Condé Nast France president Xavier Romatet "didn't like it" when Roitfeld put “nudity, transsexuals, men in suspenders” in French Vogue, she told the Financial Times' Carola Long in an unusually revealing interview. “Me, I like to push boundaries, I am irreverent, but he would prefer something softer, more mainstream.” The former editor ate herrings while she chatted (to Long's puzzlement, because "herrings just don’t seem all that chic"), and revealed her ritual of taking a vodka shot before going to parties so that she'll arrive in a good mood. (She didn't drink during the interview: "Me, I don't have vodka at lunch.")

They also discussed Roitfeld's future projects, including her upcoming campaign for Barneys, which she's recruited Iggy Pop to model in:

“People always say, ‘You look like Iggy Pop,’ ” she says, apparently unconcerned by the comparison to a rather grizzled-looking 64-year-old man. “I don’t know if it’s the eyes or the hair, anyway, he has a great style.”

And she gave a cryptic quote about her falling out with Emmanuelle Alt:

Alt and Roitfeld are no longer on good terms but all she will say is, "We aren’t friends any more. I think it’s sad. When you give a lot of confidence in people and you don’t get it back you are a bit disappointed but it’s life. I move on.”

And finally, she weighed in on Galliano's dismissal and the mounting pressure that globalization has placed on designers.

"Fashion is very tough and we shouldn’t forget that before designers were money-makers they were artists. Galliano was an artist, McQueen was an artist. These people are very fragile and can’t support this pressure.” She thinks that globalisation has contributed, because, “It’s difficult to please a woman in Shanghai, Rio and Paris, and to design a jacket that will suit all three of them. It’s difficult for a brand to talk to a lot of people, to seduce all these new customers, and sometimes designers don’t have the shoulders for it.”

Lunch with the FT: Carine Roitfeld [FT]