Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Italia: I think that the Italian fashion has a special quality that it seems normal, it’s for granted when you’re talking about clothes, you’re talking about fashion, so it’s okay, quality is the first priority. But it’s not, it’s not always the same because I mean we are always talking about shape, colours, fabrics, but the quality is something that really makes a difference because it makes really--, even the shapes, even the prints, it’s really completely different when you have a good quality, so first I think is quality.
Creativity, because it doesn’t mean eccentricity or extravagancy, it means creativity. Creativity means to give to a brand a style. That again, it seems very obvious but very few people are able to give to their own brand a style. That’s why very few brand are known around the world because very few people are able to give this kind of strength to their own style to become a brand. So I think that more or less this is something that is very important for Italian fashion.
And of course of this glamour, a certain kind of classy, a richness, if you want, in terms of new luxury, not obvious luxury. And the prototype of this is when something is like a Prada and that is very luxurious but it doesn’t seem very rich, but it is very rich in a new way. So it’s even this way to play with the lux in a different way from what was in the 50s and what was in the 60s or in the other decades.
Distretti produttivi let’s say are very, very important. I think that was really made Italy--, before--, after the couture let’s say, after the couture of course, they started really to have companies and factories in which really they were producing. And if you see, Italy has been shared in a different kind of districts because you can see the places where they do knitwear, the places where they do shoes, the places where they do leather, the place where they do silk, the place where they do wool. So it’s really kind of an area in a different part of Italy in which they can produce. But this is very important because it’s kind of again, as I was saying before, it’s about the quality. Because you can keep the quality because there is a tradition, it’s a culture. Fashion in the end, it’s not art but it’s a cultural way to see the moment in which you live. So this kind of district is a guarantee, to a certain kind of a quality. “Made in Italy” has to be like you guarantee the quality, you guarantee the creativity but after you are to change day by day.