Versace

Founded 1978 · Milan, Italy · Gianni Versace

Versace is a Milanese fashion house whose perfumery stands on its own: Eros and Dylan Blue are among the best-selling masculines in the world, and Blue Jeans and Jeans Couture — which are nineties fragrances, not trousers — still have a following thirty years on.

History

Gianni Versace founded the house in Milan in 1978 and made it one of the firms that defined Italian excess in the eighties: saturated colour, baroque print, the Medusa as emblem. Perfumery started early and became a business of its own, with the Jeans line in the nineties. After Gianni's murder in 1997, his sister Donatella took over creative direction and held it until the house was sold to Capri Holdings in 2018. In perfumery the modern landmark is Eros, launched in 2012: mint, green apple and vanilla, a sweet masculine that defined a whole decade of the category.

Iconic models

Eros (2012)
Mint, green apple and tonka vanilla. One of the most sold and most imitated masculines of the century.
Dylan Blue (2016)
Woody aquatic; the house's other great masculine card.
Blue Jeans (1994)
From the nineties Jeans line. Discontinued and revived, with a following of its own.
Bright Crystal (2006)
Fruity floral; the house's best-selling feminine.

Worth knowing

"Versace Blue Jeans" and "Versace Jeans Couture" are nineties perfumes, not clothing. It is a confusion that costs when searching, because the garment filter throws them out.