VOGUE Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani didn't get to the top by playing it safe and going for glamor. She got there through creativity and controversy, being contrarian, witty and often political.

In her 23 years at the helm of Vogue Italia, Sozzani has been known for doing the unexpected and flying in the face of convention. She's made a fortune through her audacity and insight on hot-button topics, and won a huge personal following that reads her blog on Vogue.it and follows her on Twitter.

Critics say she's into stunts, not fashion. She doesn't care.

She drenched models and the latest fashions in crude oil in August 2010 after the BP oil spill, posing them on a polluted beach. She was accused of glamorizing tragedy. This summer, as the world worshipped stick-thin models, her "Dream Women" or "Curvy" issue featured three-plus-size models, some in lingerie and braless as they drank Champagne, smoked cigarettes and draped themselves over fancy furniture. She has called on governments to take down pro-anorexia websites.

While the world worshipped tall blond East European models, she came out with the "Black" issue in July 2008, filled entirely with black models and articles on black culture and lifestyle. She featured machine-gun toting models in black leather for the "State of Emergency" in September 2006- and was accused of making light of terrorism. In September 2009 featured Rihanna in bondage gear for an "Extreme Couture" issue.

To name a few.

It all worked. Sozanni has transformed Vogue Italia from a domestic trade publication into the world's most influential fashion magazine, despite its relatively small circulation of 140,000 (compared with the 1.3 million readership of the more commercial American Vogue).

Her Vogue has traditionally been the most arty, intellectual and uncompromising of the Vogues. Every month, readers wait impatiently to see what Vogue Italia has in store.

"Real creativity, the one that changes the history of a magazine, is and should be the characteristic of an Editor in Chief," she writes in her blog.

Sozanni, who is now 61, was in Shanghai last week on a personal visit to get acquainted with young Chinese designers. It was her first extended visit to China and we chatted at length.

Instead of being "Devil Wears Prada"-type of high-powered, glam editor, Europe's fashion empress is serene and down-to-earth. The diminutive Italian editor is sometimes compared to Botticelli's famous painting of Venus Rising from the Sea because of her similar calm expression, elongated face, long, wavy blond hair and clear blue eyes. She wore a simple Dolce & Gabbana dress and Manolo Blahnik stilettos.

"Sincerely, I want to understand the fashion landscape here," she said, speaking with a heavy Italian accent, adding that she wanted to learn about young designers and showcase their work in Europe. She also wanted to explore a China connection for Vogue Italia and her website (http://www.vogue.it).

Last year in February, Sozzani selected and presented two Chinese designers' works during Milan Fashion Week and through yoox.com, an e-commerce platform, and said they sold quite well in Italy. She plans to showcase more talent.

"The Chinese have been labeled as the producers but it's important to cultivate a new generation with creativity. Otherwise, you only produce and manufacture for other people and it's a pity,'' she said. "In Italy we always produce but at the same time we have great labels. It's important to have a group of creative people to have their own lines.''

From the very beginning of her career at Vogue, Sozanni has been committed to fostering new talent.

"I've seen beautiful things and been inspired in travels in Europe since I was a little girl," she said. When she was 16, Yves Saint Laurent opened its first couture shop in Milan and she had a chance to wear YSL for one evening. "That's probably the moment I started to love fashion," she said.

But in college, Sozzani studied philosophy and literature. She married at the age of 20 but left her husband after three months. "I realized it was not my life. I wanted to be free, to finish my study, to have work and to travel. Honestly, I was not interested to have a family,'' she said in the interview.

Sozzani landed in the world of fashion by chance. In 1975, she worked at Vogue Bambini as "assistant to the assistant to the assistant.'' In five years she rose to become editor in chief of LEI, Italy's top fashion magazine for young women, and directed PER LUI since 1982.

In 1988, she took over the Conde Nast publication Vogue Italia, the same year that Anna Wintour took the helm of American Vogue.

"Sometimes in life you need to be lucky and probably I was the only person at the time ready to do something for the magazine," she said.

At the time, Italian Vogue was more of a catalogue than a magazine and only featured Italian designers. Sozzani showed her rebellious and experimental streak immediately. She put French designer Yves Saint Laurent on the cover of her second issue. She completely changed the magazine and made room for designers from France, Britain and the United States.

"It became controversial and people didn't like it much at the beginning. But my goal was to promote Italian Vogue as an international magazine. It was a new world," she said.

The magazine was in Italian only but put all the headlines and titles in English to make it international and accessible. "We developed a strong visual language, sometimes very provocative. If you don't make it in a very strong way and make a statement, people will not look at you,'' she said.

"At the moment we became international, I could put inside anyone I want: young and emerging, established and well-known and very famous. At this point, it's my own style and my own way to see. You cannot argue you like or not. It's the established style of the magazine.''

Under Sozzani, Vogue Italia became a hit and foreign fashion houses like Chanel, Hermes, Calvin Klein clamored to advertise in it.

The key readership is between 25 and 35, most have not yet started families and like to spoil themselves. "They have the possibility of buying what they see, plus they are more avant-garde and experimental and they understand more about vision,'' Sozzani said.

She has cultivated young photographers who became big names, such as Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber, Paolo Roversi, and Peter Lindbergh. Meisel regularly shoots covers.

"If you don't have a strong image on the cover, there is no reason to buy the magazine," she said. There's a special, recognizable look to every Vogue Italia cover.

Unlike American Vogue and other style magazines with famous personalities and celebrities on the cover, Sozzani always used models (except for Madonna in 1991 and Rihanna in 2009).

For Sozanni and Vogue, there's no such thing as politically correct or playing it safe.

In July 2008, the magazine paid tribute to black women in the fashion world and beyond, urging more black models on runways and in magazines. It came out after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for President, against Hilary Clinton. It was hugely controversial, the magazine's all-time best seller and it had to be reprinted.

At the time, she was seeing so many models from Eastern Europe, tall, blond and blue-eyed, but none from Africa, a huge continent.

"This issue changed completely the point of view and the attitude of people in America, Germany, Britain, and Australia (about black models) but it was not in a very high demand in Italy,'' she said.

This year, Vogue Italia's June issue celebrated curvy models, with a trio of plus-sized beauties on the cover. "To be thin doesn't mean to be beautiful. The sex symbol till today is still Marilyn Monroe who is a curvy woman. In the fashion world, we are so keen on thin models because it's easier to put on clothes on runways,'' Sozzani said.

"Fashion has been blamed as one of the culprits of anorexia and my 'V Curvy' section on the website and the June issue are proof that fuller-figured women are sexy," she said.

The November cover story is titled "The A Train," featuring Brazilian top model Raquel Zimmermann. A photo essay by Steven Meisel shows models and police in a New York-like metropolis. Cops are herding leggy models about on the subway. One scantily clad model in golden chains and scary cuffs with long gold spikes holds on to the straps in a packed carriage.

Sharp comments

Sozanni is known for being outspoken. "I hate fashionistas," she said. "If you need to hide yourself behind label, if means you have no character. If you use fashion to underline your character that means you have lots of character. One should use the label for yourself otherwise you become ambassador of a label."

"The fashionable man for me is the worst," she said.

She also knocked the fashion editors and fashionistas who attend fashion shows, saying they look ridiculous. "There is only extravagance but no elegance and they just want to impress the photographers,'' she said.

As for her own style, Sozanni said, "I like to be myself first of all. I can wear any kind of label but always made my way to look like my dress. I'm not a model and I don't want to be. It's important to be elegant for my age and for my position. I'm not after the label. I like dresses and I like a more feminine style.''

Daniela Morera, the former New York correspondent for Vogue Italia who knows her for 30 years, said Sozzani isn't always an "easy person" to deal with. "But to become a kind of oracle in the fashion world, which she has achieved, you have to be ambitious, strong, and a little odd - even if you have a Botticellian look. Her complexion is impeccable, her hair like a young girl's, her powerful decisions are the opposite," Morera told Shanghai Daily.

Looking back over the past two decades in fashion, Sozzani says the landscape has chanted completely. "Before, there was only one seasonal trend but today there are many trends with multiple styles. Every woman can choose whatever style she wants and she's not out of touch. We are much more free and we have incredible choices.''

She's a daily blogger on the Vogue.it website and runs Vogue Encyclo, an open online encyclopedia of fashion to which anyone can contribute.

"Everybody is saying that websites will kill the print but it's not true," she said, noting that since last September, after the website operated for six months, sales of Vogue Italia were up 25 percent; in June sales were up 60 percent from the year before and now each issue averages around 18 percent more in sales and revenue.

The website is a teaser for the magazine and the website is in English. "Everyone can read it, it's a more democratic approach," she said.

Sozzani has written several books about photography, fashion, art and design and has curated several exhibits and retrospectives.

Good deeds

Sozzani was recently appointed the first goodwill ambassador for Fashion 4 Development, a global campaign that uses fashion to tackle issues such as poverty and gender equality. She said she wants to start small projects in which people can start production and sell, adding that Italian craftsmen may be sent to Africa to teach their skills. Then locally crafted products can be sold.

"We have so much already," the goodwill ambassador said. "We travel in best planes and stay in the best hotels, but you have to give back. Giving back is the best luxury."

Sozzani has a son, Francesco Carrozzini who is a photographer in New York. Her sister Carla Sozzani in 1990 invented the concept store Corso Como 10 in Milan, a one-stop store for all things luxurious, from clothing to books.

Sozzani says she never makes any plans. Things happen for a reason and she is open to opportunities. "When I did my first issue for Vogue Italia, I thought maybe the next month I couldn't do it anymore. But after two decades, I'm still here. Life is so full of surprises and challenges."