>> Eric Wilson's article in The New York Times today about those mysterious items in fashion magazines listed as "price upon request" — turns out a lot of them never went into production and aren't available for purchase — is especially ironic, considering a conversation Elle editors Joe Zee and Anne Slowey had on last night's episode of Stylista.
In the clip below, the show's contestants are presenting the trend page they created for the magazine, full of product, but Anne notices that they forgot to add in the shopping credits: "What's that all about?" One of the contestants tries to explain that she "didn't think it would be okay to make up prices" but Anne retorts that on a shopping page, the credits are "imperative . . . it's the only reason why we exist as a fashion magazine." Joe backs her up — "Credits are key" — and then Anne ends the conversation with a sarcastic, "I want everything on this page, but I don't know where to buy it."
[break]Funny she should say that . . . »[/break]
Funny she should say that, because in the October issue of Elle, Eric reports, 104 items were listed as "price upon request," and most of them were never available for purchase — one pair of metal suspenders was listed as available at Kiki de Montparnasse, but when called, the store said it didn't carry them. Oh, the irony.
Erin Kaplan, Elle spokeswoman, excuses her editors because they photograph collections within days of the runway shows and only have the pricing information the designers can give at the time, but at Vogue, there's a policy to always publish the price, so very few items aren't clearly listed.
A commenter at Fashionista, who self-identifies as "a fashion editor who has handled credits," may offer a more accurate group of reasons as to why Elle can't keep up with Vogue in the crediting department: "1) you didn't hear back from the PR for pricing/availability before your deadline; 2) the PR tells you to list it as 'price on request' because they're too lazy to get the real price for you; 3) you had too many credits to get and forgot to do this one . . . so you make it up." Some food for thought while the Elle editors eat crow.
>> At last night's annual Accessories Council ACE Awards, Nicholas Ghesquiere may have been awarded Designer of the Year, Sally Singer the Marylou Luther Award for Fashion Journalism, and Tamara Mellon's Jimmy Choo the Brand of the Year, but Stella McCartney was awarded the most special treatment.
The designer, who was flanked by Helena Christensen, Coco Rocha, and Dean Koons and anointed with a new award, Green Designer of the Year, had her table completely set with salads while everyone else had "a decadent lobster plate." And out of respect for her vegan views, even her award — a Judith Leiber miaundiere — was made green, with a black hemp lining in leather's stead and no stainless steel plating. Such attention to detail kept Stella in a high mood — she joked as she accepted her award, "Little did I know that my award would be second to last and I would need to use the ladies' room after putting on my unitard outfit. But that's life!" *image: source,source
>> 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 Elleexpires 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
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.
[break]Myers tells WWD what she really thinks about Gilles Bensimon »[/break]
WWD points out that although Tkacik did speak to Myers, none of her quotes were included in the piece, nor were on-the-record comments from Joe Zee, Gilles Bensimon, or a Hachette Filipacchi spokesperson. The only explanation offered was in the article: "Although numerous principals and insiders were interviewed for this piece, few wanted to have their names associated with a story about the inner workings of their current or former place of employment."
In response to the article, Roberta Myers told WWD that she was disappointed with the quality of reporting:
I strongly believe that if any reporter anywhere is going to write about why somebody did something they should have asked that person. That story is full of quotes about why I did what I did, how could they possibly know why I did anything or what motivated me to do anything in my job, unless they ask me? Even if someone else where to speculate about why I did something, the fact that nobody called me even to fact check it is egregious.
She also said that she had "nothing but admiration and respect" for Gilles Bensimon.
The story may be slightly skewed towards Nina Garcia, but this is not the first story hinting at power struggles between Roberta Myers and Gilles Bensimon. *image: source
I would look at a fashion story in Vogue and test myself and say, 'Is this Louis Dell'Olio for Anne Klein? Is that Claude Montana?' Then I'd look at the credits and go, 'Yes! That is it!'
>> Tears, catfights, and body image issues: Stylista is shaping up to be everything a Tyra Banks-produced show should be. Another extended clip has dropped of the Elle-backed reality show; Put that together with the first three clips, and the classiest thing they have going between them is the comment, "You suddenly have your own Jackson Pollock" — and that's in reference to dog excrement. I'll let you see the rest of the mess for yourself.
Also, just as a sidenote: Maggie Rizer makes an appearance during the season — does she have a special agreement going with Joe Zee? She attended a lot of the New York shows with him a couple of seasons ago to blog for Elle, and now she's appearing in their TV show . . .
>> INSIDER WIRE —You won't see Joe Zee in makeup anytime soon, and he won't be on TV much either. "My participation with [Stylista] was minimal, I did it every Thursday for a couple of hours at night and it didn’t get in the way of my day-to-day life. But the luckiest part of it all was that I’m a guy. I didn’t have to sit through hair and makeup. I show up, I film it and I’m gone. In and out!" [Chic Report]
UPDATE: More dish on Stylista — the contestants work as assistants to Anne Slowey, not Joe Zee as previously reported. Each episode, the competitors have one assistant task and a fashion editorial assignment, and each week, in consultation with Joe Zee, Anne fires one person. The final standing assistant standing wins a paid editorial position at Elle, a paid lease on an apartment in Manhattan, and a clothing allowance at H&M, all for one year, valued at $100,000.
>> The first two promotional photos for Stylista (which has been renamed again from Fashionista), the Tyra Banks-produced reality show in which 11 contestants compete for a job at Elle, have appeared, and they definitely look pretty Tyra-fying. No sign of creative director Joe Zee yet, but there's plenty of Fashion News Director Anne Slowey to go around. See, Nina, this is what you're missing!
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>> 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 
