Top 53 Quotes & Sayings by Franca Sozzani

Fashion is a mirror of the era in which we live. Why should the magazine be disconnected from reality? It's not like in the past.

You just click and you get 18,000 screen shots on how to apply lipstick, for example, but there will be the same selection that has taken place in paper in digital, too.

I am very favorable to the Bourse, to a sale, to what is useful to grow, maintaining jobs, the Made in Italy. It doesn't make any sense and it's parochial to think otherwise. Investors can be French, Russian, as long as they help a business grow.

What worries me is that now, communication is virtual.

I was doing the Black Issue in 2006 and then went to Africa for Uomo Vogue. I've worked with Gucci and Fendi, committed to create jobs. Fifty percent of those ads went to non-government organizations in Africa. [Nelson] Mandela was on the cover, it helped create attention.

As for Instagram, I follow about 100 people, but I am not interested in what a designer is doing or what a friend of a friend is doing. I upload my photos on Instagram.

Think of Instagram. Journalism will continue to exist, but communication is now visual.

Vogue is not a practical magazine, it provides sensations, feeling, moods, you like the photos.

For me, money is to use - it's only to use. So I never have money because I always spend. That's why in a way I protect myself in having houses. But if I had just cash or kept it in the bank, I'd spend it immediately. But not for stupid things. So I don't like to have money. I never have money in my pocket.

There are designers there, we have to think of production, but I am not changing Africa. But if we all do something together....We have to know our limits, I don't have the pretense I can change the world. And I don't want to set up events [to raise money]. Because what happens if the following year they don't have an event, they won't eat?

I don't understand "The Little World of the Past" [a reference to the title of the book by Antonio Fogazzaro] that is destined to die.

The light of the screen annoys me.

I don't like fashionistas. They only wear the brand. You want to become a fashionista? Easy! Spend money.

We lack an organization that will support fashion week. The five-day week shows a lack of vision and that we are not able to command respect. I am not saying it's anyone's fault in particular, it's our fault. We have the highest concentration of brands, how can we accommodate everyone in four or five days?

I started entering in a series of problems I had never occupied myself with - water, production, employment. I am learning. You can do so many things. However, I don't feel guilty for living well here.

My view is not just to find young talents, it's to support them too.

Everything inspires me. It could be a movie. It could be a book. It could be a house. It could be one word - I'll think for hours and hours about one word sometimes. It could be anything.

I was living in the moment that feminism came out of, and I think it's only through the work that women are doing today that they are making out better than men. So it's important that you are a feminist in your mind but that you have an attitude sometimes like men.

I am a great supporter of [Matteo ] Renzi, he is young, he knows how to communicate, he's our great hope.

I thought Italian Vogue had always been considered the most experimental, avant-garde magazine. If I was going to use the same kind of language and the same kind of photos or images on the web site, it would be a disaster because Vogue has its own world, and it could be a little bit cold, you know? We don't give what you call a service.

Instagram has been around for what, maybe a couple of years? Already it has shut down some small blogs - it's a collector of others and those most followed. It's already a selection. I imagine this further selection will take place in the next two years. It's going to be very fast.

I like to be risky every day, changing minds every day. I'm not reliable at all in my ideas. I can change my ideas three times a day. I change different things, the parts of the content. But I never change the content of who I am. So my challenge every day is to change and to take risks.

In New York there are between four and six big designers, and the shows last one week. There is something wrong here. It's our fault. We can't stand up for it. They take our ads, don't they? Why don't they want to stay longer in Milan? Why do we have to comply? We have the most beautiful brands, they are Italians.

When we launched our [ Vogue] site around five years ago, I had already started this process on paper. We are now building an enormous portfolio of photos, we've uploaded two million photos and we have three people that review them.

You know, I can be very tough in my answers, and that was good for the magazine because it didn't mix focus points - it was to be extravagant, experimental, innovative. But the web site has made it more human. So the Web site is good for the magazine.

What is Milan's character? Let's not be closed in by our provincialism.

The only time I was really surprised was the reaction to the [shoot dedicated to the] BP oil [spill in 2010]. I didn't expect it at all. It was for the August issue, perhaps one of the less relevant months, but there was so much buzz. It was picked up all over the American television, but I defended my position. I don't understand those that say that a magazine such as Vogue should not talk about these things.

Giving back is the new luxury.

We've created a community and these images [from Vogue] will live on with exhibitions, postcards, projections. We help them gain more exposure. Instagram already works as a selection. It's my curiosity into the world of youth, what they do, what they buy.

Milan is showing a new and different face. At Porta Nuova, too, when they started construction, everyone was up in arms, saying Milan was going to lose its character.

You can look up "heart" and get 100,000 voices, but slowly the ones at the end are no longer credible, so there will be a selection in Web sites, too.

I say let Matteo Renzi work. He took over a country that was in disarray, not florid. And not the other way around.

Fashion has always been very generous. Think of what it has done for curing AIDS.

Bloggers now have no concept. They are given things; they put them on, take pictures, and then just disappear from sight. Who cares?

In “Curvy,” they are superhappy with their sizes. We help them dress fashionably. We say: It’s pointless for you to buy leggings, take this because this will look good on you. We help them choose. We don’t talk about diets because they don’t want to be on a diet, but it’s not a ghetto. Why should these women slim down? Many of the women who have a few extra kilos are especially beautiful and also more feminine.

I feel what is in the air. I go with my instinct.

You can get tired of anything, everything turns old, but I want to give people the possibility to share a Vogue party. It is up to the brands to participate to make the event interesting. I am satisfied, but it's important never to stop.

I think I just do what I feel is good to do. Everybody can give me their suggestions, but at the end, the final risk is mine because it's my name on the magazine. So I only do what I really feel. Everybody tries to influence you, of course: "Oh, this is the right moment to do this" and "This is the right photographer to choose," and "This is the right model to have . . ." I listen, but I must go my own way. When you take risks, it means that you know every month people are there to judge you.

I don't have time, I watch movies, or shows people are talking about. Television is the medium I use the least; I'd rather use my computer, iPhone or iPad.

[Patrizio Bertelli or Gildo Zegna] are individuals who are superbusy, traveling all the time. You can't think they will have the time to attend all the meetings.

Credibility is a must. Think of all those bloggers that kill us with photos outside the shows - there will be a selection there, too. Not because some are less good, but those that do not impose a style will have fewer requests.

I think that I'm still very enthusiastic about every single thing that I do. I'm still very passionate. I never feel tired because I feel so involved and so com- mitted, so I enjoy it. And you know what? I have a lot of irony. I love the humor, and when I really, really want to just say, "You know what? I can't stand all this," I find an ironical way. I say, "You know, maybe you presume to be more intelligent than you are." So I respond in a more humoristic way.

Today it's normal. Photos used to be a support to the text, but we turned things around, reducing the words to a minimum.

This is a choice I made 26 years ago when I joined the magazine. Vogue was in Italian but I wanted to speak to everyone so I thought of creating images that were made to talk.

I think very highly of Expo and all is going well. We've seen big problems with [corruption] scandals [at local government level], but it is going forward, with the highest number of participants ever expected.

Do you know when you go to a very boring dinner and you sit down and you have the chance to talk with somebody and it's so interesting that you learn so much that night that you go back and say, "Oh, finally, I met someone who inspired me"? I love that.

Social media are fundamental to communicate and understand what happens in the world. It's a point of view and an immediate commentary.

I didn't need to get married again. It's great to be in a situation in which you're happy. But, you know, I'm not tortured by love. I'm not tortured by chagrin d'amour. I'm old now.

I don't think when you work you have to please everybody - you make a choice. It's not like everybody who is in front of you has to become your best friend.

I think the future fashion will be more and more separated-like, on one side would be big distribution, and on the other side there will be high-level prêt-à-porter and couture. I mean, the prêt-à-porter is already couture in a way for the prices and the way that it's made. The big distribution will allow people to dress in a fashionable way, so this could be for everybody. This part of the big distribution will be stronger and stronger, but the other part we are coming up on is more and more rich people, because we are always thinking about Europe and about America.

I never program anything, I decide at the last minute.

I need to protect myself from everybody. I see so many people all day, all demanding their own jobs, their own opportunities, so in a way, I make a distinction. I'm very difficult about opening myself up with people at first . . . It just takes time.

I try to renew and create something new every time.