Julia Restoin Roitfeld is sitting in a studio near the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, sipping a can of full-fat Coke and rattling off the labels she is modelling on these pages. “We wore some Saint Laurent, Givenchy, some Chanel and a fluffy angora sweater that was very cute, very Brigitte Bardot.” But it isn’t her staccato New York delivery with its heavy Parisian inflection (emphasis on the “a” in Chanel, not the “n”) that betrays her status as fashion royalty; it’s her use of the words “we wore” that’s telling: it’s the insider conjugation of the verb, no “I wore” about it. A photo shoot for Restoin Roitfeld means a collaborative effort between stylist, photographer, designer, makeup artist, even the assistant who brings in the catering. It’s a point of view shaped, one suspects, by a childhood spent sitting on her mother’s knee, front row at the Paris fashion shows; Mario Testino took her portrait when she was 10.
Restoin Roitfeld, 33, is the daughter of Carine Roitfeld, ex-editor in chief of Vogue Paris, who now publishes her own hugely influential glossy, the CR Fashion Book; she’s the racier, cooler, European answer to Manhattan’s Anna Wintour. Her father, Christian, is founder of French brand Equipment, makers of crisp yet louche shirts. As a “daughter of”, Restoin Roitfeld has done the requisite stints as a model, interior designer, art student and now creative director.
She’s also now a “mother of” (Romy Nicole, two) and as such in the vanguard of a whole new breed of hip parents, launching her lifestyle blog Romy And The Bunnies in March 2013. This offers style tips for pregnant women who would rather not kit themselves out in humdrum maternity wear. “Victoria’s Secret lingerie that’s not meant for pregnant women is actually really good, because they have all those babydolls and slip dresses. It’s very Rosemary’s Baby,” she tells me. Not in my world, but I can see it working in hers. The blog also has advice for staying in shape (as far as I can tell, the secret lies in detox juices and Skyped ballet classes) and diary-style snapshots of Julia with her mother in the 1980s.
The blog could be an easy target for those who find the green juice, baby bellies and Pilates-honed thighs a little nauseating, but Restoin Roitfeld is keen to point out that her website isn’t about being the perfect mum, it’s about being a successful, happy one. “I got an email from one woman saying: ‘Thank you so much, I was a bit depressed about becoming a mum, and thanks to your website I realised I don’t have to give up my career.’” It is the multitasking lives of the women on her blog that others find aspirational, she says. What I think she means is that it is less about the posing and more about the doing – albeit in expensively lean denim. “You don’t have to wait for your career to take off to become a mum, that’s kind of what I want to show. Becoming a mum made me even more driven, and I think it doesn’t stop your career, it just boosts it. It makes you well-organised, and with a little bit of sacrifice, of course you can do it all.”
Doing it all the Restoin Roitfeld way includes: attending her mother’s fashion events in Cannes wearing full-length Givenchy; directing fashion adverts; dancing at Poppy Delevingne’s wedding; and hanging out on the beach in the Hamptons with Romy, wearing complementary mother and daughter swimsuits. I know this because it is all posted on her popular Instagram account. (The sight of Granny Carine, in a fur coat and pencil skirt, playing with Romy on a slide, is not to be missed.)
Restoin Roitfeld lives in a two-bedroom apartment in New York with her daughter, with daily weekday visits from a nanny. She is separated from Romy’s father, Swedish model Robert Konjic; when we meet in Paris, Romy is on holiday with him while Restoin Roitfeld visits her parents in Paris. She has a new boyfriend, but would rather not discuss him.
Doesn’t the yummy mummy label make her cringe, I ask? “I use that as a hashtag on social media,” she shrugs. “It’s OK. Girls are having babies when they are younger and combining kids with work. I don’t know if it’s always been there, or if I’m just more aware because I’m in this situation.
“When I was first pregnant, I Googled a maternity website and there was nothing that spoke to a girl with my lifestyle who had kids – everything was very boring and very pinky. I wanted to create a platform for all those amazing, beautiful, sexy, hands-on mummies, and for them to share their lifestyles, their beauty tips.”
She speedily lists her contemporaries who fulfil that criteria. There’s the model Miranda Kerr (“She’s way more about health and yoga than I am; she’s a really good businesswoman”), the stylist and blogger Pippa Vosper (“In one year, she changed her website, planned her wedding, bought a house, became a spinning instructor”) and Mary Helen Bowers, US founder of the cult fitness class Ballet Beautiful (“She takes her daughter everywhere”). But it’s quite apparent that the woman who inspires her the most is her mother. “My mum is the one who gives me advice for the site and will be like, ‘You should do this woman’ or ‘Have you seen this bodysuit? It would be amazing on a pregnant woman.’ It’s more suggestions, that’s all. No criticising.”
In the flesh, the Roitfeld genes are instantly apparent. But whereas Carine is mistress of the Iggy Pop frown and the pencil skirt, Julia is politely smiley, with sparkly green eyes and nice-girl Ferragamo ballet pumps. She describes a successful but very present mother. “My mum always had fun on shoots, but afterwards she would pick us up from school and make dinner. I had a pretty normal childhood.”
She has a dose of normality planned for Romy, too, though she admits she doesn’t really know what normal is. Famously, Romy received a pair of custom-made tiny high heels from designer Tom Ford as a birth present, but those are mementoes, she tells me, a gift that she might frame. “I would never make her wear those.”
The biggest lesson her mum has taught her about motherhood is not to be guilty. “My whole life is a guilt trip now – I want to spend the whole day with Romy, but at the same time I need to make a living for her.” And what does Carine advise? “My mum is like, ‘Don’t worry, whatever you’re doing, you’re doing for her, whether you’re with her or not’.”
She is very happy to discuss work, but deploys abrupt brakes when she thinks she has said enough. She has mastered the art of talking about her daughter (who has inherited the family penchant for leopard print) without really giving much away. “I don’t reveal anything too private… just to show my taste and a little bit of my lifestyle without showing the intimate side.” A quick-flash, full-stop smile fences off further conversation. So it is ironic that Restoin Roitfeld’s business model is based on the very personal: the way she publicises her brand on Instagram plays up the intimate. (Though, of course, she’s not the first to do so – whether it’s Beyoncé with Blue Ivy, or Kim Kardashian with North, bringing a small child into the mix is a way of bridging the gap between exceptional fame and universal motherhood. It means that despite their first-class tickets, yoga instructors and cashmere travelling throws, there is just enough common ground for the average woman to be fascinated.)
Pictures of Romy in a washed-out print dress and Mary-Janes are standard on Restoin Roitfeld’s blog, but she insists there is a limit to how much Romy she features. “The website is already [using] her name, so I’m trying to keep a little bit of her own integrity and privacy. It’s so hard,” she says, wrinkling up her nose, “because I want to show how cute she is.”.
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