This is a job I want (prayer works)-------resuscitating (rebranding) Versace, which has reported stunning profit losses several quarters running, and generally seemed to ungrip its place at the head of the table, at the front of our minds, lost at/about/within the Information Economy.

Italian houses are (ought to be) all about families. I love Donatella and think her creative potential continues to be strong (remember that beautiful Spring '06 post-rehab collection that was all Sedona and Palm Springs?). I think my role would principally be a marketing one...where a younger eye toward brand/house history and American pop ($$$) might guide Versace to make the right kind of noise (and then bucks).
I wouldn't for a second want the brand to stop being about her (or, of course, Gianni's) kind of LOUD, SEXED, FESTOONED, AND PLASTIC LUXE dressing and living and looking. Versace isn't hip or hippie ever in the least, and a shift in that direction would be disastrous. Versace is brilliantly aligned with that Elvis Presley idea of female beauty where a full face of make-up, a big head of blown out hair and a mess of cleavage are essentials. Donatella believes in her woman; she is her woman. And not only does she have a real, direct, held-to point of view (a design must), but one that happens to be eternally saleable, rather permanent....there is a market for looking like an Ibiza-frequenter for miles and miles. And, I'm shocked that right now of all nows, the label is suffering. Because this-here is a time for discotheque, for the Guido and the Euro-at-large, for metallics and tans and big prints. Also, audiences are beyond primed to remember Gianni's early 90s working relationships with glAmazons...
Versace has a major logo. The Medusa medallion (...beyond a logo, really) and Greek key and classic Gianni prints belong everywhere on every thing and one. They are potent gestures toward a conglomerated Ancient and 20th century (and papal?) information---the Roman appropriation of Greekness, the Romanization of that Greekness, garishness and war plumage, war entitlement, gold coin, white marble, spectacle, appetite, the first mafia, Nero, Miami in the 80s, crashing yachts, golden-gated driveways, *R*I*C*O*, Biggie Biggie Biggie, HOT DAMNING DECADENCE. All of this is within the brand, powerfully suggested by the brand insignias.
Versace can turn around via its own archive, a reissue, a return-to. Easy does it.

They ought to push and standardize their handbag and luggage range----Greek key embossment with gold (and sometimes bejewelled) Medusa hardware and a lot of structure (no slouch) in many vivid colors and rare skins, not in the one-off seasonal collaboration mode of Marc Jacobs at Vuitton, but consistently (broadly within a set of limits) and with an air of custom-ness befitting top-notch leathergoods. I think one-off seasonal collaborations would be brilliant for jewelry, watches, and scarf prints. Versus should get a splashy-hire, a new (baby new) name at helm, and maybe push teen celebrities in ads and at shows. Great big attention should be paid to Hip Hop, its history/present/future, its stars and channels toward consumers--as I suggested above, Biggie in a Versace silk shirt (such a picture hangs at Juniors' main campus) goes a long way in this 90s redux environment...people need reminding. Christina Aguilera has always been dressed by Donatella, and I like the idea of sticking with/by music people; traditonal-trajectory, Oscar-calibur Hollywood (like Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman) is so (white and) boring (actors and present-day films often so unstylish). Reality stars (Real Life Stars), Hollywood via tabloids (and Twilight), people famous-everywhere-but-America-(yet), MODELS, and popular musicians are the way...
Much of the rebranding would be about shaping and solidifying the Versace legacy, Gianni's and Donatella's, assuring recognition of THE IDEA of Versace...
how fun!