Regular readers will know that I am an avid Carine Roitfeld obsessor. On that note it seems that whist Roitfeld has stepped down as french Vogue editor she has taken a more chilled approach to life by going as far as wearing flats.
For all her kohl-rimmed cool and snake-hipped elegance, Carine Roitfeld is disarmingly friendly—chummy, even. The former editor in chief of French Vogue, Roitfeld is as inclined to girl-talk about the finer points of smudged eyeliner as she is to direct a Mario Testino fashion shoot. For the moment, sitting languidly in a suite at Manhattan’s Mark hotel, her racehorse legs folded into a nimble knot, she has shed her signature tough-chic aesthetic in favor of a gray sweater, track pants, and ballet slippers. Though it is entirely possible that Roitfeld has never been photographed in flats, this year brings a host of firsts into her lexicon. She’s got a trinity of mantles that she’s slipping into, and each fits her more snugly than the next—beauty ambassador, magazine founder, and grandmother.
The first involves her turn as a newly minted M.A.C. cover girl and collaborateur. This month Roitfeld unveils her own collection with the makeup monolith, for which she’s dissected her aspirational allure and packaged her je ne sais quoi for the masses. Expect to see women everywhere channeling her Fellini-esque brow, her noirish smoky eye, and her barely there nude lip. Unfortunately, the French accent (which she hates) isn’t part of the package.
For a fashion power player with a hardcore pedigree, Roitfeld is remarkably modest. “I’m not bad-looking, but I’m not a beauty either,” she says. “I think I have character, and that is what people like in me.” Her campaign ad for M.A.C., shot by Mario Sorrenti, features a black-and-white photo of Roitfeld in a slipdress. Her analysis? “I think women can recognize themselves in that picture. They see ‘Oh, she’s not wearing too much makeup, she’s not too much dressed, she’s not too much bizarre. She’s very much like another woman—simple.’?” This from the woman who was once spotted in Malibu driving a convertible while wearing a white bikini and a pink cowboy hat.
Read more: Carine Roitfeld Interview – Carine Roitfeld Quotes on Family and Work – Harper’s BAZAAR
