Donatella Versace has been a staple in the fashion community for decades. Her everchanging appearance has become part of her allure and the biggest celebrities in the world aspire to be dressed by the designer. She is known for how chic her style is but her beauty and her ability to transform herself is not as celebrated as it should be.
She's been in the spotlight since the 1980s and has been rubbing elbows with the most beautiful people in the world, and the Italian beauty still somehow manages to always steal the spotlight away from them.
TV viewers got a glimpse at what Donatella was like on the FX series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The beauty was portrayed by none other than Penelope Cruz on the show–and their resemblance was astounding.
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The Versace family themselves claim to not have authorized the show and considered the series "as a work of fiction." In fact, Cruz told E! News when the show first aired that she actually spoke to Donatella, the Italian fashion designer and sister of the late Gianni Versace, before taking the role:
I've seen her over the years and she has always been very nice to me. I said to [Ryan Murphy], "Before I say yes I need to make this phone call." … She said to me that if somebody was going to do it, that if somebody was going to play her, that she was happy it was me.
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The role had us thinking a lot about Donatella and her ever-changing looks and style. The Italian designer is a rare beauty and an icon whose appearance is constantly evolving–probably with a little help from plastic surgery. Here's a look at her beauty transformation over the years.
— Additional reporting by Sugey Palomares
She's always had a strong sense of style.
Donatella is pictured here with singer Elton John at the Just Say Yes Benefit for the Phoenix House back in March of 1990. She’s clearly always had a love of tanning, but her face looked untouched, natural, and radiant.
Her tan kept getting darker.
Later that year, Donatella attended the Paris Haute Couture Show and Cocktail party with her brother Gianni Versace, looking even tanner and glowy. We’re loving that outfit too!
Her appearance really started to change in 1995.
This picture of the Italian fashion designer partying with Jennifer Lopez at Limelight in New York is everything. Those long platinum strands look dope. Her face was also starting to look a lot tighter and tucked.
She started getting cheekbones for days.
She still looked like herself later that year but her cheekbones looked a lot more defined and sculpted in this picture with her brother Gianni. Can we talk about how silky smooth her hair looked though?
She was working it in 1998.
She looked absolutely fabulous while speaking at a press conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the Fire and Ice Ball annual event, alongside supermodel Cindy Crawford and socialite philanthropist Lilly Tartikoff Karatz. Though you could clearly tell she had gotten a bit of work done at this point, she still looked like her amazing self!
Donatella starting showing off a much darker tan in 2001.
Her lips also looked plumper and she owned it!
She went blonder in 2002.
Donatella held off on the fake tanning, and started modeling a slimmer, more natural look. Her hair was also a lot more platinum.
The tanning came back in 2004.
So did the long, yellow-ish blonde strands.
She got slimmer in 2005.
The designer stuck to her signature tanned complexion and super blonde hair too.
Her face started to look even more sculpted in 2006.
Donatella arrived at Elle mag's 21st anniversary party showing plenty of attitude and a tight and sculpted face.
In 2008 Donatella's face started looking significantly plumper.
We don't know what she was getting done, but the change was obvious.
She got really tiny in 2009.
She was snapped looking skinnier than ever at the Whitney Museum Gala in New York City. Seems like she was inspired by her runway models.
Her makeup got bolder and more intense by 2010.
She kept her makeup very fashion forward with dark, smoky eyes and nude lips.
Her face looked tighter in 2015, but she was doing her thing.
Her sleek blonde cut was also insanely chic!
She remained significantly slim in 2014.
She managed to maintain a slim and toned figure while also sticking to her signature beauty look.
In 2017 she was still killing it.
The designer was honored at the 2017 British Fashion Awards and received the Fashion Icon Award for her work as artistic director of Versace. She dressed to impress in a printed Versace gown (of course) while rocking a sleek blonde bob. Her face has definitely changed over the years, but it hasn’t made her any less fab!
She started off 2018 looking all kinds of amazing.
The designer has never confirmed having had work done, but many have criticized her for being a plastic surgery disaster. We’re not here to judge or tell women what they should or shouldn’t do to their faces and bodies. She will always be glamorous to us!
