Antonio D’Amico is an Italian designer and model, who rose to fame as the partner of slain fashion legend Gianni Versace, founder of the eponymous fashion label ‘Versace.’ Born in Italy, D’Amico worked as an office administrator and model before meeting Versace. He dated Versace for over a decade, until Versace’s murder outside his Miami Beach residence in 1997. The public nature of the crime, the gruesome history of the perpetrator, and Versace’s popularity (and the general public’s interest in his sexuality) made the murder a landmark cultural moment and the source of life-long notoriety for D’Amico. It also worsened D’Amico’s strained relationship with a few members of the Versace family and affected his living conditions and professional future, ultimately forcing him into a depressive spiral, spanning several years. 21 years after the event, D’Amico returned to his designing career. He now lives in northern Italy with his new partner. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in the case with the arrival of a new season of the hit TV show ‘American Crime Story,’ titled ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace,’ which deals entirely with the murder. D’Amico has stated that he did not like his portrayal on the show and that there were several inaccuracies in the depiction of both his relationship with Versace and his reaction to the sensational crime.
