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Gianni Versace with niece Allegra Versace in 1997, the same year the fashion tsar was murdered. Allegra was 11 years old at the time.
Image: imago images / MediaPunch
This week, the Italian fashion house Prada acquired the legendary Versace label. One of the main heiresses of the fashion empire is Allegra Versace, daughter of Donatella Versace. She is keeping quiet about the million-dollar deal - and remains a phantom.
There was a bang in the fashion world this week: Prada swallowed up the Italian fashion label Versace for 1.25 billion euros.
The fashion empire was founded by the eccentric designer Gianni Versace (1946-1997). On July 15, 1997, Gianni Versace was shot dead on the steps in front of his villa "Casa Casuarina" at 1116 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach as he returned from shopping for newspapers.
The exact motive for the murder remained a mystery. The perpetrator was later identified: Andrew Phillip Cunanan was a serial killer. He killed four people within twelve weeks, Versace was the fifth victim.
It is still not known whether the two men knew each other or had at least met once.
Gianni Versace bequeathed a large part of his estate to Allegra. Versace called his favorite niece Allegra piccola principessa, or little princess. In 2018, designer Michael Kors acquired Allegra's Versace shares and those of her mother Donatella for 1.83 billion euros.
This week came the news: Prada is buying Versace. And what is Allegra Versace doing? She remains silent. This is because the fashion heiress avoids cüpli events and the limelight like the devil avoids holy water.
She prefers to live in seclusion. Very rarely does Allegra Versace give an insight into her private life.
In 2011, Allegra Versace spoke to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica " for the first time about her heavy legacy and her eating disorder - and dispelled a widespread cliché: It was not the fashion industry that triggered her illness, but the enormous pressure of expectation that came with her famous name.
"No matter where I went - I was always a Versace," said the then 24-year-old in the interview.
It was this constant external gaze, the feeling of having to conform to the public role, that drove her into an eating disorder. Her greatest wish: to be invisible. To lead a normal life - without glamor, without headlines.
Allegra Versace studied acting, art history and French in Los Angeles - deliberately away from the glamor. "I like acting because you can be a different person every day," she said.
She also enjoyed smaller roles in indie films: "Probably nobody wanted to see them anyway," she commented with disarming honesty. Retiring was a necessary new beginning for her.
