Courtesy of Way to Blue
We always knew Carine Roitfeld was cool, and now we have proof. In town for London Fashion Week, the style maverick and fashion editor invited us to The May Fair Hotel to dish about
Mademoiselle C
, the upcoming documentary chronicling her launch of CR Fashion Book after departing Paris Vogue. (Obviously, we said "Yes!", and did a celebratory cartwheel.)
"We're both Virgos, so we think the same way," Roitfeld says of her long-standing friendship with the designer, whom she first met when he came to her studio after months of her dodging his calls. "You won't believe it, but he called me maybe 20 times on the phone. I said, 'Who is Tom Ford? Who is Gucci? What is a loafer?' So you think, 'No, we have no time, goodbye, maybe next month.' One day, he asked if he could visit me at the studio. I said okay. There is no AC [air-conditioning] in Paris and it was July, so [it was] very hot and sweaty. And, Tom Ford came in the room and I sat up in my chair [makes loved-up face]. I said, 'Ah, maybe we can help you for the next show.' Going to Gucci changed my career...and it's just because Tom Ford came in looking very sexy." Apparently, Ford's talents also extend beyond the runway. "A magic thing about Tom is that he has great hands, and he loves to do a massage on your back sometimes," Roitfeld adds. "So I was lucky to have so many hand massages on my back."
2. She digs tequila.
"Before I was very faithful to vodka, and I just discovered tequila," the Parisienne says of her guilty pleasures. "It goes up to your brain, and I'm very shy, so now tequila is a big help for me."
3. The last film she watched was The Hangover 3.
After Constant shared that the last film he watched was a documentary on Alaskan fisherman, Roitfeld laughingly admitted that she had just watched the comedy on a plane. "I love Bradley Cooper," she says. "And, it's good to laugh. I love laughing and there's not a lot of moments when you can laugh."
4. She hates clock-watchers.
Roitfeld's advice for budding fashion editors? Work hard. "You're not going to learn a lot of things in school," she says. "You have to get a job as an intern and not look at your watch until 6 p.m. and then leave. Everything starts at 6 p.m. I was a bit disappointed when I'd see all these young kids come to the office with their CVs to get a job as an intern, and at a quarter to 6, they start to put their coats on. I think, but everything's starting now! Why are you leaving? It's always [later] when they're gone, exciting things happen. If you love fashion, there is no time, no watch, no schedule." Take note, kids.
5. Being a grandmother has made her a better person.
Romy, her granddaughter from daughter Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, has been instrumental in helping Roitfeld settle into her post-Vogue Paris life. "[For] 30 years I've been working in fashion, and you forget about real life, sometimes," she says. "When you have a baby on your stomach, you put down your iPhone. It makes you more quiet because the baby [is listening to] the beat of your heart... But it's good that she is not my daughter. After awhile, I say 'Bye-bye, Julia, I'm going to a show.'" As it so happens, her favourite scene from the film is the one in which Karl Lagerfeld pushes her granddaughter's stroller.