• Wipe that sweat off your brow. Even thought the CW's ratings are floundering, America's Next Top Model has been renewed for its eleventh and twelfth cycles because it's the channel's most-watched program. Obvi. [WP]
• Karl Lagerfeld video alert! The Feldinator says he doesn't design for emerging markets, but for the future. Ooooh. Why "flatter" the customer because they want the designer's vision? Wise words, Karl. [WSJ]
• America's Next Top Model is hiding the photos of select winners past in the house. Also, last night's guest judge Paulina Porizkova was amazing. [Jezebel]
Once upon a time a blogger went to a Victoria's Secret makeup event. And Heidi Klum was there. Yay! And she had some tips on what to do with your face when you're walking the red carpet, which you obviously do every day:
As we watched the parade of sob stories and screeching girls on Wednesday night's premiere of America’s Next Top Model, it got us all misty and nostalgic for the knuckleheads of yore. How much more poetic if Tyra Banks had used her tenth — tenth! — cycle to celebrate the nutjobs who got her there?
Roberto Cavalli is on the fast track to becoming fashion's Hugh Hefner: He's often embedded in a throng of hot ladies, and WWD reports today that not only is he opening nightclubs around the world, but Cavalli also has a television show in the works.
The Daily News has a random ode to Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks today. The article praises them for "doing things they're actually good at" after their modeling careers began to fizzle:
Tyra Banks's latest reality venture, Fashionista, in which contestants compete to become the next top fashion assistant (oh, the glory of it all!), is currently casting — we submitted our application and have yet to be called upon, sniff, but we hear producers are plucking potential cast members right off New York streets.
There’s nothing like bookending day one with a pair of genuine national treasures: Liza Minnelli at breakfast time, and come supper, that deeply understated legend of Lycra-blend we call Kimora Lee Simmons. Tonight’s Baby Phat show was everything we’ve come to expect from the exceedingly subtle model turned designer, right down to the feathered hot pants, visible garter belts, and getups that felt inspired by Atonement via a few head injuries and maybe a martini.
Last night we ran into noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker at Maggie Norris's pre–Fashion Week party, and we're happy to report that the man who can most often be found sitting behind the judge's stand on America's Next Top Model does in fact have legs. We asked him if he was going to be bringing his expert opinion to Tyra's new show, Fashionista, in which women will compete to become assistant editors at Elle. "I was asked to come onboard today!" he said. "I said I'd love to." So what is it going to be like? we asked. Will it be like America's Next Top Model only less pretty, and more passive-aggressive? "I think the fashionistas are going to go out there and realize how hard and how cutthroat and ruthless this industry can be," he said. But won't it be kind of mundane? He waved this away. "People are obsessed with all aspects of this industry," he explained. "It's sexy, it's cool, it's unattainable." Which is why, we guess, none of the Top Models have gone on to become, you know, top models. Speaking of the industry: Doesn't Nigel ever miss being a real-life fashion photographer? Apparently, this hit a nerve. "I shoot all the time," he huffed. "Every day! Yesterday! I'm doing a big David's Bridal campaign, and I just did some stuff for Microsoft. I'm a photographer, that's what I do." But what about, um, fashion? He nodded sagely. "You never see me when I'm taking pictures because I'm on the other side of the lens. Look closely at their eyes, and you'll see my reflection." —Amy PreiserFor more up-to-the minute Fashion Week madness, check out New York's new blog: The Cut!READ MORE »
That's right. According to Reuters, Tyra Banks and the producers of America's Next Top Model are going to do a similar show about a group of young people competing to be assistant editors at a real fashion magazine. We can see it now:
Olandra: Oh, my God, you guys! We've got Tyra mail.
Other girls: TYRA MAAAAAILL!
Urethra: Tyra says we have to make an online index of book reviews. It's an ongoing project that she'll check up on in a few weeks!
Olandra: OMG. I'm so nervous. We're also in charge of that crotchety old freelancer who never sends in any of her fact-checking. That's, like, two semi-permanent assignments.
The Heavy One: And we just got handed that half-page front-of-book spread about sequins! I've talked to like five publicists this week. Man, this is just like when I was an editorial assistant. I can't wait until I get to be an assistant editor!
Urethra: Who says you're going to be America's Next Top Assistant Editor? You have a confrontational personality and you don't own enough pencil skirts.
The Heavy One: I just don't like the way this show has changed me. I miss my boyfriend and my standard business hours.
Pootie: F---ing hell, does anybody know whether the text goes up or down when you put the paper in the fax machine?
Olandra: You ass hat, there's, like, a diagram. [Under her breath] Watch this, you guys, she's not even going to dial nine.
Riveting television. We can't wait.
'Model' team tapped for fashion-mag reality series [Reuters via Fashionista]
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Most reality/ talent-show contestants have earned their spots on TV by waiting on line for hours, doing their thing for some judges, and schlepping out to Los Angeles. But when Smartwater ("Hydration you can feel!") sponsored an America's Next Top Model audition in a Chelsea club last night, there was one more step: The eight tri-state finalists gathered at Stereo also had to flack the product — even posing with a bottle of the stuff — in hopes being sent west. They'd arrived at eleven in the morning for hair, makeup, and, one assumes, some Smartwater brainwashing. And it took. By the time the event started at 8 p.m., nearly every word from the girls touted the water's substance and style.
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There were two great life lessons to be gleaned from last night's installment of America's Next Top Model. One is that the best employees are the ones who have job, and the other is, as contestant Natasha helpfully pointed out, that some people have war in their countries. What's it all mean? Vulture explains — and recaps the whole episode — in this week's installment of Tyrade!
Tyrade!: ‘America's Next Top Model’ Gets Phototastic! [Vulture]
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