So the blogs a-buzzin about Ms Roitfeld’s sudden departure from Vogue Paris last Friday. No-one knew that she was leaving, hell even Tom Ford didn’t know.
Well that’s because she was fired. That’s what usually happens when people have no idea why someone’s left. Lord knows I know.
1. The Balenciaga/MaxMara scandal
It appears that the Conde Nast-Carine Roitfeld fall-out was a long time coming. Our sources tell us the magazine’s parent company was unhappy with all the bad press surrounding Roitfeld’s alleged pay-for-play scandals—this year, alone—demanding huge sums of money for extracurricular consulting gigs and the enormous, public embarrassment of being banned from Balenciaga last season for abusing her position at Vogue. In the latter case, Roitfeld allegedly borrowed Balenciaga preview pieces and sent them to her client, Max Mara, to copy—”It wasn’t the first time,” one source tells us. “One [Balenciaga] precollection ended up, in its entirety, at Max Mara.”
If you hadn’t heard of this scandal, and you call yourself a fashionista, OMG KILL YOURSELF. Carine was blacklisted by Balenciaga for their AW10 show. Why? Well apparently They don’t advertise in the magazine or lend it samples anymore. But WHY? Fashionista heard a rumour that The Cut reported that Carine called in a Balenciaga sample, and then loaned it to MaxMara, a brand she consults for. MaxMara then made an eerily similar coat before the Balenciaga sample was returned to them, which upset Balenciaga and resulted in the ban, denying any requests for samples, requests for tickets to the runway show and cutting all advertising in the magazine. Tsk tsk.
2. Pay for Play
When Turkish designer Hakaan won the ANDAM 2010 prize, there was a lot of talk and backlash over the fact that Carine, chairman of the jury at ANDAM board had decided to descend on Hakaan’s show – how emerging is Hakaan actually?
An angry anonymous letter, which was circulated among French media this week, asked “how a Turkish designer out of nowhere books Natalia Vodianova, Maria Carla Boscono, Lara Stone or Natasha Poly for his show – models asking €15.000 min per show, and who aren’t really famous for their charity!”
Frustrated about the seemingly unfair appointment of Hakaan, who beat Paris-based designers such as Alexandre Vauthier who according to the author would have been in bigger need of the prize money to develop their businesses, the letter continues, asking “why Carine Roitfeld, Vogue France’s editor in chief, and chairman of this jury’s session at ANDAM, who never comes to first shows, contrarily to what she claims, is sitting first row, with Kate Moss, untouchable fashion icon [both excerpts translated from French].”
Oh and the last straw? She pissed off LVMH Chairman and CEO (ho!) Bernard Arnault. You don’t mess with LVMH, they’ll sneakily purchase your stock and try and attempt a takeover. Allegedly Bernard also hated the Cadeaux editorial in the Tom Ford edited issue, and the lack of LVMH adverts.
LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault allegedly threatened Conde Nast International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse with the removal of all LVMH ads from the next issue of Vogue Paris. According to one source, Arnault hated the last issue—allegedly because it contained too few LVMH credits and because of the “poor taste” exercised in the young girls editorial—wherein the children are heavily made-up, “reclining on tiger-skins, or sprawled on beds,” wearing luxury adult garments, reports the Telegraph.
It’s us or her, he threatened. Guess who lost? Tut tut Carine, there is a thing as being too greedy. No-one’s untouchable in this business.
via: Fashion Copious
Image via Racked
