Mademoiselle Carine Roitfeld is a force to be reckoned with. At 60, the former French Vogue editor is still getting more modelling gigs than any of your Generation Y beauties, and she’s a bona fide icon. Far from retiring she founded her own magazine CR (it’s in its third year), has been dubbed the “ideal woman” by Tom Ford, and now she is the face, body and personality of the ninth installment of the mytheresa.com women series. Here, one of the most famous stylists in the world and undoubtedly the most glam grandmother shares her life lessons.
“The reason Ms Roitfeld is so perfect for our mytheresa.com Woman series is because she embodies the very essence of a woman: she’s sexy, elegant, glamorous, funny, business-savvy, and, most importantly, real.” says Justin O’Shea, Buying Director mytheresa.com and we couldn’t agree more…
As part of the Carine Roitfeld mytheresa.com women series, she stars in a fashion shoot, styled by herself (naturally), including looks from Tom Ford’s autumn/winter 2015 collection. The Parisian also stars in a short film interview… but first, here are Carine’s life lessons.
It’s not really my specialty to be a model – I am not totally in my element. It’s not my world to be a model.
The best compliment is being called a great mum. On Mother’s Day in France I got beautiful flowers from Karl Lagerfeld with a nice note. He wrote: “Carine, you are a great stylist, but you are a great mother. Have a beautiful day.” This was the best compliment I ever got. I replied to him: “I hope that I am a good friend as well.”
Not everyone has style icons. I don’t really have one. I believe it’s about attitude and mixing. Patti Smith, Catherine Deneuve, Diana Vreeland are all genius. But you can also love the cool look of Kate Moss. It’s not just one person.
With style less is more, as Coco Chanel used to say, every time she left her house she would look in the mirror and say: “If something is too much. I have to take something off.” And I do exactly the same. I prefer to take something off than to add something. I am very simple. I have a classic style with an edge. Very bourgeois with a bit of rock and roll attitude. Very Patti Smith mixed in with Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour.
You can see incredible, stylish people in different cities. It’s not just Parisian ladies. I was in London recently and the women had different coloured hair from dark green to pink. In France you will never see girls dyeing their hair this way. This is very British, maybe it’s the heritage of Vivienne Westwood that I love. In America they are more polished. Everything is is perfect. In France it’s a bit of attitude.
