Gianni Versace created a fashion house that defined late twentieth-century glamour, invented the supermodel, and sanctioned in the public consciousness a supremely self-assured feminine sexuality. His debut line in 1978 was instantly successful; in the Eighties, his extravagant designs and his vision of powerful women defined the era, and culminated in the Nineties with the supermodel phenomenon - his designs worn by those glamazons who featured on every Vogue cover. The book reveals how the more brazen elements of his design - the jewelled embroidery, the bondage straps, the safety-pin gowns - were predicated on supremely skilled tailoring, deft use of materials, and innovative techniques. Alongside are Vogue 's eye-witness accounts of the Versace lifestyle - the palazzos and parties, the art, the celebrity friends. Vogue on Gianni Versace is a celebration of a designer and a house that, in only 19 years, came to dominate the catwalk and the red carpet. Charlotte Sinclair is a freelance journalist and contributing editor to British Vogue . At twenty-two she won the 2001 Vogue Talent Contest for writing; she then spent three years at Harper's Bazaar as Arts and Entertainment Editor before returning to Vogue as Associate Features Editor.