I Want To Be A Roitfeld: Year Two

Today marks the anniversary of I Want To Be A Roitfeld, two glorious years of following the Roitfeld family: style icon and editrix extraordinaire, Carine Roitfeld, and her two brilliant and beautiful children, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld. It has been quite the exciting year and I love all of you for reading along with the fashionable adventures of the Roitfelds. Let's take a moment to reflect on a few of the highlights over the last year:

• Carine Roitfeld hosted an amazing masked ball in honor of the 90th anniversary of Vogue Paris.
• Her friend Tom Ford guest edited the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Vogue Paris.
• On December 17, Carine Roitfeld rocked the fashion world by quitting Vogue Paris.
• We stopped by her Vogue Paris office to take one last look.
• On January 7, Emmanuelle Alt became the new editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris.
• On February 1, I decided that I could not live without Vogue Paris and introduced I Want To Be An Alt to follow Emmanuelle Alt.
• Cathy Horyn kindly mentioned I Want To Be A Roitfeld in her column for The New York Times.
• I Want To Be A Roitfeld took on a new look thanks to the banner illustration by the talented Isabelle Oziol de Pignol.
• Julia Restoin-Roitfeld confessed at last that she reads my blog.
• On March 15, I couldn't think of a better birthday present for myself than more work and launched I Want To Be A Battaglia to follow Giovanna Battaglia.

Vladimir presented several new art shows:

• Richard Hambleton in Moscow.
• Nicolas Pol in London.
• Richard Hambleton in London.
• RETNA In New York City.
• Nicolas Pol in New York City.

Julia kept busy with her work as model, art director, journalist, and photographer:

• Art directing Mark Fast's new lookbook.
• Photographing her beau Robert Konjic for VMAN.
• Modeling for Lancôme.
• Celebrating her 30th birthday in great style, gorgeous in red lace Pucci.
• Walking the runway in Tom Ford's secret show.
• Interviewing Tom Ford for V Magazine and styling and photographing herself for the editorial.

What a year! I would also like to thank every single contributor to the blog — the writers, the photographers, and the artists that lend their incredible talents to make the blog worth visiting, in particular I wish to heartily thank my brilliant editors for their wonderful words and their constant encouragement.

Most special thanks to my loverly beau, Michael, who constantly supports me in this endeavor — I could never do it without you, mtm, you pwn. Finally thanks again to YOU for reading this blog! You make it special by reading along and voicing your opinions, you are its raison d'être, you ROCK! Looking forward to another amazing year ahead with you!

xo 

Kellina

Joyeux anniversaire, ma geai bleue.

Carine Roitfeld, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Giovanna Battaglia, and Olivier Zahm photographs
© 2010, 2011 Condé Nast, Getty Images, and Boheme Noir and courtesy of viperempire.blogspot.com, streetfsn.blogspot.com, ceccarini.blogspot.com, and facehunter.blogspot.com

Roitfeld And Testino For The Face

In light of the exciting news about the latest collaboration between Carine Roitfeld and Mario Testino for V Magazine, I thought it would be fun to look at the influential work this fashion powerhouse created for The Face. One of the coolest magazines to come out of the UK, The Face was launched by Nick Logan in May 1980, and last published in May 2004. Legendary as an arbiter of taste in pop culture and particularly fashion, The Face was a natural stage for the vision of Roitfeld and Testino which was especially raw during this period — literally at times. The first cover, shown above, featured Jerry Dammers of The Specials as styled by Steve Bush, the founding art director. Other notable art directors for the groundbreaking publication were Neville Brody (1981–86) and Lee Swillingham (1993-1999). A few of the fashion photographers that were first published in The Face are Inez Van Lamsweerde, Craig McDean, Steven Klein, David LaChapelle, Glen Luchford, Norbert Schoerner, and Elaine Constantine.

“The Butcher”
The Face, 1997
Stylist: Carine Roitfeld
Model: Eva Herzigova
Photographer: Mario Testino

When asked which of her editorials was most compelling, Carine named "The Butcher" with Eva Herzigova for the humor: "I had a very good period where I was working at French Glamour and I was working for The Face. The 'butcher' shoot with Eva Herzigova and those sort of stories. They’re memorable stories, and you say why? Maybe because it’s not just about fashion. It’s because it’s a moment of the time." She elaborated in an interview with Self Service:

Ezra [Self Service]: Your early collaborations with Mario Testino were quite provocative in a certain way!
Carine: I think that in the beginning of my love duo with Mario, we did a few series that really disturbed people.
Ezra: Such as some of the stories you did with him in The Face?
Carine: Yes, for example, and I think that we had a lot of humor. We were talking about the problem of the moment, which was mad cow disease.
Ezra: And the other one on royalty.
Carine: I think you need humor, there is not a lot of it in photos, and it's very hard to put humor in photos.

And yet this amazing editrix continues to present that eclectic and unexpected sense of humor in so many of her classic editorials. I have added three more stories from The Face to the photo gallery, notice how the sharp chic of black and white pervades Carine's early work...

“Yves Gauche”
The Face, July 1996
The two films currently being made about the legendary Studio 54 nightclub are only the start of it. Hail the spirit of the original Bianca.
Stylist: Carine Roitfeld
Models: Astrid Munoz, Gregory, and Samuel
Photographer: Mario Testino

"Naughty Parisian Maid"
The Face, December 1997
When Madame's away, her clothes come out to play...
Stylist: Carine Roitfeld
Model: Ehrinn Cummings
Photographer: Mario Testino

"Never Mind The Bollocks... Life's A Beach"
The Face, May 2000
Stylist: Carine Roitfeld
Photographer: Mario Testino

The Face editorial images © 1996, 1997, 2000 The Face. All Rights Reserved.

Roitfeld And Testino For V Magazine

V Magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief Stephen Gan confirmed that Carine Roitfeld will style the September cover, “My stage is always open to her and she can perform anytime she wants to on it. She wants it to be a surprise, but it’s for the September issue. We leave for Europe tomorrow, and we will work with Mario Testino. That’s all I can say.” Note that Roitfeld and Testino were the team responsible for the very first cover of V Magazine, the September/October 1999 issue with Jude Law featured here. I cannot wait to see what the fabulous duo has in mind for this September...

V Magazine Jude Law September/October 1999 cover © 2011 V Magazine, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Carine Roitfeld At Chanel Cruise Collection

Carine Roitfeld photograph courtesy of ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com and twitter.com/Grazia_Live.
Chanel image courtesy of chanel.com

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld: Star, Rossetti E Frange

Che fortuna! The May issue of Italian Glamour shares the makeup routine of Julia Restoin-Roitfeld in an article titled "Star, rossetti e frange," or in English, "Star, lipstick and fringe." Special thanks to Gala for the clipping and to Isabelle Reford for her translation from Italian to English.

Star, lipstick and fringe

On the internet there are even sites dedicated to their beauty routines and everyone wants to imitate their style. We’ve laid out the perfect beauty-identity kit of the most copied trendsetters of the moment.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld
Recreate her sexy rock style

“Julia has a distinctive look, focused on seduction, revisited with a modern twist,” says Claudio Fratoni, national makeup artist for Lancôme. “Her makeup has two points of focus: cat eyes and lips that are always noticeable, which she likes to alternate from red to fuchsia, for day and night. The secret to attaining her sensual look is well-groomed eyebrows, but with a bit of a wild appearance. Her eyes are encircled by black pencil both underneath and on top, where she extends the line outwards. A real beauty insider, Julia learned backstage makeup: she uses white pencil in the inner corner of her eyes to make them appear larger. Meanwhile, to accentuate the feline look, she applies blue or black mascara, only on top. Lipstick is her casual accessory: she applies it without encircling the lips with lip liner, ready to be touched up when necessary. And her face is barely colored with a bit of blush, while a knowledgeable use of illuminators, applied on her nose and cheekbones, gives her the allure of one who is always in the spotlight."

Caption:

Profession: Beauty Icon
On the web there is the site www.iwanttobearoitfeld.com and it is a fact that speaks for itself. Because Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, 30 years old, daughter of the ex-editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, was born under the sign of style. She is among the young beauty icons most sought out by cosmetics houses. Loved by Tom Ford, spokesperson for Lancôme’s spring 2011 makeup collection, Julia will soon launch her own fragrance for those who also want to smell like her.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld photographs © 2011 Condé Nast. All Rights Reserved.