"In Italian there is an expression: We don't sleep on the fame"
About this Quote
Even in its slightly off-kilter translation, the line lands like a stilettos-down warning: fame is not a mattress, its just a room you pass through. Versace takes a cozy idea (resting, settling in, getting comfortable) and denies it. The phrasing carries the cadence of a proverb, the kind that pretends to be folksy while delivering a corporate-grade ethic: if you pause to enjoy your myth, you’re already behind.
The intent is bluntly managerial. Donatella is defending the brand and her own leadership after inheriting a fashion house built on Gianni Versace’s charisma and tragedy. In that context, “fame” isn’t abstract celebrity; it’s a precarious asset with an expiration date, especially in fashion where attention is seasonal and cruelty is constant. The subtext: we were famous yesterday; we still have to sell tomorrow. You can hear an implicit rebuttal to the lazy narrative that luxury houses coast on legacy. Versace, she implies, is not a museum.
It also works as a self-portrait. Donatella has spent decades being treated as both icon and caricature, praised for spectacle and policed for excess. “We don’t sleep” positions her not as the ornament of fame but as its laborer - the person awake at the switchboard, keeping the lights on. There’s a cool Italian pragmatism here: glamour is the product, not the lifestyle.
The intent is bluntly managerial. Donatella is defending the brand and her own leadership after inheriting a fashion house built on Gianni Versace’s charisma and tragedy. In that context, “fame” isn’t abstract celebrity; it’s a precarious asset with an expiration date, especially in fashion where attention is seasonal and cruelty is constant. The subtext: we were famous yesterday; we still have to sell tomorrow. You can hear an implicit rebuttal to the lazy narrative that luxury houses coast on legacy. Versace, she implies, is not a museum.
It also works as a self-portrait. Donatella has spent decades being treated as both icon and caricature, praised for spectacle and policed for excess. “We don’t sleep” positions her not as the ornament of fame but as its laborer - the person awake at the switchboard, keeping the lights on. There’s a cool Italian pragmatism here: glamour is the product, not the lifestyle.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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