FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:	At the Academy:                     At Columbia University:
                Maria Catalano Rand                 Suzanne Trimel
                                                    Kathleen Madden
                                                    (212) 854-6579
                                                    (212) 854-2306

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies
at Columbia University

in conjunction with The Metropolitan Museum of Art
will host an exhibition of photographs and a lecture by:

RICHARD MARTIN
Senior Curator of the Costume Institute
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

"GIANNI VERSACE:
HISTORY AND INVENTION"

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH AT 5 P.M.
At the TEATRO of CASA ITALIANA
1161 Amsterdam Avenue at 118th Street
With a reception to follow.

Gianni Versace was a great fashion pioneer who combined the 
worlds of high style and popular culture. A charismatic and 
accomplished designer of clothing and theater costumes, he was 
influenced by Andy Warhol and modern abstract art.  He also 
appreciated a range of historic attires, which he incorporated in his 
creations.  Greek and Roman classic designs, 18th and 19th century 
gowns and the stules of the 1920's and 1930's were innovatively wed to 
new materials such as plastic, leather and metal mesh.

Richard Martin, senior curator of The Costume Institute of 
the Metropolian Museum of Art, is adjunct professor of art history 
and archaeology at Columbia University.  The author of books, 
catalogs and articles on fashion and costume design, he was editor of 
Arts Magazine from 1974 to 1988.  In 1996, he received a Special 
Award of the Council of Fashion Designers in America and was 
elected a Fellow of the Costume Society of America.

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