Allow Lady Gaga to Teach You About Donatella Versace

Jonathan Borge
Updated

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Lady Gaga has been obsessed with Donatella Versace for years.

In January, Donatella fabulously welcomed Gaga to Milan for her Joanne World Tour stop with a parade of branded gifts and an all-black look that’s unmistakably sexy.

@versace_official @donatella_versace you are the most wonderful friend, and inspiration and comfort to my life. Thank you for these beautiful gifts I will never forget this moment I am speechless as usual. You always make Milano my home, and as an Italian American girl it means so much. Ti Amo my queen.

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Jan 17, 2018 at 6:55am PST

Before that, Gaga dedicated an entire song to the designer on her Artpop album (it’s called, fittingly, “Donatella”), and she exclusively wore custom Versace on her Born This Way Ball tour. So it makes sense that the pop star was tapped to narrate a tribute video in honor of the designer, which by the way was commissioned by none other than Versace favorite Claudia Schiffer for CNN Style.

In the new clip, Gaga quickly traces back to Donatella’s successes, which stem all the way back to the early '90s when she took helm of her namesake family brand following the tragic death of her brother, the brand’s founder, Gianni Versace. Quite comically, Gaga manages to mispronounce Versace after Donatella explains exactly how to pronounce it—something she’s being called out for on Twitter.

Basically, it’s VEHR-SAH-CHAY, not VEHR-SAH-CHEE.

RELATED: Cindy Crawford on the Power of Gianni Versace and That Moment Last Fashion Week

Pronunciations aside, the video comes at an interesting time. First, Versace’s spring-summer 2018 collection is entirely dedicated to Gianni. But perhaps most notably, it serves as a way for Donatella to clear the air about her work, life, and legacy. She’s famously denounced Ryan Murphy’s production of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, starring Penelope Cruz as Donatella.

Below, the most interesting takeaways from the new clip.

1. Donatella Versace presented her first collection for the house in 1998, one year and three days after the death of her brother, who was murdered in 1997 in Miami Beach. She made her debut at the Hotel Ritz Paris, where Gianni had previously shown.

2. She gave birth to Google Images. How so? Jennifer Lopez wore a plunging-green Versace dress at the 2000 Grammys and people searched for pictures of it so feverishly that Google had no choice but to create a home for finding photos efficiently. “That was a mistake. It was an accident she wore that dress,” Donatella says in the video.

3. She lives and breathes Versace. Donatella only drinks from Versace glassware. She sleeps in Versace sheets. She writes in a Versace notebook. She stores her coins in a Versace Medusa-head “piggy bank.”

4. She only wears heels.

5. Gianni named Versace’s Blonde perfume after Donatella’s hair.

6. Gigi Hadid calls Donatella her “greatest fashion icon.” “As a designer you make women all over the world feel powerful, strong, and beautiful,” Hadid says in a cameo. “As a friend, you have the biggest heart. I love you, and I thank you for everything.”

7. She’s shy! “This is true. Nobody believes me. I talk less, but I mean more,” she says.

8. The Medusa is her favorite animal, and she never uses the shark emoji simply because sharks “eat Medusa.”