An ageless Franca Sozzani

Franca Sozzani – “Lady of Fashion”, “Extravagant, experimental and innovative” and “Chaos and Creation”.

Is she a rebel or a risk taker?

A light in life and fashion?

 “Lightness for me is when being profound allows you to fly high” – said Franca, lady with azure eyes and Pre-Raphaelite hair waves.

For 28 years this ageless beauty was  editor in chief of Italian Vogue.

In 1988, she was appointed at this position and the same year Anna Wintour became the Editor in Chief at American Vogue, too .

Franca Sozzani, Diego Della Valle and Anna Wintour attend the Schiaparelli show as part of Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2014 on January 20, 2014 in Paris, France / Getty Images /

“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 – you know, like, how to get your husband to do something or how to do well in school.

We don’t do anything like that.

It’s all about a vision, an aesthetical interpretation of a reality that you can sway”.

Sozzani created energized covers and extraordinary content

Her style in magazine was to use fashion stories as a platform to talk about life and social topics.

Her fearless position was to provoke controversial topics with fashion shoots.

At the beginning she signalled that she would not be playing by anyone’s rules.

Famous world fashion photographers as Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber were attracted by her editorial freedom in creating photo stories because for her  “fashion wasn’t really about clothes, it was about life.

“Black” or “Curvy” issues?

There is no doubt.

All  her topics were more than provocative.

Sozanni’s “Black issue” was photographed by Meisel and provoked dialogue about diversity in the fashion world.

Once Naomi Campbell said that the editor in chief “didn’t realize what she had done for people of color”.

In the unusual “Curvy” issue breasts get out of bras and we could see truly beautiful women.

“It was up in the air for a bit, but now we did it to attract the attention that it doesn’t exist, only one kind of beauty, but that every woman can be beautiful,

and especially curvy women can be beautiful and very sexy. If you think today of Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren, they could be in the curvy issue.

That shows you how it’s changed, the idea of the body for the woman.” The message is simple “Curvy is sexy”.

In the magazine with the title “Horror movie” by photographer Steven Meisel there was discussion about domestic violence.

“Makeover madness” shared thoughts about obsession with plastic surgery.

In 2016 Franca Sozzani died.

Her son Francesco made a very personal movie about his mother “Franca: Chaos and Creation”.

It’s like an intimate letter from son to mother.

“Who’s going to play me?” Franca Sozzani asked.

“You are playing Franca” he replied.

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