Fashion isn't as much fun as it once was. It's less light-hearted, less spontaneous. Fashion has become an industry, one that increasingly stifles creation. Sometimes I go to runway shows and I feel like I am at a medical convention, or a corporate seminar. There's no excitement anymore, no amazement, none of the madness you could experience even a few years back ... I respect this business, and I understand the risks involved, but I also want to preserve a degree of naivete and spontaneity. Because fashion is nothing without its carefree side.
Carine Roitfeld never shies away from being frank in interviews so lucky for us, she's had a string of them recently as she promotes her upcoming book, 'Irreverant'. In her most recent interview with The Times, she answered all of the questions that we've all wanted answered.
This is what we learnt:
1. Contrary to reports, her controversial December issue collaboration with Tom Ford didn't get her fired.
Not at all. I decided to leave before this issue because I was doing French Vogue 10 years, 100 issues. A lot of people say I was fired because of this issue, because of the little girls dressed in mom clothes.
It was very, very controversial. Old couples, kids, surgery. But it was not done on purpose because I was leaving. It was done before that, you know.
“Everyone says I’m more relaxed. The moment you leave a big company after ten years, even though I was very happy there, everything looks different—like a bird in a cage, even if it was a golden cage. I have freedom and freedom has a price, but in another way I enjoy this and maybe am more serene, more quiet, more cool, more calm.”
I will never use a cigarette again in any shoot[....] It's an easy solution to make a picture more interesting, but it's not the only solution. And now it's like, forgive for all these pictures I've put in all these issues.
Just about everyone is launching a book this fall but there's one in particular that we're looking forward to - it's Olivier Zahm's book 'Irreverant' based on Carine Roitfeld.
When the news of the book was announced many thought it would be biographical but based on these images released by Vogue.com, it looks like it will be a photography book. Fans will be spoilt to 400 pages of images celebrating the stylist's life's work, as well as a handful of portraits of Roitfeld herself as well as her family.
The book, scheduled for release on October 18, is available for pre-order on Amazon now for $63.
