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Her mother is the former editor of French Vogue, she was photographed by Mario Testino at 10, and her new baby blog rivals Gwyneth's… Julia Restoin Roitfeld is 2013's ultimate It girl
As a four-year-old, Julia Restoin Roitfeld would sit on her mother Carine Roitfeld's lap at fashion shows in Paris. At 10, she was photographed by Mario Testino for Vogue Bambini. In her 20s, she became an art director, muse, model and Parisian It girl, before moving to New York. The designer Tom Ford described her as "exactly what beauty is to me" and, when she gave birth last year, he gave her a pair of black suede kitten heels in baby size for her newborn daughter.
As the scion of a Paris fashion dynasty – her mother was editor-in-chief of French Vogue and her father created the French brand Equipment– Restoin Roitfeld, 32, might seem a little too haute couture to offer down-to-earth style advice for new mothers. But her new blog, Romy & The Bunnies– part diary, part family scrapbook, heavily accessorised with stuffed rabbits and flashbacks to her chic pregnant mother in 1980s Paris – is fast picking up a following. Inspired by her motto, "You can have a job and a baby and style and a body", it's an eclectic mix of advice and tips from models, fashion insiders and working parents. There's even advice on nappy bags for men (her partner is the Swedish-born Croatian model Robert Konjic).
Restoin Roitfeld, who was still modelling her own underwear designs in the early stages of pregnancy, had her daughter, Romy, in May 2012 and launched the blog this March. When we speak, Romy is upstairs with her nanny. "When I was a child we had a nanny all the time," she says. "I really wanted to do the opposite at first. I made a point of spending every minute with my daughter. I couldn't care about work; I just wanted to be with her. I had never even babysat. I was scared of holding a baby. Then it all came very naturally."
Several months in, she got a nanny and she now works at least three hours a day on the site, which has been compared to Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop, though it's less preachy. "My site is a beauty and style guide, not a parenting guide," she says. "I'm not the right person to give parenting advice – it's too personal."
She's baffled by the fuss over French parenting manuals such as French Children Don't Throw Food. "I feel very French. My baby was born in New York, but I want her to have French culture. I've gone back to singing the French songs I did as a kid. But all these books about French tips… French diet, French education, French schools?"
Her only observations would be: "French schools do a lot more homework and longer hours: say 8:30am to 5pm, with homework on top. And I think people perhaps don't breastfeed as much in France. My girlfriends don't, my mother didn't, I don't even think my grandmother did. But I wanted to."
Of French women, she says: "We're coquettish. It's funny: you could say French women look put-together but we don't spend that much time in the bathroom, and tend to go for really minimal makeup during the day. I do, especially now I have a baby." Where exercise is concerned, she says, "French women don't work out that much – we don't have the gyms that are open all hours that exist in the US. Maybe it's about food. French people don't snack – it's just not part of the culture."
She's now considering designing a range of maternity clothes that women can keep wearing after the birth. Even at the smartest New York shops, she was appalled by what was on offer. "Everything was so awful, as if just because you're becoming a mother, you didn't like fashion. It was too mumsy or girly-girly. Topshop seemed the only one working with the trends and reproducing them for pregnant women." She feels good maternity clothes should work beyond pregnancy. "I still had a little bit of a bump afterwards. That was harder than when I was pregnant. When I was pregnant I wanted to show it; afterwards I wanted to hide it."
As for dressing children, the blog carries illustrations of Romy in her various styles. These display the Parisian tendency to dress babies in vintage wear – ideally one's own baby clothes. Her mother had a collection of Victorian-style baby-wear, which she handed down. It's closer to the French baby shop Bonpoint, with its traditional knitting or cord in muted tones, than the bright colours of the Anglo-American high street.
"At the start, Romy was just in white T-shirts, leggings, easy to wash," she says. "I'm not a big fan of designers for kids: it's cute, but they dirty themselves so quick. And it only works for kids if they are not replicas of adult outfits."
What about the Tom Ford kitten heels: does her baby wear them? "Oh no, they're not for wearing!" she says. "I can't even get them on her foot to photograph them. They're still in a box wrapped in tissue paper."