ABSTRACT
I write this chapter shortly after the fall fashion collections shown during the week of Gianni Versace’s murder. The death of the fashion designer dominated the news, one sideline being the lifestyle of style. Fashion, in all its manifold forms-from Versace’s prostitute style made into high style on the runways; to the Versace, glitzy Miami Beach mansion; to the Versace funeral photos of Princess Di comforting Elton John-was on the air. Beyond the grizzly events of the murder, another material world was on show. This, the world of male cleavage, pneumatic shoulders, and black rubber cutaways was a spectacle: clothing laughing out loud.
