I honestly don’t know much about Carine Roitfeld other than the gossip that she and Anna Wintour hate each other, and that Carine loves Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. That’s about it. Carine currently edits CR Fashion Book, her own boutique-style fashion magazine, after years of being editor-in-chief for Vogue Paris. She’s also 64 years old, which I didn’t know – I thought she was much younger. It turns out that even at that age, Carine still lives a moderately rock ‘n roll lifestyle, complete with shots of vodka and Marlboro Reds.
Fashion may be an industry that celebrates youth, but at age 64, Carine Roitfeld is still as glamorous as ever.
“The truth is no one likes to get older, not so much because of wrinkles, but because of health,” the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris told The Times, adding that she’s never had Botox or plastic surgery. Roitfeld does, however, enjoy a stiff drink, and “always pours herself a shot of vodka when she gets home,” according to the story. She also smokes two or three Marlboro Red cigarettes daily — and while she tries to abstain from sugar and gluten, she said, an occasional baguette is “not going to kill me.”
Continued the CR Fashion Book creator: “I don’t deprive myself of anything. I am lucky, the shape I have. It’s in my genes. I fit into sample sizes; sometimes they are too big for me. I am lucky to have pretty legs — that’s luck. And nice ankles, another bit of luck.”
When it comes to dressing her sample-size physique, Roitfeld still relies on her signature sexy combo of pencil skirts and pumps, but skips the exposed décolletage and bare legs; sneakers are banned from her wardrobe, despite fashion’s recent shift toward more comfortable footwear styles.
“Ah, that is not a word I like — comfortable — I don’t really like street style,” she told The Times. Little wonder why she once banned Uggs (“I find them horrific”) and flip-flops (“they look dirty”) from the Vogue Paris offices.
I don’t understand “I don’t deprive myself of anything” taken along with “she tries to abstain from sugar and gluten.” Pick one. But yes, she has skinny genes – some women just have figures that “hold up” as they age. As for the vodka and cigarettes… well, I suspect that the three daily cigarettes are probably her version of cutting down from what was once a pack-a-day habit, so if you look at it that way, it IS an improvement (although still not ideal). I mean, honestly, I respect the fact that she’s not sugar-coating it or pretending to just drink a lot of water or whatever women say these days. She’s all “I drink vodka, I smoke cigarettes and I eat baguettes but I still watch what I eat.” Points for honesty, I guess.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Love her eyebrows, which she had even as everyone else was plucking theirs to a pencil line.
I love that she has aged very naturally. She has some lines, but in no way does she look her age. I also love the honesty about liking a drink and a smoke. I try to be healthy for the most part, but you’ll have to wrestle my (occasional) evening vodka out of my cold, dead claws. We all have our vice.
I met her through work, have conversed face to face, she definitely, most definitely looks her age. She is much more crepe faced wrinkly than these photoshopped pics reveal. That said, she is charming, elegant and exudes effortless style. It makes for an attractive look overall.
I know I shouldn’t say it, but it seems like you either make it to a decent age or you don’t, and even sometimes the really bad habits (cigarettes, for example) don’t do everyone in.
She looks younger than Celine who is 13 years younger than her!
She looks her age. That isn’t a bad thing, but she’s no Angela Bassett where it’s like “Shes HOW OLD?!”
Also, skinny women humble bragging about their skinniness is so 2004. I thought we were in a new body celebration era. Talking about how the teensy weensy sample sizes are sometimes too big (especially when mentioning it is clearly done for points) just seems beneath a woman of her experience and caliber. I would think she had more important things to celebrate about her existence.
I work in the fashion industry and actually in the past few years the standard sample size when it comes to designer brands has gone up. So when she’s saying she fits into a sample, that sample is a 4 that fits more like a 6/8 so it’s not even tiny clothes. Carine needs to get over herself.
I’m sure the cigs help with the thin genes to keep her slim. However she does look good for her 60s and I ride or die for Vodka & uggs are atrocious…
I have never understood the desire for uggs! They are the most hideous shoes on the planet. Though I have to add that the article on Eva Green the other day, she mentioned how unforgiving and critical the French can be, plays right into the dialogue with Carine. She doesn’t want to see fat people in public therefore she sits so that she cannot see them. She is clearly making the critical argument for French people true. Though, we do have to look at the way we dress now. I am amazed and disgusted with what I see that some people wear. You won’t catch me running to the store in flip flops, though I do dress casually but I never leave the house without tinted sunscreen and lip stain and I am known to wear Rothy’s slip on shoes. There are those in society were going out in your pajamas is considered acceptable. I find this is the US, I am in the south, were it seems more prevalent. I could be completely wrong though, I am basing my theory of my area, college town.
If you lived in a cold climate you would understand why people wear them.
When I start wearing comfortable anything I’m depressed; as a lifelong fashionista I KNOW the signs.
Uggs are great… as an inside slipper. No need for them outside in the real world
And imagine how much younger she would look if she hasn’t smoked.
Yes. Moderate drinking is one thing, smoking is never healthy. I know it’s tough, my husband quit a two pack a day habit 32 years ago.
Walking through Paris blows my mind. Young mother’s puffing away as they push strollers, Older women with grandkids chain smoking. I think in Santa Barbara, where I live, there would be a citizen’s arrest if a young mom had a cigarette in her hand. In fact the city has outlawed any smoking in public. They’re smoking less in Europe and thank god, no smoking inside restaurants, but the patios are still cigarette clouded nightmares.
But the good news is their is very little Botox and fillers and the older women look better than some of the LA face I see in Southern California.
I read the headline. Then looked at the picture and say. Yup🤷🏻♀️. That’s what her face looks like. Nothing to see here. She looks like a woman who boozes and smokes and hasn’t had plastic surgery. It’s called boozeface. She’s heading that way. Kate Moss had it too till she quit booze. I have lived this experience. Even moderate booze consumption begins to show in ppl one they hit mid 30’s.
I’m not seeing what you’re seeing. I think she looks good and looks her age (as opposed to the annoying ‘looks good for her age’ trope).
Yep, Atlantic…..she’s the age she is and looks good; nothing about looking youthful thank god. If she had a more educated mind (just from broader life experience and the odd book) she’d be a Helen Mirren gal! (But editing Vogue seems to pervert people’s souls.)
French women though….I like their unpanicked approach to beauty; a long game of ritual care all their lives, with fillers and surgery pretty rare. And age is not hidden. It bespeaks such a different vibe in the air! Which is: you are not invisible at 50+, there is no need to think you are disenfranchised.
(May be wishful thinking on my part, but still….💕🍷🌹.)
To be brutally honest, I think age hit Carine fairly hard in her 30/40s. If you look at pictures of her at twenty-something, she lost her youthfulness rather quickly. She’s just not been fortunate not to age significantly worse in the last twenty. (Although, Botox and surgery are hardly the only anti-aging procedures out there. She’s likely got quite the skin regimen.)
She’s got an eye for fashion, no getting around that, but I do remember reading an article from her years ago that sank any interpretation I had of her as particularly intellectual. There was a whole section of her talking about going on some sort of nature retreat and being endlessly distracted by “fat American tourists” or something, and I was just flabbergasted that anybody could care that much about what other people do. She came across as unbearably shallow.
I read a few articles about her years ago when she was the editor of French Vogue. She was in a restaurant and told the journalist she wanted to sit in a particular seat so that she wouldn’t have to see any fat people. In another article she said she likes Nicole Kidman because Kidman is skinny. I wonder what she thinks of all the complaints about Mario Testino. She was the stylist for Gucci during the Tom Ford era and Testino was the photographer. She worked very closely with him for years on Gucci campaigns.
She does not look “young” or “good” for her age. She looks like slim 64 year old woman with access to great clothes. She also looks like a woman that smokes and drinks. I will say that she has a great smile and looks very happy with her life, as she should be.
I thought she was in her 70s! I do like her style, always have, and I wish I had her “genes.” But if she is really concerned about her health, she should ditch the smokes.
Wow i thought she was a hard living 40 something year old. Guess for 64 she looks good to me she looks her age. Also high heels are of the devil.
She sounds like a self absorbed and shallow woman. Hard pass for me. Maybe she looks good for a Hollywood 64 but I see people in their 60’s waking around all day who look far more youthful and healthy. And uh-oh, they’re often wearing comfortable clothes!
And doesn’t pluck her eyebrows, haha. I like thick brows but with a little more shape than that. But if she likes them, hey. It’s her face.
I was surprised when I saw that she’s 63. I read the headline and thought she looked like pretty rough 45. I think she looks good for a partying 63 year old. She’d look younger if she cleaned up her brows a little, they’re too heavy for her small face.
I have a similar routine. I have a drink in the evening (usually a whiskey) and smoke. I bit more than I should; probably around 7 cigarettes a day. I eat everything but don’t stuff myself. Like few smaller meals a day. I eat when I’m hungry. But if I skip a day of walking I feel a difference. I support her attitude. And yes I’m also lucky DNA vise. I plan on quitting smoking though but I really can’t imagine my morning coffee without it. Ugh
Honestly people who think she’s in her 40s are probably reading this on their iPhones. If you look closely she looks her age and has looked like this for a while.
Saying that you can fit in sample size clothes is humble-bragging and so out of touch – how is that “lucky”? It just means that she is a petite lady – she most likely is too short for most clothes but that she doesn’t say. Likewise having a model’s body doesn’t mean an attractive body: it’s usually tall and lean with almost no boobs. She’s certainly from another time.
Women of all ages in Paris are incredibly slim and usually petit. Maybe Gallic genes (and cigarettes)
She looks like someone who is a heavy smoker and drinker. As long as she’s happy, that’s all that matter. She looks rough to me, but I’m viewing things from a different cultural lens. So when I think of someone who looks amazing at 64-65 I picture someone like Adrienne Banfield-Norris (Jada Pinkett’s mom), Pat Cleveland, Alfre Woodard, Debbie Allen…you get the picture.
She has pretty legs? I want to see her legs.
I saw her at Colette a few years ago. Agreed she’s much different looking in person. I didn’t even know who she was until someone pointed out that was who was standing in front of me. But I enjoyed her documentary. She came off positively.
However living in Paris, seeing skinny size 2 women on a daily basis (I even saw a lady who was still a size 2 while 6 months pregnant), I think it’s unfair to make such broad statements. Most of the women here eat nothing but salad, there’s a lot more walking, and I’ve had housekeepers tell me a lot of the women they work for are bulimic (I guess this is the norm here???). Once you hit 30 genes cannot save you. I come from skinny genes and even I gained 15kg once that age hit. Carine also has a personal trainer that comes to her house (as seen in the doc), I’m sure that also helps her stay slim 🙄 you’ll also come to find that people are more normal sized once you get out of Paris. Even in the 16th, i see a lot of girls that are not size 2, more like 6 and 8, which was pretty shocking. It’s weird because you get used to skinny after living here and then when you fly into America for instance it’s jarring, like woah! That’s right not everyone has thighs the size of my arm. Paris is unique.
She looks her age, which is not a bad thing at all. Love her style.
V stereotypical Parisienne right? In attitude/look etc