Top 90 Carine Roitfeld Quotes

I love black lingerie and white shoes, and I love knives.

I know that people in fashion and people in general hate to be filmed.

I am not a celebrity. I work with celebrities, and it is very difficult. When a celebrity wears a dress, it’s good for business, so brands fight for the red carpet. Me? I don’t like it, because fashion becomes a job about dressing celebrities. And it’s a bit boring.

I am very surprised by someone like Alexander Wang. I am amazed how he is good with fashion, with business, with public relations himself, with an attitude in his clothes that is spoken immediately.

I don’t like intellectuals, or, at least, people who call themselves that way, because I am under the impression that there is always something condescending in their demeanour, and I don’t like condescending people.

Like most Russians, I am very superstitious, and if I don’t get married, I don’t get divorced.

If I’m doing something in fashion, I will try to respect the ‘laws’ of the business, but I will try to keep my integrity and my respect for the designers and for my readers.

‘Grandmother’ doesn’t mean that you have gray hair and you retire and stay home cooking cakes for your grandchildren.

I see girls who are so skinny on the catwalks, and I know so many of them destroy their lives and their family’s lives.

I always try to be nice to the paparazzi because finally, maybe one day, they won’t ask for me, and I will regret it.

Fashion has a political role insofar as following it can give you the impression to belonging to a certain social group or a private club.

I miss my parents. But still, my granddaughter, my daughter, my grandma, you know, so it’s very important for me. You lost your parents, but a new baby comes. It’s like the cycle of fashion.

I never think I have to prove something.

I made a big family when I was working at ‘Vogue’ for ten years, and I’m still friends with a lot of them.

I am just doing photo shoots. It’s not something that extraordinary. I’m not a great artist, I’m not writing books, I’m not a painter, and people in the streets ask me for a picture or a note, and I say, ‘Why?’

I’ve always used black girls on the runway, because I think they’re beautiful. I don’t need people to tell me, ‘You need to use black girls.’ I did for 20 years; it’s not a new thing for me.

I hate mules. I hate the noise when someone walks with mules. Clomp, clomp, clomp. I think it’s very not chic. I don’t even like a flip-flop. I don’t like this noise.

People always say, ‘You look like Iggy Pop.’

Here in France, I’ve seen some very good young designers, but they don’t have this ability to be good businessmen, too. I think America gives you this.

The first Chanel jacket that I saw – that I knew was Chanel – was on TV. It was on Mrs. Kennedy – the pink one.

Fashion’s about extravagance, and everyone needs a bit of that.

When you have the baby, there is no BlackBerry, no computer; you just have the baby on your stomach, and your heart is beating the same time as the baby’s. It’s very nice.

I think when I became a grandmother my life changed a lot, and I think I changed personally.

I have a lot to say about fashion – not just about fashion, but beauty, art.

When Tom Ford asked me to consult for Gucci, I had never consulted in my life. I didn’t know what consulting was, and look, we made something amazing.

Do what you are not supposed to do, like wear white shoes all year round.

If you are a reader of ‘Harper’s Bazaar,’ to me, you are a woman who loves fashion, but not just fashion; you love fashion, you love travel, you love art, you love music.

Fashion isn’t something you can buy; you need to have the sense of it, and most people don’t.

To see yourself on the big screen, you’re big, you hate your voice, your vocabulary. You say the same words, you speak bad.

I hate people who over intellectualize. It bores me deeply.

I keep my old friends, and get older with them, but push young. It’s good to be surrounded by kids, because they keep you young.

Fashion is a hard business.

In my 10 years, I never put a girl that was too skinny in French ‘Vogue.’

Thinking differently is my strength.

I am afraid of blood, but for some reason often I put blood in my photos… I don’t know why.

You don’t choose your public; your public chooses you.

When everything is good, maybe I think it’s the time to do something else.

I never like to wear too much makeup, and sometimes the best makeup is when it’s not too perfect. I like to sometimes apply my makeup with my fingers.

For me, fashion is not about reality.

I’m not bad-looking, but I’m not a beauty, either.

My name has become a brand – it could be make-up, clothing, perfume.

Look at someone like Steve Jobs. His look wasn’t very special – black turtleneck and jeans – but he had style. He looked the same, and you knew it was him when you saw him. Plus, he was a very smart person, which is also very attractive. His style was simple, not distracting, and very strong.

I think it is good when something can stay interesting for a long time. It’s not just a trend for one month.

I mix talents and friendship, which is not very professional, but it’s my way of thinking. So I love Azzedine Alaia, because I’ve known him for 30 years, and he’s making my dresses most of the time.

To me, makeup is fashion and vice versa. What I dress and what I wear always needs to work with my makeup, which is usually the same anyway.

The Russians are very much more up and down than the French.

Blogs are quite a new development – now, everyone wants to know you, everyone wants to know everything about you. And you can build a following that way. In a way, it’s a good thing if you want to create a buzz around yourself.

I’m a very spontaneous person, for the bad and the good.

I’m not a business girl. I will never be a business girl, but I will say, for Anna Wintour, that I respect successful people; I like things that are success.

When I left French ‘Vogue,’ New York welcomed me with a big, big hug.

Each morning, you dress to become a different woman. Fashion helps.

I started as a writer for magazines, and soon they asked me to illustrate my stories. I started from the bottom of the bottom. And I climbed the stairs, one by one.

I have a couture body.

I started wearing high heels when I first worked with Mario Testino. He is tall; I had to be at his height. And I have never stopped since then.

You can be beautiful with big breasts; you can be beautiful in your 40s. If you don’t have perfect ankles, still you can move your legs in a certain way and look very sexy.

The less you have, the more you enjoy.

I’m not the girl next door.

Amidst globalisation, trends are becoming worldwide, so it’s important to take a unique approach to what fashion has to offer. Be yourself in the middle of it all; fashion shouldn’t be ‘try hard.’

In a way, I envy the freedom artists have. Artists can push themselves beyond their limits, in pursuit of their ideas and their vision, even if they are inhabited by demons that can also play tricks on them.

I could live very quietly, do advertising to earn money.

When you love fashion, there is no weekend. Everything just blends together.

You know it’s very important, the role of a mother… I don’t know, but it’s feminism to me to love your kids.

You can’t put yourself into competition with a magazine like ‘Vogue.’ You have to create something new, something different.

I’m not a superhero – I’m a super worker!

Anna Wintour is the most powerful woman in the global fashion industry, the first lady of fashion. She’s a politician; I’m a stylist. They are two very different jobs.

It’s always fun when people ask you for advice.

In photo shoots, I rely on instinct. Which is not to say I don’t bring ideas to a project or consider it beforehand.

I am very lucky in that I can eat what I want and don’t have to follow any special diet.

As you get older, you see life is very short, so you have to appreciate more and more and to enjoy it.

If Caravaggio was a photographer today, I would love to work with him. I love his dark vision – I have a dark vision.

If I like a make-up artist’s look, even if nobody knows about her, I use her. New people give me energy.

If people ask me to describe my look, I always say: ‘Quite classic with an edge.’

I’m not a Facebook girl. Even though there is a fake Facebook with my name, it’s not me. I’m not on Twitter; it’s not me.

I want more women to run countries. There’d be more peace on Earth.

Bleaching eyebrows makes me crazy.

My private life is a lot more ladylike and less sultry than the fashion photos I imagine.

Paris is mostly retired people – I love it, and it’s a beautiful city, but it’s quite slow.

You lose attitude when you feel too comfortable, so I prefer to wear clothes that have a certain edge to them.