For me, beauty and fashion are always connected. One doesn't exist without the other. Make up is a key element of the Gucci runway show - it helps communicate the essence of the Gucci woman. Eyes, skin, lips - they're like accessories, all working together to create an unmistakable look.

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!

My biggest satisfaction is always when I make something beautiful and well-done that I can see on a real man or woman - not only in the glossy magazines.

The first thing I notice about a man are his shoes. Then I look at his watch.

I wake up in the night screaming sometimes when I've had a fight with my husband, more than with the company. I still sleep very well. I take it day by day. I am a very pragmatic person. That's how I survive.

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.

I grew up in Rome, in actually what I would say was a liberal, open-minded family. My father was an architect and my mother was a teacher of art history, so it was sort of intellectual, and maybe a bit much for me when I was a child.