Julia Restoin-Roitfeld In St. Barth

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld photograph © 2011 Paola Kudacki. All Rights Reserved.

Roitfeld Beauty Secret: Sunscreen

Did you know that the leading cause of premature aging in women and men is sun damage? Research has proven that 90 percent of wrinkles are caused by the sun's UVA light. Julia Restoin-Roitfeld is well aware of this fact and scrupulously cares for her skin, protecting it from the damaging effects of the sun even while occasionally sunbathing: "For me, beauty is more about prevention than anything. Especially now that I’ve hit 30, it’s more about being careful and maintaining my skin. I want to keep my youth and freshness and be wrinkle-free as long as possible because I don’t want to have to cheat—that’s what I call any cosmetic surgeries, cheating. So of course I like to be tan but now I try to avoid it. I don’t mind having a little glow, but now when I go to the beach, I put SPF 50 everywhere — either Avène or La Roche-Posay Anthelios."

An effective sunscreen protects against more than the aging effects of the sun, it can help to prevent skin cancer. The Skin Cancer Foundation reports that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer, yet only eighteen percent wear sunscreen daily. If this is you, make it a habit to wear sunscreen daily starting right now. Commit to 365 days per year regardless of weather conditions and choose a quality sunblock that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. Don't rely on the SPF 15 of your favorite foundation to block the sun's damaging effects, it's not enough to provide adequate protection. Finally, when applying sunscreen, don't forget your décolletage to cover all of your assets. Take care of your skin, it lasts a lifetime.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld photographs courtesy of twitter.com/RestoinRJulia and twitter.com/EllenaNiarchos.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld: Back To Black

Each fashion season brings some commentary about how blue or red or brown or orange is the “new” black. Try as they might to convince the public there is a new front-running go-to color, the truth is, black is always the new black. No other color can make the same statement in any way, shape, or form. And no one brings black back better than Julia Restoin-Roitfeld. How refreshing it was to see her going “Back To Black” and using juxtaposition in the ensembles she chose for the recent soirees she attended with her beau Robert Konjic. A short body hugging dress and wide grommet leather belt paired with a leather jacket at the Emporio Armani Summer Garden Live Party in association with Atlantic Records. Julia somehow always manages to make her looks not only hot but feminine, too, so her platform ankle strap sandal is the perfect shoe to pull it together.

It is rare to see Mademoiselle Restoin-Roitfeld in flats, but the black leather ballerines, leather skirt, and sheer lace blouse are a more demure look for Julia, while still providing the requisite hint of sexiness at the Barclaycard Unwind VIP Pod during Wireless Festival, where she saw Pulp, one of her favorite bands. You will notice she is standing on her tiptoes in the photo with Robert. She is clearly used to being in at least 4-inch heels, but we all wear flats once in a while, right?

Back in heels, whew! Knew it wouldn’t last for too long. At the party for the Emporio Armani store on Bond Street in London, for the fashion brand's Summer Garden Live party in association with Island Records, Julia’s pencil skirt and sheer black blouse combine for a subtle, sexy, sophisticated but not fussy look that simply works perfectly. They say that dark colors attract heat and black is surely no exception. With all of the black garments in Julia’s current rotation, it is obvious to see her summer heat is on and we are glad to see she is Back To Black.

As I was planning to write this feature a few days ago about Julia and her wardrobe of late in black, I wanted to include one of my favorite Amy Winehouse songs, “Back To Black,” a powerful and heart-wrenching ballad of love and loss by an iconic singer and songwriter. As I sit down to write this today, I am shocked and saddened by the tragic news of her passing. R.I.P. Amy!

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld photographs © 2011 Getty Images and courtesy of WireImage. All Rights Reserved.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld: A Woman Like Romy

V Magazine's "Heroes Issue" releases on September 8, and as you know Carine Roitfeld has been chosen as the guest editor for the iconic issue. Among the 300 collectible pages are 72 devoted to the late Elizabeth Taylor, a glamorous extravaganza inspired by her famous allure and shot by Mario Testino; as Carine notes, "She had the kind of elegance that went far beyond clothes." Also intriguing is the editorial featured here titled "A Woman Like Romy" that pays tribute to an actress esteemed by both mother and daughter as a style icon: Romy Schneider. Thanks to stylelist.com for this brief behind-the-scenes video of the making of V's epic September issue. It certainly promises to be an eventful autumn for Roitfeld lovers..

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld photographs © 2011 V Magazine, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld In ELLE Finland

Huge thanks to a kind reader in Helsinki who sent me the clipping seen here from the July issue of ELLE Finland featuring the beautiful Julia Restoin-Roitfeld. Although she did not have time for a full translation, she offered the following summary of the article. Also note that she wished to remain anonymous, otherwise I would refer to her as other than "she" at some point.

In short it's about her, what she does, her work and campaigns, favourite clothes (Emilio de la Morena dress with polka dot tights and Miu Miu heels). She tells how Richard Nicoll found her on Facebook and sent her "a beautiful dress." She likes to wear dresses because they flatter her figure and wears jeans very rarely. She also likes designs by Canadian Mark Fast. She says that people in the fashion circle think it's strange when someone wears the same outfit twice but she doesn't care about such rules, if she likes something, she will wear it more than once. That's about it. Oh yes, and your blog is mentioned in red in the bottom left corner.

"Laadukas faniblogi Roitfeldien perheestä löytyy osoitteesta iwanttobearoitfeld.com" which translates roughly from the Finnish as "High quality Roitfeldien family fan blog can be found at iwanttobearoitfeld.com." How cute is that! They called us a "faniblogi"! Thanks again to my favorite reader in Finland and to ELLE Finland, what an honor! I would not have know if she had not bothered to send it to me so I am doubly touched. Kiitos!

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld editorial image © 2011 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.