Leandra Medine

Consider it a master class in how to start a media firestorm. Suzy Menkes's recent T Magazine essay about the changing nature of Fashion Week has elicited passionate responses from the people she fingers as the cause of that change: bloggers.

And how could it not?

All the bits fit to print here, in our daily news roundup.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• After a year-and-a-half as editor in chief of Vogue Paris, Emmanuelle Alt has introduced a redesign that features a renewed focus on the magazine's status as the only Vogue title that represents a city, not a nation. "It's the concept of the 'Parisienne.'" she said. "The 'Parisienne' is a girl who makes people dream worldwide, rightly or wrongly — a girl who represents a particular style, a taste, an allure." [WWD]
  

• "Ultimately, shoes are just a really fun mode of escapism for a woman," said Man Repeller Leandra Medine on a tour of her shoe closet. "The higher the heel, the more fantasy is put into the shoe." [Footwear News]
  

• Louis Vuitton cast Michael Phelps — now the world's most decorated Olympian — in its newest ad campaign, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. [Just Jared]
  

• Meanwhile, Chanel Iman is the face of Amazon's Fall 2012 campaign, seen below. [Modelinia]
  

• New York Magazine's fashion blog today debuted a new look that takes "a cue from the beauty of print fashion magazines with a totally new design." [The Cut]
  

• Choupette Lagerfeld is quickly gaining a name for herself in the modeling industry. "I think she has a very bright future," says V magazine editor Sarah Cristobal, who cast the cat in her September issue alongside Laetitia Casta. "She's going to have an everlasting career." [BuzzFeed Shift]

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Roopal Patel, who had been fashion director of Moda Operandi since November 2011, quietly left the position at the beginning of the Summer. Patel has been vacationing in Corsica and Saint-Tropez while considering her next career move. [WWD]
  

• If home is where the heart is, then Joan Smalls's heart is with her family in Puerto Rico. [Vogue]
  

• Diane von Furstenberg will partner with Roxy on a lower-priced line of swimsuits, bags, cover-ups, and other beach essentials. [FabSugar]
  

• Leandra Medine, better known as the Man Repeller, has broken down how her popular style blog makes money. "I have a storefront, but that generates no more than 10 percent. Ads must be 30 percent. Collaborations bring in 60 percent," she says. [Business of Fashion]
  

• Actress Rachel Weisz is the second woman to wear a dress from Raf Simons's premiere collection for Christian Dior in public. [The Cut]
  

• Christian Siriano will open his first store in New York's Nolita neighborhood, just in time for Fashion's Night Out. [Refinery29]
  

• Speaking of store openings, Tadashi Shoji celebrated the opening of its new Shanghai flagship store last week. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Model Jacquetta Wheeler celebrated her nuptials at an ancient English country castle. [Vogue]

Those stories and more here, in our daily report.

• Rihanna may look super svelte on the cover of Harper's Bazaar's August 2012 issue, but she says she misses a certain, ahem, asset. "I miss my ass. It just went away! I need a butt. I have an idea of one, but it's not living up to its full potential right now," the newly size-zero singer says. The issue hits newsstands July 17. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Karl Lagerfeld's latest muse Choupette already has a bag named after her — and soon she'll make her modeling debut as well. The kitten will appear alongside Laetitia Casta in an upcoming issue of V. [Fashionista]
  

• Speaking of muses, Arizona Muse stars with actor Caleb Landry in G-Star's Fall 2012 campaign. Photographer Anton Corbijn shot the duo in the frosty heights of the French Alps. [Style.com]
  

• Eco maven Livia Firth has designed a sustainably conscious capsule collection. The five-piece assortment will be available on her Yooxygen-powered site Eco-Age.com and comprises an organic wool dress, a hand-embroidered pashmina, a hand-crafted necklace, and two cloche hats. [Telegraph UK]
  

• In other partnership news, Leandra Medine has teamed with French brand Maje to design and install an exclusive window display for the brand's New York SoHo boutique. The creation will debut July 17. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Last time it was tennis; now it's swimming. In the latest video campaign for her line Under.Me, Bar Refaeli shows off a new batch of cotton tees and thongs whilst taking a nice leisurely dip — and wearing black-rimmed reading glasses. [Modelinia]

Everything you need to know now — here, in our daily news roundup.

• Cat Marnell has quit her job as beauty and health director of XO Jane, reportedly over her refusal to stop using drugs. "I couldn’t spend another summer meeting deadlines behind a computer at night when I could be on the rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with my friends and writing a book, which is what I'm doing next," Marnell said. [Page Six]
  

• Leandra Medine, also known as The Man Repeller, married in a private ceremony in New York on Thursday. While Medine had floated the possibility of wearing custom Prabal Gurung, she instead walked down the aisle in off-the-rack Marchesa. "Prabal and I were going to try and work together but it just didn't work out," she said. [Racked]
  

• Lady Gaga's upcoming fragrance Fame is billed as the first black-colored eau de parfum. It becomes clear when the wearer sprays it on, and it contains notes of honey, apricots nectar, and tiger orchids. The scent will debut around the same time as Gaga's September issue cover of Vogue. [The Cut]
  

• President Obama caused a stir in New York City's West Village Thursday night when he attended the fundraising dinner hosted by Anna Wintour at Sarah Jessica Parker's home. While guests — including Michael Kors — broke bread inside Parker's brownstone, some neighbors were prevented from going into their apartments or relaxing on their rooftops. [Daily Intel]
  

• Christian Louboutin would like to make one thing clear: even though a French judge has allowed Zara to sell a red-soled shoe that infringes on Louboutin's trademark on red soles, the company definitely "continues to own valid and enforceable trademark rights in its Red Sole Trademark, including in France itself as well as throughout the world." The company is still battling a red-sole trademark case against Yves Saint Laurent in the United States. [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• Zac Posen — who has quickly amassed upward of 90,000 followers on Twitter — says that while he doesn't type his own tweets, he does directly oversee the woman on his staff who does. "I tell her exactly what to say — every word," Posen said. [WWD]
  

• With a week left to go in the campaign to fund his documentary Advanced Style — which, like the blog, depicts stylish women aged 60 to 100 — Ari Seth Cohen has already surpassed his goal of raising $35,000. [On the Runway]
  

• Singer Iggy Azalea has signed with Wilhelmina International, the same model and celebrity management agency that has counted Iman, Coco Rocha, Carol Alt, and Theodora Richards among its talent over the years. [Rap Up]
  

• Daisy Lowe says her most memorable modeling moment so far was "mud-wrestling for the Pirelli calendar in the middle of the street in Porto Seguro, Brazil." The most embarrassing? "Getting rushed to the hospital after my hair was dyed blue for a job!" [Vogue]

Photo: Tom Munro, Elle January 2010

>> Yesterday, The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman talked about how much revenue his blog was bringing in, and today, Man Repeller's Leandra Medine is doing the same.

Medine, who has trademarked "Man Repeller" and has a trademark pending on "Arm Party," says that she has earned over $10,000 in the past two months, since she joined the affiliate program Linkshare.

“My strategy was always take every day as it comes and do as much as you can," she explains. "I really never had any sort of strategy the way Jane Aldridge really doesn’t oversaturate herself and keeps exclusive and high end. I figured, I’m just going to take it as it comes, because Internet turnover is so quick. If it’s hot right now, it could very well mean that it sucks tomorrow."

Furthermore, she adds: “When I’m working with other brands, my first question is, ‘What am I doing for you?’ and ‘Do you want me to blog about it?’ Because, if it’s attached to the blog, I’ll charge two to three times the amount. It’s all about setting benchmarks: I did one gig in May where I styled mannequins and made $5,000. I decided that I’m no longer going to do styling gigs for $500 or $1,000 if I can hold onto my guns and get more. For Fashion’s Night Out, I had it in my head that I didn’t want to leave the night if I don’t have five figures in my pocket. I feel, I’m at the height of my popularity; I’ll probably never be so famous. So, I turned down 14 gigs, but instead did four gigs, and I surpassed what I wanted to.”