“Carla
Sarkozy is the real thing; c’est vrai!” wrote Hilary Alexander of
Telegraph, UK following French First Lady’s official visit to UK last
year.
 ‘Vogue’
and ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ saw striking similarities between Carla and former
US First Lady Jackie Kennedy while many other international tabloids saw
her as an ‘heir’ to late Princess Diana.
Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi alias Carla Sarkozy, heir to the CEAT
tire fortune, the 41 year old model-turned-pop-star turned -First Lady
of France is no stranger to fashion.
She was in the limelight, ever since she decided to be a professional
model quitting her university education where she studied architecture
and arts.
In 1998 ‘BusinessAge’ magazine listed her as one of the world’s
top-20 highest-paid models, with a yearly salary of $7.5 million. Anyway
in the same year she decided to quit her modelling career to become a
pop singer.
Though hers was a household name in France (and may be in the West,)
it was only in early 2008 that she gained worldwide popularity.
 In
January 2008 the whole world was ablaze with rumours that French
President Sarkozy and Italian born French model Carla Bruni have decided
to tie the knot. Ever since she became the First Lady of France in
February 2008, Carla has remained a subject of interest for fashion
magazines, tabloids and newspapers worldwide.
She was a woman of elegance and high fashion through out all her
careers, but it was her tour to the UK (March 2008) as the First Lady of
France which elevated her to iconic status with newspapers around the
world adorning their pages with her pictures.
Telegraph, UK saw Carla Sarkozy as the “French fashion’s secret
weapon’. Her UK tour was “an undoubted triumph which “certainly
established her as not just the First Lady of French Fashion, but as the
world’s new number 1 style icon.”
She hit worldwide headlines throughout her stay in UK. “She arrived
in a soft grey wool coat, with a narrow black belt, black gloves, the
new Dior ‘Babe’ handbag and the flat ballet pumps. She wore a matching
grey beret which showed off her demi-fringe and her hair was loosely
pinned back at the sides” Wearing a much-praised wardrobe by the British
designer John Galliano for Christian Dior she kept the UK spellbound.
 The
gorgeous silk muslin bustier gown in Bordeaux red silk with a
softly-floating long skirt embellished with ‘mille feuille’ ruffles
which she wore for the State banquet at the Guildhall, London displayed
her rich taste of high fashion and elegance.
“Put simply, Carla is stunning. She is no plastic, hair-extensioned,
trout-pouted, size zero, fashion victim. She looks genuine and she
sounds genuine. She is all woman; affectionate, warm, loving, with a
sense of humour to boot and she is not afraid to reveal her thoughts and
emotions. No wonder we all fell for her,” concludes Hilary Alexander.
During her first official tour to South Africa as the French First
Lady last year she was presented with a cotton and hessian stitched bag
in the six colours of the South African flag. As she started carrying
it, even Colette, the most fashionable boutique in all of Paris, was
said to have started producing similar bags! Today she is ranked as one
of the most fashionable First Ladies in the world.
Carla recently arrived in West Africa marking her debut as a goodwill
ambassador , “a personal experience in projecting her image and the soft
power of France.”
With her style and high fashion giving her an added boost, her tour
was said to be a big success. Magnifique !
Samangie
|
