Tanya Gill: You have such a beautiful body of work with so many artists and celebrities. Why did you choose Mitzi as the subject of your book?

Francesca Tolot: Peter introduced me to Mitzi. She has these incredible eyes and is a great person to be around. She is fun, generous and she obviously stuck through all these years of us working with her and doing things like putting clay in her hair. She is a wonderful person and is great to work with. It's not only her physical beauty but her whole soul that is generous. She's been doing this with us since 1986. That's one thing that I hope people will appreciate in the book. It's not just that it took 20 years, it's more that it shows 20 years of work. It was a group of us that created this body of work. Peter came up with a majority of the ideas for the shoots. We booked her for everything we could and we kept doing all these crazy tests. For no reason other than it being an artistic expression for us and one day it just came to my brain, "One Woman, 100 Faces" and the fact that I had so many pictures of Mitzi, that became the project there and then and then it took 10 years to find a publishing company. They wanted celebrities to publish the book, but I could not give up my ideas. So we just waited and finally a publishing company from London, Carlton Books, took us on. 

TG: We are both outsiders yet insiders, being from across the pond and working with celebrities in America. Does being European differentiate your work?

FT: It's just in our genetics, growing up in Europe: all the art, all the history that we grew up with, we don't even know it but it's a part of who we are. And so either consciously or unconsciously we are interested by that: in our ideas, inspiration, and the execution.

TG: So, where do you find the inspiration for each image?

FT: To tell you the truth, everywhere. It could be the color of a flower that makes me think of an eyeshadow or a lipstick and then from there come up with a whole reason to shoot a picture. Or it could be a piece of metal or a piece of wood. Or sometimes with Peter we'd be walking around downtown, in that crazy area, in the flower market, and we would see hundreds of ideas in a couple of flowers.

TG: I like the way you place things in your book. There was a lilac flower and on the other side a lilac cat eye. I can tell even by the layout, these are truly works of art.

FT: Another thing about this project is that its truly been executed with love and friendship and family. In fact the graphic designer for the book is my son, Cristiano Tolot. My daughter is a photographer, too. She actually has an on-line magazine, Line magazine.

TG: Can you tell me your process in collaborating to create these images?

FT: It's really a team work and I'm so lucky that my best friends are the five best hairdressers in town. Of course, Peter Savic who did a majority of the book, Enzo Angileri, Robert Vertica, Serena Radaelli, and Yuki Sharoni. They are all my best friends and then my husband, Alberto Tolot is the photographer! 

TG: What make up brands do you like to use to create these fantasy looks? Can you translate them to an everyday beauty look?

FT: I use all kinds of makeup. MAC has been helping me with promoting the book. They are doing a book launch with me in Milan and London. I have to say they are a complete line. It's one of those makeup companies, that if I lose my kit, knock on wood, I could walk into MAC replenish my kit and go to work. So, I love them for that and I love their product too. Makeup Forever is good. I love NARS for all of their vibrant color, I love Chanel foundation, it's probably my favorite right now, Vita Lumiere. Chanticaille is a foundation I like. Dior and Chanel you can't go wrong with their eyeshadows. And then there's NARS and Makeup Forever, also with great eye colors. 

TG: So you've made a beautiful iconic coffee table book. If you could choose an icon for your next subject, who would it be?

FT: If I could choose, it would be Beyonce. That would be amazing!

All photo images from "One Woman, 100 Faces". Courtesy of Alberto Tolot.