Donatella Versace Spills on '90s Supermodel Drama, Complains Today's Models Don't Have Enough Ego

by Bee-Shyuan Chang (Subscribe to Bee-Shyuan Chang's posts)
Posted Feb 8th 2010 at 5:18PM

Remembering the good ol' days of supermodeldom. From left to right, Karen Mulder, Linda Evangelista, Gianni Versace and Carla Bruni. Photo: Getty Images

Donatella Versace has seen better days, and by that, she means she misses the heyday of the real supermodels.

The Italian designer prefers personalities to today's blank-slate, walking clothes hangers and dishes to Love magazine on the crazy catwalk days of the early '90s -- think one-name household monikers, as in Christy, Cindy, Naomi and Linda, reports the Independent UK.

Hitting newsstands tomorrow, Love's "Fashion Icon's" issue with naked supermodels on its cover, has Donatella wishing for more runway icons in the making.

"There is not enough ego!" the designer lamented. "Now is a bad moment. Now we need something. We need a special personality. We need to feed the egos of these girls. Somebody like Kristen [McMenamy] who had a huge ego. Beautiful..."

While the latest round of robotic Sashas and Valerias also have our heads spinning, are we really ready for a true supermodel comeback?

For his Fall '91 show, Donatella's late brother, Gianni, cast Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell all in the same show and together they sang George Michael's "Freedom" on the runway.

Donatella insists it's all about championing fun.

"There is an idea of neutrality in models now. Little make-up, no expression, like a robot... That is very stupid. It is almost as if the models have to have the appearance of something serious, to give an intellectual base, but they themselves are rarely like that," the bleach blonde designer told the magazine.

"And the roots of fashion are essentially fun. It is something that women wear to make themselves feel better, that shouldn't be forgotten. When you take the joy out of fashion, it is not fashion any more."

But along with big egos come big personalities, and in fashion's case, sharpened claws. Donatella dishes on some behind-the-scenes catfighting:

"Kristen [McMenamy] was a big problem with my brother at first -- she was crazy; Gianni just did not understand right away. The stories! Ha! Between her and Linda [Evangelista], it was like watching a movie that never ends...

"One day they had a fight about roots. Kristen had arrived with black roots in blonde hair, and Linda arrived with black roots in blonde hair; and both of them went mad, both saying they were first. Really, that is a big thing for models -- roots!"

A backstage fight on roots? At least this was pre-Lady Gaga's two-tone yellow locks (we have a feeling the supermodels may have lost that one).

We do see Versace's point, fashion shows have increasingly become about who's in the front row and not who's on the runway.

However, while Donatella pines for more memorable mannequins, the designer herself isn't exactly lagging in the Hollywood game. She was the mastermind behind launching the label's most celebrity-embraced collection, Atelier Versace, with the red carpet in mind.

And if you tack on her silver screen cameos in "Zoolander" and "The Devil Wears Prada," you'll see Donatella has eclipsed those robotic models as a household name.

As for Versace's Spring 2010 campaign featuring Mick Jagger's youngest daughter, Georgia May Jagger, we're wondering if Donatella is doing as she suggests and pumping the teenager's ego. Rock star progeny plus over-inflated ego? Sounds more to us like a recipe for a fashion disaster.

If one thing is for sure, the "supers" have staying power. Cindy Crawford has parlayed her modeling career into a business.

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