Inside “CR Fashion Book 6” With Carine Roitfeld
Nicole Phelps
February 8, 2015 — 12:00PM
Issue 6 of CR Fashion Book might not have happened. Carine Roitfeld had not one, not two, but three back surgeries between the last round of shows and the magazine’s arrival on newsstands in a few days. She styled some of the shoots in the new book from a wheelchair. “Tom Pecheux was pushing, so it was OK,” she said from her perch at the Shangri-La Hotel, laughing in her plastic corset. In case you saw Roitfeld at the couture shows and thought differently, the waist-spanning brace isn’t decorative; if she’s lucky, she’ll have it off by the Paris fashion shows in March when she plans to celebrate the new issue with a big party. “It doesn’t go with an evening dress,” she said. Roitfeld gave Style.com a sneak preview of several stories in the new issue, and opened up about everything from Paris post-Charlie Hebdo to the new guy at Gucci to which particular member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan made it into the magazine. Hint: It’s not Kendall.
Carine Roitfeld: So, you see my corset...
Nicole Phelps: Yes, I thought it was a fabulous belt from the distance at the Lanvin Pre-Fall presentation.
At first it is not bad, it is a bit Alaïa, but at the back it is fully…it is custom by the hospital. It is from hospital.
So you’ve recovered?
I am much better. I had an accident one year ago in New York. I fell down and I broke some bones, and you know because I am always running, I do not always do what I need to do. And finally I had an operation, and after one operation I had a second operation, and after the second, I had a third operation. So it is a long process. And the back, there is a lot of healing...you say “heal”?
Yes, heal.
When you have to stop for two months, you are even more excited to go back. So maybe it was a good thing. More energy, more happy to go to work, with new ideas. [Hopefully] this issue will be a bit of a reflection of what I had in my mind. Something you see a bit differently, I will say.
How will it be different?
After hospital, I was thinking, What’s my issue going to be about? Because it was very late. So I kept thinking. I like Serge Gainsbourg, the French singer, and he made a beautiful song about Anjelica Huston that I love, too, called “Jolie Laide.” I think American people know this song. It means “ugly beauty,” but I think jolie laide maybe is nicer. It’s true in life and mostly in this work of fashion that the idea of beauty has changed. The whole issue will be around this idea of jolie laide—not just about the beauty, but about fashion, about pictures, about something that is more interesting.
I think it is a very good sign for women because we are not all perfect. I made a long story about Michael Avedon; I asked him to do my ugly beauties, in a way. I could not have Kate Moss, because I could not travel, so I could not have Kate Moss in this story, but she could be a part of it. She was not a perfect beauty, but finally she is one of the biggest top models, you know? It’s like Lara Stone. She is top model now, but you know when Riccardo [Tisci] introduced me to her, no one wanted her.
She wasn’t graceful or…?
She wasn’t enough skinny, [she had] too much breasts, you know. She was the fitting makeup girl for the show, nothing more. Can you imagine? And now she is one of the biggest top models. It’s like Gigi [Hadid]. She is a girl who I really pushed. She has a very special face. Some people think she isn’t beautiful, some people think she’s great, but she is not the profile of ideal beauty. Everything [in the issue] is around that, you know? And to make some more surprise, you know of course I am still very faithful to the Kardashians because I started with Kim. It was a good thing for her and it was a good thing for me—Iook at where she is now. So I still wanted someone from the Kardashian family in my magazine. It is not her, it is the younger sister, what’s her name? Kylie. I think she has a very interesting face. And Kanye will be a part of this issue, too.
You were here when the Charlie Hebdo attack happened, correct? Do you see it having an effect on the designers who are based here?
It was a shock for French people. America had the Boston Marathon bombings; you had, of course, the Twin Towers. But for the French, it was a big shock because we are not used to such horrible things in our lives. Still, I think French designers push a lot. Think of Jean Paul Gaultier, of what he did when he did the Jewish show. I don’t think it would be possible to do today, to do a show like that. In a way there is regression a bit in the freedom of people. Me, I always pay attention to not make other people unhappy; I am very free, but I don’t want to hurt anyone. Now there are a lot of other rules that magazines have to follow, there are the advertisers, so it is not totally freedom that you are living. For me what’s important is to feel free even when I respect all the people I am working with, all my advertisers, and I hope I can keep it this way, for a long time, this is my luxury. But I think for French magazines, they are not very far away from American or Japanese or English magazines now, no? What do you think, do you find a lot of difference?
I think your era of Paris Vogue, it felt very different.
Yes, I got a lot of letters. But you know, sometimes you never know what you are going to be attacked for. They attacked me for being racist because I painted Lara Stone in all the colors and in one photo she was painted in black. And I was the first one to put a girl like Liya Kebede from the cover to the entire issue, so people have a very short memory, you know. And one time I put a very oversized girl, because I have always liked oversized girls in a magazine, and I received a lot of letters, like, “Oh, why did you put this ugly girl in your magazine?”
What have you thought of the couture shows so far?
I think the Dior show was for me the best one of Raf’s so far. And I loved the shoes, the shoes were brilliant.
It seems like he is gaining confidence. It really felt very strong.
I am happy for him. I met Raf when he was very young, the long hair like a grungy boy when he started doing his collections, and we photographed with Mario Testino a lot at that time, it was a very long time ago. And I remember, I visited him and after I never met him again, and he is very shy, and I remember someone was calling him after a very long time, and I said, “Pass me the phone, I want to say congratulations.” And I said, “Raf, this is Carine, we met a very long time ago.” And he said, “I want to thank you for this shoot you did for me in Paris 15 years ago.” So he has a very good memory, he seems very nice, I would love to have a coffee with him once.
So, looking forward to February and the shows, is there anything you have your eye on?
No, honestly. It’s like everything, you are never looking for your boyfriend and suddenly you found your boyfriend. It’s the same for designers. You know Riccardo, his show, I went for the first time in Milan because my son, he was friends with Mariacarla [Boscono], and Mariacarla gave to my son the invitation of Riccardo, and for me he was no one. And I was like, “OK, I have a car and I have a bit of time,” and I was like, “OK, let’s go.” So I went to see that show and it was totally new, totally fresh, and it was very interesting. That’s the way I met Riccardo. Of course I am going to wait for J.W Anderson because it is exciting, of course I am going to wait for Christopher Kane because I have been following him from the beginning, but you never know what is going to be.
I like to support new talent, I just regret not to support more before. It’s the next generation, we need them. It’s like Riccardo, he’s not so young anymore. I am so happy to see Hedi Slimane. I went to see his first show when he was working at YSL for men, and there was not more than 10 people in the room, and then they become like this, such a big success, so it makes you happy, you know, it makes you happy that you’ve known them for so many years. So yesterday I was backstage with Riccardo at Saint Laurent. I was between Riccardo and Hedi and it was a nice moment to be between two friends. Very talented friends. I say I am very gifted to have very talented friends. And they are friends together, too, they are old friends, as you may know.
And what about Gucci, your old stomping grounds?
I don’t know the guy [new creative director Alessandro Michele]. It was a bit like we took the assistant of the assistant. I didn’t see the men’s show, I do not know if you were in Milan.
I only saw the pictures…
What did you think? It was a bit different already…
Yes, it was different. Maybe he is even looking at J.W. Anderson a little bit, that androgyny idea.
Jonathan is a bit like the new one that everyone is looking at, he has the talent, he has a certain charisma. As for Gucci, I am more excited for the women’s show, I will say, than for the men’s show.
I wonder what Tom Ford thought. I’m sure he still keeps an eye at what’s happening there.
Of course. But you know, you cannot remake the game, you cannot remake the film. And sometimes I think if Tom Ford was going back to Gucci and he asked me to work with him, I would never say yes, because it’s done. But it was a very good moment. Everything was possible. Everything was free, and it was very fun to work with him.
Who are the new photographers you’re working with? When you decide you want to work with the new photographers, do you feel it is a risk? Or do you really like…
At the beginning, I had no choice. Other photographers, I was not allowed to work with then, but in a certain way it was a very good thing for me because it pushed me to find new ones. One is Michael Avedon—OK, he has a good name, but sometimes it can be even more difficult when you have a good name to be a photographer. He did the portfolio of “Jolie Laide,” and it is not easy to photograph a star and make her not as beautiful as people expect her to be. I think he did it in a very smart way; he is a very smart person. And there are a lot of amazing new girls in the issue. [We shot girls with] everything you think is not beautiful, you know, big ears. Big ears were always my complex because I have these ears coming out of my hair and now Karl [Lagerfeld, who did the shoot] loves this girl with the hair like that, so we say, “OK, good.” You know I think Karl is very risky, in casting and in advertising. Even when he is doing Chanel and Fendi, he will photograph other brands, which is rare.
Right, he is not too proud?
No, he is happy to photograph. He will say, “Oh, what’s that? Oh, I like it.” He is very professional, and I like that. There is a picture Karl did of me in my corset [in the issue]. One of my favorite stories in the issue is about destroyed jeans and T-shirts. Now if you want to buy destroyed jeans, it’s so much more expensive. Why? I think it’s very interesting how suddenly a destroyed T-shirt is more expensive than a new T-shirt. This is ugly beauty, too. So it is all linked in this issue. Kristen Stewart is part of the magazine.
Is she?
Yes, because I met her with Karl. And she is very special, too, she is not a perfect beauty. If she does not know you, sometimes she is very insecure. It is strange, but sometimes you are very beautiful and very insecure. Karl took a beautiful picture of her. She is very perfection in the photo. I made her look a bit like Patti Smith for the photo, and she was like, “I am just on the line with Patti Smith.” I said, “Oh, ask her what she thinks of the photo,” and she said that Patti liked it. I thought if Patti likes it, we can do it. I didn’t realize they were friends, because Patti Smith is always a big reference in fashion. Kristen is a funny girl, but you have to know her. She is quite shy at the beginning, you know.
We all dream to be actresses—we all want to be Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie, but are they more happy than us? I’m not sure. It is difficult to be an actress, because when you are an actress, you can’t age. In fashion it is not easy, either, but usually I am not in front of the camera, I am behind, so it is easier for me. I think every beauty needs something weird—a little error or it’s not beautiful.
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