Olivier Lalanne

I am not sure why it took so long but permit me the pleasure of sharing with you Carine Roitfeld's second in command, Olivier Lalanne. This hot Frenchman has fabulous hair and an intense gaze, two of my favorite qualities in a man. Okay, let's not intellectualize this for another minute, Olivier Lalanne is hot. Seriously.

When asked who the next most important person on her team is at Vogue Paris, Carine replied: "Olivier Lalanne, definitely. He’s my features editor-in-chief and my continuity. He’s a hard worker with a great sense of humor and he’s good looking, charming, and sweet. He was actually an intern and then he became an assistant and now I have given him this position already. I want all my team to be young very hard working people. A lot of Vogue Paris now is very young girls with great energy. Olivier is only 33, so you see I really am the old person of my magazine. And I’m the shortest of the girls too." This was in 2005; in 2006, Lalanne took over as editor-in-chief of Vogue Hommes International. Driven and intelligent, two of my favorite qualities in a man.

Carine Roitfeld and Olivier Lalanne photographs courtesy of style.com, Getty Images, and Fashion Spot.

Mini

Carine Roitfeld's favorite car is the Mini, currently produced by BMW. La Roitfeld loves the Mini automobile so much that she drives not one but three of the old models — one in red, one in green, and one convertible, color unknown. She possesses immaculate taste in the design of all things, I think the Mini is one of the most adorable cars ever made (though I must profess a slight preference for the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing....) The Mini has won numerous awards for its design, notably "Car of the Century," "Number One Classic Car of All Time," and "Top 10 Green Car." I would love to see Carine tooling around the streets of Paris in one of her Minis but unfortunately no photos available thus far...

Mini image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Update on mercredi 8 septembre 2010 by kellina

Maybe Carine drives the official Vogue Paris Mini...

Vogue Paris Mini photograph © 2010 Condé Nast. All Rights Reserved.

Update on samedi 30 octobre 2010 by kellina

Finally! Photographs of Carine Roitfeld riding in the official Vogue Paris Mini, view the video here.

Rossano Ferretti

Rossano Ferretti opened at 4 rue Cambon in Paris on January 14 and of course Carine Roitfeld stopped in to sample the salon's services. Guests at the luxurious salon move from room to room in this chic Hausmann apartment for shampooing, cutting, drying, and so forth and have the option to enter and exit the salon via secret corridors. Marble fireplaces, parquet floors, and decorative moldings add to the cozy charm of the salon.

Born in Italy, Ferretti learned his craft at his mother's salon outside of Parma before traveling to London to perfect his skills. He is famous for handling the coiffures of Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell as well as working for Chanel and Armani. His own philosophy, the Rossano Ferretti Method, focuses on naturalness and personalization. As Ferretti recommends: "Following other stars and their hairstyles can take you only so far. I mean, one's hairstyle or haircut does reflect one's personality in many ways. So it's always good to retain a certain amount of uniqueness." Ferretti is currently building his hair empire with twenty salons worldwide including a brand new space in Manhattan, a school in Madrid, and more openings planned.

Photograph of Rossano Ferretti courtesy of Stefanie Starz.
Photograph of salon © 2010 Rossano Ferretti. All Rights Reserved.

Ohne Titel

Carine Roitfeld kept warm at Fashion Week in New York this February by donning an enviable array of designer coats. One of the most memorable is this eyecatching number created by Ohne Titel as photographed by Blade. This gorgeous military green fur coat appears thick and heavy but it is actually lightweight because rather than being constructed entirely of fur this look is achieved by sewing thin strips of fox onto a silk frame. This technique creates the illusion of full fur with only about 33 percent of the traditional weight (and expense). 

Ohne Titel (German for “no title”), is the brand founded in 2006 by Flora Gill and Alexa Adams, two designers who met at Parsons School of Design (Julia's alma mater); Alexa worked for Helmut Lang for a stint before the duo began designing for Karl Lagerfeld. Now under their own label, they focus on apparel for the modern woman: intelligent and strong, with keen attention to detail. Regarding the controversy about designing with fur Adams says, “You see so much leather and shearling being used this season, and no one is complaining about that. I don’t see the difference between using shearling and using fur.” Notably in 2009 Ohne Titel won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award for women's wear and was among the nominees for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award.

Carine is pictured above with the beautiful and mysterious Anastasia Barbieri, fashion editor-in-chief for Vogue Hommes International.

Update on vendredi 21 mai 2010 by kellina

Contributing Editor recently conducted a fun interview with Alexa Adams and Flora Gill of Ohne Titel complete with vibrant photographs.

Update on vendredi 20 août 2010 by kellina

Full Frontal Fashion also did a cool interview with Ohne Titel.

Toraya

When asked about her favorite gourmet spots in Paris, Carine Roitfeld named the Japanese tea salon Toraya. One of the oldest pastry shops in Japan, Toraya opened another location in Paris at 10 rue Saint-Florentin in 1980. They offer a tempting array of teas, light meals, and pastries in harmony with the seasons as well as cakes created especially for the Toraya salon in Paris. This is the place to go when you crave tender pound cake with green tea matcha stuffed with red azuki paste and candied chestnuts, mmm. Perhaps you will have the good fortune to see Carine enjoying a usagi-man or hana-ogi when you stop by, quelle chance.

Toraya images courtesy of Toraya Group.