Carine Roitfeld

>> While fashion types are currently migrating to Venice for tomorrow's Chanel Cruise 2010 show — Karl Lagerfeld arrived Monday with Baptiste Giabiconi and his runway favorites Siri Tollerod, Heidi Mount, Liu Wen, Charlotte di Calypso, and Denisa Dvorakova are all already in town for fittings and the dinner Karl's hosting tonight — many are continuing on to the Cannes Film Festival, which opened today.

In fact, the Chanel theme carries over in Cannes — Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen, screens May 24, the closing day.  In between now and then, Carine Roitfeld — as well as Donatella Versace and Kenneth Cole — will make her annual appearance at amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS benefit on May 21 at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, which also features an exhibition by photographer Bruce Weber.

Lily Cole, Laetitia Casta have films debuting »

>> Carine Roitfeld speaks frequently through the images she creates for Vogue Paris, but the new, erotic-themed issue of Acne Paper provides us with a fly-on-the-wall spot at a candid conversation with the editor.

The woman who will "never wear miniskirts because they make me look older" talks pushing limits — "Never before in Conde Nast's history has there been a transvestite on the cover, and [Andre J.'s cover] sold so well. You think you are going to get into trouble but in the end people are more open than you think" — and dressing demure — "it's always subtle."

But even Carine aspires to be somebody else.

You know the idea of the Saint Laurent woman. What a dream she was: wearing trousers, hand in the pocket, no handbag, transparent shirt. I love that woman. It is exactly who I would have loved to be if I could choose. So I would have to go blonde because he loved the blondes, and I would have to have bigger breasts. But it's the idea of the woman I love, and I try to repeat this in my magazine.

"Jeans are for my assistants." »

>> INSIDER WIRE— She flew under the radar, skipping the red carpet at both the Costume Institute Gala and the Time 100 Dinner (left) earlier this week, but in the new Spring 2009 issue of Acne Paper focused on eroticism, which features an interview with Carine Roitfeld, she's quite candid: “So I would love to get an award for making people have more sex through my images. It would be a great award. Imagine the design of that award!” [Models.com]

*image: source

>> Despite all the drama before and after, the Costume Institute Gala itself furnished plenty of notable and quotable moments; for those who were wondering, Carine Roitfeld did attend, even though it was reported that Julia Restoin-Roitfeld would not.

Gisele Bundchen pulled out of John Galliano's table at the last minute, choosing to ride in with the Versace camp instead; it sounds like she might be returning as the label's Fall 2009 face — the New York Times reports that her custom Versace dress "was conceived while she was modeling for [Donatella’s] next ad campaign." Helena Christensen, meanwhile, joked of her Zac Posen dress, which read "Vogue," the V formed by a plunging neckline: “It’s so I can remember whose party I’m at."

And while Kate Moss was on hostess duty (and presumably her best behavior) for Anna Wintour, she still managed to be herself, pulling a big wad of gum out of her mouth when asked about being a muse: “I’m amused.  I think it’s quite interesting for somebody to go outside of the box and think that a model actually has had some input into fashion. A lot of the time, the models don’t really get a say.”

But they do have a bathroom fascination »

>> We've gotten plenty of snippets from the CNN: Revealed profile on Carine Roitfeld already — including her stance on the Vogue replacement rumors — but now, the full show is out on video.  Besides discussing the April 2009 cover of Vogue Paris, we get a peek at an upcoming Patrick Demarchelier editorial with Ymre Stiekema in Spring 2009 couture holding animals at an agricultural show ("I didn't know how hard it would be to shoot in this place"), plus a snippet of an interaction between Carine and Anna Wintour, in which Anna cryptically asks, "Did you get my letter?  Do you understand?"  Without further ado . . .

The full show in three parts! »