Carine oh Carine!

I am reprinting here a Q and A by Carine Roitfeld done for the Guardian UK. J'adore Point 6!!!!!!

Lessons in Sex Appeal, by Carine Roitfeld.

1. Don't work too hard when you're young.
"It's like when you squeeze a lemon too hard, you run out of juice. Me, I have plenty of juice."

2. If you have figure flaws, move around a lot so people don't notice them.

"If you don't have perfect ankles, still you can move your legs in a certain way and look very sexy."

3. Don't do drugs or hit people.
"I don't want pictures with violence, I don't want drugs, I don't want horrible things like that."

4. Also, cigarettes are so last year.
"Me, I don't smoke. Smoking can be a beautiful gesture for a picture. But it's easy — it's too easy — to make a beautiful picture with a beautiful girl smoking a cigarette. And what is the picture saying, when you have a beautiful girl and she has a beautiful outfit and a beautiful handbag, and a cigarette? No. We have to find a new gesture, I think. Because smoking, it is not good for you. Or for your teeth."

5. Take your clothes off.

"I like to have something every month that is — how you say? — not politically correct. A little bit at the limit. Sex, nudity, a bit rock 'n' roll, a sense of humour. That is very French Vogue."

6. Draw style inspiration from ugly outfits you see in airports.
"Sometimes, when you go to airport and look at the people, you see the worst looks — but the worst looks can give you more ideas than the best looks."

7. Above all else, please the young people.
"When you get older, you have to stay a bit rock 'n' roll so that young people will still be interested in you. The way you move, the way you talk, maybe the way you have your hair in your face a little bit — this keeps you interesting."

Viva Catherine!

Inspired by writing Carine Roitfeld yesterday I seem to have gotten in a very Francais mood. This may have to do with wanting to eat a huge plate of French fries but maybe it has more to do with me coveting that French je ne sais quoi.

My next few blogs are going to be en francais. Well, not en francais but more like francais sur la chic.

Let me start with Catherine Deneuve. That woman is 66 years old! That woman has just gotten better with age!

Better yet – she doesn’t hide her age; she doesn’t deny have surgery (see previous post about Nicole Kidman). She says she eats a lot (and she sure ain’t no waif), she smokes (oh Catherine!), but she does love walking.

But you know, if I walked forever I would not have the chic style of la Deneuve.

Ooh la la Carine, j'adore!

One of my absolute style icons is Carine Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue. The French edition of Vogue is so different from any other edition – highly stylized, and so fanciful that it hardly ever bothers to do anything about makeovers, or editing your look……that would be far too déclassé.

Carine has that jolie laid look much loved by the fashion elite, and ahem, much loved by moi. Yes, she looks like Iggy Pop but so what, this woman rocks.

For someone who rarely gives interviews, this year, we’ve seen Carine at her most vocal, pronouncing on all manner of essentials. Carine would not be seen dead in jeans. Or mini skirts. She always wears heels in Paris. Always. She likes people rail thin but she doesn’t have a weight policy at Vogue.

In this months Acne paper, Carine said she is “quite classic with an edge.” Oooh j’adore her definition of classic. “It’s more the way you mix the clothes and how you move, how you open your bag, how you cross your legs – just little things that make a difference.”

Oh Carine, you speak the truth, you speak with the essence of Francais.