Carine Roitfeld's Barneys New York Windows

I imagine many of us wonder what Carine Roitfeld has in store for the window displays she is masterminding for Barneys New York to introduce the autumn styles. Here to offer a few predictions as to what we might see behind the glass at Barneys come September is the always delightful Kate Ringo Suzuki, editor-at-large for New York. Thank you so much, Kate, I would love to see any of your fabulous concepts in Carine's hands...

Carine Roitfeld's Barneys New York Windows
By Kate Ringo Suzuki 

Carine Roitfeld has been quoted as saying: “We are very free in France. We are free with sex, with cigarettes…” And now Ms. Roitfeld’s brand of free, sexually charged styling is on its way stateside. Fashionistas rejoice! Any day now Carine Roitfeld will be lending her iconic talent to a collaboration with the Barneys flagship store in New York. Beyond styling the catalogs and advertisements, her looks will be featured in Barneys' legendary windows. Carine Roitfeld is about to get New York fashion all hot and bothered.

La Roitfeld and Barneys New York are a match made in heaven. Barneys is fun, sexy, and full of merchandise that you can’t get anywhere else... well other than The Pleasure Chest in the West Village that is. Ms. Roitfeld is the “queen of porno chic” after all. About that little label, “queen of porno chic,” Ms. Roitfeld told New York Magazine, “I’ve always been provocative, but what I’m going to do next is a new way of provocation. I did for many years porno chic. I was the queen of porno chic. And I will do something totally different now.” Do something different? Oh, Carine! Please do not change one bit! New York needs you. If anyone can stimulate our economy, it would be you!

What will the Barneys New York windows look like under Carine’s direction? Perhaps she will take cues from her past work at Vogue Paris. She could, for example, reference that famous editorial, "La Panthère Ose," from the Dec 2010/Jan 2011 issue…

Dress a mannequin as a kind of modern day Mrs. Robinson. I can see it now: the bouffant hairstyle, the Jean Paul Gaultier black leather and wool trench coat and black skinny pants… the bandaged face. Mrs. Robinson just had some work done. Just a touch. Her head is completely bandaged up save for some generously mascaraed eyes peeking out. The Mrs. Robinson mannequin is kissing a male mannequin wearing a very proper Hickey Freeman suit.

Oh, I know. She could reference that old standby, her scandalous “No Smoking” editorial from the April 2009 issue of Vogue Paris…

Show the mannequin in a white Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo jacket with nothing underneath. Pair that with black chiffon Kiki de Montparnasse shorts and Giuseppe Zanotti platform t-straps. Pad the front of the YSL le smoking with a pillow. Pregant mannequin. In one hand mannequin holds a picnic basket from Chelsea Passage, containing a baby doll purchased at nearby FAO Schwartz. In the other hand, position a cigarette between the mannequin's fingers. Puff puff. Bad mommy!

Or she could go back even further in time, back to the iconic "Corps & Lames" featured in Vogue Paris in February 2005…

The mannequin wears a full-length Gucci black chiffon dress covered with little white polka dots, exposing black panties and bare mannequin nipples. Shocking!! The mannequin is seductively positioned bending over a sterile stainless steel table, stabbing at some raw meat. Okay, so raw meat might pose a problem, what with flies and cockroaches. We'll work on it...

Whatever Carine Roitfeld does with Barneys' windows, I know it will be brilliant. And it will definitely not look anything like the windows of a certain bourgeois competitor... Looking forward to a most fashionable September to remember....

Vogue Paris editorial images © 2005, 2009, 2010 Condé Nast. All Rights Reserved.

Carine Roitfeld For Barneys New York

Carine Roitfeld for Barneys New York © 2011 Barneys New York. All Rights Reserved.

Carine Roitfeld For David Webb

Jeweler David Webb hired a fierce team to create his image for Fall 2011, the company's first advertising campaign to be produced in more than two decades: Carine Roitfeld, stylist; Alex Wiederin of Buero New York, creative director; Terry Richardson, photographer; and Eniko Mihalik, model. Watch the brief video filmed during the shoot for a look at this gem of a campaign although don't bother searching for Carine as she does not appear. Unless those are her hands...

David Webb images © 2011 David Webb. All Rights Reserved.

Carine Roitfeld: Boy Scout

Carine Roitfeld photographs courtesy of terrysdiary.com.

Channeling Carine Roitfeld

It gives me extraordinary pleasure to present the words of today's guest contributor — the lovely Madeleine Gallay from In New York Paris Tomorrow. Madeleine graciously assumes the aura of a Roitfeld for the day and shares her transformation here with all of us. She was surprised to find that a simple change of attire could change her entire attitude and her inspiring story nearly dares all of us to give it a try... I hope you enjoy Madeleine's engaging manner as much as I do. Merci mille fois, MG! Très sexy, très chic, très Carine... Thanks also to Svetoslav Petrov for sending me the terrific image of Carine seen above.

Channeling Carine Roitfeld
By Madeleine Gallay

Channeling Carine Roitfeld is a leap of faith; she is muse and always has been. She is heavily kohled smoldering eyes peering beneath a sometime veil of locks of her hair, she is a tight skirt with high heels, she is a simple button-down shirt. She is as charming as she is sexual. Actually she exudes sexuality, whimsy, and intelligence. Karl Lagerfeld and Tom Ford, both of whom can be more than a tad picky, adore her, maybe are in love with her in the deliciously naughty ways fashion designers desire a muse even before an investor.

Poring over IWTBAR photos of Carine, the white high necked, long sleeved Dolce & Gabbana dress with black heels tantalized and disturbed me. Black heels with a white dress are wrong, I know that. But it's not true. Carine in black heels wearing white was disturbing in a good way. She was right. It was somehow sexual and impossibly chic.

I kept coming back to that image as I rummaged in my closet for a summery dress. A cranberry cotton sleeveless dress and instinctively I reached for the London Sole leopard ballet flats with shocking pink ties. I let the beach breeze dry my hair, liking its looseness. Moisturizer and a smokey smudge from my Benefit Bad Girl fat kohl pencil. Shalimar and oversized pink ombre sunglasses. Very different than the cosy Victorian white rather graceful easy skirts that are half of my summer wardrobe; the Bedouin grunge hippie look with shawls and loads of chunky bracelets, not Carine-chic.

I picked up a white eyelet high necked long-sleeved tunic with side slits to the waist and smiled; Carine indeed. Black sheer leggings under that and black sandals. I imagine Carine wearing this to a restaurant, cameras snapping in mad adoration as usual, pushing that piece of hair away from her eyes. The shop owner was French and maybe flirting a little; I paid and pushed a piece of hair away from my eyes.

The Gary Graham black slinky bias slip dress at the next shop was not like my closet of LBDs, all plain and familiar. Bias, sexy and plain. I paid and thought about black heels, maybe with an extravagant bow in red, and remembered my Moschino black suede heels with miniature lipsticks sewn on each, so French and sexy.

I love the thoughtful, breezy way Carine talks about a collection to the herds of dogged reporters... as easy as her lovely, gracious "Oh yes, I like it very much." Because she sees through the runway styling to pieces of clothing that she can transform into an entire fashion story rampant with her humor and her stark statements.

Tom Ford was brilliant in the 1990s with Gucci but if you look at the pieces on a hanger, I suppose now on eBay, his presentation was very simple. The velvet jeans (men, women) and silk shirts opened down to there. A white crepe dress lean and showing the body, shirred tight satin skirts. Channeling Carine and exploding stereotypes of what sexy is.

Thank you so much for inviting me to share my own Carine thoughts and know how much I love your I Want To Be A Roitfeld. I do! And for a day, I felt like one.

Carine Roitfeld photographs © 2011 Getty Images and courtesy of waynetippetts.com. All Rights Reserved.