The style of Carla Bruni, First Lady of France
From the gossip columns to the corridors of power, we trace the restyling of Mme Sarkozy
I could so easily have been Carla Bruni. Not, clearly, because of my exquisite bone structure or enviable figure; nor because I am married to a small, right-wing politician (my husband is over 6ft tall). No, the reason we have so much in common is because we are both 40 and we both come from Turin.
Turin, if you don't know it, is a medium-sized industrial city in the north of Italy. To the outside world it is most notable for being the home of Fiat, the location for The Italian Job and, if you happen to be the sort of person who watches Living TV's Most Haunted, “Satan's City” - something to do with Nostradamus and ley lines, apparently.
Anyway, until recently there were plenty of people, most of them French, who would have concurred with the Vatican's view that Turin is the home town of the Devil, and that he had ventured forth from there in the guise of a green-eyed, porcelain-skinned supermodel. With their shiny new President in thrall to Bruni, the high hopes that last year carried Nicolas Sarkozy into power were looking dashed. Not only was he making a fool of himself, he was making a fool of his country. She had him - and, by extension, all of France - by the balls.
Then came Sarkozy's state visit to Britain, complete with an address to Parliament, a banquet at Windsor Castle and (for Bruni) lunch with the Prime Minister's wife. In less than 48 hours she managed to step neatly out of one role - that of temptress, husband-stealer and all-round sexual velociraptor - into another: that of an impeccably poised First Lady, all sensible flats, trouser suits and pill-box hats. What had been a dreadful romantic embarrassment is suddenly looking like a PR triumph. There is even talk at the Elysée Palace of a Princess Diana-style queen-of-hearts role. I say, steady on there, boys.
So, how has she done it? Was it the clothes, so cleverly French (Dior) with a British twist (Dior's designer is John Galliano)? Or perhaps the exquisitely demure expression, eyes cast down, legs crossed in perfect Swiss finishing-school fashion (the whispers among the assembled politicians during her husband's speech in the House of Lords were of nothing but her shapely ankles). Surely the carefully calibrated chit-chat, during dinner at Windsor Castle, about how humiliated and upset she had been about the nude photographs in the tabloids, must have helped - not to mention the speech at a charity lunch organised by Sarah Brown in aid of women who die during pregnancy or childbirth.
It's a far cry from the days when she jetted off to Thailand with a certain rock star whose wife had (as it happens) only just given birth; or the time she eloped with the son of the man with whom she was living. That was the old Bruni, the same one who once said that monogamy bored her, and who was even described by friends as “single-minded in her ambitions”.
From a female point of view, there is no doubt that the woman is a menace, a lethal combination of beauty and ruthlessness. But you have to admire her. First, for changing the course of French history by not settling for the role of acquiescent mistress and a nice apartment in a fashionable arrondissement, but getting the ring on her finger and a seat at the top table. And, secondly, for being true to herself. For Bruni, despite having lived much of her life in France, is the truest representation of Italian womanhood I have seen since Lucrezia Borgia.
This week's performance was a brilliant lesson in the correct application of bella figura. In Italy, no matter how much of a minx you may be behind closed doors, as a woman you never let it show in public. You do not lose face and you don't let your man down. This ability perfectly qualifies her for the role of legendary first lady, on a par with some of the greatest in history: Jacqueline Kennedy, Grace Kelly, Eva Perón. These women all had an ability to dominate the headlines while maintaining a pretence of being secondary to their husbands. No matter that some of those husbands were buffoons - the conceit was all part of the appeal.
That is what we saw this week: the first sparks of a potentially stratospheric, old-style First Lady. Just one thing, though: the boys at the Elysée are wrong. Bruni is no Diana. She would never bare her soul so crudely, or wash her dirty linen in public. No, any machinations in which Mme Sarkozy chooses to indulge will take place within the privacy of her marriage. Those balls, mesdames et messieurs, are firmly in her court.
The fashion expert
How did Carla pull it off? Contrary to rumours that she would be arriving with trunk-loads of Hermès, she settled for Dior: a clever and diplomatic fashion move, given that Dior is a French couture house yet John Galliano, an Englishman, is the label's much-admired designer.
Yesterday's bold, purple coat teamed with a grey trouser suit not only gave nod to the hottest shades on Planet Fashion but was a savvy choice for Sarah Brown's “Safe Motherhood” lunch, attended by an all-female guest list of London's top movers and shakers. It was certainly a less contrived look than her outfits of the previous day.
But while you might not subscribe to her take on “First lady” chic, which bordered on Thunderbird's Lady Penelope meets Fifties air hostess, the manner in which Carla has transformed herself (hitherto her uniform had mostly comprised a drab coat, jeans and loafers combo) is remarkable.
From the outset, her state visit was beset by sartorial conundrums. There was the small - quite literally - matter of her bijou husband. At 5ft 9in, she was never going to be able to finish her Dior ensembles with Galliano's towering skyscrapers. So she spent the day in flats. And neither did a flattish pill-box, pulled to the back of her head, rack up the inches. She changed her outfit three times on Wednesday, although so effortlessly that to the untrained eye, i.e, the average male, she appeared to have done little more than sling on a navy jacket and not upstage her husband with flamboyant costume changes. Her navy column dress, and the very simple Chaumet jewels, worn to the white-tie banquet, was also a lesson in understatement and the draped chiffon sleeves that revealed only a hint of the forearm was more erotic than any va-va-voom gown would have been.
So top marks for looking French, poised and sophisticated but not so twee and boring that she could be accused of not marking the occasion with the sartorial respect it deserved. And anyway, under that conservative and bourgeois demeanour, there's always a hint of repressed sexuality or a killer dress dying to get out - in France at any rate.
CAROLYN ASOME
The deportment expert
Carla's deportment is excellent. She has completely changed her walk: because she's wearing flat shoes, she's walking through her foot, leading to a neat, compact movement. It's the opposite of a catwalk movement, which often involves a very wide sway. She keeps her shoulders back and head tilted. She looks humble, but not apologetic.
When she is coming down the steps of the plane, her body doesn't tilt forward: she glides. She offers her hand and does a beautiful curtsy: one leg behind, knees together, straight back, a quick bob. She must have practised this.
Carla is always slightly behind her husband. She nods and smiles reservedly and has excellent eye contact. When she sits with her toes pointed towards the ground she deliberately smoothes her skirt down and tucks it underneath, and puts her legs to one side, making her look more comfortable than if she were sitting straight up. She has the three Ps: poise, presence and posture.
RACHEL HOLLAND
The author runs Rachel Holland Associates, a contemporary “finishing school”.
The photographer
I knew Carla Bruni would wow Britain this week: she has a natural grace that you can't fake. Sure, there has been a lot of “controversy” about her supermodel past, her love life and that naked photograph - which is a beautiful, elegant shot. But she has always been a very classy woman.
A state visit isn't nearly as huge a leap for her as you might think. She is from a rich, artistic Italian family. She is cultured, moneyed and looks great in photographs.
I remember shooting her at Sting's Rainforest Foundation party [above] with other supermodels in 1992. Gianni Versace had dressed them all, and she was by far the most poised. That was a decadent time, and in her modelling, man-eating days she could certainly look pretty wild. But that doesn't mean that she can't cut it in a more conservative environment.
Wearing those Chanel flats was a brilliant idea. You can see that she had Prince Philip mesmerised, as I'm sure any other red-blooded octogenarian would have been. Even Prince Charles couldn't stop himself playing up to her a little.
DAVE BENETT
The relationship expert
She is obviously an incredibly intelligent and self-assured woman. It is when people feel vulnerable in the role of a second or third wife, or are anxious at any memory that the husband may bring up of his previous wife, that problems arise. But when someone appears to be like Carla, they tend not to have such issues.
She has accepted that her husband has a past. She brings a worldly, sophisticated attitude to the marriage. She is confident because she has had a career. People always look to pick apart, compare and criticise second and third marriages. It's about being tactful, thoughtful and composed.
By standing at his side, Carla showed that she was not taking the path of his former wife Cécilia who often often failed to appear with him at big events. She didn't come across as threatening and arrogant, like Cherie Blair or Hillary Clinton trying to steal the spotlight. Carla is choosing a way to help him. It is a pivotal moment for them both.
DR PAM SPURR
Others who have pulled it off
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte was born out of wedlock in rural Argentina and grew up with a single mother and four siblings. She became an actress in Buenos Aires before meeting Juan Perón and moving in with him. It was considered scandalous for a former entertainer to take part in public political life and some have accused Evita of turning politics into show business. But she created a personality cult, all the more successfully because of her humble beginnings.
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly had been branded a home-wrecker after an affair with Ray Milland (her married co-star on Dial M for Murder) and also had an affair with Bing Crosby during his engagement to the actress Kathryn Grant. But after becoming Princess Grace of Monaco she abandoned her Hollywood ways and never returned to the screen. She lived a discreet life as the perfect royal consort, bearing her husband three children.
Katie Holmes
Her goody-two-shoes persona in Dawson's Creek was compounded by her Catholic upbringing and reportedly virginal five-year relationship with the American Pie actor Chris Klein. But since meeting Tom Cruise, she has changed her religion (she is now a Scientologist, like her husband) her dress sense (much less girly, much more elegant) and her haircut (ditto). In her new sleek incarnation she is almost unrecognisable.
Kylie Minogue
Kylie's image has changed as drastically as her music. When Spinning Around and the gold hotpants came out in 2000, out went the girl-next-door and the trashy vamp of the 1980s and 1990s. In their place appeared a sex goddess. The video outfits got ever skimpier (remember Can't Get You out of My Head?) and she changed boyfriends. Goodbye Jason Donovan, hello sultry French actor Olivier Martinez.
From The Times Online
From the gossip columns to the corridors of power, we trace the restyling of Mme Sarkozy
I could so easily have been Carla Bruni. Not, clearly, because of my exquisite bone structure or enviable figure; nor because I am married to a small, right-wing politician (my husband is over 6ft tall). No, the reason we have so much in common is because we are both 40 and we both come from Turin.
Turin, if you don't know it, is a medium-sized industrial city in the north of Italy. To the outside world it is most notable for being the home of Fiat, the location for The Italian Job and, if you happen to be the sort of person who watches Living TV's Most Haunted, “Satan's City” - something to do with Nostradamus and ley lines, apparently.
Anyway, until recently there were plenty of people, most of them French, who would have concurred with the Vatican's view that Turin is the home town of the Devil, and that he had ventured forth from there in the guise of a green-eyed, porcelain-skinned supermodel. With their shiny new President in thrall to Bruni, the high hopes that last year carried Nicolas Sarkozy into power were looking dashed. Not only was he making a fool of himself, he was making a fool of his country. She had him - and, by extension, all of France - by the balls.
Then came Sarkozy's state visit to Britain, complete with an address to Parliament, a banquet at Windsor Castle and (for Bruni) lunch with the Prime Minister's wife. In less than 48 hours she managed to step neatly out of one role - that of temptress, husband-stealer and all-round sexual velociraptor - into another: that of an impeccably poised First Lady, all sensible flats, trouser suits and pill-box hats. What had been a dreadful romantic embarrassment is suddenly looking like a PR triumph. There is even talk at the Elysée Palace of a Princess Diana-style queen-of-hearts role. I say, steady on there, boys.
So, how has she done it? Was it the clothes, so cleverly French (Dior) with a British twist (Dior's designer is John Galliano)? Or perhaps the exquisitely demure expression, eyes cast down, legs crossed in perfect Swiss finishing-school fashion (the whispers among the assembled politicians during her husband's speech in the House of Lords were of nothing but her shapely ankles). Surely the carefully calibrated chit-chat, during dinner at Windsor Castle, about how humiliated and upset she had been about the nude photographs in the tabloids, must have helped - not to mention the speech at a charity lunch organised by Sarah Brown in aid of women who die during pregnancy or childbirth.
It's a far cry from the days when she jetted off to Thailand with a certain rock star whose wife had (as it happens) only just given birth; or the time she eloped with the son of the man with whom she was living. That was the old Bruni, the same one who once said that monogamy bored her, and who was even described by friends as “single-minded in her ambitions”.
From a female point of view, there is no doubt that the woman is a menace, a lethal combination of beauty and ruthlessness. But you have to admire her. First, for changing the course of French history by not settling for the role of acquiescent mistress and a nice apartment in a fashionable arrondissement, but getting the ring on her finger and a seat at the top table. And, secondly, for being true to herself. For Bruni, despite having lived much of her life in France, is the truest representation of Italian womanhood I have seen since Lucrezia Borgia.
This week's performance was a brilliant lesson in the correct application of bella figura. In Italy, no matter how much of a minx you may be behind closed doors, as a woman you never let it show in public. You do not lose face and you don't let your man down. This ability perfectly qualifies her for the role of legendary first lady, on a par with some of the greatest in history: Jacqueline Kennedy, Grace Kelly, Eva Perón. These women all had an ability to dominate the headlines while maintaining a pretence of being secondary to their husbands. No matter that some of those husbands were buffoons - the conceit was all part of the appeal.
That is what we saw this week: the first sparks of a potentially stratospheric, old-style First Lady. Just one thing, though: the boys at the Elysée are wrong. Bruni is no Diana. She would never bare her soul so crudely, or wash her dirty linen in public. No, any machinations in which Mme Sarkozy chooses to indulge will take place within the privacy of her marriage. Those balls, mesdames et messieurs, are firmly in her court.
The fashion expert
How did Carla pull it off? Contrary to rumours that she would be arriving with trunk-loads of Hermès, she settled for Dior: a clever and diplomatic fashion move, given that Dior is a French couture house yet John Galliano, an Englishman, is the label's much-admired designer.
Yesterday's bold, purple coat teamed with a grey trouser suit not only gave nod to the hottest shades on Planet Fashion but was a savvy choice for Sarah Brown's “Safe Motherhood” lunch, attended by an all-female guest list of London's top movers and shakers. It was certainly a less contrived look than her outfits of the previous day.
But while you might not subscribe to her take on “First lady” chic, which bordered on Thunderbird's Lady Penelope meets Fifties air hostess, the manner in which Carla has transformed herself (hitherto her uniform had mostly comprised a drab coat, jeans and loafers combo) is remarkable.
From the outset, her state visit was beset by sartorial conundrums. There was the small - quite literally - matter of her bijou husband. At 5ft 9in, she was never going to be able to finish her Dior ensembles with Galliano's towering skyscrapers. So she spent the day in flats. And neither did a flattish pill-box, pulled to the back of her head, rack up the inches. She changed her outfit three times on Wednesday, although so effortlessly that to the untrained eye, i.e, the average male, she appeared to have done little more than sling on a navy jacket and not upstage her husband with flamboyant costume changes. Her navy column dress, and the very simple Chaumet jewels, worn to the white-tie banquet, was also a lesson in understatement and the draped chiffon sleeves that revealed only a hint of the forearm was more erotic than any va-va-voom gown would have been.
So top marks for looking French, poised and sophisticated but not so twee and boring that she could be accused of not marking the occasion with the sartorial respect it deserved. And anyway, under that conservative and bourgeois demeanour, there's always a hint of repressed sexuality or a killer dress dying to get out - in France at any rate.
CAROLYN ASOME
The deportment expert
Carla's deportment is excellent. She has completely changed her walk: because she's wearing flat shoes, she's walking through her foot, leading to a neat, compact movement. It's the opposite of a catwalk movement, which often involves a very wide sway. She keeps her shoulders back and head tilted. She looks humble, but not apologetic.
When she is coming down the steps of the plane, her body doesn't tilt forward: she glides. She offers her hand and does a beautiful curtsy: one leg behind, knees together, straight back, a quick bob. She must have practised this.
Carla is always slightly behind her husband. She nods and smiles reservedly and has excellent eye contact. When she sits with her toes pointed towards the ground she deliberately smoothes her skirt down and tucks it underneath, and puts her legs to one side, making her look more comfortable than if she were sitting straight up. She has the three Ps: poise, presence and posture.
RACHEL HOLLAND
The author runs Rachel Holland Associates, a contemporary “finishing school”.
The photographer
I knew Carla Bruni would wow Britain this week: she has a natural grace that you can't fake. Sure, there has been a lot of “controversy” about her supermodel past, her love life and that naked photograph - which is a beautiful, elegant shot. But she has always been a very classy woman.
A state visit isn't nearly as huge a leap for her as you might think. She is from a rich, artistic Italian family. She is cultured, moneyed and looks great in photographs.
I remember shooting her at Sting's Rainforest Foundation party [above] with other supermodels in 1992. Gianni Versace had dressed them all, and she was by far the most poised. That was a decadent time, and in her modelling, man-eating days she could certainly look pretty wild. But that doesn't mean that she can't cut it in a more conservative environment.
Wearing those Chanel flats was a brilliant idea. You can see that she had Prince Philip mesmerised, as I'm sure any other red-blooded octogenarian would have been. Even Prince Charles couldn't stop himself playing up to her a little.
DAVE BENETT
The relationship expert
She is obviously an incredibly intelligent and self-assured woman. It is when people feel vulnerable in the role of a second or third wife, or are anxious at any memory that the husband may bring up of his previous wife, that problems arise. But when someone appears to be like Carla, they tend not to have such issues.
She has accepted that her husband has a past. She brings a worldly, sophisticated attitude to the marriage. She is confident because she has had a career. People always look to pick apart, compare and criticise second and third marriages. It's about being tactful, thoughtful and composed.
By standing at his side, Carla showed that she was not taking the path of his former wife Cécilia who often often failed to appear with him at big events. She didn't come across as threatening and arrogant, like Cherie Blair or Hillary Clinton trying to steal the spotlight. Carla is choosing a way to help him. It is a pivotal moment for them both.
DR PAM SPURR
Others who have pulled it off
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte was born out of wedlock in rural Argentina and grew up with a single mother and four siblings. She became an actress in Buenos Aires before meeting Juan Perón and moving in with him. It was considered scandalous for a former entertainer to take part in public political life and some have accused Evita of turning politics into show business. But she created a personality cult, all the more successfully because of her humble beginnings.
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly had been branded a home-wrecker after an affair with Ray Milland (her married co-star on Dial M for Murder) and also had an affair with Bing Crosby during his engagement to the actress Kathryn Grant. But after becoming Princess Grace of Monaco she abandoned her Hollywood ways and never returned to the screen. She lived a discreet life as the perfect royal consort, bearing her husband three children.
Katie Holmes
Her goody-two-shoes persona in Dawson's Creek was compounded by her Catholic upbringing and reportedly virginal five-year relationship with the American Pie actor Chris Klein. But since meeting Tom Cruise, she has changed her religion (she is now a Scientologist, like her husband) her dress sense (much less girly, much more elegant) and her haircut (ditto). In her new sleek incarnation she is almost unrecognisable.
Kylie Minogue
Kylie's image has changed as drastically as her music. When Spinning Around and the gold hotpants came out in 2000, out went the girl-next-door and the trashy vamp of the 1980s and 1990s. In their place appeared a sex goddess. The video outfits got ever skimpier (remember Can't Get You out of My Head?) and she changed boyfriends. Goodbye Jason Donovan, hello sultry French actor Olivier Martinez.
From The Times Online
thanks for the pics!
