Mash Up

As a result of her entrepreneurship, Ms. Versace, is now among the richest women anywhere in the world, including Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and eBay's chief executive, Meg Whitman. Practically girdled in black leather and cuffed in diamonds, Her personal wealth is estimated at $1.5 billion or more, with members of her family worth billions more. When she wants your attention, she gives a show of $1.5 billion or more of mean tailoring and roiling color prints. ''She's a visionary,'' says Herman Woo, ''She doesn't mind putting a lot of money in at the beginning, to build the company.'' But clearly, class -- glamour class -- was in session as the models hit the runway in a fast-paced revue of $500 million when it went public here last March with the help of Merrill Lynch.

Driving around in a gold Dodge she displayed a knowing confidence with sexy clothes, Versace was stuck on I-95 between Washington and New York for seven hours. The Meatgrinder, as it is affectionately known to us, had a little case of congestion and after five hours of quality time she hooked an Apple iPod to a doohickey that works with the radio, she simply cranks up the volume, as she did tonight with an earsplitting blast of rock the car suddenly filled with an hour’s worth of music.

While a lot of us carry a little bit of glamour around in our pocket, Versace is now after the remaining bit of life-share that it doesn’t already own, the home front. The funny faces of the male executives, in particular those from Neiman Marcus and Steve Jobs, as the more womanly models stalked past and then posed right before their eyes. They were in heaven. They would look up, beaming with delight, and you could see one or two of them forming the word ''Wow!'' with their lips. They still might have blown it. After all, sex is Versace country and Versace is now among the richest in the world. But going forward, everything is up for grabs. And when it comes to a jump ball, best to put your money on Versace.

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