Donatella Versace Steps Down as Chief Creative Officer of Versace

Don’t worry, Donatella Versace is not going anywhere.

The designer, who has been at the helm of Versace for nearly 30 years, after taking over in 1997 in the wake of her brother Gianni’s passing, will now be chief brand ambassador at the company, according to an announcement today. In this new role, she will focus on Versace’s philanthropic projects. Dario Vitale, who was previously design and image director at Miu Miu, will be taking on the post of chief creative officer beginning April 1.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to carry on my brother Gianni’s legacy,” Versace said in a statement, in which she noted she was “excited to see Versace through new eyes.” Added Vitale: “I am truly honored to join Versace as the Chief Creative Officer and to be a part of this special and powerful luxury house created by Gianni and Donatella. The house of Versace has a unique heritage that has spanned decades and has shaped the history of fashion.”

Versace was one of the designers who embraced the MTV-fueled collision of fashion and pop culture that was vaulting superstars like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez into the style sphere. “This kind of clash of culture, it was very interesting to me,” she told me in a 2019 interview. “And I thought, ‘Fashion, if it doesn’t go into this world, it will become irrelevant.’ ” She championed multiple generations of supermodels, from Naomi Campbell to Gigi Hadid. And in 2017, she even pulled off an internet-breaking reunion of the original group that had strutted down the runway to “Freedom! ’90” at the brand’s fall 1991 show.

O.G. supermodels reassembled at Versace’s spring 2018 show.

Versace has also been a mentor to a younger generation of designers, hiring Christopher Kane to relaunch her Versus line, and later working with Jonathan Anderson and Anthony Vaccarello on the brand. We can’t wait to see what Vitale does in his new post.