Caroline de Maigret

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Louis Vuitton SS 2014 campaign

fabfashionfix.com

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Lurve Magazine S/S 14 Covers
Lurve Magazine (Magazine Cover)
season: Spring/Summer 2014
photographers: Laurence Ellis, Sonia Sieff, Alessio Bolzoni, Dario Catellani, Edmund Aves, Olivia Arthur

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d.repubblica.it

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Prada F/W 13.14 - HQ

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Candy #6 Summer 2013
"Nouvelle Vague"

Ph: Andreas Larsson
Models: Clement Chabernaud, Caroline de Maigret, James Jeanette

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Vogue Spain November 2013
Con mucho rollo
Photographer: Quentin de Briey
Model: Caroline de Maigret
Stylist: Sara Fernández

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Pictures #1 | ZARA

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Pictures #2 | ZARA

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Pictures #3 | ZARA

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Pictures #4 | ZARA

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Chanel Pre-Fall 2014 ©

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Vogue Italia January 2014
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Models: Julia Nobis, Ashleigh Good, Vanessa Axente, Iselin Steiro, Sasha Luss, Caroline De Maigret, Jamie Borchert, Cindy Bruna, Lexi Boling, Kim Williams, Doug Porter, David Axell, Cartwright Lee, David Flinn, R.J. King, Miles Langford & Henrik Fallenius
Styling: Karl Templer
Hair: Guido
Make-Up: Pat McGarth
Nails: Jin Soon Choi

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On the Street: PFW Day 3
Photographed by Melodie Jeng

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Antidote Spring / Summer 2014
Photographer: Cuneyt Akeroglu
Stylist: Yann Weber
Model: Caroline De Maigret

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COACHELLA 2014

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CAROLINE DE MAIGRET ON THE ONE THING THAT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A PARISIAN
We chat with Caroline de Maigret—Parisian It girl, hair icon and Lancome ambassador—about the secrets to her effortless style and why fashion is feminist.

By Julie Kosin on Sep 10, 2014


Harper's BAZAAR: There’s a cultural obsession with being Parisian—what inspired you to want to add to that conversation and write your own book?
Caroline de Maigret: Well, to get the story straight. There were clichés. There is something about this French woman that’s free—that’s a reality, and I wanted to debunk the myth that the French woman is perfect. It's a lot of pressure on women to always think that somewhere, some woman can be perfect, and she’s not, in fact. I wanted to explain that, that maybe they think we’re perfect, [but] we gave up on it and we’re okay with not being perfect.

HB: And you wrote the book with three of your close friends, why did you decide to make it a group project and what was it like collaborating on it?
CDM: I wanted to make it a group project because I didn’t trust that I could speak to women only by myself. I needed to have [the woman] that was crazier, one with more anxiety, one that was more calm than me, one that was more fun. It was important to…

HB: Prove that there isn’t just one French woman?
CDM: Yeah to have one voice all together, [and] that we really ask ourselves questions and we come out with an idea together that we actually all feel good about. I thought it was more fair.

HB: How does the French woman approach friendship? 
CDM: Maybe we’re hard to get at first. Maybe we’re a bit tough at first and we kind of check each other out, but once we’re friends, we’re friends forever. For me, my friends there, it’s really a power that I have behind my back, that I know that they’ll always back me up. You know what I mean? I think that’s what friendship is about, and it’s worldwide, no?

HB: Absolutely. What do you think is, essentially, the allure of the Parisian woman?
CDM: Your hair [laughs]. You’re half French already. I think the concept—it’s not a concept, because it’s instinctive—but I think the idea is that the French woman doesn’t want to show that she took some time taking care of herself. She wants you to think that she has better things to do, although she spends as much time [as you do]. We don’t read more books, we just pretend. I’m not going to go one hour under the hair dryer because I have other things to do that are much more important. And I think there is this thing about the French woman that she wants to be loved for her personality rather than for her decolletage, for her appeal. She wants to look beautiful, she wants you to think that she looks beautiful, but at the end of a dinner she wants someone to say, "wow, it was a great conversation, we had a lot of fun,” rather than, “oh she looks good!”

HB: As you were saying, the French woman was sort of idealized, and for some, that woman is Coco Chanel. Do you think, with this book, you’re trying to show that today's Parisian woman is much different than Coco?
CDM: No, I think that Coco Chanel is still an example for women, because she’s a woman who was really free in her life, who was very avant-garde. For me, you know, my mother was in the ‘60s, when women fought for freedom, to be able to vote, to have rights—to have equal rights. And I have a responsibility as a woman to follow the path of all those women, like you say, Coco Chanel, Simone de Beauvoir, or other feminists. I represent women, we all do.

HB: So you definitely ascribe to the belief that just because you’re a feminist, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy fashion?
CDM: I think its rubbish. And I think that’s really what the book is about—extreme femininity with feminism. I mean, feminism is just about equal rights, and it's equal rights in gender, in race and in life. And that’s all I’m asking for. I work with an NGO called CARE, where I specialize in education for women around the world, and that’s just something I think is important to do.

HB: Would you say Parisian style is passed down from generation to generation?
CDM: Yeah it is, it is passed by your mothers and aunts, unconsciously. I think when you live in an old country like France, and you’ve always been surrounded by architecture and buildings, you’re used to learning what beauty is, and you have a respect for fabrics and art, and handmade things and quality, and you know fashion—couture was more or less born in Paris. So we do have this, and because it’s not a culture of showing off, we’re completely fine about wearing the same jacket everyday. It’s more about wearing the right jacket or having the right face that fits you, that you want to show people the right makeup. It’s more about finding who you are. I do believe in plastic surgery as well, [but] it’s just with moderation. In the book, we say, it’s not true—French women have surgery, but maybe they’re going to go to the South of France and they come back but you don’t realize it.

HB: To you, who is your ideal Parisian woman?
CDM: It’s funny because she is one of the most Parisian woman, but she’s not Parisian. It’s Charlotte Rampling.

HB: What is it about her that inspires you in particular?
CDM: She has this strength, she has this something in her eye where you can see that she’s a smart woman, that she has respect for herself, that she treats herself well, but you can feel that she treats her mind and her brain as well, and I like this. I like to feel that there is something behind this beauty that’s even more intense, you know what I mean? I find it really sexy.

HB: In the book, you discuss the things you think every woman should have in her closet, but what’s the one thing you use to update your wardrobe with?
CDM: I only buy quality. I go to American Apparel to get all the basics, and then one very nice jacket. That’s the only thing I invest in. I don’t really like to shop, but as I walk a lot in the streets, I’m a big window shopper, so if I see something in the window, then maybe I’m going to go for it. But I never really think ‘oh I need pants, I need a jacket;’ I never really go searching for one, but if I see on my way, or in a magazine, something that inspires me, I get it. But it has to be something that I’m going to keep for a long time.

HB: What’s the one piece you always go to in your closet to feel put together?
CDM: I do have pieces that I know that I can wear when, you know when sometimes you wake up and you’re really grumpy? Or you feel really, really bad? Yeah there are a few things I know will work. For example, a white men’s blouse, where I know it’s good for my face, like for the color, and it’s something that I’ll be comfortable in, but I know it’s quite sexy at the same time. I still feel okay in it, I’m not overdressed in it, I can move and I don’t feel oppressed. Any of these always work. Something for a black jacket, but a man's black jacket, I like.

HB: Why do you think Parisian style likes to borrow so much from the men?
CDM: That’s an interesting question. I think there is this thing about not wanting to show everything at first, not giving everything at once. There is a section in the book saying that rather than have big cleavage, then maybe your T-shirt might fall off the shoulder by mistake—which is not by mistake at all. You show your skin at some places. In a way I find that appealing and sexy—men feel like they stole it rather than you giving it to them. In this masculinity, there’s something where you keep control of your femininity, you know? I do have one button open too much, one too many.

HB: What’s the one dead giveaway that someone’s not Parisian?
CDM: I was going to say a lot of hair, but a lot of business women have very nice brushing. But still, maybe…

HB: Like when their hair looks too perfect?
CDM: Yes, yes.

HB: Like too overdone?
CDM: Yes. This I could tell from far away that they’re not French.

HB: What’s your ultimate Parisian beauty secret? 
CDM:There is one thing I always do, and that is clean my face. It’s a real process I do that’s very, very important. But I’ve seen the difference in my skin, from one day to another. It’s very strange, the impact it has on your skin to clean your face. But to really go for it, you put the milk and then a tonic, and then even in the morning, after the shower, you do it as well with only the tonic. There is this Lancôme product that I really love, it’s the Eau Micellar, but it’s really cool because they have the cleanser and the tonic and the eyes in the same. And as I travel a lot and if I go out I’m a bit lazy, you come back a bit drunk and you’re like ‘oh god,’ you know I’m not going to do like fifteen minute. So this product is really cool for that because it’s just once and you go really fast.

HB: In five words, what does it mean to you to be French?
CDM: I would say sophistication, or maybe refinement. I would say that two words I like to say that we talked about earlier that only work together is femininity and feminism at the same time. There’s nonchalance, freedom...maybe freedom would really be the key.


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