>> After the second episode of Elle's Stylista aired last night, I think it's safe to say that it's not going to get any better.  Fashion news editor Anne Slowey still can't walk on a pair of heels — never good when you're acting as omnipotent fashion editor on national TV — and her show has been relegated to the bargain basement with the label of "tremendously silly and kinda boring fashion magazine editor competition show."  Even with some of The Devil Wears Prada furniture on-set, the show remains a sad shell of the real thing; Anne Slowey is no Meryl Streep.

There are numbers to prove how unimpressed watchers are — the second episode lost 30 percent of its viewership from last week, and while it's lead-in show, America's Next Top Model, attracted 4.4 million in audience, Stylista "fumbled all but 2.4 million of the viewers, which is barely better than The CW was doing in the time period with repeats of the next generation of 90210."

The jury is still out on whether Stylista will drive up newsstand sales and ad pages, which is it's main purpose, but it's looking like Anne Slowey is no Nina Garcia, either.
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>> There have been a lot of big model-agency switcharoos lately, with both Agyness Deyn and Snejana Onopka moving to Women, but conspiracy theorists have a new model on their minds: Tanya Dziahileva.

In the past few days, she has gone missing from her agency IMG's site; when you add that information to the fact that she left IMG's Milan branch for Why Not Models, and IMG's Paris branch for Marilyn, some are calling foul, especially since shedidn't walk New York Fashion Week because of a lost passport, but made it to Milan and Paris just fine.

Was the lost passport an excuse because she didn't have New York representation?  Was she dropped by IMG, did she quit, or is her disappearance from the site all a mistake?
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>> INSIDER WIRE —Don't ever expect to see Stefano Pilati give Yves Saint Laurent the Tom Ford treatment.  When asked about sex last night at his London College of Fashion lecture, Pilati offered to take his clothes off and then replied, "I never touch the idea of sex. Sex one of the most complicated things; it's too subjective. And if you have subjectivity, you have to balance it out - with you skills, your knowledge, the values of your brand. Sex for me is personal."  Guess he's just continuing in his anti-Tom Ford ways . . .

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>> Anna Wintour is stepping out into a new, less plentiful, world: Conde Nast editors have been told to cut their staffs and budgets each by five percent, which means Vogue, Teen Vogue, and W will all be trimming some fat.  In the past, the Conde Nast philosophy has been to place the burden of cutbacks on the titles performing least well, but this time, it's not so — "This has a little more urgency on some level," a source told The New York Observer — so Vogue is definitely included.

Meanwhile, one of her pet projects, Men's Vogue, is being scaled back from ten issues to two issues a year, with its operations being folded back into Vogue, it was announced today.  Before the official word came, a source predicted that Men's Vogue would be a "small, small, small version of what it is.  And the small version will exist for nothing more than for Anna to save face."

The other magazine Anna is editorial director of, Teen Vogue, is trying out a new way to keep those ad dollars coming.  Nov. 28 through Dec. 26, the magazine is hosting a pop-up shop, The Haute Spot, in the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, where girls will be able to relax, try on clothes, drink smoothies, and charge their cellphones and iPods; over twenty of their advertisers are participating.  If it's successful, maybe it will ease some of the the burn Anna is feeling after the Men's Vogue fiasco.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Although she made a last minute cancellation at Christopher Kane's dinner last night due to the flu, Kate Moss hopped on a plane at Heathrow today with Jamie Hince.  Perhaps it was to make that Halloween party she's rumored to be hosting with Naomi Campbell?  She definitely has something planned for Halloween — her close friend Fran Cutler said last night: "Kate and I are planning to dress up as Tina Turner and Cher." [Grazia]

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>> Karl Lagerfeld has landed in Vermont to shoot the Chanel campaign, and the local news picked up on it.  They captured the house in Grand Isle Karl dropped less than a million on, the designer checking the place out with Brad Kroenig in tow, and then give you a good closeup of Karl's new duck-hunting neighbor, Loomis Bean.  So far, Karl's been friendly with the locals — the caterer who is working his four-day Chanel photoshoot says he was "very nice," but "spent most of the time in the house . . . he really just dashed in and dashed out."

>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Nicolas Ghesquiere was reportedly in New York this past weekend meeting with models to determine the Balenciaga Spring 2009 multi-girl campaign cast, which promises girls "who barely set foot on anyone's runway this season as well as girls who are riding all those expected covers."  A commenter chimes in, adding that Prada, which is also a multi-girl campaign this upcoming season, "will be very blonde and European." [TI]
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>> INSIDER WIRE —Starting Monday, Tom Ford will officially be a director — that's when he starts filming his debut movie in LA.  Colin Firth and Julianne Moore are confirmed for A Single Man, he as a gay professor and she as his longtime friend, while Matthew Goode is picking up the student's role that Jamie Bell was originally in talks for.  The movie is set in 1962 — which explains why Tom's asked Mad Men's production designers for their help.  [E! Online]
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>> Hints at the 2009 Costume Institute Gala theme have been swirling since May — first, it was thought to be an ode to Marc Jacobs, and then an ode to fashion muses.  Now that the official announcement has come out, we learn that both subjects are involved, just not quite in the way that was originally thought: the May 4 gala rings in "The Model as Muse," with Marc Jacobs as honorary chair, and Kate Moss, Anna Wintour, and Justin Timberlake as co-chairs.

The accompanying exhibit, which runs May 6 to Aug. 9, will explore the evolution of models and "their roles in projecting and sometimes inspiring the fashion of their respective eras," with special focus on one of the first publicly known models, Marion Morehouse; the first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives; fifties mannequins Suzy Parker, Dovima, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh; sixties icons Jean Shrimpton, Moffitt, Twiggy, and Veruschka; Seventies faces Jerry Hall, Iman, and Janice Dickinson; the supermodel trinity of Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell; Nineties “It” girls Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Shalom Harlow; and more recently, Gisele Bundchen.

As Harold Koda, curator of the Costume Institute, explained: "We look at the power of clothing, fashion photography and the model to project the look of an era. With a mere gesture, or the line of her body, a truly stellar model can sum up the attitude of her time, creating an alluring synergy between herself and the clothing to communicate a designer’s message to the wider world."

Seventy haute couture and ready-to-wear looks, plus photography, runway images, and video footage of models, rock stars, socialites and actresses who set the tone for each era will emphasize the theme, but most exciting of all — think of all the models who will be representing at the gala.
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