Hinsdale couple furnishes home around Italian designer's pieces
A bit of Gianni Versace's elaborate, high-design world survives in the Hinsdale home of Chuck and Diana Ivas.
The house they built 11 years ago - shortly after Versace's 1997 murder in Miami Beach - is vibrantly decorated in a French empire style, with some of their antiques dating from that Napoleonic era of 1800 to 1813.
Showpiece furniture, artwork and accessories were personal possessions of the Italian designer. And the Ivases also chose fabrics and rugs from the Versace Home collection.
It's amazing to realize the pieces they have purchased at auction in London and New York or from Versace's family are just a fraction of what the designer accumulated in his four homes.
And their stories of acquisition tell a tale about celebrity auctions.
Take the salon set that fits perfectly in the Ivas great room. A sofa and two chairs sit in fringed glory with fabric that is two patterns of rich blue and green. And don't forget the red birds.
It was designed and custom made for the Miami Beach mansion that Versace called Casa Casuarina. The Ivases bought the set at a New York auction that attracted lots of media attention.
In the frenzied first day the couple paid $28,000 for the set, which they consider a very good price. The publicity brought more crowds to the auction's next two days. Then a pair of upholstered chairs with ottomans claimed $60,000.
Diana Ivas likes Versace's use of colors. "The fabric is unusual and bright," she said.
In the Ivas master bedroom is an upholstered set of a sofa and chairs with a leopard and palm tree fabric called Wild Miami that casts a warm, sandy-gold glow. Someone bid $68,000 for this at the auction but did not complete the contract. Later Donatella Versace, Gianni's sister, sold it to the Ivases for $6,000, including shipping.
A few lots were offered at very low prices after the auction, including a pair of French empire beds for $20,000, but the Ivases did not have any place to put them.
The light blue Canova pattern of the bedding was from the suite designed for Santo Versace, Gianni's brother, at the Miami Beach mansion. And Simes Studios of Chicago painted a mural inspired by one in Versace's home.
Prices can get very crazy at these auctions, said the Ivases. For example, the London auction of items from Gianni Versace's Italian estate grossed almost $10 million. The Ivases wanted to buy furniture but were outbid by Russian oil millionaires and settled for a few paintings.
"You can bid on 30 lots and get four," said Chuck Ivas. And six identical chairs can be sold in pairs for vastly different prices.
Two other treasures stand in the second-floor study open to the Ivas spiral staircase.
An 1820 French table with a painting of Neptune and mermaids on glass was used as a desk in Versace's New York townhouse. The chair with gold winged lions on the front legs was not owned by Versace. It was commissioned by Napoleon's architect, but Chuck Ivas does not know whether it was for the emperor.
The exterior of the Ivas house is reminiscent of Versace's neoclassical Villa Fontanelle in Italy.
Chuck Ivas has worn Versace clothing since the late 1980s, and one day in a Chicago boutique the staff handed him a book about Versace's homes while Diana was trying on dresses.
Paging through the book, he realized "This is how I want to live."
The couple was trying to decide whether to build their new home in an art deco style. Their previous Hinsdale home had been decorated in that early 20th Century look "like a 1920s New York apartment."
Now Realtors with RE/MAX Elite in Hinsdale, the couple haunted Parisian galleries to learn about art deco when they were younger.
"I was making $20,000 as an air traffic controller, and she was making $15,000 as a teacher in the 1970s. In Paris we were offered room and dining sets for $35,000. They would be worth $500,000 now, but we didn't have the money."
French Empire furniture is priced lower than art deco, at least for now.
"We both love the Versace style," said Diana Ivas, "Chuck almost more than me."
And Chuck Ivas said he misses Gianni Versace because the company's clothes, furniture and other designs are just not the same.
"Now they tell you to go on the Internet and look at the collection. And the furniture is modern. They used to send you DVDs and big, colorful catalogs," he said.