Magnus Berger and Tenzin Wild's The Last Magazine threw a party last night to celebrate its second issue and the end of Fashion Week. Guests included Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, Richard Chai, Michael Stipe, Gabi Asfour, Byrdie Bell, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Zoe Kravitz, Daisy Lowe, Stavros Niarchos, Natasha Poly, Derek Blasberg, Julia Stegner, designer Robert Geller, PC Valmorbida, Justin Portman, and Jamie Burke. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG, SF]
It's been a rough few weeks for Vogue editor Anna Wintour. There were the rumors that Condé Nast chief Si Newhouse was thinking of replacing her with Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue. Then there was more concrete evidence of Vogue's fading relevance: The number of ad pages in the magazine tumbled by nearly 10 percent in 2008, a decline more substantial than most of Vogue's competitors. Yesterday, the Times' Cathy Horyn, one of the few fashion writers daring enough to take on the industry's most powerful figure, laid out some of the magazine's problems with a piece entitled "What's Wrong with Vogue?"
♦ Henri Bendel updated its window display this morning to account for the results of the election: "The cocktail-dress-wearing mannequins have been moved over to the blue polling booth, someone cracked a bottle of champagne (and drank it, leaving an empty bottle and glass), and there's a strange, lipstick-edged cake on the floor." [Racked]
♦ While most of the country was consumed by election fever, some fashionistas were all ready en route to support an equally important issue: Brazilian swimwear! The Claro Rio Summer show kicks off in Rio today, and Zani Gugelmann, Amy Sacco, Fiona Scarry, Natalia Vodianova and Justin Portman, and Michael Roberts are all there. [CR, CR, stylefile]
French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld's daughter Julia Restoin-Roitfeld has been spending her twenties lightly dabbling in modeling and design work as befitting her it-girl status, but she's now starting up a magazine with her Swedish model boyfriend, Magnus Berger. The Last will be newspaper format and they're calling it an indie, but we have a feeling backers and advertisers won't be too hard to find. [Fashionista]
