Dr Grahame Griffin
Communication and Media Studies
School of Arts, Griffith University
g.griffin@mailbox.gu.edu.au
Grahame teaches communication and media studies, and his research interests
include the cultural history of photography, urban and regional identities and
images, and regional media and urban cultures. Recent publications are:'The
city, the suburb, the community and the local press: a Gold Coast case study',
Media International Australia, No 105, Nov 2002, 105-118 ; and 'Fred and Regina
- beaches and bodies: a study of two popular Gold Coast photographers', Australian
Journal of Communication, Vol 29(3), 2002, 1-16.
'The Man Has Gone - the Dream Lives On...' Fashion, Architecture and the Palazzo Versace
The quotation in the title appeared in a series of advertisements for the Palazzo Versace, a 205 suite hotel with 72 attached condominiums built at Sea World Drive, Main Beach, on the Gold Coast Australia in 2000. Palazzo Versace is the dream-child of Australian-based architect and developer, Soheil Abedian, who took his project to Milan and persuaded the Versace Group to endorse what was expected to become a repository and expression of Versace style, brand-image and product - part of the new wave of hotels built by and for the international fashion industry. This paper will chart the planning and evolution of the Palazzo Versace and examine the ambiguities and ambivalences surrounding its short history within the broader contexts of luxury product branding, the intersections and interactions of fashion, architecture and interior design, and the cultural meanings of space and place.
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