Best Interview Ever!
Manolo says, Ayyyyy! It is the fabulous Suzy Menkes interviewing Donatella Versace!
At first watching, you will not be able to pay attention to what they are saying. You will just revel in detail: the accents, the hair styles, the candles! It is all beyond magnificent and odd and wonderful.
At the second watching, when you are less distracted and can listen closely, you will realize that here are two smart women taking about interesting things.
P.S. From the Lauren Goldstein Crowe at the Fashion, Inc.
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Comments
De Anza 17 years ago
Lo-o-o-o-oved the interview, thank you for sharing. However, what is with the “top knot”??? If dear Suz was going for the face lengthening look, she failed with the bun on the forehead… (sorry, being very critical – has to do with the fact that my dear gramma was a hairdresser). Awful…
17 years ago
all i can look at is donatella’s plastic surgery.
gemdiva 17 years ago
I’ve never really heard Donatella speak to any great extent and was pleasantly surprised at how business savy she is. She also knows a marketing opportunity when she sees one. Exactly how many times did she say the Versace name during that interview? Let’s hear it for brand recognition. I’m impressed.
Poochie 17 years ago
I am going to ask this question in a totally serious way: Does Donatella have some type of speech impediment or something? I’m not trying to be humorous or mean I am just curious. I understand that she has also has some surgery but does she have something with her mouth or teeth that impacts how she speaks? I know part of it is the accent but that can’t be all of it.
Toby Wollin 17 years ago
Being deaf as a post, I have to “actively listen” to everyone because we are not very clear speakers here in the US. We tend to mumble and slur a lot, which makes comprehension a little difficult. I could not pick up everything Ms Versace said because her accent is pretty pronounced and my connection is not fast enough — the facial stuff that I depend on a lot was “muddied out” a bit.
But having said THAT, I have to say that what Donatella Versace had to say about luxury and paring down and using the absolutely highest quality fabric and design to communicate luxury was very telling, I think. There she sat, in her blue turtleneck sweater and her blond hair (bottle or not), telling her story. The interviewer was all over the place with her hair, and her jacket (either printed or embroidered or whatever), which looked sort of shapeless to me, and the visual message was very clear in my mind: Donatella also “looked” very luxurious and the interviewer did not. And it did not have anything to do with her size – it was the design of her clothing and the “busy-ness” of it and her hair, which turned me off tremendously. It put the interviewer at a distinct disadvantage in terms of how she appeared compared to Donatella Versace and if I were in her position and doing interviews, I would never ever want that. I would want to look as if I were at the same level as the person I am interviewing – and that means having clothing that fits where it needs to fit (in the shoulders, the bust and the hips) and having hair that acts as a compliment. A good tailor would be in order here, I think.
deja pseu 17 years ago
Fascinating! Each of these women is almost a brand unto themselves, n’est-ce pas?
Noga 17 years ago
I have a question for dear Manolo. Why is he so tough on “the giant plastic coconuts” but Donatella, whose face seems as plasticated as a China doll’s minus the cuteness, is deemed “magnificent and odd and wonderful”?
Manolo the Shoeblogger 17 years ago
The Manolo has had plenty to say about Donatella’s obsession with plastic surgery.
For the example…
http://shoeblogs.com/2005/09/20/donatella-not-donatella/
Or…
http://shoeblogs.com/2005/01/07/the-compare-and-the-contrast/
Also it was the entire interview that the Manolo had deemed “magnificent and odd and wonderful,” for indeed, there is the sort of comic strangeness in the setting and the participants.
And yet, even as one may be entranced by this, one must also acknowledge that Donatella, for all of her many and well-documented faults, is the very sharp business person, one who has interesting things to say.
overpriced designer man bag 17 years ago
Donatella is beyond reproach because she’s Donatella – she’s allowed to be plastic and odd and wonderful.
Noga 17 years ago
Dear Manolo: I can see now that I was precipitous in my impression and I apologize. Still I do not understand why a woman who practically dwells in the land of beauty and grace, where elegance reigns supreme, would do this to herself. She speaks of her preference for blond because it symbolizes, for her, freshness and innocence. Yet here she is, looking so totally articifical, old and pracrtically over-burnt, the very opposite of her beauty ideal. Beautiful women, when they grow older, they grieve for their beauty for a while but then they make peace with the demands that age makes. These are the women who continue to be beautiful (Shirley Maclaine comes to mind). They manage to stare down age by keeping a version of older age freshness and innocence. But Donatella, she gave up on her two ideals when she tried to impose them on herself.
barlow 17 years ago
ayyy manolo, you have used the #13 forbidden word for fashion bloggers!
i expected more from a purveyor of paradise lost.