Tom Dixon

Have you noticed the striking silver suspension lamp in Carine Roitfeld's office at Vouge Paris? It's the Mirror Ball Pendant in chrome designed by Tom Dixon. Born in Tunisia, educated in London at Chelsea School of Art, Dixon played bass in a funk band before learning how to weld on his own. He began creating a line of furniture using salvage materials that he would weld together. Brands such as Cappellini began carrying his furntiure; soon Dixon created his own company named Eurolounge to produce and distribute his pieces. His early designs are now considered collectibles and are held by museums worldwide. Among the many honors recognizing his talent, Dixon was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2001.

Tom Dixon photograph courtesy of tomdixon.net

Compression by César

Have you noticed the unusual gold pendant that Carine Roitfeld wears frequently? This striking vintage piece is one of a limited series of "Compressions" made by César in 1971 for the jeweler Pascal Morabito. César Baldaccini, usually known simply as César, was a noted French sculptor at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement. He is famed for his radical compressions of materials such as compacted automobiles, discarded metal, or rubbish; his expansions such as his polyurethane foam sculptures; and his fantastic representations of animals and insects.

César's early work used junk materials and soldered and welded metal. In 1960 on a visit to a scrap yard in search of metal, he noticed a hydraulic crushing machine in action and he decided to begin experimenting with the element of compression in his sculpture. He selected the cars used for each of his compressions, mixing elements from vehicles of different colors. In this way he found he could control the surface pattern and color scheme of the piece. César astonished art lovers by exhibiting three crushed cars at a Paris show and he became renowned for these compressions. His later works also include sculptures made from molten crystal.

Carine Roitfeld wearing Compression pendant by César photograph by Inez van Lamsweerde et Vinoodh Matadin courtesy of Purple Fashion No. 5

Helmut Newton

Carine Roitfeld believes that we all dress with a fantasy in mind; hers is to look like the subject of a Helmut Newton photo — erotic, stylized, fetishistic, existing in black and white. Newton is renowned internationally for his particular style of fashion photography, helping to shape the look of Vogue Paris and Harper's Bazaar beginning in the 1960s and clearly still a major influence on today's issues. Fantastic news for those that need a primer on Newton's seminal work: Taschen is publishing a new edition of the infamous and elusive Helmut Newton: Sumo slated for release 1 September 2009. Unfortunately I do not think it comes with the chic Philippe Starck stand (pictured above).

Helmut Newton: Sumo and Philippe Starck stand image courtesy of amazon.com

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele, Self Portrait (1912)

Carine Roitfeld's favorite artist is Egon Schiele. I agree. So does Lou Doillon. If you are not familiar with his work, take the time to look at his drawings. His renderings of the human form are unmatched. He calls attention to parts of the body in ways that look unnatural. In fact, they are much more natural than the measured poses of most artists' figures. I own two books of Schiele's masterpieces and I heartily recommend both. Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolors by Jane Kallir is in hard cover and a little more expensive but worth it—a quality printing and very comprehensive. It's tough to lie abed with it though and since that's my favorite way to spend time with any artist I am getting to know, I needed a soft cover as well: Egon Schiele 1890-1918 by Reinhard Steiner.

Source: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Egon Schiele [DRAFT]

This is special. I was considering Carine's likes while trying to decide what to post and I remembered that Egon Schiele is her favorite artist. This is easy to remember because I love him as does Lou Doillon. But I wanted to know how I knew that. My search pulled up the first article that I ever read about Carine, the first photo I am conscious of seeing of Carine, shivers, does anyone hear the sound of pixie dust dropping?! Though it's more like an avalanche of bondage shoes and girls brandishing knives while dressed chicer then chic. Ooo pass my smelling salts, there's a good lad.

So clearly you'll want to know that the first article, as it shall henceforth be known, was "If looks could kill" by Sabine Durrant. Yes, she who wears black and fur contradicts herself a bit in this piece, but again with the subtle counterculture at which Carine excels:

Today she is wearing an off-one-shoulder off-white Prada dress. [1] It is startlingly 'evening' for an 11 a.m. appointment and when she gesticulates — which she does a lot — you expect a nipple to appear on the low-cut side (though it never quite does). The big brown chunky high shoes — 'I steal them,' [2] she says grandly [3] — are from the next Yves Saint Laurent collection. [4]

Round her neck is an unobtrusive cross ('I am not religious, I just like it') [5] and the 'strings', she tells me, have been replaced by Calvin Klein 'little shorts — feminine, very low'. Her pants are the only things she has on that she has paid for. 'Maybe if you write it, they send me some,' she says in her sweet, French-accented voice. 'You never know. My size is small.' [6]

Let's count the sins Carine commits here:

[1] Nudity at work

[2] Theft, greed, whatev

[3] Pride

[4] Immortality

[5] Sacrilege

[6] Shamelessness

Six in just two quick paras!! I was instantly smitten. Here was the role model to take me into the next decade and beyond — Carine Roitfeld. Disarmingly frank, funny, French, what was I to do? So, in closing, the Egon Schiele reference turned out to be in a different article altogether and we'll get to that another day.