No stranger to breaking the mould, Mantua-raised Carla Sozzani launched her 50-year career in fashion amidst the political unrest of 1968 in Italy, when a friend of her mother’s provided a job at a magazine while completing her studies at Bocconi University.

In the years that followed, Sozzani spent 19 years in editorial roles, which included becoming editor-in-chief of special editions of Vogue Italia, and American Vogue’s editor-at-large for Italy, before she was drafted in to launch Italian Elle as its founding editor-in-chief in 1987, where she stayed for three covers.