Miami, hold onto your margaritas—Donatella Versace just unleashed some haute couture fury, and it’s as spicy as a jalapeño in stilettos.
Apparently, there’s a brand-new hotel about to open in Miami called the Donatella Boutique Hotel & Restaurant (because originality is out of fashion, clearly), and Queen Donatella herself is not having it. Like, at all. Zero. Zilch. No thank you, next.
On May 10, the 70-year-old fashion icon—and woman who can probably kill with a single side-eye—took to Instagram to say, “Absolutely NOT, darling,” to this new establishment that dared slap her name on the front like a discounted designer bag.
> “Let me be clear,” she typed, with the fury of a thousand runway models who missed their espresso shots. “The hotel and restaurant named ‘Donatella,’ located near the property where my brother’s life was taken, has and will never have anything to do with me or my family.”
And just in case anyone missed the point (or had the audacity to think this was a collab), she doubled down:
“To try to capitalize on our tragedy and my name for profit is disgraceful.”
Translation: Get my name out yo’ mouth, and off your tacky signage.
Now, for the tea. The hotel is apparently being opened by Nakash and Vida & Estilo Hospitality group (we know, sounds like the name of a mid-season “Shark Tank” pitch). It’s scheduled to open on May 21, but now it’s opening with a fresh layer of scandal.
Quick Versace history break: The Nakash fam bought the OG Versace mansion back in 2013 for a cool $41.5 million (casual). Gianni Versace, the legend himself, bought the mansion in 1992, and heartbreakingly, it’s also where he was killed in 1997. The Versace family sold it three years later, and the new owners turned it into the very glam-sounding Villa Casa Casuarina (which yes, has a restaurant called Gianni’s, because subtlety is dead).
Fast forward to 2025, and now the same group is out here trying to open a so-called “sister property” called Donatella, per Ocean Drive magazine. But let’s be real, it’s giving awkward cousin energy more than glamorous sibling vibes.
Oh, and if this all wasn’t dramatic enough, Donatella also recently stepped down as Creative Director of Versace after 30 years, probably to relax with a spritz and not have to deal with random hotels hijacking her name.
Moral of the story: If you’re going to name your hotel after a living fashion deity, maybe send a polite email first? Or at least bribe her with a custom marble bathtub and a lifetime supply of gold-threaded towels?
