Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Donatella Versace and other celebrities took part at Vienna's 13th annual Life Ball on Saturday to benefit AIDS research. Versace entered the red carpet driving down a BMW Mini decorated in her company's trademark gold leaf design.

For the event, Donatela Versace organized a fashion show displaying, for the first time, designs created by her late brother, Gianni, before he was killed in Miami Beach in 1997.

"It's very emotional for me", she said. "I can't think of a more appropriate place for these to be shown than the Life Ball".

More then 35,000 people gathered at Vienna's city hall, transformed into a discotheque for the evening, and partied all night. Other celebrities invited were Heidi Klum, singer Marianne Faithful and soul star Randy Crawford.

Last year's event raised 907,000 euro (£623,000)