>> INSIDER WIRE —The good people at Halston still have no replacement for the recently ousted Marco Zanini, but the Spring 2009 collection he designed before leaving will be shown next Tuesday during New York Fashion Week.  The top brass met with several marquee designers, including Roland Mouret, about filling the job, but nothing seemed to pan out — so they're moving ahead with an in-place design team for the foreseeable future instead. [WWD]

»Rachel Comey schleps her team out to Long Island house to work on her Spring 2009 collection (peeks involved!) [Refinery29]

»Vanessa Traina and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld are co-hosting a Boucheron gala during New York Fashion Week [FWD]

»Kate Moss's Fall 2008 Topshop collection is dropping September 9 [Topshop]

»Hana Soukupova is hosting a Victoria's Secret preview at her Sag Harbor home this weekend [FWD]

»Net-a-Porter has started stocking Halston [Fashionista]

»Alessandro Nivola has been cast to play Boy Capel opposite Audrey Tautou in Coco avant Chanel [Vogue UK]

»Sean Avery's fledgling styling business is kaput now that he's moving to Dallas [Style File]

»Which Olympian should replace Roger Federer on Anna Wintour's arm? [The Cut]

»Alice Burdeu got banged [TFS]

>> Halston may have stripped itself of a head designer and a red carpet consultant recently, but the absence of Marco Zanini and Rachel Zoe won't keep owner Harvey Weinstein and board member Tamara Mellon from showing a Halston collection during New York Fashion Week.

In fact, it sounds like they're pulling out all the stops — the Spring 2009 collection, started by Marco Zanini and reportedly finished by an in-house team, will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art, a venue that can't be cheap to rent out. With five weeks until the presentation, who knows what could happen between now and then: Harvey Weinstein doesn't seem the type to throw in the towel on an investment.
*image: source

>> Cathy Horyn brings up a couple of key points today about why Halston didn't work, yet again.

1.  The "too many cooks in the kitchen" theory.

Considering that you've got notoriously strong-personalitied Harvey Weinstein as partial owner of the brand, notoriously strong-personalitied Tamara Mellon on the board, and notoriously strong-personalitied Rachel Zoe, who was until recently a creative and red carpet consultant for the brand, all stirring the Halston pot, I'd say the explosion factor was pretty likely. 

2.  After the initial push, there was little brand visibility in the public eye.

As Cathy points out:

One of the telling things about the Halston situation, even before Marco Zanini’s departure, is that there has been very little publicity or marketed buzz around the label. If the company were completely organized and focused, we would see that—we would see lots of actresses wearing the clothes, we would hear people talking about a Halston bag. Whatever. There’s been a lot of silence since Zanini showed his first collection, back in February. That may have been a calculated decision, but somehow I doubt it, and, anyway, what would be the point in this kind of economic climate?

This lack of red carpet visibility is part of the reason, according to Fashion Week Daily, why Rachel Zoe was let go — because she couldn't connect the dresses with her clients (or anyone else's, for that matter).

Halston has been through countless revivals since Halston's death in 1990, under the creative direction of designers Randolph Duke, Kevan Hall, Craig Natiello, Piyawat Pattanapuckdee, Bradley Bayou, and most recently Marco Zanini. Let's hope the next batter up can bring us a home run.
*image: source

»The Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork Bag, in cake form [Fashionista]

»Emma Summerton is "coming to a major league American magazine very very soon" [TI]

»Iekeliene Stange is in Berlin to walk Hugo Boss at Berlin fashion week [Style File]

»Ecco Domini Fashion Foundation, now awarding for sustainable design [FWD]

»Originally, Narciso Rodriguez was being eyed for Halston before Marco Zanini was chosen [WWD Blog]

»Spotted: Lisa Cant, Lily Donaldson shopping at Chanel [Fashionista]

>> The revolving door of designers continues, this time at Halston.  Marco Zanini, who has presented one Fall 2008 collection for the newly revived brand, is no longer working at company headquarters, WWD reports. 

Rachel Zoe's job as advisor for red carpet and celebrity styling to the brand may also be on the rocks, especially considering that Halston by Marco Zanini have made few to no red carpet appearances, not even on Zoe's clients.  Trouble between Zoe and the brand was first heralded when the celebrity stylist failed to appear at the inaugural Halston show in February after sitting front row at Oscar de la Renta an hour earlier.

Marco Zanini is said to have designed the Spring 2009 Halston collection, which will be presented at New York Fashion Week in September.  The company may already be looking for successors, but board member (and Jimmy Choo wunderkind) Tamara Mellon adamantly denied that Georgina Chapman, wife of Halston owner Harvey Weinstein, will be assuming any creative role.

Tough times these days for a designer who gets a less-than-positive review.
*image: source