Not just Maurizio Gucci. The most heinous crimes of the fashion system

When the fashion is tinged with noir we are all a little more of it victim? So it seems, since true crime Of Maurizio Gucci to that of Gianni Versace, the initial shock gradually gives way to a sinister fascination. A mix of fear, mystery, desire to understand the metallic nuances of the human mind. If the crime news it is “an almost perfect narrative machine” in capturing suspense and attraction, as the expert says Carlo Lucarelli, when moved by exquisitely glossy and glamorous characters it becomes a kind of narcotic magnet for the senses. And the spotlight.

Roberto Gucci and a craftsman, 1984.

David Lees/Getty Images

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The spotlight will soon be (again) focused on the family plot of the Gucci dynasty, in a saga that goes from Guccio's successful laboratory to the dramatic murder of Maurizio, with a new TV series, all in development, produced by Gaumont's Italian division in partnership with Alcor Film. Therefore approaching the history of double G in the round, without focusing on the crime that shocked the whole of Italy, and beyond, at the end of the 1990s. In short, the opposite of what was done in the much talked about (and much panned) film House of Gucci (2021) by Ridley Scott, with Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, all focused on the dramatic episode.

Lady Gaga and Adam Driver as Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci.

Lady Gaga and Adam Driver as Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci.

SplashNews.com / ipa-agency.net

The morning of March 27, 1995 Maurizio Gucci he was killed by four gunshots while he was going to his office in via Palestro, in Porta Venezia, in Milan. The killer? A hitman or, rather, a “Bassotti Gang” hired by his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani, otherwise known as the “Liz Taylor of luxury brands” in the 70s and 80s. So, here's a painted tableau vivant of financial headaches, inheritances, hedonism, simply unique, in which family pain becomes a spectator of the perfect tragedy of the end of the century.

Roberto Gucci Giorgio Gucci and Maurizio Gucci 1983.

Roberto Gucci, Giorgio Gucci and Maurizio Gucci, 1983.

Laurent MAOUS/Getty Images

It goes without saying that the protagonist role goes to the picturesque instigator –socialite «Lady Gucci», aka la vamp of the tabloids. From the arrest dressed in a mink coat and jeweled from head to toe, to the years of detention in the San Vittore prison (or Victor's Residence as she would say), where the beautician and the hairdresser had taken the place of family visits, until the categorical refusal of semi-freedom, which she would have obtained by carrying out socially useful jobs because “I have never worked in my life, I certainly won't start now”.

Trailer of the documentary Lady Gucci, the story of Patrizia Reggiani (2021).

Gianni Versace

Among the other crimes of fashion stands out, with much bitterness, that of Gianni Versace in 1997, murdered by the professional serial killer Andrew Cunanan as he returned to his villa in Miami Beach after a promenade morning on Ocean Drive. A detective story painted in the colors of the absurd, where the motive of the renamed «Murder of a Fashion King» still remains watered down by glamour and recalled by the TV series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Furthermore, she was pilloried by the designer's sister, Donatella.

Gianni Versace 1985.

Gianni Versace, 1985.

Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

The other murders

Then we find the murder of the fashion journalist Christa Worthington in 2002, stabbed to death in her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by a local garbage collector, or that of the very young model Harry Uzoka in 2018, stabbed in the heart by his colleague George Koh on the pavement from his home in Shepherd's Bush, west London, out of romantic and professional jealousy.

The announcement of the death of Christa Worthington to the District Attorney for The Cape amp Islands.

The announcement of Christa Worthington's death to the District Attorney for The Cape & Islands.

Boston Globe/Getty Images

However, rivers of ink were also triggered by the murder of the 40-year-old in the hedonistic, excessive, unstoppable and amused Italy of the 1980s. Francesco D'Alessioson of a well-known lawyer and owner of stables, by the 26-year-old model originally from South Carolina, who came to Italy to seek her fortune among catwalks and flash photography sets, Terry Broome. On the night of June 26, 1984, with three gunshots the model put an end to the young man's life, but she also raised the truth about the dark side of the glittering world of fashion, made up of abuse, drugs, murky relationships and human misery.

Terry Broome.  Ipa photo.

Terry Broome. Ipa photo.

Frame / Frame / ipa-agency.net

The accidents

But to upset the news there are also ghostly incidents that have remained shrouded in mystery such as that of Vittorio Missoni, CEO of the brand from 1996 to 2013, when during a flight from Los Roques to Caracas he disappeared into thin air together with his wife, a couple of friends and two pilots . It is presumed swallowed by the sea, given that his body was never found and identified. Or again, the singular shared fate of Nicola and Francesco Trussardi, father and son, who both died in a car crash a few years apart from each other.

Vittorio Missoni and wife Maurizia Castiglioni 2010.

Vittorio Missoni and his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, 2010.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

«I believe that people are mainly fascinated by human beings and the gestures that they are capable of performing, as if we then asked ourselves: would I also be capable of committing such a crime?» says actress Dakota Fanning, narrator of the docuseries neon noir Last Looks. Because, in the end, the “banality of evil” doesn't even discount faces flash yourself of the fashion system. In fact, it increases the price.

Source: Vanity Fair

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