Bruni-Sarkozy's beauty is at once fresh-faced and sophisticated. Left to her own devices, she can be found wearing folk-singer attire, strumming a guitar with unmanicured fingers. "Carla was very glamorous when asked to be on the runway," says Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's artistic director. "In private life, she was always very simply dressed — white T-shirt and jeans — but on her impeccable body, that looked glamorous, never sloppy." Jean Paul Gaultier, for whom Bruni-Sarkozy often walked the runway back in her modeling days, agrees: "It is remarkable that she has managed to keep her career as a singer and to keep her style — which for me was always leaning a bit toward casual." Her no-frills jeans look is "sensational," he says, "but she can also wear the most amazing couture gown."
That's where the it's-good-to-be-French part comes in. (Italian-born Bruni-Sarkozy became a citizen in 2008.) Think Chanel, Hermès, Goyard, and jewels by Chaumet. She wowed the British on her first state visit by impeccably flaunting head-to-toe Dior. "She is very loyal and also very aware of projecting the right image," says John Galliano, artistic director for Dior. "We worked together to create the right look for the visit, and I think she has inspired many women with her style as much as her attitude and grace," he adds. Designer Tommy Hilfiger, who collaborated last year with Bruni-Sarkozy on a tote benefiting the Breast Health Institute, references another (style and political) legend: "Carla has an elegance and inner strength reminiscent of icons such as Grace Kelly."
