The hilarious artist that is aleXsandro Palombo, the master mind behind the slightly controversial but freaking hilariously brilliant illustrations for his site
Humor Chic, has decided to make another little rendition of Carine Roitfeld. Check it out.
For those that understand where this is coming from, how freaking great is it!? And for those that don't, I'll give ya the lowdown. So there's various rumors as to why Carine left her editorship with some saying she didn't choose to leave but got fired for x-amount of reasons. This is one of them:
For the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Vogue Paris, a little spread entitled 'Cadeaux' caused some controversy as it featured 5-6 year old girls playing high-end dress up and wearing massive amounts of makeup that rival the facepaint of a Kardashian sister. Apparently this kiddies were too glamorourized and too sexified for some to handle and news got to LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and he supposedly threatened to withdraw all advertising from the next issue of the publication. LVMH owns some heavy hitters like Fendi, Donna Karan, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Céline, and such... that's a $hit ton of money that Vogue Paris/Condé Nast would loose. A plausible cause for getting axed.
Here's the little spread itself:
Personally, I really don't see anything crude, child-abuse-ish, or inappropriate about this spread. They're just little girls playing dress up and c'mon which little girl (or boy) hasn't invaded their Mommy's closet? Or perhaps it's because of my Latino culture where, from what I've concluded, it's ok for little girls to embrace their inner girlyness at a young age. My little sister had her ears pierced & diamonded up by my mom as soon they got home from the hospital, had little plastic heels waay before she could even walk, completely iced out like a hip hop video, and constantly had little makeup kits of her own all over the house- she was definitely working it. So yeah, this editorial is nothing of great shock to me. In fact, it just looks like Natasha Poly, Daria Werbowy, and Karlie Kloss had a run in with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" and "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids." Actually, I think it's more creepy than controversial.
Plus, in America, we've got these...
Pageant girls! Well, I mean it's not like I see them leaving trails of glitter around my neighborhood (I'd cry in horror & creepiness!) but TLC has a show about them, so people must like them or at least be fine with this done-up baby Barbie thing, right?
I can see why people may be upset about it: 1. it can be a Thanksgiving meal for pedophiles and 2. there are 3 shots from the bunch that are a bit too "suggestive." But to say it's telling little girls to grow up quickly? Umm, what 5 year old, besides Tavi, is reading Vogue Paris? And if there are, they're probably going to be fashion prodigies anyhow. Plus, I don't know if you guys remember but this was the TOM FORD guest editing edition, so of course there would be something worthy of thought provoking sensationalism. And guess what, it worked!
Do I think Carine was fired over this or just fired in general? Nope. She's made Vogue Paris what it is today, why would Condé Nast want to let her go?
Unless... Anna threatened them with "THE LIST" á la Devil Wears Prada. Hmmm, I sense a conspiracy coming in 3... 2... 1...
So is Vogue Paris sending out a bad message? What do ya think about Carine's departure?
Vogue Paris December 2010/January 2011 Issue
Editorial: "Cadeaux"
Photographed by Sharif Hamza
Styled by Melanie Huynh
images via aleXsandro Palumbo & the googles
