Channeling Carine Roitfeld
lundi 25 juillet 2011 
It gives me extraordinary pleasure to present the words of today's guest contributor — the lovely Madeleine Gallay from In New York Paris Tomorrow. Madeleine graciously assumes the aura of a Roitfeld for the day and shares her transformation here with all of us. She was surprised to find that a simple change of attire could change her entire attitude and her inspiring story nearly dares all of us to give it a try... I hope you enjoy Madeleine's engaging manner as much as I do. Merci mille fois, MG! Très sexy, très chic, très Carine... Thanks also to Svetoslav Petrov for sending me the terrific image of Carine seen above.
Channeling Carine Roitfeld
By Madeleine Gallay
Channeling Carine Roitfeld is a leap of faith; she is muse and always has been. She is heavily kohled smoldering eyes peering beneath a sometime veil of locks of her hair, she is a tight skirt with high heels, she is a simple button-down shirt. She is as charming as she is sexual. Actually she exudes sexuality, whimsy, and intelligence. Karl Lagerfeld and Tom Ford, both of whom can be more than a tad picky, adore her, maybe are in love with her in the deliciously naughty ways fashion designers desire a muse even before an investor.
Poring over IWTBAR photos of Carine, the white high necked, long sleeved Dolce & Gabbana dress with black heels tantalized and disturbed me. Black heels with a white dress are wrong, I know that. But it's not true. Carine in black heels wearing white was disturbing in a good way. She was right. It was somehow sexual and impossibly chic.
I kept coming back to that image as I rummaged in my closet for a summery dress. A cranberry cotton sleeveless dress and instinctively I reached for the London Sole leopard ballet flats with shocking pink ties. I let the beach breeze dry my hair, liking its looseness. Moisturizer and a smokey smudge from my Benefit Bad Girl fat kohl pencil. Shalimar and oversized pink ombre sunglasses. Very different than the cosy Victorian white rather graceful easy skirts that are half of my summer wardrobe; the Bedouin grunge hippie look with shawls and loads of chunky bracelets, not Carine-chic.
I picked up a white eyelet high necked long-sleeved tunic with side slits to the waist and smiled; Carine indeed. Black sheer leggings under that and black sandals. I imagine Carine wearing this to a restaurant, cameras snapping in mad adoration as usual, pushing that piece of hair away from her eyes. The shop owner was French and maybe flirting a little; I paid and pushed a piece of hair away from my eyes.
The Gary Graham black slinky bias slip dress at the next shop was not like my closet of LBDs, all plain and familiar. Bias, sexy and plain. I paid and thought about black heels, maybe with an extravagant bow in red, and remembered my Moschino black suede heels with miniature lipsticks sewn on each, so French and sexy.
I love the thoughtful, breezy way Carine talks about a collection to the herds of dogged reporters... as easy as her lovely, gracious "Oh yes, I like it very much." Because she sees through the runway styling to pieces of clothing that she can transform into an entire fashion story rampant with her humor and her stark statements.
Tom Ford was brilliant in the 1990s with Gucci but if you look at the pieces on a hanger, I suppose now on eBay, his presentation was very simple. The velvet jeans (men, women) and silk shirts opened down to there. A white crepe dress lean and showing the body, shirred tight satin skirts. Channeling Carine and exploding stereotypes of what sexy is.
Thank you so much for inviting me to share my own Carine thoughts and know how much I love your I Want To Be A Roitfeld. I do! And for a day, I felt like one.
Carine Roitfeld photographs © 2011 Getty Images and courtesy of waynetippetts.com. All Rights Reserved.
Carine Roitfeld in Fashion, Madeleine Gallay, Style 
Reader Comments (19)
Cupcake
xo
You look like a Saint in that clothes! You're trully Divine and God sent to all of the fashion sinner like us Amen
(This reminds me of the Roitfeld and Tom Ford debut for YSL Spring 2001 damn it's like 10 years ago the black and white collection)
So eloquent... so right... Love your mental catalog of fashion references, always at the ready... Thanks for expressing yourself to Carine, maybe she will even leave you another comment! ;-)
xo
and i want it
it looks soooooooooo pretty
"Living la vida Roitfeld" = fantastic
LOL
OMG! I need to buy one now!