Gawker
Carine Roitfeld, French Vogue's editor for the last seven years, is the cooler, slightly younger, doesn't-give-a-fuck version of uptight American Vogue editor Anna Wintour. And hey: nobody made a moviebook about how bitchy she is. Not only is Carine totes different, but her whole magazine is pretty much better. Everybody in the fashion industry knows this already, but she very Frenchily explains what's wrong with American fashion editors to New York mag. (Oh, and: contrary to popular belief, she does not weigh her female staffers, but it is true that she doesn't know how to use a computer).
"People always say that I weigh my staff, and it is totally wrong. All my girls are very skinny and very chic and very beautiful. And if they are not beautiful, well, then they are very charming. So people always say that I weigh them, but no. I don't weigh my girls."Also, she also doesn't overthink. She just goes by, you know, that certain je ne sais quois.
She does not start with the clothes. She looks first at the model and comes up with a story: Perhaps this girl has married young and taken a lover. Perhaps she married young, has taken three lovers, and is about to go to Brazil.Oh, and about Anna, she of the razored bob?"Some editors, they have that, they know all the designer from the beginning of the nineteenth century. They know this is triple cashmere, this is simple cashmere. Maybe they went to fashion school. Me, I don't. I just get a feeling about what is exciting. It is all just from feeling. So I don't know"—she pulls her lips into a pout and gives one of those poufy little French exhales—"I think maybe I have a talent."
"It's very difficult not to become a puppet," she says of it all. "Like Anna, she becomes so iconic that she becomes like a puppet. I don't want to be like that, I don't want to wear this uniform, I don't want to be just an envelope."Us too, Carine. Us too.[Roitfeld] still finds the idea of an office with a door where she's expected every day (at least by telephone) somewhat troubling. All she ever wanted was to be surrounded by very attractive people and very expensive clothes. [New York]
Comments
Of course she's funner and better than Ice Queen. She's FRONSH.
I once told my boss that I find the idea of an "office" with a door where I'm expected every day (at least by telephone) somewhat troubling. It went over really well.
"Not only is Caitlin totes different, but her whole magazine is pretty much better."
umm, yeah...cuz her name is Caitlin. who are you and why aren't you proofread?
Wait, I thought she was President of James Holt now.
@BaronBo: Who are you and why aren't you making more salient comments?
A talent. I haz one.
I like that all of her model stories involve taking at least one lover.
I thought her name was Jacqueline?
@collegecallgirl: Yes, it would've been a lot more interesting if she'd said "janitor" instead of "lover". I think.
Heh. I'm too cheap to take my lovers anywhere.
Je m'appelle NIKITAAAAA!!!
I like her scraggly hair. Looks like she gets fucked, something I doubt Anna is acquainted with, any more than is Tim Gunn.
@Baronbo: Sometimes--yes, sometimes!--an error creeps in. It's usually fixed within minutes, so commenting on typos usually just makes the commenter look dumb.
I picture her coming home and saying to the cat: "Mademoiselle Kitteh! 'Ow many lovairz deed we take today?" and the cat thinking: "STFU and open a can, ya crazy beeyotch."
Elle est très speed non ?!
@Sheila: Come on Sheila.. tell us how you REALLY feel.
@Sheila: you could add, "when the commenter is, sadly, trying to show how smart he is."
My worst experience at fashion week involved this monkey looking woman. The press photographers (including me) were trying to photograph her and she refused to turn around, kept her ugly old fur coat wearing back to us. She wore a blithe, fake smile as she stared at the wall. The whole room started to think there was some huge celebrity present so everyone stopped and took out their camera and pointed it at her back.
Rosario Dawson pulled this type of shit too.
She continued: "Sometimes, ven I am feeling vraiment talented, I think: perhaps she has married young, and taken eleven lovers... at once. I'm talking Eiffel tower, London bridge, double entendres, double penetrations, ze 'dirty sanchez' and how do you call it? Bukkake? In, er... Marrakesh. With ze clothing and whatever. Chew on zat, you haughty envelope puppet woman!"
oh wait i hate her too.
@Furious George: @TheHonJudgeSmails: You see? THIS is what happens when you don't have an office with a door that you go to every day! No one knows your name!!!
Although, right now, in my office with a door, that option is sounding better and better.....
@Sheila: Kick her ass, Sheila!!!!
@Sheila: Does the New York Times say that same defensive thing when you guys point out one of their errors and does it call you guys 'dumb'??? Just wondering. Ask Caitlin.
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Veronique La Lèvre was very skinny and very chic and very beautiful. Well, perhaps she was not beautiful, well, then she was very charming. All she ever wanted was to be surrounded by very attractive people and very expensive clothes. After all, she went to fashion school, where they know this is triple cashmere; this is simple cashmere.
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She pulls her lips into a pout and gives one of those poufy little French exhales as she admits, "I think I have a talent."
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Ms. La Lèvre finds all her lovers just from feeling, even though it is true that she doesn't know how to use a computer. She doesn't overthink. She just gets a feeling about what is exciting. Perhaps she married young, she has taken three lovers, and is about to go to Brazil, where they know all the designers from the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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Veronique finds the idea of an office with a door where she's expected every day somewhat troubling. Fortunately for her, she is cool, young, doesn't give a fuck and just goes by, you know, that certain je ne sais quois.
@stew: Totes.
She's so fucking awesome with her racoon eyes and je ne sais quois - I love her. Not as cold and calculating as her counterpart.
And to think, all this time I've been paying for my lovers. Damn the French and their expediency!
@BettyCrocker: Insta-Commie.
@collegecallgirl: There is a one-lover minimum for all French Vogue models.
@She Blinded Me With Omniscience: I would so buy that as a novel - you need to spin this out!
Funner AND Fuglier. Gimme ol' Bitch Shades anyday.
@damiannyc: Thanks! But I'd need a publicist willing to work for free.
@PeenScene: Anna doesn't GET fucked--she's a top.
Si should have kept House & Garage a little longer so he could bring Roitfeld over to tinker with it--we'd see Anna quake maybe? No, I guess not....
I find the concept of an office with a door quite troubling, also. That is why I am so happy to have this cublcle three feet from the men's room and the copy machine.
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Zo, how iz it eet ve sal bete Americans subscribe to zees Franche verseeion d'Vogue? Facilment, nes pas?
Deet mwa, s'tay-play? Deet mwa, mes salopes!
@TheHonJudgeSmails: my blood sugar dipped, my sinuses are going WONG WONG and because I am not French, but consider myself French enough to take out my inexplicable frustration with a bougy existence on a writer whose job it is to blog about the minutiae of terribly vapid individuals I would give my sister's second born to wipe the asses of...
I don't appreciate typos
@Sheila: dumb, DA, dumb, dumb, DUMB!!!
you're a jerkface
@PeenScene: OR, "when the commenter is, sadly, not a female."
PS...OMFG! I am so popular!!! Who knew?
@BaronBo: Many of your sinus and blood-sugar maladies would be cured if you were you to stop snorting coke as you comment on someone else's blog.
You crazee americaines like your British puritanical puppets for editeurs...so much repression would give us indigestion.
We chic bonvivants take our lovers and food seriously, afterall Frenchwomen Don't Get Fat, so no need to weigh...we eat our cake and take our lovers - vive la France! viva la Bourgeouisie!
I'd totally be one of the "charming" staff members.
@TheHonJudgeSmails: ok, right, so normally I'd be all 'touché', but then I'm all, like, "...cocaine...nah!" And then I'm for realz, shut it TWATROT!
Besides, snorting is for people with noses.
i can't believe there could be editors who don't know how to use computers. i just can't believe it. this article makes me want to kill her via computer to the head.
@BaronBo: Are you in Tokio Hotel?
@TheHonJudgeSmails: only when I check out of the Hotel California. OOOH! Lame alert...I KNOW, I KNOW!!!
but, c'mon...u sorta kinda laughed...IN UR HEAD
I work in the TOWER OF MISERY AND DARKNESS!!! Known to you normies as the Conde Nast Building. I once saw Wintour pull up in her big black Mercedes and enter the lobby, only to be snubbed by a waiting Donnie Deutsch who apparently didn't recognize her. As she literally sprinted to the elevator, she had a look on her face only warranted by finding out someone killed your puppy.
I'd run from that wigmeister too. What a tool. You go girl
Ladies, PLEASE! This is what happens when you bring up fashion; it turns into a Jezebrawl.
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