy Turlington was more beautiful.”
But after the great success came the enormous pain, shared on the day of the funeral with Lady Diana (who would die tragically a few days later): «She was the one who held my hand for half an hour, trying to console me». From there I begin the third life, that of recovering oneself. From that time he also remains saddened by the failed merger with Gucci, which would have created an all-Italian brand that would have been famous everywhere. «Four days before Gianni’s death – says Santo – in Milan I had signed, as director of the group, an agreement with the American bank Morgan Stanley, which envisaged taking the Versace group public through an agreement with Gucci. A great project, in which my brother believed a lot, he was convinced that we would be first in the world. But the crime in Miami blew everything up.”
To understand Santo’s displeasure, it is necessary to remember that he was always convinced of the need to protect the value of Made in Italy: in the short period in which he was a member of parliament, from 2008 to 2013, he promoted the law on the subject and was also the creator of Altagamma, the committee of Italian luxury brands. Now, in addition to the production of fiction, he is thinking above all of the Foundation, which recently launched its first international project: «Together with my wife Francesca we are working on “The miracle of life” for a house in the slum of Nairobi – Kybera, where women who live on the streets together with their children are welcomed. A safe place where these mothers can be reborn.”
Santo Versace has rediscovered the religiosity of his childhood (“I was a boy scout”) and says: “Francesca, who is 25 years younger than me, managed to make me overcome all the traumas. The religious wedding we celebrated in July last year, after the civil one in 2014, was very significant for me.” And then on with the fourth life!