Julia Restoin Roitfeld: Friend To Art And Fashion

Ever the loyal friend, Julia Restoin Roitfeld turned out to support the burgeoning careers of two women last night in New York City. First Julia appeared at the debut of the fashion collaboration between her friend Margherita Missoni and Peroni Nastro Azzurro, looking luminous in a black satin and lace camisole tucked into a black pencil skirt belted at the waist. The collaboration launched on the rooftop of Gramercy Park Hotel. Others in attendance included Jessica Hart, Rachel Zoe, Margherita Missoni, Teresa Maccapani Missoni, and Charlotte Ronson, pictured below with JRR.

Julia then moved on to the first solo art exhibition by her friend Rebecca Dayan at Catherine Ahnell Gallery. I really like the style of Dayan’s watercolor portraits, she has a beautiful touch. Regarding the inspiration behind her work, the French artist shared: “I became fascinated by religious iconography depicting religious ecstasy and the inherent human need to find meaning and solace in altered states — communing with a higher power through religion, sex, drugs, money, etc. There is an inherent need in all of us to imbue ideas, symbols, and people with meaning in order to fight the inevitable. Most of the time we distract ourselves to not face the truth, until we reach moments of freedom and bliss. It is in these small fleeting moments that I am interested.” The Rebecca Dayan exhibition “MORES” runs through 11 October in NYC if you would like to see her paintings for yourself.

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Julia Restoin Roitfeld et al photos courtesy of instagram.com and © 2015 Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

I Want To Be A Roitfeld: Stylish Blogger Award

It is time to recognize a few of my favorite people in the wide world of blogs! I cannot believe that eight
Kate Ringo Suzuki, Everyday Glamour months have elapsed since my best blog friend, Kate Ringo Suzuki from Everyday Glamour, blessed me with the Stylish Blogger Award last December, but finally here we are... I am so excited to be able to use this award to acknowledge all of the fabulous people who continue to inspire me, and I hope that you know you are the top of the list, Kate! Thanks a million for your constant support from the very beginning of this site, your encouragement and positive attitude always inspire me, your friendship means the world to me, and you are one of my favorite writers.

Leslie Rowlands, La Maison FouNote that the lovely Leslie Rowlands from La Maison Fou kindly honored me with the same award a couple weeks later so I am now awarding it to thirty others instead of the standard fifteen. All right, so my list grew closer to forty once I made it... I am sticking to only ten facts though! Wait until you read them, you may be glad I limited myself thusly...

Thank you so much, Kate and Leslie, it is a distinct honor to be nominated by both of you!

Ten Facts About Me:

1. I really want to be Lou Doillon but I Want To Be A Birkin Gainsbourg Doillon seemed awkward back in May 2009. I do use "Lou" as my Starbucks name, in tribute to both Mademoiselle Doillon and my beloved granny.
2. One of my fondest artistic memories is addressing my family's Christmas cards each year. I learned calligraphy at an early age and my mother was more than happy to delegate this particular task to me.
3. If I could change one of my physical features, it would be my feet.
4. My favorite color is black.
5. I love that my birthday falls on the Ides of March. Half lion, half lamb, definitely.
6. I think schools should require students to recite poetry from memory in order to graduate. Song lyrics don't count. Maybe revive the McGuffey reader, too, those were the days...
7. I borrowed Roots by Alex Haley from my elementary school library. Upon checkout, the librarian snorted derisively. "You'll never read that!" I don't know exactly how many times I renewed it, but I assure you that I read every word. Thanks, Jean! There is nothing I enjoy like a challenge. I also recommend it heartily as one of the most moving books I have ever read.
8. I like to be alone. This used to concern me until I realized I am a writer.
9. Language is my true love, followed closely by music and art. So I guess you could say summarily that expression is my true love. Succinct expression is my true love. There, phew!
10. My fondest wish is for a role in a Godard film. Since we are wishing, specifically I want to play the part of Lou Doillon in her biopic as filmed by Godard, now we've come full circle.

And the blogs that I love are... drum roll please...

A Lefthanded Life

Accro De La Mode

Arabella Proffer

Capote's Swans

Casa De Sasha

Circa Fashion

Desde Las Manías

E.P. Cutler

Everyday Glamour

Fashion And Frank

Fashion 156

Filep Motwary

French Word-A-Day

Gala

Hogan McLaughlin

I Love Ur Dress

In New York Paris Tomorrow

Jet Set Confidential

Know Wear

La Maison Fou

Lost In Translation

Lula - The Subject I Know Best

Madame M La Mode

Maison Arf

Mon Petit Chou Chou

Moulagerie

Pheasants & Vultures

Prêt À Porter P

Rare Vintage

Reneessance

Ritournelle

Sartorial Girl

Sisters In Black Frocks

Style Souk

Style-a-holic

The Beauty File

The Family Table

What I Saw Today

Kate Ringo Suzuki photo © 2011 Kate Ringo Suzuki. Leslie Rowlands photo © 2011 Leslie Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.

I Want To Be A Roitfeld: Year Two

Today marks the anniversary of I Want To Be A Roitfeld, two glorious years of following the Roitfeld family: style icon and editrix extraordinaire, Carine Roitfeld, and her two brilliant and beautiful children, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld. It has been quite the exciting year and I love all of you for reading along with the fashionable adventures of the Roitfelds. Let's take a moment to reflect on a few of the highlights over the last year:

• Carine Roitfeld hosted an amazing masked ball in honor of the 90th anniversary of Vogue Paris.
• Her friend Tom Ford guest edited the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Vogue Paris.
• On December 17, Carine Roitfeld rocked the fashion world by quitting Vogue Paris.
• We stopped by her Vogue Paris office to take one last look.
• On January 7, Emmanuelle Alt became the new editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris.
• On February 1, I decided that I could not live without Vogue Paris and introduced I Want To Be An Alt to follow Emmanuelle Alt.
• Cathy Horyn kindly mentioned I Want To Be A Roitfeld in her column for The New York Times.
• I Want To Be A Roitfeld took on a new look thanks to the banner illustration by the talented Isabelle Oziol de Pignol.
• Julia Restoin-Roitfeld confessed at last that she reads my blog.
• On March 15, I couldn't think of a better birthday present for myself than more work and launched I Want To Be A Battaglia to follow Giovanna Battaglia.

Vladimir presented several new art shows:

• Richard Hambleton in Moscow.
• Nicolas Pol in London.
• Richard Hambleton in London.
• RETNA In New York City.
• Nicolas Pol in New York City.

Julia kept busy with her work as model, art director, journalist, and photographer:

• Art directing Mark Fast's new lookbook.
• Photographing her beau Robert Konjic for VMAN.
• Modeling for Lancôme.
• Celebrating her 30th birthday in great style, gorgeous in red lace Pucci.
• Walking the runway in Tom Ford's secret show.
• Interviewing Tom Ford for V Magazine and styling and photographing herself for the editorial.

What a year! I would also like to thank every single contributor to the blog — the writers, the photographers, and the artists that lend their incredible talents to make the blog worth visiting, in particular I wish to heartily thank my brilliant editors for their wonderful words and their constant encouragement.

Most special thanks to my loverly beau, Michael, who constantly supports me in this endeavor — I could never do it without you, mtm, you pwn. Finally thanks again to YOU for reading this blog! You make it special by reading along and voicing your opinions, you are its raison d'être, you ROCK! Looking forward to another amazing year ahead with you!

xo 

Kellina

Joyeux anniversaire, ma geai bleue.

Carine Roitfeld, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Giovanna Battaglia, and Olivier Zahm photographs
© 2010, 2011 Condé Nast, Getty Images, and Boheme Noir and courtesy of viperempire.blogspot.com, streetfsn.blogspot.com, ceccarini.blogspot.com, and facehunter.blogspot.com

Roitfeld And Battaglia Celebrate New Year

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld and Giovanna Battaglia ushered in 2011 in fabulous Caribbean style at the bash hosted by friends Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova at their lush island estate on St. Barth. Other friends joining the party of 250 were Francois-Henri Pinault, Salma Hayek, Diddy, Alessandra Ambrosio, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Fergie, Andre Harrell, Dean Caten, Dan Caten, Renata Maciel, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, George Lucas, Andrey Melnichenko, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Anthony Kiedis, and Harvey Weinstein.

The Black Eyed Peas performed for guests until the power cut out dramatically at midnight as everyone cheered "Happy New Year!" A brilliant display of fireworks lit the sky while guests waited for the blackout to end. Abramovich is rumored to have spent $5 million on the party but even with all of his wealth he cannot control the elements. Luckily guests did not have to travel far in these conditions as they were welcome to stay either in the bungalows on the estate or on the flotilla of yachts secured by Abramovich for the party.

Giovanna Battaglia and Salma Hayek photograph © 2011 Matheus Mazzafera. All Rights Reserved.
Roman Abramovich estate photograph © 2011 Splash. All Rights Reserved.

Follow I Want To Be A Roitfeld

I love writing this blog, I enjoy spending time researching the Roitfeld family and the world of fashion that surrounds them, but most of all I treasure my interactions with you, my friends and readers. I would like to ask that you take a minute to interact, I love to know more about those reading along. There are a number of ways that you can do this:

Comment: This is my favorite part of the blog, I adore receiving each and every comment and if English is not your first language, feel free to write in your native one.

Link: Another wonderful thing is discovering that someone out there has been kind enough to connect to my site. As soon as I do I always link back, so please be sure to let me know. The universe of blogs is a truly inspiring one.

Follow: In the area titled QUOI DE NEUF in the sidebar, by simply clicking on the icons you can elect to:

- Follow iwtbar on Twitter
- Follow kellina26 on StumbleUpon
- Friend Kellina de Boer on Facebook
- Follow I Want To Be A Roitfeld on Bloglovin'
- Follow I Want To Be A Roitfeld on Tumblr
- Subscribe to site RSS feeds, including journal, favorites, and comments

Survey: A few months back I posted a brief survey to find out more about the readers of the site. Feel free to take the survey and give your thoughts about the site (or the Roitfelds) anonymously.

Whether or not you choose to interact in any of these ways, I hope that you enjoy reading along. Please visit often.

Bisous!
Bisous!

Kellina

Stargazer lily illustration © 2010 Kellina de Boer. All Rights Reserved.