first of all: in response to the ubiquitous comments about roitfeld's looks, this is my opinion. i admire her deeply for her looks and her work. i admire her looks simply because she has not hesitated to prominently reside in beatiful social circles because of her face. yes, IMO her face is like a middle-aged heroin addicts face, and very grungy; but that doesn't mean she has no appeal. she is by no means beautiful, yet she is attractive, she has a nice body, and her personality and work habits must be pretty damn good since she edits my favorite magazine.
now, about carine herself! here is some form of writing on her from 2002...from
http://www.lookonline.com/
Anna Who?:
While Anna Wintour may not have lost all her
celebrity star power, her status as a fashion icon
has been seriously challenged.
Carine Roitfeld, the
editor in chief of French Vogue, who WWD recently
dubbed 'the muse of the moment', has decidedly
replaced sunglass clad Wintour as the most
photographed and closely watched front row editor.
Ahh, life's tough at the top!
Interestingly, back in December, during my 'Masters
of Fashion' interview with the well-respected New
York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, he singled
Carine out (whom he has been photographing for at
least 10 years), saying "she has her finger on the raw
nerve of fashion, just like Anna Wintour did in the late 80's,
90's", and he praised her incredible sense of style that relies
on a very French understanding and appreciation of cut, fit,
and proportion.
According to WWD, many of models
on the Fall runways even looked like Corine
- something that was also mentioned by
Ruth la Ferla in an article in the Style section of the
New York Times ("Do Straight-haired Women Have More
Fun?"). As she put it, "Carine Roitfeld has made dead -
straight hair her signature. Ms. Roitfeld's tresses,
which cover half her face, have lately been copied on
the runways."
According to Roitfeld, there is no great mystery to
her look, which she claims takes a mere 10 minutes each
morning to achieve. As she told WWD, "I'm always
wearing the same sort of things, a black coat, a skirt -
but I always put the accent on one exciting piece".
The one exciting piece is usually a killer pair of
heels. As she stated: "in a fashion shoot, shoes are
very important. Shoes give the look. That and the
hair." Good-bye, 'bob'.
Kal Ruttenstein, who not too long ago, admitted that
he would carefully scrutinize Anna Wintour from
head-to-toe during the collections (in order to
analyze her clothes, accessories, and grooming), told
WWD that Carine is his 'muse' now, adding "she has the
best legs and the best shoes."
It just so happens that those 'best legs and best
shoes' were captured this past Sunday by Bill
Cunningham in his 'On the Street' report on the Paris
collections. The layout included one shot of Anna
Wintour and three of Carine (one of which was a
close-up of the Cesare Paciotti fur trimmed sandals
that Kal Ruttenstein loved so much, he was driven to
track them down for Bloomingdales).
to continue my train of thought 
:
if you google carine, her name is mentioned constantly in passing- yet the "in passing" bit refers to many magazines or online newspapers or fashion reports which mention her most frequently as a style star (or "fashion diva" it's really your choice).
(there is one article which makes fun of her face...and says that if she lets kate moss, allegedly a cocaine-addled kate moss at that, edit her magazine then "you get the idea that pretty much anybody, no matter how encrusted their nose is, can edit that magazine."
)
she is fabulous. and that is my main point.
french vogue is my favorite magazine; i am extremely picky and consider myself fairly well-educated to have all right opinions and taste. so. i like her. yes.
a few very cool pages in her very cool french magazine:

(from
http://www.mariacarlaboscono.hpg.ig.com.br/) to read the text, simply use the image URL in a diff. window. it's a bigger size that way.
she's just cool. i'm too lazy to post more

.... so i'll leave you with:
"Teal! Horrible color, teal. Only looks good on ducks."-- Carine Roitfeld.
gahha. who couldn't love carine roitfeld?