No safety pins: just lace and tears

For the few, genuine friends of Gianni Versace, it was a moment of profound emotion played out as discreetly as possible away from the hordes of photographers and television crews.

For the hordes of invitees who flocked to the Duomo in the centre of Milan for yesterday's memorial service, not to mention the crowds of bystanders who pressed against the security fences in eager anticipation, it looked like just another fashion show, a great excuse for celebrity-spotting under a blazing Italian sun.

Was it true that Madonna had booked a room at the Four Seasons next to Princess Diana? Was Tina Turner really going to start jamming with Sting and Elton John? And - the most pressing question of all - what was everybody going to wear?

It was hard to tell if Milan, capital of Italian style, was in mourning or had merely transformed itself into a giant film set. The "close friends" invited to the service in the Duomo - around 400, all told, most of them fashion industry contacts rather than personal acquaintances - received hastily-printed invitations with numbers scrawled on the back and finely calligraphed writing on the envelope, just as they might to a last-minute Versace show. Every arrangement, from the guest list to the designer- studded dinner arranged at the Via del Gesu, was kept a mystery until the last minute.

No doubt, security was the main concern, but it gave the whole day an air of surreal improvisation - rather like the artistic genie that drove Gianni Versace himself as he flirted on the very borders of bad taste with his spring and autumn collections.

The genuine mourners looked for once as though stardom was a burden they could do without. Naomi Campbell, the lithe frame on whom Versace hung his creations at show after show, could barely walk from her car to the family mansion. Once inside, she was shepherded away by Santo and Donatella, Gianni's brother and sister, and did not re-emerge until it was time to head for the Duomo.

Elton John, accompanied by his companion, David Furnish, stood for a full 15 minutes in front of the altar set up for his murdered friend before breaking down. He was later comforted in the cathedral by Diana, Princess of Wales, when he again broke down in tears.

Away from the autograph hunters, the paparazzi, the security guards, the public relations minders, the police and the simply curious, the room where Gianni Versace's ashes were on display was a real haven of peace. The golden box containing the ashes was displayed on a lace cover along with a golden crucifix and a copy of Versace's book, Do Not Disturb, featuring Helmut Newton's famous black-and-white photograph of the designer on the cover.

Outside, the gossip was all centred on the obvious - the clothes. Naomi Campbell had been wearing a simple black dress; Princess Diana, who flew in on Elton John's plane from Cannes, was in a knee-length dark suit and pearls. But this was not an occasion for flashiness, and anyone hoping for a reprise of Liz Hurley's infamous safety pin dress were to be disappointed.

The memorial service, presided by the dean of Milan's Duomo, Angelo Maio, attempted to bring home the religious significance of Gianni Versace's violent death. But with the crowds surging at the doors, and the congregation stuffed with the most unlikely of church-goers, it was only a brief moment of reflection before the cameras started rolling and the flashes started popping all over again.