>> THE MODELIZER —Kate Moss may have had a false alarm this weekend — she flew out to New York for a two day photoshoot with W Magazine, but discovered upon arrival at JFK airport that the shoot had been cancelled — so she supposedly asked the magazine to foot her flight bill, and then headed straight back to London so she could attend Stella McCartney's store holiday lights ceremony with Lila Grace today. [The Mirror, Chic Report]

>> INSIDER WIRE —The results are in and, as expected, it's not looking pretty.  A number of fashion magazines saw their ad pages drop by double-digits in 2008: W lost 12.7 percent, Teen Vogue is down 10.2 percent, and Vogue, which had a record-breaking year in 2007, declined 9.6 percent.  For the latter, the results burn even more, as Elle gained 3.2 percent over 2007, and Harper's Bazaar only lost 0.3%. 

Granted, in overall numbers, Vogue (2,893 ad pages for 2008), still trumps Elle (2,578) and Harper's Bazaar (2,067), but the losing trend can't be good — maybe the rumored Michelle Obama and Blake Lively covers will give them the boost they need in 2009? [WWD]

>> It's not often that Vogue Italia will shy away from a boundary-pushing Steven Meisel editorial — together, they've covered race, terrorism, plastic surgery, drug abuse — but apparently it stops when it comes to sex.

Earlier this year, Meisel shot a sexually-charged series of photos based on the UK trend of "dogging," in which couples engage in explicit activities in parked cars, parks, or other public places.  The project was supposedly set to be Vogue Italia's September 2008 cover story, complete with three-page foldout cover, but was pulled because it was "too much, too sexy, too over the top" according to a commenter on The Imagist.

Rumors swirled that the editorial was sentenced to limbo forever, and there was talk of W Magazine picking it up, but curious minds will be happy to know that it has landed in the new issue of V Magazine — 28 pages of model-filled images that mark Meisel's first — albeit inadvertent — shoot for the magazine.  As for the featured models, Daul Kim, Iris Strubegger, Anna Maria Jagodzinska, and Anna Selezneva are all said to be included, with at least one more unnamed girl involved.
*image: source

>> 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.
*image: source

>> BLOWING THE COVER —The November 2008 cover of W will not feature the work of Steven Klein or Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, but rather Brad Pitt. The actor shot Angelina Jolie and the rest of the Jolie-Pitt family at Chateau Miraval in the southern France last week, marking his first ever turn as cover photographer.  Angelina and Brad appeared together on the W cover once before in 2005 (left).  What a coup for W — especially considering the numbers the Jolie-Pitts just turned for People. [FWD]

*image: source

>> In late June, Kate Moss was spotted tooling around London in a couple of different coin necklaces, so when she showed up in September 2008 W wearing a jumble of similar necklaces, I had to investigate.  Kate was in Istanbul shooting the W editorial until June 19, and she was snapped wearing the necklaces shortly after, when she returned to London on June 20 and June 23.  So did she get to keep the Alexander McQueen and Isaac Manevitz for Ben-Amun coin necklaces credited in the editorial?  Looks like . . .
*image: bauer-griffin, source

»Kate Moss has been dropped entirely from Grazia's best-dressed list, Agyness Deyn fills the No. 1 slot [The Cut]

»Alek Wek's 16-year-old niece Atuai is making a go at modeling [Of the Minute]

»Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are enjoying their vacation, for sure; Katy Perry has been tapped to play the D&G after party in Milan [TMZ, Chic Report]

»Fashion mag assistants augment their low salaries by "stalling to steal" [Style File]

»Alexander Wang loves his Cheap Mondays [Refinery29]

»Naomi Campbell, still vacationing with that billionaire boyfriend of hers [PopSugar UK]

»Diane von Furstenberg: designer, CFDA president, travel writer [Fashionista]

»Simon Doonan adores Tilda Swinton, so does W [Washingtonian, W]

»Barneys Warehouse Sale starts Thursday [Racked]

»Cult fave Mischen is showing for the first time at New York Fashion Week [The Cut]

»Vogue scribe Plum Sykes is developing a comedy for NBC [Variety]

»Bottega Veneta's motto in the '70s was "When Your Own Initials Are Enough" [Vanity Fair]
*image: bauer-griffin online

>> Is Liz Tilberis rolling in her grave right now? Her iconic September 1994 Harper's Bazaar cover of Nadja Auermann photographed by Patrick Demarchelier has been swiped and reinterpreted for the September 2008 cover of W, featuring Kate Hudson as photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

The resemblance is far too uncanny to be a coincidence, what with the same blonde hair, light eyebrows, heavy cat-eye makeup, piercing blue eyes, and dark lipstick framed with a collar of blue all in common.  Of all the months to choose, wouldn't the big September issue be one you'd want to get creative with?

*image: source

»Nina Garcia is rumored to have charged $60,000-$70,000 per public appearance in her final months as fashion director at Elle [Gawker]

»Before Teen Vogue, there was Junior Bazaar [bunny BISOUS]

»If he has a child, Tom Ford will not allow it to be seen or photographed [Chic Report]

»Daisy Lowe parted ways with IMG [Fashionista]

»Making of Longchamp Fall 2008 video with Kate Moss and Gaspard Ulliel [YouTube]

»Sophia Kokosalaki is going from two to four collections a year [Vogue UK]

»Coming to you during NY Fashion Week: designer Dorothy slippers [FabSugar]

»Christy Turlington, Gisele Bundchen in August 2008 W [W, W]

»First peek at Rag & Bone shoes, Proenza Schouler sunglasses [Style File, The Cut]