Allegra Versace Beck (; born 30 June 1986), commonly known as Allegra Versace, is an Italian-American heiress and socialite. Since 2011 Allegra has been a director of Gianni Versace S.p.A. and has worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as a theatrical dresser.

Early life and education

Allegra Versace is the daughter of Italian fashion designer

Donatella Versace Donatella Francesca Versace (; born 2 May 1955) is an Italian fashion designer, businesswoman, socialite, and model. She is the sister of Gianni Versace, founder of the luxury fashion company Versace, with whom she worked closely on the developm ...

and American ex-

fashion model A model is a person with a role either to promote, display or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing in fashion shows) or to serve as a visual aid for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Thoug ...

Paul Beck, and the niece of fashion designer

Gianni Versace Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...

. She was raised outside

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Italy, with her younger brother Daniel. Sir Elton John gave her a piano that she admits she never learned to play. As a child, she took ballet classes for nine years and is to this day a huge admirer of ballet. She credits her uncle Gianni as having instilled in her this lifelong passion for ballet. For one of her birthdays, he introduced her to

Maurice Béjart Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast th ...

. Versace attended

The British School of Milan The British School of Milan (BSM), formerly "The Sir James Henderson School," is a non-profit English-language IB World School founded in 1969 by members of the British Community in Milan, with support from the British Chambers of Commerce. The s ...

, then known as "The Sir James Henderson School", where she was tightly guarded. Following the completion of

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

, she went abroad, first to

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, then in 2006, she enrolled at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where she studied French,

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

, and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Inheritance of Versace

Allegra Versace was eleven years old when her uncle

was fatally shot outside his Miami mansion in July 1997. Her mother immediately sought counseling for her. On her 18th birthday, she received 50% ownership of Gianni Versace S.p.A. Allegra's uncle

Santo Versace Santo Domenico Versace (; born 16 December 1944) is an Italian businessman and politician who is the president and co-chief executive officer of Gianni Versace SpA, based in Milan, Italy. Since 2008 he has been elected as Member of the Chambe ...

already owned 30% of the fashion empire, and her mother already owned 20%, but due to a long-standing disagreement between the two, the remaining 50% of the Versace empire was

bequeath Historically, a bequest is personal property given by will and a devise is real property given by will. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably. The word ''bequeath'' is a verb form for the act of making a bequest. Etymology Bequest c ...

ed by Gianni to Allegra. Allegra instantly became worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite legally being able to claim full control of her inheritance at the age of 18, she opted to focus entirely on her studies and did not begin real participation in the business of Versace until she was 24.

Personal life

She has struggled with

anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gr ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Versace, Allegra 1986 births Brown University alumni Fashion designers from Milan Italian women fashion designers Italian people of American descent Italian socialites 21st-century Italian businesswomen Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni Versace