Rossella Tarabini: with music as her muse the creative director behind Anna Molinari talks about her heroes and heroines and the clothes they inspire

ANNABEL TOLLMAN: Tell me a little bit about growing up, because your mother has been a designer since you were very small.

ROSSELLA TARABINI: Right, and my father is our boss.

AT: Were you expected to go into fashion?

RT: No, There was no one pushing me. I have always been free to do what I wanted. It's impossible to try to make me do something I don't want to do.

AT: When most of us say we want to be in fashion our families look at us like we're running off to join the circus. In your case it sounds like the most ideal background, growing up in a fashion family.

RT: I always wanted to be in fashion. Growing up in the store I met all these really inspiring people when I was very little, and I was fascinated by them.

AT: And why is it important to you?

RT: Many things are important to me. I just love clothes. It's something that appeals to me, but it doesn't mean it will keep going forever. Maybe tomorrow I will find something more interesting. It doesn't come naturally--you have to have discipline, you have to work on it. I don't expect myself to be a fashion person forever. Maybe I will be just a mother--who knows?

AT: The most important job in the world.

RT: Yeah.

AT: How long have you actually been working in fashion?

RT: When I was maybe 4, when we didn't have a nanny I would go to the factory and offices with my mother and my grandfather. I remember playing with buttons, pretending to be Uncle Scrooge and jumping around. I was not working in fashion, but it was always around me; it was always part of my life. I really started working when I was 18, assisting a fashion editor.

AT: You've been so true to your icons and your inspirations.

RT: I usually use Patti Smith in the soundtrack to my shows. I love Edie Sedgwick, I love Patti, but what I really love is contradiction. I think contradictions make people interesting. A person is not just one thing that you see when you look at them; they're many things.

AT: They have a whole history, a whole life.

RT: Yeah, they have feelings of suffering, of happiness. It's impossible in a fashion show to let people know all of those things, but it's important to try.

AT: Let's talk about your other inspirations. What are your favorite children's stories?

RT: "Cinderella" is one of my favorites; another is "The Red Shoes." When I was a kid I really loved fairy tales. And of course I loved the Brothers Grimm.

AT: It sounds like you had a fantastic inner life as a child. You were a real daydreamer.

RT: I still am a daydreamer. [laughs]

AT: And if your life had a soundtrack, what would it be? Patti Smith?

RT: Yes, but that's too obvious. Let's say, a little song for little children.

AT: Like "Ring Around the Rosie"?

RT: Yeah. Either that or maybe something by the Sex Pistols.

Annabel Tollman is Interview's fashion director.

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