Carine Roitfeld

The Fashion Statement: The Best Dressed Women of 2010

This was the year politician's wives, fashion editors and designers shoved Hollywood (except for Carey Mulligan perhaps) and the music industry aside to become the best dressed women of the year.

Fashion blogs everywhere have been writing about what fashion insiders Japanese Vogue editrix Anna Dello Russo was wearing in addition to their daily chronicles of Lady Gaga. What was French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld wearing front row at Marc Jacobs? What was Elle's style director Kate Lanphear doing in an online campaign for CFDA/Vogue fund finalist Eddie Borgo? Wrote New York Mag's The Cut in July: "Borgo calls Kate, whose regular appearances on street-style blogs have won her an online cult following, the 'epitome of the modern-day punk.' If anyone needed more face time on The City, it's this woman. Then again, her elusiveness is one of the things that makes her so cool." As for Roitfeld (pictured above), who just this week shocked everybody by announcing she's bidding French Vogue adieu, proved that women in their 50s (she's 56) don't have to age.

Gallery: Best Dressed

Tags: Alexa Chung, Anna Dello Russo, Carine Roitfeld, CarlaBruni-sarkozy, Carrie Mulligan, georgina chapman, Kate Lanphear, Kate Middleton, Lady Gaga, Michelle Obama

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Carine Roitfeld Steps Down From French Vogue

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Major news in the fashion world this week as French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld has announced that she will step down as editor in chief of French Vogue. Roitfeld, a former fashion model, joined the magazine nearly ten years ago when she was approached by Jonathan Newhouse, the chief executive of Conde Nast International. At some points there were rumors that Roitfeld might even succeed the indomitable Anna Wintour at Vogue in New York. Her style is characterized by a darkness and edginess that has remained perfectly French, often epitomizing the concept of 'jolie laide' focusing on interesting images more than just the merely pretty.

Roitfeld will leave at the end of January (completing issues through March) and has said that she is leaving to work on personal projects. Roitfeld spoke with the NY Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn telling her that she feels that it's time to do something different and that she has no problem with Jonathan Newhouse. "I have no plan at all," she said. Something tells me something will come up.

Tags: carine roitfeld, carine roitfeld french vogue, french vogue blackface

The Classicist: At The Carlyle Hotel

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: The Classicist

When Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week hits New York City this Friday, the hip downtown hotels will of course be flooded with fashionistas. The ones who value refinement and elegance over mere trendiness however will head to the Upper East Side's Carlyle Hotel, a luxurious landmark since it first opened in 1930 and one of our favorite places to stay in the world.

French Vogue editrix Carine Roitfeld recently declared that the Carlyle is her favorite hotel as well, and with the addition of a luxe new spa next month, with its "sleek palette of slate, charcoal and black complemented by finishes in nickel, chrome and glass and rich molding," others are sure to follow suit. Not that the Carlyle lacks for high-profile guests; since it opened nearly 80 years ago, the hotel has played host to an endless procession of movie stars, millionaires and high society.

The Art Deco masterpiece was the perfect setting for both stylish philanderer John F. Kennedy, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor, and legendary cabaret singer Bobby Short, who hung his top hat at the swank Café Carlyle for decades (Woody Allen has also been known to hoist a clarinet there on occasion).

Gallery: The Carlyle Hotel