Designer

I learned to work with my mother, who had an haute-couture business.

I really want to make clothes that are feminine and help women look beautiful.

My only dream is to get old and finally have time to read all the books that I'm collecting.

Fashion needs incredible women, alive, stimulating, with style like Diana Vreeland. She is the most. The way she talks expresses all her values.

I want always to be positive.

The environment was so strong, so dramatic. Tragedy is all over Calabria; it's in the air. All this corresponds to my temperament.

I don't license everywhere. I take care of my name.

I never fall down. I always fight.

In the past, people were born royal. Nowadays, royalty comes from what you do.

Designing came to me. I didn't have to move.

At the beginning of my career, it was very hard to go up. Now, it's very hard to stay on top. You have to stay there, and I want to stay there so badly. I'm still standing.

It is nice to have valid competition; it pushes you to do better.

I want to see my niece and nephew grow up, to see their children... I get crazy at the idea that a time will come when I won't see Daniel and Allegra anymore.

I try to contrast; life today is full of contrast... We have to change.

I'm a little like Marco Polo, going around and mixing cultures.

I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future.

That is the key of this collection, being yourself. Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live.

My dream was always to be a composer, but fashion came very easily.

I liked women as a shape to dress.

I think it's the responsibility of a designer to try to break rules and barriers.