Frank Talk From Carine Roitfeld CR Fashion Book, Carine Roitfeld's lavish print contribution to the world of style, teems with arresting images. There is a photograph of Lindsey Wixon's bewigged head dangling from her fist; another model, Marte, apparently suckles an infant dressed in a christening costume; and a bare-backed Elsa Peretti-lookalike fondles a drink while awkwardly straddling a faux-fur throw. Too bad those pictures weren't on view at the Florence Gould Hall in Midtown last night, the scene of a talk with Ms. Roitfeld organized by the French Institute Alliance Francaise. The former French Vogue editor, who was recently appointed global fashion director for Harper's Bazaar, tried vainly to explain her métier, which boiled down, in her charmingly Gallicized phrasing, to "making happen a dream." Without the appropriate visual aids, though, she was at a bit of a loss. Plus, there was the undeniable distraction of Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMa PS1, a last minute fill-in for W editor Stefano Tonchi, who seemed more eager to talk about his admittedly laudable efforts to help the victims of Sandy than to probe deeply into the world of fashion. Yet Ms. Roitfeld spoke with her trademark candor, confiding that her interest in fashion was secondary to her passion for fashioning images with a glaringly scandalous slant. She made laughing reference to a long ago, infamous advertising campaign for Gucci, in which it was she who suggested to Tom Ford that they shave a double-G Gucci logo into the model's pubic hair (Ms. Roitfeld used a racier word). Despite having modeled early in her career, as a girl she was unsure of her looks. "I think maybe I am more beautiful today than I was when I was 20 years old," she said, her comment greeted by a rush of applause. Surprisingly, although she has no fashion role model, Elizabeth Taylor is an idol, having impressed Ms. Roitfeld early on, she said, by being "very faithful to her friends," especially those whose lives and careers had been ravaged by AIDS. Fashion is, in her assessment, "some kind of masquerade. I think that most of the women when they dress in the morning, they try to be someone else. Asked to recommend a film or book to aspiring designers and editors, she urged, "See 'Polly Magoo,' " a reference to William Klein's daftly irreverent 1966 sendup of the universe of style. As for "The Devil Wears Prada," she was less enthusiastic. "Something was missing," she said, "and that was fun." Asked in a post interview Q & A session whom she thought ought to take the reins at Balenciaga, now that Nicolas Ghesquiere was out, she hoped for a "young and fresh" replacement, she said, a dark horse, perhaps, like Riccardo Tisci before he arrived at Givenchy. In her next life, Ms. Roitfeld revealed that she would like to be a ballerina, ballet being, she maintained, the last pure art form, "with no Nike or Coca Cola," calling the shots. She delivered a bit of news as well, announcing with Mr. Biesenbach that they would collaborate on a Caravaggio exhibition in the near future. "If Caravaggio was a photographer today, I would love to work with him," Ms. Roitfeld said. I love his dark vision - I have a dark vision. You say? Averse to retouching reality, Caravaggio "was the first to show dead flowers in his painting," she went on. "Today there is too much retouching, and I don't like it," she said, "except on me."