I always loved the look of musicians. I've always admired them because they have a look - when I was growing up, it seemed that the ones I liked didn't need to have a stylist.

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

When I approach a collection, I never think too much about myself, because doing fashion and being a designer, you need to dream. Of course, there's always a part of myself. I'm always wearing what I'm doing. I'm not a party girl, but when I have the opportunity to go out and dance and be crazy for a night, that's the fall/winter collection.

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.

With men, you need to anticipate all your ideas at least one or two months before the next women's collection, so you need to create a feeling that links with what will happen a few months later. To me, a man and a woman are really a couple. They live together. They grew up in Italy together. So, not just in the stores or the campaigns, but also in real life, it's very important for me to create a connection between them.

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.

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.