MILAN — “Franca was the beating heart of a constellation.”
So said moviemaker Francesco Zippel in describing the impact that the late Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani had across her 40-plus-year career in fashion until her death in 2016.
Alongside Federica Cellini, Zippel is the codirector of “Paving the Way — Franca’s Legacy,” a new documentary on the fashion figure that bowed Tuesday night at the Fondazione Sozzani in Milan, the cultural institution helmed by her sister Carla Sozzani and niece, Sara Sozzani Maino.
Zippel and Cellini created a 62-minute film centered on Sozzani’s career-long efforts to support the next generation of fashion creatives and talents with many initiatives. It features interviews with a plethora of designers, from Balenciaga’s Pierpaolo Piccoli and Fendi’s Maria Grazia Chiuri to Giambattista Valli, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Alberta Ferretti, MSGM’s Massimo Giorgetti and Stella Jean, among others.
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“The ambition Federica and I had was to tackle a specific angle of her life, to recount the extraordinary track record Franca had and the efforts she put in scouting talents as a curious professional. What we realized is that she was the centerpiece, the bright star of a constellation of individuals gravitating around the fashion system, whose careers she helped launch,” Zippel said in an interview ahead of the premiere.
“She was my mentor and continues to be so. I’ve worked with her for 22 years,” said Sozzani Maino. “She was ahead of the game, she understood and championed the social, political and cultural undercurrent of fashion and creativity. She was a champion of boundless and borderless talent,” Sozzani Maino enthused.
Interviews with established designers and up-and-coming names are spaced out and interspersed with archival footage, showing clips from across different initiatives Sozzani helped shape, from Vogue Talents to Who’s on Next.
Sozzani Maino said the idea for a new documentary on the late Sozzani — coming on the 10th anniversary of her death and following the acclaimed 2016 “Franca: Chaos and Creation” film directed by her son Francesco Carrozzini — emerged last November at the seventh edition of the Fashion Trust Arabia.
The movie was produced for Qatar Museums and the Doha Film Institute by Quoiat Films, a firm helmed by Zippel and Federica Paniccia, who have worked on biopics about movie directors such as William Friedkin and Sergio Leone, 17th-century Italian artists Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, as well as Italian writer Andrea Camilleri, among others. It was realized in partnership with The Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics at the Harvard Medical School.
“Our goal was to provide a different view on Franca’s legacy and highlight her contribution to nurturing talents,” Sozzani Maino said. “It’s first and foremost an educational movie, not just celebratory.”
There are several personal and previously unrevealed anecdotes shared by the designers and entrepreneurs interviewed for the documentary.
Remo Ruffini, Moncler Group’s chairman, chief executive officer and creative director, touts Sozzani for her help when he acquired the brand in 2003; Chiuri recalls accepting to take part in a charity car ride around Italy with the Vogue Italia editor only to realize none of them were confident driving the Ferrari car they were provided with, and Piccioli gets emotional while remembering that Sozzani coined the nickname “Nettuno” for him, after the town outside Rome where the current Balenciaga creative director was based.
“Pierpaolo [Piccoli] recalled a lesson he learned from Franca, whom he quotes as saying ‘don’t ever let criticism and adversities tear you down, life is about starting back every day’ — and that’s the lesson I will also take home from this documentary filming,” Zippel said. “It’s a positive approach in life that transcended her professional attitude.”
Alessandro Dell’Acqua of No.21 praises Sozzani for always caring as much for established designers as for up-and-coming ones, while Sara Battaglia highlights the late editor’s magnetic personality, which commanded attention whenever she was in a room.
“There are a lot of very human anecdotes. Franca was just that. People saw her as this kind of unapproachable figure, but she was very human and sympathetic,” Sozzani Maino said.
Other contributions include fashion designers Simone Rocha, Arthur Arbesser, Wadha Al Hajri, Andrea Incontri, Uma Wang, Marco De Vincenzo, Mohammed Ashi, Marco Rambaldi and Institution’s Galib Gassanoff; shoe and accessories designers Paul Andrew, Paula Cademartori, Amina Muaddi, Nicholas Kirkwood and Nicolò Beretta; Coperni’s cofounders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant; Blazé’s cofounders Corrada Rodriguez d’Acri, Delfina Pinardi and Maria Sole Torlonia; Miuniku’s cofounders Nikita and Tina Sutradhar; Accademia Costume e Moda’s Lupo Lanzara, as well as Sozzani Maino and Carla Sozzani.
“Based on all the voices that we’ve included in the documentary, it’s clear that Sozzani sparked the same feelings [of affection] in established and up-and-coming talents, alike,” Zippel said.
“The portrait emerging from the documentary, I think, is that of a one-of-a-kind personality, who addressed her professional achievements as a boss woman with a lot of irony and self-mockery…that’s because the space and position she carved for herself in the industry was driven by personal enrichment and her commitment to positively influence the sector to foster talents,” Zippel added.
After Tuesday’s première, “Paving the Way — Franca’s Legacy” will be screened three times a day at the Fondazione Sozzani through Friday alongside projections of Carrozzini’s “Franca: Chaos and Creation.” All will be open to the public upon registration.
Sozzani Maino said the foundation plans to take the former documentary on the road, organizing screenings as part of cultural happenings in Italy. The legacy of the late Vogue Italia editor will be celebrated with a range of still undisclosed initiatives across 2026 and 2027, she added.
