Carine Roitfeld: irreverent

This stunning book - so elegant, so chic, so Carine - is a visual history of the former French Vogue editor's fearless career. As she herself comments, "I love violating the codes of bourgeois elegance" and this book demonstrates her talent for being a subversive instigator, known for pushing the limits.

In his foreword, art critic Olivier Zahm describes Carine Roitfeld as being her own muse, even when she openly plays with the fantasy and erotic dreams she insists aren't part of her reality. Above all, her lack of fear and the absence of taboos in her fashion ideas are her greatest strengths. She wields a clever mix of elegance and bourgeois convention, on the one hand, and provocation and freedom, on the other. This the Belle de Jour side to Carine Roitfeld, which makes her - Russian side not withstanding - the quintessential French woman.

Featuring a selection of 250 magazine tear sheets and covers from editorial shoots and advertising campaigns, as well as intimate ephemera, this inspiring book gives an inside view into Roitfeld's creative thought process and audacious sensibility.
Irreverent is published by Rizzoli New York.

Here are some excerpts from the book.
© Carine Roitfeld: irreverent, Rizzoli New York, 2011

Left page: Mario Testino/ September 2002, Right page:  Mario Testino/ Vogue Paris/ March 2011

Mario Testino / Dutch magazine / Winter 1997

Mario Testino / Vogue Paris / August 2008

Mario Sorrenti / Vogue Paris / August 2010

Left page: Mario Testino / The Face / 1996, Right page: Roitfeld personal photo

Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott / Vogue Paris / September 2008

Carine Roitfeld: irreverent

Courtesy Rizzoli New York, 2011