"Mademoiselle C" Carine Roitfeld's Story of Change directed by Fabien Constant

By Laura Medina

What supposed to be a story about a magazine ended up being a movie of change.  A movie of a woman transiting from her second stage in life as the Editor of French Vogue and sexy career mother to starting her own magazine from scratch while becoming a sexy grandma.

People have said the only thing constant is change.  What irony, the director’s last name is Constant, as in Fabien Constant.  Throughout the whole phone interview, he reminds this scribe that this documentary is a story of change. 

The letter “C” stands for change.  It also stands for Carine as in Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of French Vogue.

“Mademoiselle C” is the story of Carine Roitfeld.

The documentary film director, Fabien Constant, said it was all about waiting for that right moment at the right time.

As getting to know each other when he was shooting videos of her parties with beautiful people, Carine befriend the young filmmaker.  Fabien, just starting out, was just excited to be there.

They always talk about doing a project but of what and when... then Carine left French Vogue.  This is when they both decided it was time to do “Mademoiselle C.”  Once the time is right and the project is right, both Carine and Fabien chimed in, “Let’s do it!”

Fabien knows the coincidence of “Mademoiselle C” release date is exactly three years to the release date of “The September Issue.”

Although he is a big fan of “The September Issue,” Fabien sets the record straight when he said  “The September Issue” is about the politics and the dueling dualities of business versus creativity, brains versus heart, and Anna Wintour versus Grace Coddington in bringing just one peculiar issue of a magazine together.

“Mademoiselle C” is about one woman who represents both the brains and the heart, Carine Roitfeld, and how her own magazine, CR, stands for change in a woman’s life.  This movie is a journey of Carine segueing from the second stage of life into the third stage.  Fabien said this is more than a magazine, it is about the woman behind it, at the end of the day.

Being a friend gives Fabien a window into the real working life of Carine Roitfeld, beyond the glamorous gloss.  He filmed her working and being creative and hands-on on the set at 7 o’clock in the morning, proofing makeup tests while building a story around the pictures.  Oh, how she loves pictures.  She wakes first thing in the morning being creative.

“Mademoiselle C” isn’t a bed of roses.  Remember, her magazine, “CR,” represents a change in Carine’s life, leaving French Vogue after a decade (she calls it in the film, “leaving your crown.”), moving to and starting over anew in New York (with some help from her friends) while her daughter turns her into a grandmother.  Talk about transition!

This documentary also touches on the issue (yes, pun intended) on why New York?  Why not Paris?

Fabien explained that Carine did her time in Paris and was looking for something new and Paris Vogue was looking for something new too, then America welcomed her with open arms.  Most importantly, she has friends who can come to her with resources…say infrastructure in the name of Stephan Gan, the President of Fashion Media Group, the man behind “V” and “Visionaire,” and the publisher of her magazine, “CR.”  Carine’s dear old friend.

 

In the documentary, Stephan explained that when the time is right, he will help her in “setting up the stage because she is a great performer.”  It’s artistic fashion-speak for he will assist her in setting up the necessary operations, organization, management, staff, and physical printing and paper resources and the distribution channels to getting her own publication from the ground up, off the ground-correctly.  This hints at why New York is still one of the fashion centers and capital, the infrastructure. 

America also kept her going with a Barney’s collaboration and working on a limited edition makeup collection for M.A.C.

Again, this is a story about change, with transition comes drama.  This is also about the fashion business, the fashion industry, with that comes politics.

Fabien describes fashion politics as competitive yet polite and discreet.  Carine and Stephan do talk about this in the documentary.  During the first shoot for “CR,” photographers (who also happen to be still shooting for Conde Nast’s publications such as “Vogue”) were excited, initially, about shooting for Carine’s new endeavor then some got cold feet and cancelled out at the last minute. The pressure was spreading.  Oh well, that’s life.  The “CR” crew and Carine still carry on.

He also commented “That we all live in planes, from New York to London to Paris to Milan then back again” on why New York for Carine.

Since we all live in planes, Fabien notices that Los Angeles on the “Left Coast,” is emerging on the fashion radar, “I love LA.  I wish I could do LA Fashion Week.”  After dealing with the cold weather and blizzards in four different cities and two continents, he said it would be nice to do a fashion week in sunny, warm LA.  “LA is in the loop.”

If “The September Issue” is that lesson in time of a moment in a set era of one magazine issue, then “Mademoiselle C,” is the story of a woman changing her life in order to change with the times.