I Want To Be A Roitfeld

Kellina de Boer
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Dara Block
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Jessica Eritou
Renee Hernandez
Bernie Rothschild

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Mademoiselle C (2013)
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mardi
juil.232013

CR Fashion Book: High Performance

CR Fashion Book: High Performance
By Montse Ocejo

A dramatic beauty look exaggerated for the stage. A visual expression of character and emotion. A performer caught between spectator and spectacle. This is Carine Roitfeld's editorial "High Performance" for the second issue of CR Fashion Book.

The combination of the photography and the models made this a very mysterious editorial, the entire spread is shot in black-and-white with gray undertones with a really delicate contrast.

The editorial opens the doors to the past era of the early 20s in the time of the pioneers of Expressionist dance, this dancer explores the depth of the human physique and the shadows of the soul.

In these images by Sara Vanderbeek the models are dressed in classic pieces that flow with their movements, the photos capture the perfect moment, each expression is unique, each angle of the makeup and clothes combines perfectly with the body angles.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ― MARTHA GRAHAM

Carine reminds us with this editorial that the greatest and most important thing in art is passion, that we should not be afraid to embrace and exaggerate the beauty to make everything unique, to use the reflection of our own shadows and dance with them to make a high performance.

More from CR Fashion Book Issue 2: Dance

CR Fashion Book: A Tribute To Dim Dam Dom
By Jessica Eritou

CR Fashion Book: Clearly
By Kristin Sekora

CR Fashion Book: Dance with the Wind
By Dara Block

CR Fashion Book: Waiting In The Wings
By Jessica Eritou

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Editorial images © 2013 CR Fashion Book.

vendredi
juil.192013

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld For Givenchy Fall/Winter 2013

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld reprises her role in the Givenchy advertising campaigns for the Fall/Winter 2013 collection, this time donning their eyewear for a sexy librarian look that is at once sweet and smoldering. Julia is seen here in the "Antigona" model. Designed by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, the "Reality and Family" eyewear collection celebrates the value of family, with frames available in black, red, or the Givenchy logo print, Swarovski crystals optional. The black-and-white campaign images were captured by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. While we are on the subject, I admired the Givenchy eyewear campaign for their Spring/Summer 2013 collection featuring Mariacarla Boscono and Francisco Peralta, also by Mert & Marcus.

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Givenchy images © 2013 Givenchy.

samedi
juil.132013

Carine Roitfeld: Rule Breaker

Kind thanks to Maggie Alderson for today's guest post, originally published as "The rules: wear navy and black together," in which she examine the iconoclastic style of Carine Roitfeld. Read more of Maggie's thoughts at Style Notes.

Carine Roitfeld: Rule Breaker
By Maggie Alderson

Those of you who don't have your noses pressed up against the window of high fashion may not immediately recognize this week's subject. You may even wonder why I've chosen someone who looks a little like Iggy Pop in drag as my style paragon.

Well, this is Carine Roitfeld, former editor of Vogue Paris, Tom Ford bestie, super stylist and all-round fashion goddess legend. To give you a benchmark — she's the stylist for the Chanel advertising campaigns and it doesn't get any more elite than that in fashion. Or any more fabulously French for July 14.

She was always one of the people I was most obsessed with perving at when I used to cover the Paris fashion shows and, while she may not appear classically beautiful in this picture, in the flesh she absolutely radiates sex appeal — the kind that comes from pure self-confidence. Although tight skirts and very high heels also help.

Plus she has the most excellent rock-chick hair and one of those lived-in French faces that lights up with a smile. She always looks as though she'd just heard a really good (dirty) joke. Above all, she's cool.

Note how, in this shot — taken at Fashion Week in Germany recently — she's not carrying a handbag. She doesn't need to be parading the giant "It" bag of the season to give her fashion credibility. She doesn't even need it to carry her possessions. She leaves her ciggies and phone in the car with her driver.

But while her manner is laid-back, she always totters around in the highest of heels, walking the walk. What a gal.

This outfit is classic Roitfeld. A narrow cut is her signature — she's the patron saint of the pencil skirt — and she has the kind of narrow body rarely seen on grown women outside Paris, so it's a good look. Accentuating that line, she stands with her shoulders back and her hips forward, toes slightly turned in. It's the kind of pose that recalls a model from the 1950s.

Simplicity is another of her hallmarks. Occasionally, she'll wear a rich print — snakeskin is a favorite — but mostly it's black, white, grey, with a penchant for satiny fabrics. She's at the opposite end of the taste spectrum from Anna Dello Russo — the human Christmas tree — and her outfits are pared down, unembellished and barely accessorized. Her life force is adornment enough.

She doesn't even seem to wear blusher or lipstick. Her face is dominated by her fabulous eyebrows — Cara Delevingne is her Mini-Me — and she whacks on the eyeliner with rock 'n' roll panache. The most enormous IMAX screen sunnies hold no fear for her.

Did I mention she's a grandmother?

I think we can all learn a lot from Madame Roitfeld. Even those of us who can't perform her invisible-when-seen-from-the-side trick. Keeping it super simple with a knockout pair of shoes as the outfit feature is a sophisticated way to look chic — with minimum effort.

The key to making this work is that the individual simple items have to be of the very best quality you can't afford. But the upside of that is, being free of fashion gimmicks, they will last for years and you'll be able to mix and match them into oodles of different outfits while having great fun in the shoe department.

Another top tip to take from this picture is mixing black and navy pieces in the same outfit.

It used to be the ultimate no-no — now, Carine shows us, it's absolutely oui, oui, oui.

Navy softens black, reducing the Sicilian widow effect without losing the streamlining sophistication.

Vive la France.

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Carine Roitfeld photograph © 2013 Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

vendredi
juil.122013

Carine Roitfeld For MaxMara Fall/Winter 2013

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MaxMara images © 2013 MaxMara. All Rights Reserved.

jeudi
juil.112013

CR Fashion Book: Waiting In The Wings

CR Fashion Book: Waiting In The Wings
By Jessica Eritou

"How do you remember something that never happened?" Fondly. You see, Flaubert believed that anticipation was the purest form of pleasure… and the most reliable. And that while the things that actually happen to you would invariably disappoint, the things that never happened to you would never dim. Never fade. They would always be engraved in your heart with a sort of sweet sadness.” 

— "In a Lonely Place," Dawson's Creek (2002)

In the second issue of CR Fashion Book, Carine Roitfeld's editorial “Waiting in the Wings” depicts the contrast of reality and illusion gracefully in the dark imagery collected throughout the shoot. Shot by Maurizio Bavutti, each moment of creation is dark, seductive, and lonely. The shapes used in the first shot are soft and whimsical, however the palette is dreary with deeper tones of red and green Gucci shoes and gowns, in contrast to the cold, graphite backdrop. Meanwhile in the front is the reminder to the reader of the illusionistic theme by having an almost circus outfitted model in a black and white Repetto piece. Carine may have chosen this to emphasize that there is nothing black and white about reality by including a frantic, bright, ballerina tutu around the model's collar reminding us that in chaos comes beauty.

This first shot is a great introduction to the rest of the editorial by creating this lonely, almost existential reality for each of the models featured. They are in the shot together but each one, though looking so elegant and sophisticated, appears to be longing for something else unknown. Still incorporating the dance theme Carine Roitfield is able to fill the editorial with ballet references. One cannot help but be reminded of Darren Aronofsky's 2012 Black Swan throughout the editorial.

Despite each dress featured in the next shot being from Bottega Veneta, this shot is so reminiscent of the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2013 campaign shot by Steven Meisel and styled by Karl Templer, down to the cropped 1940s hairstyles of the models. The overall aesthetic to the work is amazing since the light captures the intricate detail of each Bottega Veneta dress, but this shot seems too similar to something that readers will have seen before.

The next model is in head-to-toe Marc Jacobs, again incorporating the black and white theme of the editorial. What makes this shot significant is the manipulation of the image while there is a ghost replication of the, perhaps, sudden movement of the model. Whereas the top is soft with ruffles, in contrast the bottom is a harsh, geometric, hard tailored skirt. Carine Roitfeld always seems to use juxtaposition in her editorials but it never grows tiresome.

Perhaps the next image is the most climatic of the editorial, due to the composition of the shot, each model is faced onto the reader's point of view as if they are directly in their space. The circus-like makeup emphasizes the illusionary, dreamy side of the editorial, meanwhile the models are dressed in very neutral Reed Krakoff, Hermès, and Belstaff pieces, each complemented with a Chanel shoe and Repetto ballets in the background. Without a doubt this is the most flourishing shot of the editorial, as it is captured so beautifully with such emotion given to the reader by the model in the foreground staring back at the camera.

Lastly, Junya Watanabe pieces almost resembling true clown outfits are featured at the end of the shoot, as a ballerina is to the left of the three models in Repetto. There is an eerie element to the composition. Despite the brighter colors and neon highlights, the shot is still very desolate. 

With each model inhabiting an “eerie backstage limbo between roles and reality,” the anticipation of Flaubert's theory is demonstrated, wherein that fine line between reality and illusion underlines a sweet sadness that never fades. "Waiting in the Wings" is exactly that limbo of a person's life which never goes away.

More from CR Fashion Book Issue 2: Dance

CR Fashion Book: A Tribute To Dim Dam Dom
By Jessica Eritou

CR Fashion Book: Clearly
By Kristin Sekora

CR Fashion Book: Dance with the Wind
By Dara Block

CR Fashion Book: High Performance
By Montse Ocejo

 

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Editorial images © 2013 CR Fashion Book.