Book Club

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"The atelier was descending into Chaos. Donatella began sleeping until lunchtime and often didn't turn up at Via Gesu until midafternoon... Oftentimes, she was so befuddled that members of her team who spoke no Italian couldn't make sense of her garbled English. During long meetings with Versace executives, she escaped to the bathroom halfway through. When she returned, she was so confused that the managers had to start the meetings virtually from scratch. The atmosphere in the atelier became increasingly strained, her group afraid to provoke her whenever she turned up. Their respect for her deteriorated as her behavior grew more erratic. She phoned one employee in the middle of the night raving about something she wanted them to do. Wild stories about how many grams of cocaine Donatella snorted each day flew through Via Gesu." [House of Versace]