Fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death today outside his in Miami Beach's trendy Ocean Drive, authorities said.

Jackson Memorial Hospital confirmed Versace was brought to the hospital and died. He was 50. Hospital spokeswoman Concha Ruiz-Topinka said he was shot in the head at close range. The Italian designer was wounded on the steps of his villa on the trendy South Beach strip popular with tourists and dotted with modeling agencies. He was walking back from the nearby News Cafe, where he picked up an Italian newspaper around 7 a.m., waiter Michael Kislingbury said.  Versace's three-story, Spanish-style home, the only private residence on "Deco Drive," is surrounded by a high wall. Versace's famous renaissance-style crest adorns the ornate entrances to his estate. This morning, there was a puddle of blood on the steps, and hundreds of people had gathered across the street.  Miami Beach police spokesman Al Boza said a man was unlocking the front gate of the home when a white male in his 20s shot him. Police would not confirm the victim was Versace and gave no other information pending a late-morning news conference.  Along with Giorgio Armani, Versace was considered Italy's leading ready-to-wear designer and a symbol of Italian fashion. A native of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, he began designing ready-to-wear for other firms in 1972 in Milan. He launched the Gianni Versace label with an autumn-winter collection in 1978. Last year, he transformed a derelict Vanderbilt mansion into a New York emporium.  Versace gained fame in the 1980s with his flamboyant styles for both men and women. He staged his fashion shows with blaring rock music, glaring flood lights and mega screens reproducing what was playing on the runway. At his debut of his winter collection in Milan this March, Versace toned down his style, taking his models off the runway and letting them walk close to the audience. Among the celebrity guests were Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant and pop star Boy George. "I'm moving more into the reality of things," Versace said at the time. "It's time to step back and show clothes."  There was lots of black leather in the collection like the kind he was famous for a decade ago, but it caressed rather than grabbed the body in lady-like suits with long jacket and short skirt, straight  trousers, or square-cut mini shifts 

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