Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele has a burning need for authenticity. Further armed by her flawless taste and killer instinct, it makes her one of the fashion world wonders; up there with her pals Azzedine Alaïa and Steven Meisel.
Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele has a burning need for authenticity. Further armed by her flawless taste and killer instinct, it makes her one of the fashion world wonders; up there with her pals Azzedine Alaïa and Steven Meisel. Still, describing Carlyne as a leading stylist and emerging photographer almost limits her talents. Since she’s also an accomplished cook – no small feat – seriously suits wearing jeans 24/7 and has that Frenchwoman’s gift of excelling in whatever she chooses to do.
We share a common interest in savouring good old-fashioned French food and mistrusting nouvelle cuisine. But, when the eternally elegant Carlyne rattles off her list of favourite addresses and I frantically scribble them all down, I realise she is an obsessed pro and I define feeble amateur. Bombing around in her silver-coloured Smart car, she claims to “resemble a cartoon.” Maybe but an Inner Chic cartoon since Carlyne will brave considerable traffic for that one magic ingredient. So, she counts on Le Potager du Roi in far out Versailles for vegetables, La Sablaise on rue Cler for turbot and octopus, Boucherie Gardil on the Ile St Louis and Boucherie Hugo Desnoyer on rue Boulard as being the two butchers she trusts for red meat while she relies on Maison Pou on avenue des Ternes for charcuterie and Friday’s Brandade de Morue.
True-to-form, Carlyne only hunts down home-grown produce from Parisian open-air markets. “Otherwise there’s no point,” she says. Her discoveries include a man who supplies baby crab soup “sold in Evian bottles” at the Marché Saxe-Breteuil and another who provides “the best goat’s cheese,” at the Marché St-Charles. I ask about bread and Carlyne casually states that she rarely eats it. Of course, she doesn’t! Not only is CCdeD thoroughly chic but thoroughly disciplined.
Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni is a Paris-based British journalist who covers fashion and lifestyle as well as being the author of Sam Spiegel – The Biography of A Hollywood Legend, Understanding Chic, an essay from the Paris Was Ours anthology and soon-to-be released Chanel book, for Assouline's fashion series.
Robert Beck is former New Yorker currently based in Paris. Also known as C.J. Rabbitt, he is the author and illustrator of several children's books, including The Tale of Rabbitt in Paradis, Un Lapin à Paris and the soon-to-be-published A Bunny in the Ballet.
