fashionologie

fashionologie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:06:19 PDT

>> Tonchi: New W to Be More Accessible; Suggested T Editor Possibilities?- W's new editor Stefano Tonchi acknowledged earlier today that he aims to make the magazine more accessible, “probably to just make it more of a general-interest style magazine, and less of a fashion-obsessed publication.” Even before Tonchi was confirmed today, rumors were circling this weekend that W will be moving further away from its current "high art/high fashion/high society/token celebrity" cachet, as The Imagist puts it, and "swerving closer to the In Style magazine model. Or in other words, 'In Style Deluxe.'" Meanwhile, suggestions are already being made for T's currently empty editor-in-chief position: The Imagist suggests T features director Horacia Silva, while The Daily is leaning toward former Elle creative director Gilles Bensimon, former Interview editor Ingrid Sischy, Interview's editorial director Fabien Baron, Elle's fashion news director Anne Slowey, or T's fashion director Anne Christensen. [TI, FWD]

Sara Ziff's Picture Me Documentary Uncovers Sexual Assault in the Modeling World

fashionologie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:18:40 PDT

>> Over the course of five years, Sara Ziff snuck her ex-boyfriend Ole Schell into fashion shows, shoots, and parties so that he could film "without other people realizing it." Sometimes he got thrown out, but they were able to collection hundreds of hours of footage along the way, which they edited down to produce Ziff's documentary, Picture Me, which exposes the dirty underbelly of modeling.

In it, the stories are hardly pretty. Ziff told the Guardian about a 16-year-old model who complained to her agency when a 45-year-old photographer made a pass at her: "Her agency said she should have slept with him." She captures another model talking about how weight is approached: "In castings, people have slapped my thigh, and I'm not in any sense overweight, I never have been. I've been the same weight for a long time, but they'll slap your butt and be like 'Oooh, fat' in Italian or in French. 'It's too big here.'"

"People touch you all the time." »

Gilles Bensimon to Leave Elle for Nina Garcia?

fashionologie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:56:04 PDT

>> The shakeups at Elle just keep on coming. Ever since creative director Joe Zee joined the team in January 2007, former longtime creative director Gilles Bensimon has seen his role at the magazine majorly diminished - his title changed to international creative director, his name moved from top of the masthead to the bottom.

He usually sits with the Elle team during Fashion Month, but during New York Fashion Week, he was a no-show due to a "top-secret project" in Paris. He also didn't show at Elle's Women in Hollywood Awards Monday, and he has only photographed three out of the eleven Elle cover stories this year - compared to going twelve for twelve last year.

It comes as no surprised that Gilles would want to get out - and Nina Garcia may be just the woman to help him. His contract with Elle expires at the end of the year, so it's the perfect time for him to make his move. Rumors started flying when he arrived at the Chanel show last week in a towncar with Nina, his former colleague, who is now trying to increase fashion coverage in her new position as fashion director at Marie Claire. Is Nina wooing Gilles, who used to be Elle's go-to celebrity photographer, to Marie Claire? That is the allegation . . .
*image: source

Robbie Myers Says Everything Is Hunky-Dory at Elle

fashionologie — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:05:29 PDT

>> This week's New York Magazine profile exploring the inner workings of Elle has editor-in-chief Roberta Myers less than pleased.

The article, written by former Jezebel editor and current Gawker employee Maureen "Moe" Tkacik, tends to portray current Elle employees like Myers, international creative director Gilles Bensimon, creative director Joe Zee, and fashion news director Anne Slowey in a less positive light than former fashion director Nina Garcia. At one point, Tkacik writes that Myers had a "lack of jurisdiction over the fashion department," and at another point she reports on the power struggle between Gilles Bensimon and Myers:

Bensimon wanted little to do with [Myers]. In photos from the rare occasions they would attend shows together, his expression is dour. He saw Myers as ambitious, insecure and overly American; she saw him as an overpaid, out-of-control spendthrift who was losing his touch.

Myers tells WWD what she really thinks about Gilles Bensimon »

Nina "The Monster" Garcia and Anne "I Read to Lose Weight" Slowey Duke It Out on TV

fashionologie — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:43:01 PDT

>> We've all heard the drama surrounding Nina Garcia's abrupt exit from Elle in April, but Nina herself says that she saw it coming as far back as 2006. This week's New York Magazine takes an in-depth look at the former Elle editor who has built herself into a brand and compares her with current Elle editor Anne Slowey, pitting the old guard Elle reality star against the new guard Elle reality star hopeful.

Ninotchka "Nina" Garcia learned how to deal with adversity at a very young age.

The summer after she turned 16, Ninotchka “Nina” Garcia found herself in the crossfire of a mafia shoot-out. She was eating a late dinner with her friends at a trendy restaurant in Barranquilla, Colombia . . . The bullets started and stopped so quickly she didn’t realize what was happening until she was crouched beneath the table.

“It was the Wild West back then,” she says. “Some mafioso upset at having to sit in traffic—you know, like road rage, but with guns. Or quarreling mafia families. No one dared ask.” Her voice is resigned. “You just learned to be low-key and not flashy.”

Anne Slowey, meanwhile, deals with the adversity of those ten pounds that just won't go away.

She has tried steroids, supplements, pills, a sort of detoxifying electroshock therapy she calls “Frankenbutt treatments,” and an on-again, off-again commitment to juice fasts. To motivate herself, Slowey buys her fashion-show ensembles, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of Lanvin and Prada and Balenciaga, several sizes too small. Once, she decided to read Ulysses and practically locked herself in the house for a week, reading it in the bathtub. “I lost eight pounds,” she recalls wistfully.

On fame, fortune, and getting frozen out »