9am I’ve lived in this house for 25 years. This morning, as usual, I get up and eat fruit with a filter coffee. I don’t like espresso, which is odd for an Italian, I know!
I put on navy trousers by a little-known designer called Alberto Biani and an inky-blue, vintage, Napoleon-esque jacket. I don’t like logo’d clothes and rarely wear anything the season it’s out – I prefer older clothes. I always wear flat shoes, even though I’m not tall.
10am I have a new green Mini, which is perfect for the city. I drive to the Vogue offices on piazza Castello, and have a quick meeting with my secretary, Renata, about next week’s travel plans. Afterwards I go through my e-mails, then have a meeting with Luca Stoppini, our art director, and Carlo Ducci, who looks after our news and home pages.
We’ve shot the fashion already, but the rest of the April issue is still being finished. It is the Milan shows this week, and then most of us will be in Paris next week so we don’t have a lot of time. Things are quite chaotic.
12.30pm I’m running late so I drive to the Gianfranco Ferrè show. Luckily, they’re running late, too, so I get there on time. They’ve recreated the interior of an opera house, with the girls emerging from behind red velvet curtains, and light projections of theatre boxes running along the walls.
Afterwards my driver takes me to the Dsquared2 show. It is as theatrical as ever, with a backdrop of a country manor setting off the equestrian-style clothes.
2pm I’m too busy for lunch today and go straight back to the office to meet one of our photographers, Tim Walker. He’s just got back from India where he’s been shooting for Casa Vogue, the interiors supplement we’re running alongside our April issue. The pictures are great.
3.30pm My driver takes me to the Iceberg show and then on to Albino, which won Italian Vogue’s ‘Who’s on Next?’ competition at the haute couture shows in Rome in November. We gave them £30,000 and a shoot in the magazine to get them started.
We need more fresh, young designers in Italy. The last show of the day is Versace. I know lots of people here, such as Elizabeth Hurley and David Furnish, whom I talk to. Everyone is guessing whether Elizabeth is pregnant.
7.30pm I go home and change for tonight’s dinner at Gianni Versace’s old home on via Gesù. I wear a 1960s-inspired Jil Sander dress with a black fur jacket from Prada.
9pm It’s a small dinner – there are only about 50 of us. I talk a while with Donatella then sit down with Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, the photographer Patrick Demarchelier, Luca Stoppini and David Furnish.
We talk a lot about David’s wedding to Elton John. He is incredibly happy and says it was the best day of his life.
10.30pm I get home and am in bed by about 11pm. Today felt like a long day.
March 2006 Independent.co.uk
