I first visited Russia ten years ago to attend a ballet by my friend, the late Maurice Béjart. It was staged in St Petersburg, and I was struck by the beauty and stateliness of this imperial city with its palaces and long straight boulevards. It was not long after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the people I met were still adapting to the idea of freedom of self-expression.

At Versace, we were quick to identify Russia as a potential new market. We opened our first store in Moscow in 1992, and soon established a clientele of newly wealthy Russian women keen to buy goods to demonstrate their material status.

It was a happy marriage. Versace in those days was all about excess. My brother rose to fame in the Eighties, a time of drama, of making a statement, and of scale. Everything was larger than life. Cindy Crawford, one of the original “super-models” – a phenomenon that Gianni created when he sent all the top girls down the runway together – said of my brother: “He was about being sumptuous – your hair couldn’t be too big, you couldn’t wear too much make-up, your boobs couldn’t be pushed too high.”

This approach struck a real chord with Russian women newly in search of glamour and sensuality in dress. These were qualities that harked back to the time of Imperial Russia, to the royal pomp of the tsars and the romance of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Versace, with its ornamentation and decorative tradition, its gold and its bright colours and prints, not to mention its dramatic eveningwear, was perfect. And the traffic went both ways. Versace has always used decorative elements from history such as Greek motifs and Renaissance scrolls.

A few weeks ago when I returned to Russia for the first time in a decade, I found it much changed. The arrival of more brands has transformed the retail landscape. When people have choice, they can decide what they like. Back in the Nineties there was little choice but now women can shop here in the same way that they can in Milan or London or Paris, and that has, of course, altered the way they dress.

But what really struck me was the way in which this choice is now being exercised. Gone is the tendency towards ostentation and “bling”. Instead, today’s Russian women are in search of something more sophisticated. At a cocktail party I held at my Moscow store, I was greeted by many extremely well-dressed customers; but two stood out. They had a great freshness and confidence, and were dressed in a modern and understated way. It turned out that they were the granddaughters of Mikhail Gorbachev.

But just as ten years has altered the way Russian women are dressing, so too has it altered the look at Versace. If the Eighties were about hedonism and excess, the new century has a more subdued mood.

When I inherited the reins of this business, it was in the most horrific circumstances. I had been assisting my brother, but I was not prepared for the responsibility that was suddenly thrust upon me. For several years I was having to produce collections while still grieving for him, and with the world watching as I learned my trade. It was very difficult, and for a long time I felt like I was impersonating Gianni.

But then, gradually, I started to discover my own voice. I started to realise that I had a valid contribution to make, and that while I am immersed in the DNA of Versace – how could I not be, as Gianni taught me everything about fashion? – the collections started to reflect my personal journey from girl to woman. I now design Versace for confident, strong women who want to look glamorous, sexy and fashionable, whatever their age, whatever their nationality. So as Versace has become about cut and fabric, elegant, sensual lines, as well as daywear and accessories, rather than the show-stopping red-carpet models of old (thank you, Liz Hurley), this is how the fashionable Russian woman of 2007 wants to dress.

So what happened? Well of course, fashion works in cycles, so maybe the Russians, like everybody else, simply decided that luxury should get a bit quieter? But I think there’s more to it. After visiting Moscow and talking to women there, and seeing the incredible architecture of the Kremlin and Saint Basil’s, I realise the simple truth that in Russia, culture matters.

In many ways, the Russians remind me of the Italians – we both have long and complex histories, we are both passionate peoples and fiercely proud of our heritages, and we both have deep cultural roots. So I am convinced now that the reason today’s Russian women have toned down their look is because they did not want to appear uncultured or unsophisticated. Or simply gauche.

The Russian women I met – women such as Olga Sloutsker, the president and founder of a chain of premium fitness centres, Aliona Doletskaya, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Russia, and the luxury retailer Alla Verber – were anything but gauche, and spoke of a new generation of Russian women, empowered by earning a living and running businesses. These are not the leisured wives and girlfriends of wealthy oligarchs. Nor are they the young Russian models who crowd the catwalks of Milan, with their exotic features. These are confident, intelligent women who want to dress in an elegant and sophisticated way.

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