Extended Family: The Milanese style maven’s roots are firmly planted in the worlds of art and fashion. Her sister, Franca, is the editor of Italian Vogue. Her boyfriend, Kris Ruhs, designs jewelry, furniture and objets that she sells in her stores. And she recently collaborated with the designer Azzedine Alaïa, a friend since 1979 (she recalls the date exactly), on the 3Rooms hotel in Paris, the complement to her 3Rooms in Milan. Up: Franca and Carla Sozzani. (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Look Book: “Fashion is a big part of my life,” says Sozzani, who handpicks the designers who fill her boutiques. She’s currently a major supporter of the London-based designer Christopher Kane. Come spring, she says, she will carry Prada’s Art Nouveau prints and shoes — though she’ll stick to Alaïa flats herself. (“I can’t walk in high heels!” she admits.) From left: Prada;Alaïa flats; Christopher Kane. (Photo: Runway: Don Ashby (2). Shoes: Tony Cenicola)

Sozzani with Azzedine Alaïa. (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Her Kris Ruhs necklace. (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Art And Commerce: When it opened in 1991, 10 Corso Como (left) was one of the first stores to combine an international selection of fashion, art, books, music and home design from the likes of Ettore Sottsass. Sozzani has since steadily expanded, adding a restaurant and a small hotel, which she designed using finds from eBay and secondhand stores. (The Eames bedspreads and Bang & Olufsen stereos are new.) In 2002, she teamed up with Comme des Garsons to open in Tokyo. Next stop: a 15,000-square-foot space in Seoul in spring 2008. (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

The Seoul Store (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Bang & Olufsen stereo. (Photo: Bang & Olufsen)

3Rooms Hotel (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Home Page: Sozzani’s home is a vibrant mix of the “primitive, sensual” shapes that she loves — from the Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen chairs that she has bought since the ’70s to sculptural Japanese vases and “childlike” Serge Mouille lamps. The bright hues she favors are fairly new: “I always dress in black now, so I need color in my house,” she notes. “This is normal: people change their clothes, why not change their furniture?” This month, several of her Pierre Paulin pieces will appear in a show at Azzedine's Paris Gallery (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Sozzani's dining room. (Photo: Courtesy of Carla Sozzani)

Her car of choice. (Photo: Mini USA)

Her favorite wine. (Photo: goessens.com)

A Pierre Paulin stool. (Photo: Stellar Union)

Ettore Sottsass shelves (Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg/Barry Friedman Ltd)

(Courtesy of www.nytimes.com) Visitez le site de la galerie de Carla Sozzani http://www.galleriacarlasozzani.org/