The Telegraph recently met up with Roitfeld at Pier 59 in New York City to talk about the usual topics: being a grandmother, CR Fashion Book, and black eyeliner. Clad in a black negligee after a day of posing for her M.A.C. campaign, Carine tells writer Melissa Whitworth that “she thought of the actor Ryan Gosling to make her feel sexy” in front of Mario Sorrenti’s lens. (And a Tumblr is born.)
Carine spends a good part of the interview reminiscing about some of her more controversial French Vogue spreads, like:
One story, inspired by Roitfeld’s own paranoia about public lavatories, featured a model peeing in a car park. “When I was going in nightclubs there were cameras in the toilets looking to see if you were taking drugs, so I said, ‘OK, I will never go to pee in the toilet in a nightclub.’ I will always prefer to go to pee behind a car. We took a picture like this.” It’s not something one can imagine Anna Wintour or Alexandra Shulman, her British counterpart, admitting to. “It was reality for me,” says Roitfeld. “It is important to have a sense of humour and always with a certain chic. Even if the girl is peeing behind a car, she is doing it with a chic attitude.”
She also discusses her now-infamous Thylane Loubry Blondeau editorial, which supposedly led to her split from the magazine. Carine says, “Ten years is a long time — and especially 10 years in a gilded cage. They were wonderful years, but sooner or later birds want their freedom again.” It’s true; just ask Liberty Ross.
