[7] Always close to her brother Gianni, Donatella was persuaded by him to dye her hair blonde at 11 years old in honor of the Italian singer Patty Pravo, of whom he was a big fan.
[11] The three travelled to the United States in 1977 on a three-week tour in search of press and overseas buyers in anticipation of starting the Versace brand.
[9] In 1989, Gianni dedicated the new Blonde perfume to Donatella, and entrusted the Versus diffusion line to her – gifting her a yellow diamond ring to mark the occasion.
[19] In the aftermath of the highly publicized crime and manhunt, most of the Versace family, including Donatella, moved temporarily to a secluded private resort in the Caribbean.
From October 2002 to January 2003, Gianni and Donatella's best known Versace clothing was displayed in a special exhibit of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
[23] Donatella has designed advertising campaigns for Versace that included Madonna,[24] Courtney Love, Christina Aguilera, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Demi Moore, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and January Jones.
Alongside supermodel Naomi Campbell, in 1998 Versace organized a benefit fashion show in support of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, raising thousands of dollars for the charity.
[54] In the same year, Versace staged a charity fashion show during the Fire & Ice Ball in California to raise funds for the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program.
[59] At the 42nd Grammy Awards (2000), Jennifer Lopez wore the Green Jungle Dress, which became an international point of attention, being highly publicised in the media.
The dress worn by Lopez remains the reason for the creation of Google Images, and is known to have been downloaded over 600,000 times within 24 hours of the Grammy's night.
[63] In the ABC series Ugly Betty, a fictional character called Fabia, played by actress Gina Gershon, is a parody of Versace.
[65] The plot of season 2 of the television series American Crime Story recounts the murder of Donatella's brother Gianni.
[68] In 2022, Versace took part in an onstage skit alongside musicians Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
In 2023, Versace designed a strapless safety pin dress with white tweed, pearl accents and camellia flower details which was worn by Anne Hathaway at the Met Gala.