40 years after his first meeting with Gianni Versacethus disappears, carried away at the age of 63 by an incurable disease, Antonio D’Amico, historical companion and confidant of the great stylist, was killed on July 15, 1997 at his South Beach villa in Miami. In a strange twist of fate, the news of his death comes two days after the release of his memoirs. Saint Versace, who was never on good terms with his brother’s boyfriend, especially after the opening of Gianni’s will, which left the then 38-year-old an annuity of 50 million lire a month and the right to live in former Versace homes in Italy. and in the USA. In fact, Antonio will never live in these very luxurious residences – from the Empire in Como to the luxurious in Miami and the more classic in Milan – also forgoing a monthly income and preferring the speedy settlement of what was associated with it in a single solution, perhaps anticipating that with him the time will be tyrannical.

Born in Mesagne, near Brindisi, in 1959. Antonio D’Amico, along with his brothers, was Gianni Versace’s strongest bond.. They met in 1982 for dinner at Dopo Skala: then the 22-year-old boy was studying ballet, and in the same year the stylist designed costumes for Joseph legend by Richard Strauss. At the table, they sit side by side and talk all evening, right after Antonio, 13 years younger than him, leaves for Japan for work, when he returns, he finds messages on Gianni’s answering machine, who has searched for him several times, but never found. He calls him back, they set up a dinner date and never part. The two create a very strong bond: “We lived together 24 hours a day, we did everything together, in symbiosis,” he told Serena Bortone’s TV studio last year in an interview with “Today is another day.” he also begins to contribute to the creation of the Versace sports line.. Their partnership continues happily until that damned morning in 1997, when their relationship is abruptly torn apart by the murderous rage of Andrew Cunanan, a drug addict devoted to homosexual prostitution, who freezes the stylist on the steps of the house with two shots from a pistol. Antonio rescues him first, along with his friend Lázaro Quintana. Gianni is rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, but is pronounced dead soon after.

“It was a day that, unfortunately, broke my life, it cut my life in two: one part left, and the other remained and buried itself.said Antonio, who published a biography a few years ago called this is your song, inspired by the famous song of Elton John, a close friend of the designer, in the front row with Lady Diana, Sting, Madonna and Naomi Campbell at his funeral in Milan. A poignant book in which he wrote that he went through an eight-year crisis after losing his partner and that he also tried to commit suicide: “I had no more reasons. Nothing else made sense.” “Next year would have been 40 years with Gianni, and now it’s 16 years with Alberto, my new partner, with whom I rebuilt my life.” She lived with him in Manerba del Garda, where she launched a new golf-inspired clothing line called “Antonio D’Amico Golf” and then a tailored clothing line called “Principe di Ragada”, offering fashion from the past, “as Gianni taught me.”

“I never fell, I always flew,” the designer liked to say about himself. We like to think that Antonio didn’t really leave, but just left to join him.