Fashion Heroes: Carlyne Cerf de Dudzelee
Here's the thing, when you flip through fashion glossies and see models being styled with an intelligent mix of high-low fashion pieces or with an arm or a neck piled with accessories, there is only one name that should come to mind: Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele.
That's right. She is the legendary stylist who singlehandedly paved the way for others to rethink the way designer fashion is to be worn.
And she did it with a single cover picture in 1988. Granted it was for Vogue US, but that single picture, in which she mixed an haute couture Christian Lacroix top with an everyday wardrobe essential (denim), cemented Vogue's status as not only an aspirational magazine but also relatable and in touch with what's happening in real life.
It was also Anna Wintour's first issue as editor-in-chief of the fashion bible, so alot was riding on that one single cover picture.
CCD, as she is known by the fashion world, was the then-fashion editor of the style tome. Her work at the magazine over the next decade helped define the look of the iconic supermodels of the ’90s, such as Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Claudia Schiffer.
From an early age, CCD, who grew up in St Tropez, was obsessed with fashion. Her first foray into the fashion world was as a stylist at French Elle. In 1985, CCD moved to New York City and became a style icon in her own rights. Known for her opulent taste (her idea of a casual Friday get-up is a crisp white shirt festooned with layer after layer of gold and pearl jewellery), CCD successfully brought together the Parisian chic with the enthusiasm of America.
“That single picture on the cover of VOGUE, in which she mixed an haute couture Christian Lacroix top with an everyday wardrobe essential (denim), cemented the magazine’s status as not only an aspirational magazine but also relatable and in touch with what’s happening in real life. ”
The iconic Chanel spread featuring four of the supermodels of the 1990s.
From an early age, CCD, who grew up in St Tropez, was obsessed with fashion. Her first foray into the fashion world was as a stylist at French Elle. In 1985, CCD moved to New York City and became a style icon in her own rights. Known for her opulent taste (her idea of a casual Friday get-up is a crisp white shirt festooned with layer after layer of gold and pearl jewellery), CCD successfully brought together the Parisian chic with the enthusiasm of America.
And she ties them all together with a leopard-print bow.
It is important to note that, despite having styled some of today's most newsworthy stars (which include Miley Cyrus), CCD is a stylist's stylist. She is, as Interview magazine once described her, a stylist before the "cult of stylist" took hold of the industry.
Explaining her fashion philosophy in a profile interview by Wall Street Journal, CCD said: "The new thing for the stylist is not to touch the clothes. Me, I love trying things on the girl. I need to touch the clothes. And if you have personal style you can be chic. They think they are chic because they have the 'names.' Me, I'm obsessed with these things like Zara, or when people ask me 'Is it Helmut Lang? Is it Prada?' and I can say to them 'No, it's Gap.'"
Carlyne-isms
On stylists and editorial shoots: "People try too much. They think it's artistique. A magazine is a catalog of pictures for women, put together so that the woman wants to buy what she sees. The most successful picture is when a woman rips it out of the magazine and wants to have everything in it."
On what she brings to fashion: "I don’t follow trends. I interpret fashion and I create my own story. I conjure up the image of the girl. I always have done it and I always will! C’est tout ce que j’aime! Ca me rend dingue!"
On mixing and matching: “I love to mix cheap and expensive, I adore this. This is what you call the Cerf style. I mix everything, this is my own salade.”
On keeping it real: “You can wear couture in the streets – you (don’t) have to have your hair done and makeup done to wear couture.”
J'ADORE: CCD'S ZANY WEB-SERIES.
CCD also had a short-lived web series. Called J’Adore, the series only had 15 episodes. But, trust us on this, every one of them is still worth watching.
Watch as she exclaims, “All my life, I’ve been a freak of leopard… Leopard is never démodé.” Laugh with her as she ponders the definition of chic: “A lot of women think they are chic. They are not.” Learn why she believes a lack of talent “kills me totale.”
Her busy schedule has prevented her from recording anymore videos. Watch the entire series from the video below: