Top 70 Carine Roitfeld Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “What a women reads makes her more attractive and more elegant than what she wears.”

— Carine Roitfeld

2. “Let the others have beauty. I’ve got the charisma.”

— Carine Roitfeld

3. “You discover yourself through the research of your work.”

— Carine Roitfeld

4. “There are certain models who might not be considered beautiful. I think personality is more important than looks.”

— Carine Roitfeld

5. “Makeup can help you capture a moment.”

— Carine Roitfeld

6. “Enthusiasm is something so positive.”

— Carine Roitfeld

7. “I believe in the Yves Saint Laurent woman who either has her hands in the pockets of her pantsuit or is holding her lover’s hand. She doesn’t need a bag.”

— Carine Roitfeld

8. “Ballet is good, because it makes you stand up tall.”

— Carine Roitfeld

9. “I love black lingerie and white shoes, and I love knives.”

— Carine Roitfeld

10. “In fashion, it’s always better to be an interesting person than a beautiful one. Character is much more fascinating than pure good looks.”

— Carine Roitfeld

11. “Bleaching eyebrows makes me crazy.”

— Carine Roitfeld

12. “There is always a bit of seduction to it when one person is clothed and the other is naked, which can be a little weird. Everybody should be naked. In that case, it would be easier. Let’s do a huge naked photo shoot!”

— Carine Roitfeld

13. “When in doubt, wear a suit.”

— Carine Roitfeld

14. “Fashion is not about clothes, it is about a look.”

— Carine Roitfeld

15. “Always wear high heels. Yes, they give you power. you move differently, sit differently and even speak differently.”

— Carine Roitfeld

16. “When you love fashion, there is no weekend. Everything just blends together.”

— Carine Roitfeld

17. “Once you start being a muse, you cannot stop being a muse.”

— Carine Roitfeld

18. “You can’t learn how to be elegant; you can only learn how to avoid mistakes. The rest is instinct. Elegance is about the way you cross your legs, not the label or the newest clothes from the latest collection.”

— Carine Roitfeld

19. “Coco Chanel was always doing things with ballet, so it is a tradition clashing fashion and ballet.”

— Carine Roitfeld

20. “I get an award for being the best dressed, but at the end of the day I’m not Daphne Guinness. I don’t like people to look at me for my dress. The letter is more important than the envelope. But if you feel good in your envelope, then you will feel better about yourself.”

— Carine Roitfeld

21. “Do what you are not supposed to do, like wear white shoes all year round.”

— Carine Roitfeld

22. “Either you are a good Virgo or a crazy Virgo! The good Virgo side of me is educating and raising the children – being there for them.”

— Carine Roitfeld

23. “Even though jeans suit me, I never wear jeans.”

— Carine Roitfeld

24. “I hate people who over intellectualize. It bores me deeply.”

— Carine Roitfeld

25. “I’m always anxious when it comes to my kids. This always makes me feel very vulnerable. Sometimes you think you aren’t a good mama, you always feel a bit guilty when you’re a mom. You want to be everywhere.”

— Carine Roitfeld

26. “I think you are born chic. You cannot be chic. It is something you cannot learn.”

— Carine Roitfeld

27. “Fashion is a completely international business.”

— Carine Roitfeld

28. “I have good legs, so I prefer my skirt lengths and my high heels. It’s like my uniform.”

— Carine Roitfeld

29. “Anna Wintour is the most powerful woman in the global fashion industry, the first lady of fashion. She’s a politician; I’m a stylist. They are two very different jobs.”

— Carine Roitfeld

30. “It’s funny, everything is so much easier when you do it yourself.”

— Carine Roitfeld

31. “I think that something needs to be weird in order to have real beauty.”

— Carine Roitfeld

32. “At the start, I had no idea to go into fashion, because I thought people would think I was stupid. I don’t worry about those things anymore.”

— Carine Roitfeld

33. “I think that life has brought a lot to fashion, and fashion brings plenty to life. I took my children on photo shoots, at the same time, I borrowed my father’s sweater for a photo shoot and, then, I am inspired by a Russian princess because of my Russian roots. Everything is all mixed in together.”

— Carine Roitfeld

34. “Yves Saint Laurent liked women to put their hands in their pockets, or to hold cigarettes, and act a bit like boys. It was to give an impression of composure, some self-assurance, and to counter the feminine appearance.”

— Carine Roitfeld

35. “I am like a lemon. I’m pressed for more juice. When I have fun, there’s still juice. I am not dried up.”

— Carine Roitfeld

36. “Fashion’s about extravagance, and everyone needs a bit of that.”

— Carine Roitfeld

37. “I think, in many ways, certain people sought me out maybe because they liked my body language or they liked the way I wore a slit skirt, the way I cross my legs or carry my purse. It’s quite inspiring to play the seduction card.”

— Carine Roitfeld

38. “I am very obsessed with ballet now because it is a very difficult sport and a beautiful one because it is not about money. It’s not like playing football or tennis – dance has no sponsors, it’s just for the beauty. Maybe it is the only last pure sport.”

— Carine Roitfeld

39. “I am not mean at all, I am not tough at all.”

— Carine Roitfeld

40. “I love the free spirit in London.”

— Carine Roitfeld

41. “I do go very fast. I think if I don’t go fast it’s going to be boring. That’s what photographers need to do.”

— Carine Roitfeld

42. “Clothing is always a tool that helps me take a picture. But it’s never about the clothing.”

— Carine Roitfeld

43. “If I could choose something besides fashion, I would love to be a ballerina.”

— Carine Roitfeld

44. “It’s very difficult to know when you’re crossing the boundary. I hate the word boundary because I never think about it when taking a picture. Very often it doesn’t mean anything because it depends on who’s looking at the picture more than the content of the picture itself.”

— Carine Roitfeld

45. “Monsier Saint Laurent was pathologically shy, and he made the Saint Laurent woman in his own image. Like her, I am shy. And to protect myself, I adopted something of an androgynous look, just as his women did.”

— Carine Roitfeld

46. “Like this. The wristbands you get at nightclubs next to all the bracelets? It’s always the details that give me the ideas. It’s fun to play with fashion because it is a fantasy. Each morning you dress to become a different woman. Fashion helps.”

— Carine Roitfeld

47. “I think that when you’re taking pictures with my principles, you can try anything. Dare to do a lot of things – dare with sexuality, dare to break taboos as long as it remains photogenic. As long as I find an elegance and beauty in it, I am not afraid to tackle anything.”

— Carine Roitfeld

48. “Fashion has a political role insofar as following it can give you the impression to belonging to a certain social group or a private club.”

— Carine Roitfeld

49. “I don’t have problems with my weight, I don’t change weight but I think when you’re gaining in age your position has to be beautiful.”

— Carine Roitfeld

50. “What I hope I would do is something new, but I still love print. I love to touch paper. I’m not sure if I will ever do a magazine again, but I have plenty of ideas on the subject.”

— Carine Roitfeld