If they weren't already copying her style and wearing predominantly black, the fashion world would have donned their mourning clothes today. Carine Roitfeld, the angular and enormously influential editor of Paris Vogue, quit the magazine to concentrate on "personal projects".
"Oh Mon Dieu. Carine Roitfeld is leaving Vogue Paris! Even my phone froze in shock," was a typical response from one fan, the Canadian fashion blogger Sarah Nicole Prickett.
Roitfeld was quick to dismiss talk of a rift, insisting it was her decision to step down after almost a decade at the helm of perhaps the most influential fashion title in the world. "It's 10 years that I'm editor of the magazine," Roitfeld told the New York Times. "I think it's time to do something different."
She will leave in January.
Within minutes of the announcement, rumours began to swirl that she would team up with designer Tom Ford, her friend and long-time collaborator. In the 1990s when Ford took over at Gucci, Roitfeld was his muse and stylist, playing a crucial role in returning the brand into a cutting-edge luxury label. This autumn, Ford exhibited his first women's wear collection in years.
Both Ford and Roitfeld declined to comment.
Controversy
What marked Roitfeld out from her rivals was her hands-on approach to magazine editing. She would personally style many shoots, which over the years incorporated everything from butchery to prosthetic pregnant bellies. Perhaps her most controversial moment came last year when she blacked up the Dutch model Lara Stone for photographs in the magazine.
She shrugged her perfectly tailored shoulders at political correctness, constantly showing models smoking (once while wearing the aforementioned fake baby bump) and even, in the most recent edition, hooked up to a drip.
She was a walking advertisement for the magazine, inventing trends and directly influencing the catwalk. So when she said things like: "You know, I think as you get older, the snake is more chic than the leopard", designers around the world rushed to their reptile dealers.
"It is impossible to overstate Roitfeld's powerful contribution to Vogue and to the fields of fashion and magazine publishing. Under her direction, Vogue Paris received record levels of circulation and advertising and editorial success," said Jonathan Newhouse, chief executive of Condé Nast International. "Vogue Paris has established itself as one of the most iconic magazines in the world, with huge influence in the field of fashion and photography."
‘No plan'
Roitfeld said she stepped down after telling Newhouse she wished to pursue other projects. "I have no problem with Jonathan and he understood me very well," she said. "I had so much freedom to do everything I wanted. I think I did a good job." She was quitting while she was ahead, she said. "When everything is good, maybe I think it's the time to do something else."
The March issue is likely to be her last, but she was not sure what she would do after that. "I have no plan at all," she said.
Despite this claim to have nothing planned, many still believe she will usurp Anna Wintour as editor of US Vogue. These rumours have circulated for years, despite Roitfeld always denying wanting Wintour's job. Asked about it in an interview last year, she said: "No! How you say, there is no rumour without fire? No smoke? Well, in this situation, there was no fire, because I was never, ever approached to go to America. And to be honest, if they approached me, I think it's really not me. I'm good at what I do here and I'm not sure if you put me in that world I would be as good. I think it's much easier to talk to 100,000 women than millions of women across America."
Wintour lavished praise on Roitfeld, saying she had "drawn global attention to her own inimitable style".
In her 10 years editing French Vogue, Roitfeld invigorated Paris fashion with her support for new talents like Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy and Christophe Decarnin at Balmain, she said.
"The recent 90th-anniversary issue and its masked ball was the perfect distillation of everything Carine stood for: a very modern and exacting idea of French chic, stripping away any bourgeois affiliations to create something with edge, excitement and an erotic frisson."
A former model, Roitfeld started her writing career at Elle, and worked her way up the ranks before she teamed up with Ford at Gucci and then Yves Saint Laurent. After only a year at YSL, she was asked to edit Vogue, further cementing her influence in the international fashion industry.
The website of Paris Vogue played tribute to its departing editrix with a photo gallery showcasing 50 of Roitfeld's most famous looks.
Condé Nast said her replacement would be announced within the next few weeks. Current frontrunners include Emmanuelle Alt, Paris Vogue's fashion director, and Aliona Doletskaya, the recently resigned editor-in-chief of Russian Vogue.
