Carine Roitfeld leaves Vogue Paris *Update* Emmanuelle Alt named new Editor-in-Chief

[Leeroi]

Looks like the things between those two got better, from being blacklisted to putting Balenciaga's S/S 11 face on the cover in a head-to-toe look.

I find it funny in a way.

But then again, Gisele is also starring in Balenciaga's campaign.

 

[*ana*]

they say emmanuelle will do it as a "gesture of reparation". i hope it's true. it will be much more interesting than gisele wearing isabel marant.

 

[Dkammern]

2 things:

1) How dare Conde Nast say his editors don't consult for other brands when Alt's first cover will have same MODEL, LOCATION, and PHOTOGRAPHERS than the upcoming Isabel Marant campaign

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/01/video_emmanuelle_alt_speaks_we.html?mid=twitter_TheCut

2) I am very encouraged by the interview with the Telegraph: she said young talent (new designers), she said 'same but new', she said it would be rockandroll but not just rockandroll...
and i know this may sound completely stupid to many of you, but there's something oh so lovely about the fact that she speaks english fairly well (do note i live in a country were the prime minister does NOT speak a word of english, so understand i get excited to see there's hope outside!)

 

[Squizree]

New Alert!!

Emmanuelle Alt, The New Editor of Vogue Paris, on Daria Werbowy, Celebrity Covers, and New Designers

Emmanuelle Alt, the recently appointed editor of Vogue Paris, is sitting at a tiny two-seater table at the Galerie des Gobelins bar at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, sipping a Coca Light avec glace, having laughingly sent the waiter back to the bar tout de suite when he appeared at the table bearing regular Coke. Alt, clad in a Balmain caban jacket, a black Prada cashmere crewneck sweater, and black flared J Brand jeans, is en route to the Elie Saab show, but she has agreed to meet up and talk (just a little, not too much, she doesn’t want to give everything away) about what she plans to do with the—her—magazine. Her first issue is April.

Of course, that’s all anyone has wanted to know, ever since the previous editor, Carine Roitfeld, decided to step down at the end of last year. Over the course of an hour, Alt—smart, frank, funny, and insightful—talks about leading the magazine where she was until only recently fashion director for a decade. (Before that, she was at 20 Ans, French Elle, and Mixte.) It’s a rare opportunity to speak to Alt who, despite being one of the most fiercely blogged about stylists—helped in huge part by her striking looks, six-foot-plus lanky androgyne frame, and a knack for looking like the coolest rocker girl ever—has tended to let her work speak for itself. So, here she is. . .

On How She Sees Vogue Paris—For Now
“I want to keep the quality, the photographers we work with—David [Sims], Mert and Marcus, Mario [Testino], and Bruce Weber. I don’t think there should be radical changes. The magazine should still be chic and sophisticated. It’s a bit like buying an apartment: Before you move in, you have all these plans of what you are going to do, but then you get there, and you realize it is better to spend time living in it, and transforming it over time. I’d like there to be more beauty trends; there was so much of that in Vogue back in the eighties. And how people are living; there are so many interesting, cool people here, and they should be in the magazine. More French girls, more French lifestyle. And I am going to keep shooting for the magazine—hopefully a story every issue. I do project myself in my pictures, even if I would never wear what I shoot. Actually, most of the time I definitely wouldn’t. I always want a relationship with reality: nothing too sexy, or provocative, or fashion victim. Even if I love to dream, I want the magazine to feature a girl who looks like she belongs in real life. We are French—we can show smoking, nudity. We have no boundaries, and it can be good to have them."

On Celebrity Covers
“We don’t have a systematic point of view on it. But here in France we are back in a much more glamorous time. French actresses were respected, but not so evidently in the fashion world. Now we have Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg. I’d be very happy to put an actress on the cover if she is the right girl.”

On the Need for New Designers in Paris
“No one has appeared, and you cross your fingers that someone will come through. It’s good that some people—like Bouchra Jarrar—are using the haute couture to get attention for themselves. You can’t create new talent just like that. America feels like it has become the place for young designers.”

On Her Kind of Model
“Daria is the girl I work with the most. She has a natural, strong beauty. You can put her in a white tee and she will make it look fantastic. I like Kate [Moss] too, because she cares about clothes. Most models don’t care what you put them in, they just play the game.”

On Life Beyond It
“I spend all my weekends with the kids [Antonin, 13, and Françoise, 6]. It’s that culpability of having been working at the magazine all week. Françoise is a good tennis player, so we do that. It goes so fast. A weekend is like ten minutes for me. And we’ll go to dinner with friends. I don’t see doing things any differently now. My job has changed. My life hasn’t.”

On Her Own Style
“I like vintage. Balmain. Givenchy. Chanel. I love jeans. I wear a lot of jeans. I have that French-girl thing of always wanting to wear a cashmere sweater with a pair of jeans. Mine are J Brand, Acne—and I like Topshop. I don’t want them to be “designed.” Jeans should be jeans. I rarely wear skirts. My daughter is just the same. I’ll try to convince her to wear a skirt, or a dress, and she’ll look at me say, ‘Why? You don’t.’ "

Vogue

 

[adore dior]

I think alt is a great choice.

 

[*ana*]

from nytimes.com

New Star in the Front Row
By CATHY HORYN
Published: February 9, 2011

FOR two reasons, the choice of Emmanuelle Alt as editor in chief of French Vogue, in January, was anticlimactic. First, there was all the weirdness of her predecessor’s departure. Was Carine Roitfeld, who held the post for 10 years, fired or did she resign, as Condé Nast maintained? Second, the swift promotion of Ms. Alt from the No. 2 position of fashion director suggested that her bosses weren’t looking for much change. As she herself said, “They know my work by heart, and probably they felt like it was safe for them.”

Vogue editors do not come along every day, except in China and India, where Western fashion magazines are new. Anna Wintour (American Vogue) and Franca Sozzani (Italian Vogue) have each held their jobs for 22 years; Alexandra Shulman, the chief of British Vogue, a little less. If anything, the cult of the editor has exploded in the last decade, with books, documentaries and fan sites like I Want to be a Roitfeld, which is dedicated not just to Ms. Roitfeld but also to offspring. Recently the site branched out to include Ms. Alt.

At the same time, in a series of posts on Vogue.it, Ms. Sozzani has been critical of this cult, suggesting, among other things, that people have their priorities confused. Without referring to anyone specifically, she said this week in an interview: “They think it’s sitting in the front row and looking around with a tough eye as if you’re the one to decide about the life of people. This attitude is completely wrong. It’s what you do for the magazine that matters.”

Then she added, “Honestly, I don’t think a stylist has a vision for a magazine.”

Ms. Roitfeld was a freelance stylist before she became editor of French Vogue, where she continued to style shoots. She was also the model for Tom Ford’s louche glamour at Gucci, down to her black bra and stilettos. Insiders doubted that she could run a magazine, but within a few years, with the help of the art director Fabien Baron and Ms. Alt (not to mention a bunch of great photographers and models, who seemed to have interned at the same disco), French Vogue felt coolly revitalized.

“It’s one of the best female fashion magazines in the world,” the photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino said. “It’s as simple as that, and people couldn’t cope with it.” The magazine was also profitable under Ms. Roitfeld, said Jonathan Newhouse, chief executive of Condé Nast International, with a 40 percent jump in circulation over her tenure.

Ms. Roitfeld’s undoing as editor in chief was triggered, people in Paris speculated, by her December issue, which was devoted to all things Ford, not least sex. For one spread, he photographed a pair of elders groping each other in a smear of lipstick and neck wrinkles. Mr. Ford declared he was tired of youth culture.

Maybe so, but the issue as a whole suggested a lack of adult supervision at the top. In a post that appeared in January, Ms. Sozzani questioned the point of fashion shoots that make people look vulgar, specifically condemning a shoot (in the December issue of French Vogue, as it happens) that showed little girls in seductive clothes and makeup.

Certainly the Vogues face a world in which assumptions seem to be changing daily. But for that reason, Ms. Sozzani said, editors have to be absolutely in control of their magazines. “Everybody can create a magazine, just as everything can be on the runway,” she said. “But there has to be a concept. And it’s true that we’re in an image. But you cannot have the image without the vision.”

What happened to Ms. Roitfeld was this: she offered to resign, according to several individuals close to the matter. She was frequently absent from the office, on shoots, and when the issue of her management came to a head, she offered to resign. She may have been bluffing, hoping she would be asked to stay, but her resignation was accepted.

When asked if being away from the office was a contributing factor, Ms. Roitfeld said last month over a drink at the Ritz hotel in Paris: “Maybe, maybe. Everybody has an opinion. Before, it wasn’t a problem, and anyway the magazine was doing very well. It’s difficult to work with a big team. Maybe it’s good I go back to my roots.” She said that her bosses received complaints from advertisers over the Ford issue. “I was killed for that,” she said. “You know, it’s difficult to try to do something new each month.”

Asked if she regretted resigning, Ms. Roitfeld said no. “I’m very sad, but in a way I’m very happy, too. I don’t want to get old in this golden cage. I’m very punk in a way.”

Her friendship with Ms. Alt did not survive, however. Both women said they were no longer speaking. Neither would reveal the reasons.

A few days later at the Café de Flore, Ms. Alt, as candid as she is unfazed, said: “I don’t look back and see clouds anywhere. Carine is someone who needs to be free. She’s the rebel of the class. She hates authority. She dealt with it for years but. ...”

Ms. Alt, 43, the daughter of a Parisian model who worked for Lanvin and Nina Ricci and a professional writer of children’s songs, is every inch a fashion editor. Starting from the bottom, as a summer intern at French Elle, she arrived at Vogue in 2000, three weeks before Ms. Roitfeld. She is tall, lanky, with dark brown hair. Her style twin would surely be Daria Werbowy.

Indeed, for a shoot in the September 2008 issue, she styled Ms. Werbowy in the attitude Alt: skin-tight pants, snug jackets by Balmain and Chanel, plain T-shirts, Zanotti booties and flying hair. And she is as famous in fashion circles for not wearing skirts as Ms. Roitfeld is for showing leg. Her antenna is aimed at the street.

She said: “I think the street now takes its influence from the Internet and music — more than what designers do. I would love to recreate this impact in the magazine.” There is also an opportunity, Mr. Mondino suggested, to relate more content to iPad technology.

What isn’t known is whether the centimeters, when broken out, add up to editor in chief. Ms. Alt’s great strength, say those who work with her, like the photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, may be that young women, with careers and families (Ms. Alt has a daughter, 6, and a son, 13) identify with her style. “It’s believable,” Ms. van Lamsweerde said, adding, “I always say to her, ‘I want everything you’re wearing.’ ”

Personally, Ms. Van Lamsweerde said, she doesn’t care to see a more well-rounded French Vogue. “Do we really need another magazine about the latest architectural feat, the latest book? To me, what’s needed is a real fashion magazine, with the best taste and incredible photography.”

Ms. Alt, who plans to attend the New York shows for the first time in years, likened the changes she wants to make to “opening a few more windows.” She wants a more feminine attitude. “I don’t mean girlie,” she said, “but less tough. And I think you can make very strong fashion pictures without shocking or being borderline.” French Vogue may display a nostalgic love for cigarettes and nude Bardot blondes, “but it’s not because everything is possible that you can do everything,” she said.

She seems aware that to be a great editor is to be more than a daring stylist. She has told photographers that she will only style one shoot per issue. And she has given up her outside styling jobs, with Balmain and Isabel Marant, which she was permitted to do when she first came to Vogue. In an internal Condé Nast memo in January, Mr. Newhouse reminded editors about the company policy against taking on outside jobs without permission.

“I completely understand that in life you have to make choices,” Ms. Alt said. “It’s not even a discussion. I’m going to be exclusive to French Vogue.”

 

[Label Basher]

What happened to Ms. Roitfeld was this: she offered to resign, according to several individuals close to the matter. She was frequently absent from the office, on shoots, and when the issue of her management came to a head, she offered to resign. She may have been bluffing, hoping she would be asked to stay, but her resignation was accepted.

When asked if being away from the office was a contributing factor, Ms. Roitfeld said last month over a drink at the Ritz hotel in Paris: “Maybe, maybe. Everybody has an opinion. Before, it wasn’t a problem, and anyway the magazine was doing very well. It’s difficult to work with a big team. Maybe it’s good I go back to my roots.” She said that her bosses received complaints from advertisers over the Ford issue. “I was killed for that,” she said. “You know, it’s difficult to try to do something new each month.”

Asked if she regretted resigning, Ms. Roitfeld said no. “I’m very sad, but in a way I’m very happy, too. I don’t want to get old in this golden cage. I’m very punk in a way.”

Her friendship with Ms. Alt did not survive, however. Both women said they were no longer speaking. Neither would reveal the reasons.

A few days later at the Café de Flore, Ms. Alt, as candid as she is unfazed, said: “I don’t look back and see clouds anywhere. Carine is someone who needs to be free. She’s the rebel of the class. She hates authority. She dealt with it for years but. ...”

So there you have it. The December issue was the reason. It does sound like others in the fashion world turned against her. Not just Bernard.

It is sad Carine and Emmanuelle don't speak.

 

[Squizree]

^ Everyone knew their "friendship" was superficial. It was more of professional friendship that they kept positive for the sake of their careers. Now that one of them is gone, it's no longer necessary to remain friends. That's what I feel anyway.

 

[cigalechanta]

I posted I thought the December issue was a factor on another site. The photos of the chilfren were out of line IMHO.

 

[loladonna]

Alt seems to have more humility than her predecessor.

 

[rox_yr_sox]

I think it's good that Alt will only style one edit per issue. She's recognising that editors must have other priorities and that having a limited stylistic view point in a lot of editorials is boring. Hopefully, we'll get some new stylists in the mix now as well. After reading those 2 articles, I'm more excited about seeing what Alt will do with the magazine.

 

[Style Savvy]

The Future Of Fashion, Part Seven: Carine Roitfeld
February 12, 2011 12:44 am

In this ongoing series, Style.com’s editor in chief, Dirk Standen, talks to a number of leading industry figures about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the fashion business.

“This is my new office,” Carine Roitfeld jokes when I meet her in the lobby of the Carlyle on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It is less than a week since she officially vacated her throne as editor in chief of Paris Vogue, and in this darkly lit grand hotel, it’s tempting to see Roitfeld, with her gray fur jacket and Russian roots, as a glamorous aristocrat in sudden exile. It’s an exile that will be short-lived, no doubt. She has already exerted an unmistakable influence on fashion, not once but twice: first with the p*rno-chic aesthetic she co-authored in the nineties as a stylist for Mario Testino and Tom Ford, then of Gucci; later, with her provocative, photo-driven, decade-long tenure at Vogue. Now everyone is speculating about her next act.


The moment we slide into a booth and Roitfeld removes a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses the size of saucers, a different woman emerges: talkative, immensely charming, unafraid to appear vulnerable, yet also fiercely determined. I barely have a chance to turn on my tape recorder before she is off and running on a variety of subjects: her mysterious departure from Vogue, the need to promote young talent, and dinners à trois with Riccardo Tisci and Karl Lagerfeld.


You were saying?
It’s strange for me to come back here to New York during the fashion show season and not to be the editor in chief of French Vogue. Of course, I’ve done it before when I was just a freelancer, but ten years is a long time. It’s like 20 times I came here for the shows, and suddenly I’m not the editor in chief. That’s a custom, so it’s hard to now be a freelance editor. But it’s exciting, too.


You’re skipping the circus this time?
I’m not going to the shows. Maybe I will see some friends at previews, but mostly I’ve come for the amfAR gala on Wednesday. I’m a big supporter of amfAR. And my son is giving an exhibition on Thursday. And I have to finish my book for Rizzoli. I’m very late, so it’s my last days to finish it. It’s supposed to come out September or maybe October of this year. So I have a lot of appointments. I’m quite busy.


The book is a look back at your career?
It’s a bit like that. I never like to go back, so to go back to a picture you did 20 years ago, it’s almost like going to a shrink. It’s a lot of emotion…Most of the pictures are the ones I did with Mario Testino…It’s mostly dedicated to Mario, that book.


Does one shoot stand out in your memory?
There are different ones, of course. I had a very good period where I was working at French Glamour and I was working for The Face. The “butcher” shoot with Eva Herzigova and those sort of stories. They’re memorable stories, and you say why? Maybe because it’s not just about fashion. It’s because it’s a moment of the time.


You’ve been working on the book with [editor] Olivier Zahm and [art director] Alex Wiederin?
Always I like to have trouble. It’s not easy to have two big personalities like Olivier Zahm and Alex Wiederin working together, with me in the middle. But I know “star wars.” I spent a lot of time between Tom Ford and Mario Testino, so I learned how to deal with it.


Speaking of Tom Ford, people are curious if you’re going to work together again.
No, no, I’m not going to work with Tom. That was ten years ago. If I look back at my CV, when I was freelance, I worked mostly ten years with Tom Ford at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. And after [that] I stopped and it was ten years at French Vogue. Now it’s a new decade and I don’t want to be doing what I was doing ten years ago. Of course, Tom is my friend and if he asks me what I think, I will answer. But I will not go and stay one week before the show and work with him.


What did you think of the super-exclusive show he did in New York?
I think it was very smart of him, just 100 journalists in his shop, and he was talking about each model and he had a sense of humor, so you see a lot of people laughing, which is fun…He did totally the contrary of everyone else and he made a big buzz, a big excitement. I think it was good not to see the [clothes] afterwards immediately on the blogs. For the editors, you feel more VIP, and it makes the buzz bigger and everyone knows about the Tom Ford collection. And really nothing came out. It was very controlled. Tom is a very controlled person, so he controlled everything…And his genius is to make the girls even more beautiful than they already are. It’s his talent. One of the girls was my daughter, and when she came out, I was anxious for her, but I thought, my gosh, she had never been so beautiful…I don’t know what he’s going to do for the next one.


It’s in London.
Is it? See, I don’t know.


We won’t see you modeling?
He didn’t ask me.


What are some of your plans?
You know, I have many projects, but as a Russian, I am very superstitious, and nothing is totally clarified. I think it will be [clearer] in one month. It’s just one week since I left the magazine, but I have a lot of ideas. It will of course be in fashion, but I don’t know exactly which way—magazines or maybe the muse of someone, I don’t know exactly. But what I’m sure of, because I discovered this at the end of my decade [at Vogue], it’s very important to help young designers. My last issue is the March issue, and it’s dedicated to young designers, no advertisers, just young designers, because I think they really need the support…When you meet these kids, you learn a lot from them, and I think it gives them a lot of positive energy…I definitely want to work on a project with young designers, not just French but international…I grew up and I think I have better ideas than I had ten years ago. [For the last ten years] I didn’t have a lot of time to think about the big picture or how fashion is going to be in some years. Now it’s a good moment for me to think about fashion for today, because a lot of things have changed, and when you’re working you don’t see all these things changing. But when you stop, you can see it. You have to understand the new way of working with fashion.


What are some of those changes?
Everything is going so quick now with the Internet, with the blogs. It’s very important. There are two possibilities; either you go very quick to the Internet or you go to magazines and you make it like a collector’s item. [I still think] it’s very normal to have all these fashion weeks and to go to all these shows. Can you show them through movies? I don’t think this is possible. It’s very exciting to be at the runway, to hear the music, to feel the atmosphere, to feel what people like or don’t like. Even if there are too many shows—I would love if there were less shows—I think we have to live with the shows. But after, maybe there is another way to make fashion stories.


You were one of the first editors to become a star of the street-style blogs. Were you conscious that was happening?
I’m never conscious about those sorts of things. I was never conscious that I was becoming an icon or I’m not an icon, because my family, my kids, my husband keep me down-to-earth. But it’s true that, when you go to a show now, the photographers are more interested sometimes in the dress or the jacket you’re wearing than to photograph the show, and I think this is totally wrong. It’s an honor and you smile to the people. But is it normal? I think there is something a bit weird, that more people want to see these looks than want to see what John Galliano or Dolce & Gabbana did for the show.


Now a lot of editors—Anna Dello Russo, Giovanna Battaglia—have become street-style stars, but you started it.
Because I have a specific look. Black eyes, hair in my face, high heels. Maybe it was a strong look in the streets that made me the first one. Anna is funny, she has an incredible look. And Giovanna, she is very chic in an Italian way. And there are other ones coming. I’m sure there is a lot who want to push me out of the way, because this is fashion. It’s never very faithful, you know, and people want change all the time. This is the purpose of fashion, so I don’t know what is going to happen with me. But my look is not going to change very much.


Does that kind of attention make an editor’s job more difficult?
When you see ten shows in one day, it’s very difficult to have a [considered] reflection. People come up to you with a microphone after the show, and sometimes you’re [not ready] to say what [you] think of this show. Sometimes it takes a week to digest everything. I’m not very good just after a show. Sometimes you love it, but you don’t know why you love it. You have to digest, and after you have better answers.


I’d like to talk about Paris Vogue. Was there a moment where you felt you’d really defined the voice of the magazine?
It took a little time, because when I came to Vogue ten years ago, it was not the Vogue it is today. Joan Juliet Buck, who I was working for as a freelancer, was more a journalist editor than a fashion editor, so it was focused more on the text and writers and not so much on fashion. And me, I come with all my fashion ideas, but it was very difficult at the beginning, because a lot of photographers, it’s easy to forget, didn’t want to work for the magazine…Each time we try to be better and better, and it takes almost ten years to be a team, and now I think the best team is there. It’s very sad to leave your family after ten years…But I think the times are changing, too. I said to Jonathan [Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International], when I can make it ten, it will be great for me. And I think in the last [period] that maybe I got less freedom than I got before, so I think it was just the right time for me to leave, because I want to enjoy and do everything that I want to do. And Jonathan was an amazing boss, because he let me do such crazy things. To put a black transsexual with a beard and high heels on the cover? I don’t think a lot of presidents will let you do that. I think it was fun to look at French Vogue. Each month was a new happening. But I think now they want to change a bit. Even the French president [Xavier Romatet, of Condé Nast France] now wants something a bit [pauses]…sweeter I would say, and if I cannot have a lot of fun, then I prefer to do something else.


You felt you had less freedom at the end?
I think yes. I think the French president—maybe not Jonathan—but the French president thinks he wants something more [pauses]…I won’t say I’m too provocative; it’s my way of expressing myself, you know. They won’t change everything, because when something has been so [successful], it would be stupid to change it. Maybe they want [things] a bit more easy for everyone. It’s true, I’m always pushing. I like that. I’ve always been provocative, but what I’m going to do next is a new way of provocation. I did for many years p*rno chic. I was the queen of p*rno chic. And I will do something totally different now.


Are advertisers too powerful now, to the point where it stifles creativity?
Of course they’re very powerful. And more and more powerful…But I never talked, myself, to the advertisers; I talked to my readers. Always I has this way of thinking, and maybe that’s the reason I had more and more readers…We never felt forced to photograph something.


Did you feel the pressure of political correctness?
I think it’s sad because when I did this Tom Ford issue, for example, we put a lot of little girls with makeup, a lot of jewelry. It was for Christmas and it’s nothing compared to what Guy Bourdin did 20 years ago or what I saw in all the magazines ten years ago.


But the shoot with the kids did cause waves?
Yes, but when you put kids, you always know it’s going to be a problem. There was no nudity, it was always a T-shirt under the evening dress, but you know, people see what they want…These are the risques du métier.


There are rumors that you were fired because of the Tom Ford issue.
No, that’s wrong…I think it was a controversial issue, but they were all controversial issues. I told you, at the end of this decade, I could see that the new president in France wanted to change the direction of the magazine. I’m sure the Tom Ford issue is not the way they’re heading in the next few years, but it was not because of the Tom Ford issue. I was not fired, because if I was fired, it would not be a very nice ending. It was a discussion between Jonathan and myself, and he never fired me…I know I did a good job. I know the March issue is a record in terms of advertising. So I’m not leaving a sad magazine, an empty magazine. I’m leaving a magazine that has an epic stop. I’m very happy about that.


...

 

[Style Savvy]

...

Do you feel you’re leaving the magazine in good hands with Emmanuelle Alt?
I think the team is perfect. And I think it’s like a boulevard—an easy road in front of them. For six months, it’s the same program as today, because everything for this season was almost organized. So we’ll see what happens next season. I think it would be stupid to change too much, because I think it’s doing quite well. But everyone has their own personality, and Emmanuelle is very different than me, so we’re going to see what she’s going to do. But I think it’s going to be a bit easier for her than it was for me ten years ago, because everyone wants to work at French Vogue now.


People say you and Emmanuelle Alt are not on speaking terms.
It’s true that we are in not in the best relations, [but] I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest.


What are you proudest of achieving at the magazine?
To enjoy going to the office for ten years. Because I’ve worked for all those other magazines, and I know it is not like this everywhere. I think the reason the magazine was good was that we enjoyed doing the magazine, and I think the readers felt this…I also just realized at the end that you get big, big power when you get that job, and you can make someone a celebrity. Look what happened to Lara Stone. She wanted to stop being a model. She had no success at all. And my friend Riccardo Tisci said to me, “Oh, you have to look at that girl, she’s amazing.” And I believed him and I booked her, and after that I booked her for each issue. She was the cover of my special anniversary issue, the cover of the February issue. I gave her eight or nine covers, and now she’s one of the biggest stars. It’s very exciting to make someone a star, and it was something you could do with French Vogue…It’s like my friend Peter Philips. I started with him when no one knew him. He was an assistant, and now he’s the head of Chanel [makeup]. It makes me happy to see all my friends [succeed] too, because I like to share the cake with other people.


Your father was a movie producer. Perhaps you inherited some of that from him?
I hope I will have the same serenity and sagesse, wisdom, as my dad. Maybe he wasn’t the biggest producer in France. He had a great catalog, but there were people who were bigger than him. But he was one of the most respected ones. He was like a godfather in this business, and when he died and I saw all these people, very well-known people, come to pay their last respects, I thought, oh my God, I hope I will have the same wisdom as him. Everything I did was following in his footsteps, and it’s true he always protected me, so I hope he would be proud of my new decision. People say, “Why did you leave French Vogue? It’s crazy.” But I say, I always liked challenge. When Tom Ford asked me to consult for Gucci, I had never consulted in my life. I didn’t know what consulting was, and look, we made something amazing. I have a lot of ideas coming, and it’s more exciting than getting older in your golden cage.


In general terms, do you see a positive future for magazines?
I think it will be very difficult for a lot of magazines, because now you see so many things on the Internet right away and you cannot be as quick as the Internet. Maybe some magazines will stay, but they have to be very beautiful, like collector’s items…Today we have to think differently. [Take] globalization. Ten years ago we never thought we were going to have a Vogue in China, and it’s one of the most successful Vogues, so if you’re not moving, you’re dead. Maybe it’s about going to other countries, to find another way to be interesting in fashion, to talk to a wider audience.


Any interest in working on the Internet?
I’m not an Internet [girl]. I’m not writing on blogs. I’m not a Facebook girl. Even though there is a fake Facebook with my name, it’s not me. I’m not on Twitter, it’s not me. But I think if I’m not going on the Internet, I’m going to totally disappear, because the future is the Internet. It’s very difficult for me to work on the Internet, but maybe I will find a way. I think this is very, very important.


Do you feel you did enough on the Internet at Paris Vogue?
No. I never took care of the Internet for Paris Vogue, never, because honestly I had no time to work on the Internet, and I don’t think a lot of magazines have success going on the Internet. You have to be thinking totally differently if you want to do something on the Internet. Even French Elle or Grazia, they’re very popular magazines, but on the Internet they’re not so popular, so there is something that doesn’t work. You have to think about exactly what people need on the Internet. It’s not that you do a continuation of the magazine.


Would you be open to editing another magazine?
Why not? I’m open to many opportunities. There are not so many ways to show fashion…To show fashion you need a magazine most of the time. Each time we were doing a magazine, it was like giving a dinner…You know this thing called Le Festin de Babette? She spent all her money just to make one dinner. It’s a bit like when you want to make a special issue. You give everything you have, your charm, your money, your relationships, to make something fantastic. You have to be very generous.


The photographers you worked with at the magazine—David Sims, Mario Sorrenti, Terry Richardson—they are the establishment now. Do you see a new generation of photographers breaking through?
There are some coming through, but when you have a magazine and you have the best ones, it’s difficult to put someone new between them. They want to be all at the same level. But I think now, we need new stylists, we need new photographers, and I’m starting to check and see some very good ones. And if I’m doing something new, I would love to use a new generation, because I think it’s good when people are very hungry…Personally, I think I had more creativity and talent 20 years ago when we had no money to do a story, [and we had] to do it in two hours after a money job when we got to keep the studio…I think everything is too established now. I think it’s good to break the rules. It’s like the models. It’s easy to have the five tops. I love risk…Now I found a new girl called Saskia. She has short hair, no one knows her, and this is going to be my last cover.


Where do you find new talent?
You have to be surrounded with people with [good] eyes. For example, my friend Riccardo Tisci. He’s really someone of his time. I’ve [tried] to nourish him, but he’s also nourishing me a lot with his instincts about models, photographers, singers. It’s very important for me to have some of these friends…He’s very exciting, he’s very aware, and each time he gives me good advice. Lara, Saskia—Riccardo introduced me to them, and he showed me some new photographers and I’d love to use them.


Why do you think it took people a long time to appreciate his talent as a designer?
I met Riccardo when he was unknown and doing his own show in Milan. A sort of very underground show. And to go from a very big-name show to an underground show was very exciting for me, so I met Riccardo this way, and after, I tried to make him come to Givenchy when they were looking for someone. I know they were not so happy at the beginning, but now they understand his vision. Sometimes it takes a bit of time. He was very young. It’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders, but I think since two or three seasons, it’s better and better. And his last Couture presentation was amazing. And even the men’s show, where people had to wait two hours because there was a problem with the electricity, no one stood up, everyone was staying, because they know something was going to happen at that show. Even if they don’t like everything, there is something new…He’s doing a book for Visionaire and he asked me to be in a picture. And it was fun to do it and he’s full of oxygen. And I just introduced him to Karl Lagerfeld and now they really like each other. It’s funny to have dinner with the two of them, because Riccardo is not intimidated by Karl; he is totally comfortable, and Karl has a lot of fun with him. You spend a very good evening listening to them. Maybe I’m a good go-between.


Which other designers do you admire?
Oh, there are a lot of designers I admire. There’s a long list. In the young generation, of course I love Nicolas Ghesquière. There were these problems with Balenciaga last season, but I know him since the beginning. I was one of the biggest supporters of Nicolas, and I just saw him for a cup of tea and now everything is fine again between Nicolas and me.


What was the real cause of your disagreement with Nicolas?
Sometimes people like to put oil on the fire, to make something bigger, and afterwards with blogs and the Internet, things [get out of] proportion. But now it’s gone back like before and I’m very happy because I think he’s full of talent.


There were rumors that you were consulting for other brands while you were editing Vogue. But you recently told Women’s Wear Daily that wasn’t true.
I didn’t have the time…You do so many shows, go to New York, London, Milan, Paris; you do many photo stories for your own magazine. Even if I’m a Superwoman, I don’t know when exactly I would find the time to spend one week [consulting] with someone at the shows. This is impossible.


Do you feel freer now?
I never felt not free. Even when I was doing so many things, I never had an office life. OK, I have no boss now. That’s a big difference. I’m my own boss and it’s a good thing and a bad thing to be your own boss. You can do whatever you want, but you need a protector. I need protectors, because it’s very difficult to do everything by yourself. I have a lot of people who want to do projects with me. It’s the reason I’m in New York. There are a lot of people to meet here. I think things will come more from New York than Paris. You’re never a king in your own country. You’re always better in another country, no? So I hope that Americans will still like me.


Why wouldn’t they?
People sometimes think I’m very cold, but I’m not. I’m a very shy person. When people know me, I’m not cold; I’m quite a nice person. It’s difficult as the editor of a magazine to be totally yourself because you’re a bit frightened. Now I think I go back where I was ten years ago, so I get younger, which is always good. Younger with dreams and younger with energy. Younger with risk, because now it will be my own risk; it won’t be Vogue’s risk. Always I will be a risky woman. I will keep this legend.
—Dirk Standen
Photo: Hedi Slimane for New York magazine
style.com

 

[LUXXX]

I'm stunned that Carine no longer talks to Emmanuelle, as per Cathy Horyn's report. She always said she wasn't ambitious, but the moment a "friend" and colleague ascends the latter, she instantly becomes some immature brat. And weirdly, it seems like she is looking down on Emmanuelle, like she doesn't belong in a higher position. Just my assumption, but it now appears that she was pushed out or thought Conde Nast valued her more than she did.

I was a fan of her direction for VP and will always admire her work, but her attitude is awful in this case.

 

[fantastical]

great interview. I'm only surprised with how much Carine seems to be focused on new designers when she never seemed to feature them much in the magazine before. I'm really excited to see what she does next.

also, she let it slip that Saskia is going to be on her last cover

 

[Label Basher]

^ Yes I was puzzled by that too considering how criticized she was for it.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but I don't read any negativity towards Emmanuelle from Carine. She just said she didn't want to talk about it probably so people can't make up more stories. Carine leaving was abrupt and they worked together for 10 years. I'd be a bit hurt having to find out in the media. And she's probably right that the transition will be easier for Emmanuelle than for her.

 

[Thefrenchy]

That new designers envy caught my attention too... Comme par hasard, it happens when she's not at VP

 

[sethii]

Emmanuelle talked about new designers too. Neither of them seems to have put much thought or effort into that issue.

 

[iluvjeisa]

I'm stunned that Carine no longer talks to Emmanuelle, as per Cathy Horyn's report. She always said she wasn't ambitious, but the moment a "friend" and colleague ascends the latter, she instantly becomes some immature brat. And weirdly, it seems like she is looking down on Emmanuelle, like she doesn't belong in a higher position. Just my assumption, but it now appears that she was pushed out or thought Conde Nast valued her more than she did.

I was a fan of her direction for VP and will always admire her work, but her attitude is awful in this case.

You know, we don't really know what happened between the two and as long as we don't I don't think you should assume she's immature...

 

[LUXXX]

It's very high school, we all can see that...that's fashion. I just thought Carine would be more above it all - congratulate her and move on gracefully, even if she didn't feel that way.