Aug 09, 2024

Honoring Franca Sozzani, Former Editor in Chief of Italian Vogue

Recognizing the remarkable contributions of Franca Sozzani, the distinguished former Editor-in-Chief of Italian Vogue, whose innovative vision and bold editorial direction revolutionized fashion journalism and set new standards for the industry.

Franca, an ageless 66, was born in Mantua. Her father, a classic Italian patriarch, was an industrial engineer who did not approve his daughter’s early ambitions to study physics. She studied literature and philosophy at university in Milan instead, and married soon after, although she knew, as she later admitted, that the marriage was doomed before she walked into the church. (Franca would later confess that romantic relationships were the one weak link in her formidable arsenal of triumphs.) The couple divorced three months later, and the free-spirited Franca went to India to find herself—“I thought it was time to do something good with my life.” Time spent in Swinging London further nurtured her creative spirit.

In 1988, she was appointed Editor in Chief of Italian Vogue—the same month that Anna Wintour was made the Editor in Chief at American Vogue. (By 1994, she was made Editor in Chief of Italian Condé Nast, enjoying great support from Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman of Condé Nast International.) Franca immediately shook up the formulaic title with dynamic covers and content, creating a magazine that, in her words, would be “extravagant, experimental, innovative.”

In 2008, she produced the Black Issue, its editorial pages, entirely shot by Meisel, exclusively featuring women of color. It contributed mightily to the dialogue about diversity in the fashion industry and became an instant collector’s item. “Franca doesn’t realize what she’s done for people of color,” her friend Naomi Campbell (one of four cover stars with 20 portraits inside the magazine) told The New York Times at the time, “It reminds me of Yves [Saint Laurent] using all the black models.”

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Franca Sozzani passed away in December 2016 after a long illness. Ms Sozzani during her thirty years as director of the most notable fashion magazine has made Vogue Italia a mile stone in the fashion industry.

Announced in January 2017, Farneti’s appointment came after the unexpected passing of Franca Sozzani in 2016. Farneti was also previously an editor of GQ, a post he took on in 2015. He was the third editor of Vogue Italia.

“Emanuele is one of the most experienced, accomplished and admired editors in Italy today, with experience as editor-in-chief of eight magazines in his career,” Conde Nast chairman Jonathan Newhouse said in a statement. “He is considered to be a true ‘magazine maker’ who brings to a title surprise, visual freshness and a true commitment to quality at the highest level.”

Joining Condé Nast Italia in 1999, Farneti was part of the team that oversaw the launch of GQ, before leaving to work at publications including Flair, Icon and Men’s Health. In 2014 he rejoined the conglomerate to edit Architectural Digest, before returning to GQ a year later.

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Emanuele Farneti is currently the Director of D/La Repubblica, overseeing its editorial content and direction, and he also serves as the Director of Fashion & Beauty at Gedi Group. In these roles, he is responsible for shaping the magazine’s fashion and lifestyle coverage and managing the fashion and beauty content across Gedi Group's media outlets.

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