Carine Roitfeld

Carine Roitfeld
Born September 19, 1954 (1954-09-19) (age 57)
Residence Paris
Occupation Editor Stylist
Employer Condé Nast Publications
Title Former editor-in-chief, Paris Vogue
Predecessor Joan Juliet Buck
Successor Emmanuelle Alt
Children Julia and Vladimir

Carine Roitfeld (French pronunciation: [ka.ʁin ʁwat.fɛld]; born September 19, 1954, in Paris, France) was the editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris from 2001[1] to January 21, 2011. A former fashion model and writer, she announced her resignation on December 17, 2010; she was succeeded by Emmanuelle Alt.[2]

Contents

Family background

Her father, Jacques Roitfeld (1889-1999) was a Ukrainian film producer who worked in Berlin before he moved to Paris and met her mother. (Her grandfather was also a film producer, Georges Roitfeld, born in 1920 in Odessa.) Carine Roitfeld describes her mother as a "very classic Frenchwoman."[1] She describes her father as her "idol" and says that "he was always away, filming, at Cannes. She describes her upbringing in the upscale 16th arrondissment of Paris as "very bourgeois. I'm not saying we were in diamonds, but very, very comfortable."[1]

Personal life

Roitfeld and her partner, Christian Restoin, have been together for 30 years.[3] Restoin was the creator of the Equipment clothing line, which he closed in 2001 after Roitfeld accepted the Vogue editorship.[1] The couple has two children, Julia Restoin Roitfeld who was born on November 12, 1980, and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld on December 1984. both in Paris.

Julia graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City in May 2006 and became the face of Tom Ford's fragrance Black Orchid in November 2006.[4][5]

Vladimir graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 2007.

Career

At 18, Roitfeld began modeling, having been scouted on a street in Paris by a British photographer's assistant.[6] "I wasn't a star," she says. "I was just booked for junior magazines."[6] She became a writer and then a stylist for French Elle.[1] While she was working as a freelance stylist, her daughter, Julia, was in a children's fashion shoot for Italian Vogue Bambini in 1990, photographed by Mario Testino.[1][6] In a 2005 interview with 032c magazine, Roitfeld commented, "I was not the best stylist when I worked for fifteen years for French Elle, but certainly when I met Mario Testino something happened. The right person for me at the right time...."[7] Roitfeld and Testino soon after began working as a team, doing advertising work as well as shoots for American and French Vogue.[1] Roitfeld went on to work as a consultant for and muse to Tom Ford at Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent for six years[1] and also contributed to the images of Missoni, Versace, and Calvin Klein.[8] She was approached by Condé Nast's International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse to edit Vogue Paris in 2001.[1] In April 2006, there were rumors that Roitfeld was being approached by the Hearst Corporation to take over Glenda Bailey's editor-in-chief position at U.S. Harper's Bazaar.[9]

On December 17, 2010, Roitfeld resigned after ten years at Vogue Paris to concentrate on personal projects. She left the magazine at the end of January 2011. Speculation that she would be joining Tom Ford at his namesake company were refuted by the latter. She was succeeded at Vogue Paris on February 1, 2011, by Emmanuelle Alt, who had served as fashion director under Roitfeld.

Roitfeld returned to freelance styling, working on both the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 Chanel campaigns, took part in projects such as designing a window display for Barneys New York and compiled the large-format book Irreverent, published by Rizzoli in 2011 (ISBN 978-0847833689). At the end of 2011 she confirmed the rumors that she is working on her own magazine with a different approach than the one at Vogue Paris, saying, "I will always be irreverent in my own way, but I will try to use new approaches. I've used a lot of cigarettes, a lot of sexy pictures, a lot of naked girls. I will try to do something totally different now, because I don't want to get bored of myself or to bore my readers. So, if I learn something new today, I will use it. I have to reinvent myself."

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i If looks could kill - Sabine Durrant, The Telegraph, November 13, 2005
  2. ^ Carine Roitfeld Resigns From French Vogue - The New York Times, December 17, 2010
  3. ^ "The Anti-Anna." New York magazine. Spring Fashion report for 2008.
  4. ^ Fashion Week Daily; Shi, Jim. July 25, 2006; Exclusive! Tom Ford's New Face! ; retrieved December 9, 2006.
  5. ^ Paper magazine; Boardman, Mickey. April 4, 2006; Beautiful People 2006: Julia Restoin Roitfeld; retrieved December 9, 2006.
  6. ^ a b c Mower, Sarah; "Sexy Classic", American Vogue, August 2001.
  7. ^ "Vogue Paris = Carine Roitfeld," 032c issue #10 (Winter 2005/06).
  8. ^ amFAR, The Foundation for AlDS Research Award for Courage, Biography for Honoree Carine Roitfeld; Retrieved on February 19, 2008.
  9. ^ "Discuss". Fashion Week Daily, April 11, 2006; retrieved December 9, 2006.

External links