Britney Spears receives visit from Donatella Versace, the designer of her future wedding dress

The friendship between singer Britney Spears and Italian designer Donatella Versace goes back more than 20 years. Over the past two decades, the two have supported one another, both publicly and privately. The American pop star has worn Versace designs on tours, at stage performances (such as the one she did with Michael Jackson in 2011), on the red carpet and in her private life. She has also attended Versace fashion shows. Meanwhile the designer, who is the sister of the late Gianni Versace, has strongly supported Spears’ battle to be released from a legal conservatorship that allowed the singer’s father, Jamie Spears, complete legal control over her finances and day-to-day existence from its signing in 2008 – a fight she won last November.

Now the friendship has gone one step further, with Donatella Versace traveling to Los Angeles on Sunday to meet with Spears in person. The fashion icon visited the singer at her home and met with her boyfriend of four years, Sam Asghari.

Spears shared many photos of the visit on her Instagram account (with 40 million followers) that were reshared by Versace on her own account (with nearly eight million followers). “Look who came to visit… these two bad bitches are up to no good,” Spears captioned one of her posts. “It was so nice to see you again,” Versace responded on her own account.

But beyond a friendly visit, could there have been another purpose for the trip? A few months after Spears announced her engagement to Asghari, she posted photos of herself in a semi-sheer pink gown, prompting some to ask if this was going to be her wedding dress. Spears’ response was clear. “No…this is not my wedding dress bahahah!!!!” she wrote on Instagram. “Donatella Versace is making my dress as we speak.”

Versace’s visit on Sunday could therefore have been the first meeting about the design for the dress. In the photos shared on Instagram, Spears appears in two different tops, suggesting she changed her outfit during Versace’s visit. The 66-year-old designer also appears with and without a jacket, which also hints it was not a brief stay.

Spears announced her engagement to Asghari last September, when she was still under a legal conservatorship. The 40-year-old singer and the 28-year-old personal trainer are keen to be married as soon as possible. Spears also wants to start a family with Asghari. In her testimony during the conservatorship trial, the singer told the court that her father had forced her to get an IUD to stop her from getting pregnant. This will be Asghari’s first marriage and Spears’ third. In 2004, she married Jason Alexander, a childhood friend, but the union only lasted 55 days, and between 2004 and 2007, Spears was married to Kevin Federline, who is the father of her two children, Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15.

The friendship between Britney Spears and Donatella Versace goes back a long way. One key moment dates back to 2002, when the pop star attended a Versace fashion show in Milan. The singer sat in the front row and was dressed in a beaded gown designed by the Italian fashion house. A few months ago, Versace remembered the encounter in a post on Instagram, writing: “I’ll never forget when you came and stayed with me Britney, you were and will always be magical!”