…
She never panders!
She was up for EIC of
French Vogue
Instead, in 2011, Emmanuelle Alt ascended the masthead, replacing Carine Roitfeld.
Virginie vs. Emmanuelle
“Virginie’s style is more classic [than Emmanuelle’s]. She is happy with a pair of vertiginous stilettos and subtle blonde highlights, sure to attract looks.” - L’Express, 2011
She’s a muse!
The writer Jean-Marie Rouart is said to have been so inspired by Virginie that he made her a character in his book Le Voleur de Jeunesse.
She’s a model-turnedwriter-turned-model! Before she began her career as a writer, the 5’11” Virginie worked as a fit model in Paris. In her forties, she’s stepped back in front of the camera. She starred in J.Crew’s Fall 2012 ad campaign and snapped a nude selfie for Purple back in 2010.
Haters gonna hate! “Women who don’t know her take her for a rival.” —Virginie’s friend
In 2011, Virginie shredded Tom Ford. The deliciously nasty highlights? l “Thus began the slowly unfolding nightmare.” l “The models were literally spackled with foundation, glossy lipstick in Ferrari red, and sooty black eyeshadow.” l “After this inventory for Kim Kardashian, Tom Ford appeared on the runway. He walked out. And stayed there, in the middle of the catwalk, wordlessly awaiting his standing ovation. Perhaps people would oblige out of anguish, or sympathy, or because all of this is supposed to be fun, after all. But everyone just looked at their feet. The music kept playing….So this Texas playboy, whose praises reporters sang in the Gucci years, has become the man for whom nobody stands. If not the man one actively flees.”
Charlotte Gounard, to Libération
She can’t have children and doesn’t want them… Virginie, who had a brush with disease in her youth, is also infertile, according to Libération, much like the protagonist of her 2009 novel, Une Femme Sans Qualités, who says, “I don’t have children. I don’t want them— ever…I don’t aspire to conjugal happiness, concubinage, the grandeur of adoption, subjugating myself to care for another person.” In the book her character is also well aware of her good looks. “I am beautiful, tall, the type of woman you see in the street and say ‘She’s a bombshell.’” Still, don’t dare call it a memoir. When asked about the parallels, Virginie said, “When you remove a mask, nothing says that there is not another below. This is a novel.”
Virginie vs. Carine
“Virginie Mouzat, a very gifted writer, is more cerebral and less ‘cool’ than Carine Roitfeld. But she defends her opinions with force, without fear of causing a scandal.” —Sylvain Michaud
She’s not interested in an underthe-covers romp! “Violence in sexuality…that’s something that fascinates me.” —Virginie Mouzat, to Libération
She inspires gossip!
Last summer, during the couture shows, the fashion world was atwitter after a certain now-defunct iPad magazine reported that Virginie was stepping out with a major fashion power player. The mystery Mr. quickly issued a denial and squashed the reports. So Virginie is still on the market, lucky lads.
She has magical powers! In 2006, to fête his 30th anniversary in fashion, Jean Paul Gaultier staged a magic show in Paris. In a crowd-wowing finale, Virginie played his winsome assistant, levitating above the stage in a long black gown and ultra-high heels.
Karl is a dear friend. In W, she recalled their first meeting: l “I have known Lagerfeld for more than two decades. In the early eighties, when I was in my 20s working as a model, I met him during his tenure at Chloé. He was heavier, his hair was longer and already in a ponytail, his eyes were masked by dark glasses, and he held a fan that evoked the Versailles court. (Of course, the fan has since been replaced by the signature fingerless gloves—there’s always something to hide with him—but we’ll come back to that.) When he first met me, he exclaimed that I resembled Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve’s older sister, who died in 1967. The comment was at once flattering and peculiar.” l “Black is my color most of the time. But that’s why I’m such a fan of Chanel. Because the bible of Chanel is very simple: ivory, cream, beige, black. Pearls. And camellias. It’s purely this. Nearly no colors.” —Virginie Mouzat, Vogue PAT R I C K M C M U L L A N . C O M ( 3 ) ; B FA N YC ( 2 ) ; E V E R E T T COLLECTION (1); SHUTTERSTOCK