French Vogue's next editor, Emmanuelle Alt, won't make sweeping changes to the magazine after taking the wheel from Carine Roitfeld, beginning with the April issue. Condé Nast France president Xavier Romatet says Alt's work will be a "progression" of the hot, sexy and plentifully NSFW stuff already in there. The 45-year-old Alt has worked at magazines over the past nearly twenty years, beginning with French teen publication 20 Ans in 1993 and then Mixte in 1998, before joining French Vogue in 2000. Alt has also done side gigs styling for labels like Balmain and Chanel, all of which she'll give up to overlord French Vogue. Photographers Mario Sorrenti and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin along with designer Giambattista Valli offer glowing praise in WWD of Alt's appointment. But Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld does what he does best: say that thing you don't expect anyone to actually come out and say.

“Her style is her big shoulders, long legs, tight jeans, sleeves up to the elbow, one hip out,” the designer said. “I personally like her. She’s a handsome French woman. She has a style, but is it enough to make a whole magazine?”

Lagerfeld said he would reserve judgment until Alt has produced a few issues, and he held out hope she would bring change, the engine of fashion. “As editor in chief, she may blossom,” he said.

You know, it's fine to think a fat person is fat, but when you call them that while everyone else just calls them "curvy," it really stands out. Karl is one of the few people in this industry who can say anything.

Emmanuelle Alt to Head French Vogue [WWD]