Versace Should Have Left Sooner
Want to this listen to this article instead? Tune in here.
Many of you know that in 1982, my partners and I opened the first Versace boutique in the United States.
Considering the iconic brand it became in the following decades, it wasn't as daunting as you might think. Gianni Versace was still a relatively unknown designer when we opened the store. I was incredibly fortunate to be at the crossroads of several opportunities that allowed me, a teenager then, to achieve what I did.
I still owned the franchise when Gianni Versace was murdered in 1997, and his sister, Donatella, took over as chief designer.
Last week, on March 13th, 2025, Donatella stepped down, passing the design reins to the next generation. This is good for the company and the brand’s lovers and followers. But she should have done it years ago.
For years now, Versace has struggled to create a collection that came close to the groundbreaking, innovative designs that set the brand apart in the 80s, 90s, and early aughts. It’s been hard to watch what was once arguably the most creative design house in the world lose its magic.
But why did this happen?
It happened in the same way it happens for so many of us who refuse to recognize the season of life we are in. Donatella should have stepped aside 10 to 15 years ago, allowing for the brand to reinvent itself. She failed to see that she and the business had entered a new season years ago!
It’s true that so many of us realize that we are in a new season of our lives only after we’ve been there for some time. But there is an opportunity cost to this delayed epiphany—the lost time and energy that could have been devoted to creating experiences that are the unique gifts of the season we are actually and genuinely inhabiting.
When we insist on denying change and believe we can hold back the forward march of time through our sheer will and desire, we not only miss the opportunities available to us in the present moment, but also potentially forgo future opportunities. For this reason, the Versace brand may never be able to recover from the many years of mediocrity it has endured.
The principle of opportunity cost is abundantly clear in a business context. But it applies just as robustly to our personal lives. We always give up or miss out on something when we choose one option over another.
After owning my Versace boutique for seventeen years, I took on several roles in the same industry as an executive. In one role, I could start a business from the ground up with a keen understanding of what season the brand was in. I ran the business with acute sensitivity to the weather at each moment. That business did well.
But the next business I was in charge of required me to turn back the clock. So much had been lost due to the lack of recognition of the season the company was in. I inherited a store and a team that insisted it was a different season and refused to let go of the old wardrobe that might have worked in the Winter but was now suffocating us in the Spring. In due time, the brand was acquired by a fashion conglomerate that threw the baby out with the bath water, only retaining the name and creating everything else from the ground up.
We don’t get that chance in our personal lives. As much as we can change our external appearance through botox and surgery, our internal time clock responds to the universal principles of time and space.
I think it’s human nature always to catch on a bit late as to what season we’re in. But that doesn’t mean we should surrender to this default. I believe we should do whatever it takes to be ahead of what’s coming and prepare for it wholeheartedly.
Take the time to reflect and understand what season of life you are gifted with in the present moment. Enjoy it. Harvest its bounty. Live every moment of it. But prepare, rather than escape, for the season ahead because only then can we enjoy the full bounty of what this miraculous and generative life offers.
