The inaugural Franca Fund raised money for preventive genomics research.
Fashion and science are two worlds that don’t often co-mingle, but last night in Qatar, they did just that in honor of one of the magazine world’s most revered — and dearly missed — legends. Set in the balmy courtyard of the iconic Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, as the city’s skyline glittered in the dusky distance, the filmmaker Francesco Carrozzini held the first-ever Franca Fund Gala in honor of his late mother, Franca Sozzani, the visionary Vogue Italia editor, who passed away in 2016.
Carrozzini presided over the event alongside co-hosts Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast (and, as fate would have it, his mother-in-law). He founded the organization after his mother’s death from a rare cancer led him on a journey into the world of preventive science. It was there that he encountered the pioneering work of Dr. Robert Green, a doctor and geneticist who was studying how genomic research could help predict, and potentially prevent, various inherited diseases. In those studies, Carrozzini found a cause that was cutting-edge, forward-looking — much like the pioneering work of his mother.
“I never wanted my mother’s legacy to stand still,” Carrozzini said in his opening remarks at the event, visibly moved. “I wanted it to keep evolving, to keep challenging conventions, to keep helping others. I didn’t want to build a monument to the past; I wanted to build a bridge to the future, inspired by her unwavering belief that anything is possible.”
Over a dinner of pasta in a creamy tomato sauce (a nod to the editor’s Italian heritage), served to fashion VIPs like Miuccia Prada, Daniel Roseberry, and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the night spent a great deal of time remembering Sozzani’s storied career, where she launched the careers of countless photographers and brought a daring, boundary-breaking spirit to the magazine. Her work was challenging, complex, exciting, and even a little dangerous at times — she was unafraid to go against the status quo, to approach fashion as an art, not just a commercial venture. It is because of that she had the fashion world in her thrall and created something that transcended the traditional confines of what a magazine could be.
But the gala wasn’t merely a retrospective. Its objective was on the future, on helping others, and to raise funds for cutting-edge preventive genomics research at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Brigham, where Dr. Green has made a name for himself as a leader in his field. For that aspect, there was a spirited live charity auction, overseen by one of Christie’s finest auctioneers. For three lots — a rare Audemars Piguet watch, a tennis lesson with world champion Jannik Sinner, and a Damien Hirst portrait of Sozzani — nearly a million dollars was raised that evening. Additionally, lots such as a front row experience with Wintour were being held online. Bookending the evening were performances by Golshifteh Farahani, reciting a beautiful poem — (“The Middle East is not the middle of the east,” she said, “But the center of the world.”) and closed with a rousing set by the singer Elyanna.
Later, Dr. Green took the stage (and made a quite funny genes-jeans joke about his entrance into the fashion world) to explain The Franca Fund’s core mission: to get ahead of disease before it appears. Through advancing preventive genomics, Dr. Green aims to detect genetic risk factors early and use them to shape treatment or even avoid illness entirely. It’s science at its most elegant, but also its most human: less about cure, more about prevention; less about fear, more about potential.
From Left, Mario Testino & Gisele Bündchen, Natalia Vodianova, Chriselle Lim, Tyra Banks photographed by German Larkin
As a whole, the gala underscored the tireless work of Sheikha Al Mayassa, who, just the night before, had hosted nearly a thousand guests at the Fashion Trust Arabia awards program at the nearby National Museum — this in addition to next week’s F1 race and the Doha Film Festival. It was an incredibly busy time for Her Excellency, but it’s all part of her mission to use fashion and art as a form of cultural diplomacy, coinciding with Evolution Nation, an 18-month program celebrating their own museums and other local art institutions.
Still, at the center of the evening was the emotional work of Carrozzini, a son who wanted to keep his mother’s legacy alive and to use it to better the future. In that spirit, the Fund is not a memorial — it’s an ongoing investigation into what might be possible when fashion, philanthropy, and science align.
Or, as Carrozzini said in his remarks, “Tonight, in Doha — a city that looks forward while honoring its roots — we are writing an important story. One where legacy isn’t nostalgia — it’s motion. Where philanthropy isn’t just charity — it’s collaboration. And where advancement is not just a word for scientists, but for all of us who dare to imagine a better world.”
From Left: Mariacarla Boscono, Daniel Roseberry, Paloma Elsesser, Duran Lantink, Fai Khadra, Simone Rocha, Christian Louboutin and Farida Khelfa, Tessa Thompson and Pierpaolo Piccioli, Hilary Taymour
