It was very tough with Madonna at the beginning of the meeting because I was very embarrassed. But I'm a strong woman who knows what I want and what I'm doing, and I think that when you have very clear ideas in your life, you can have conversations with everyone.

The idea of 'ferie,' or summer break, is a long tradition of which all Italians, including myself, participate. It's a time to relax, reflect and recharge.

I don't want to be too 'classic' because it's not in the DNA of Gucci. You need to be a little bit provocative.

You need to reinvent yourself every day when you are doing creative work. I always say that the moment I feel I'm at the top of the mountain and I cannot do more, I would be finished. So that's why I always feel the earth quake beneath my feet. I always feel myself on the fire. Because I think this is something that gives you the right adrenaline to work and go forward in your professional life. I have reinvented myself, believe me, many times in my life!

I am comfortable giving people direction. If something is not good enough, my job is to find a way to help them learn from their mistake, and understand that next time I expect better.

I think the '70s are always inspiring to me. I was born then, so I have a lot of memories about how my parents were and what kinds of movies I was watching.

I always had a very strong sense of responsibility, so the minute I started to work in fashion, I was always tremendously serious-too much sometimes. Of course, you can make a lot of mistakes in this job-I still do-but you need to limit them as much as possible. When you're responsible for such a huge company, you cannot play too much. In the beginning, I was working 20 hours per day and I was going crazy. I learned that I needed to delegate and to trust the people around me, but there is still not one element that I don't see or edit or discuss with my people.