Quotes from Margherita Missoni

Fashion is a real passion in my family. I never even realised it was something glamorous until much later. For me, it was my family's job.

My mother persuaded me not to pluck my eyebrows when I was a teenager - right now I'm so grateful I never did! She also taught me to pour 2 kg. of salt in my bath whenever I feel swollen and tired - and to end it with a cold shower. It does wonders.

I'm happy living in the countryside. We are 30 minutes away from Milan, so I can drive in for dinner and drive out. It's not a question of living in the country or in the city, it's really a question of living in a tight, close-knit clan that makes the difference.

Growing up in a very big family, working together and playing together, that is something that has been part of my life since ever I was born. It has advantages and disadvantages. It's like an older style of living where everyone works in the family business.

Growing up, I saw the world as an inspiring place full of interesting people.

I'm the only one in my family who doesn't cook, but I can do a Swiss dish called frittatensuppe. You make a thin omelet from eggs, flour and parsley, then roll and cut it in the shape of tagliatelle and add broth. It's a tradition we adopted.

We live in the countryside, 15 minutes from the closest town, so I would never have time to drive and go somewhere. So I have a personal trainer come to my house, normally three times a week, and we do circuit training depending on what I need.

I think that clothes and accessories define and describe who we are. I can't see many differences between them; they are indeed a way to introduce ourselves to other people, and they help us transmitting a message to others.

Every little detail of my life is, and has always been, surrounded by fashion - from the cup I drink my coffee from in the morning to my constant travels - fashion always pops up somewhere and somehow.

I grew up in the same place as my mother, seeing the same trees my mother saw when she was at work; the flowers I picked were the flowers that my grandma planted. We have different styles; I wouldn't make the same clothes that my mum made, or my grandma, but we have the same taste.

I'm not keen on the Mini Me trend. In my opinion, kids' clothes should be kids' clothes.

I was lucky enough to create my own dress, deciding on every single design detail. But, even if you don't have a custom dress, you can still create a signature wedding-day look with personalization - a belt, altering the sleeves, etc. But, when creating your bridal style, the most important thing to remember is to make it feel like you.

When we were children, every day after school, my brother and sister and I would go to my mother's office. It was full of pencils and marker and fabrics and beads. It was so much fun to be a child and to express my creativity through drawing and to playing dress-up in all of the wonderful and colorful clothes.

There may be people who try to imitate art when they get dressed and people who just get dressed to cover themselves up, but I guess that both send out messages and communicate their ideas and feelings through their looks.

Sometimes I have ice cream for lunch. Gelateria Sempione in Milan is the best in the world, hands down. The chocolate sorbetto is amazing.

A simple thing that we do is hot and cold showers for circulation. And using aloe vera on your face, but I guess that's not very Italian because we don't naturally have it, I think.

I've always tried to control everything and every aspect of my life, and this is maybe the biggest lesson I've learnt with motherhood - you just can't control everything, and I'm much more relaxed now about unexpected changes and things that happen.

I buy a lot of fashion, and I wear many different brands. Even though I'm not so conceptual in my style, I probably buy the most from Junya Watanabe. It's always so spot on and of-the-moment although it's also so sophisticated and conceptual. I also love Marco de Vincenzo, Azzedine Alaia, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Since I was a child, everyone would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up. Was I going to be a designer? It's as if there was a path drawn for me, and I could see, from where I was standing, exactly where it ended.

I grew up in the countryside with the factory here, my house 200 metres away, my grandma's house 50 metres away, in a kind of old-style Italian society where everyone works for the family business, everyone lives nearby, and the people you spend your time with are your family.

I love dressing for different occasions and having dress codes. For me, it's such a fun thing to have a reason to think about dressing within restraints or codes or rules, so it's something I have fun with.

At Burning Man, the audience is the show: the boundaries between stage and public overlap and melt. Every form of self-expression, every fantasy... everything has a place. It's kind of a utopia, and everyone who sets foot in it is so impressed that they do their best to respect it and keep it alive.

When I became a mum myself, I really struggled to find great kids' clothes. Everything was either gorgeous but impossible to actually get open to change a nappy and expensive or poor quality.

I like the brand BioNike for shower gel, creams, deodorant, and hair products. I also love RestivOil - it's a yellowy, orange shampoo that I've used forever because it's the gentlest on the scalp.