>> BLOWING THE COVER —Model lovers, don't set your hopes high for those September 2008 covers.  W plans to feature Kate Hudson shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Elle will have Jessica Simpson, and Teen Vogue will star Vanessa Hudgens.  Curiously missing from the list, however, was who graces the September Vanity Fair, which is rumored to a supermodel extravaganza. [WWD]

>> Earlier this year, when Fabien Baron left his post as creative director at Vogue Paris to become an editorial director at Interview, people were unnerved, worried that the winning formula in place at VP would be upset. 

As Fabien tells it in a new interview with Hint, he and Carine Roitfeld still talk, but he was ready to move on: "I felt like there were no options left in France to do something important at that time. So I left."

As for Interview, which is officially relaunched in September, "it will be a total redesign."

"The size is new, the paper is new. I think the photography and attention to all the details will be new."

And Stephanie Seymour, newly named contributing fashion editor at Interview (and wife of the magazine's owner), will "be like a muse for the magazine."

"She'll come up with ideas, do some interviews, help us, with anything actually. She's also very charismatic, with very good opinions on things."

But he's not so optimistic about the state of fashion as a whole.

There's definitely a lack of quality going on, a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of intellect. There's also a search for ideas. Things don't look as good as they should. What happened was you had these big luxury brands that advertised themselves really well and opened mega-stores. They've put out a lot of smaller products of a lower grade and communicated those products at a lower common denominator. Then you have mass-market companies like H&M, Gap and Banana Republic that are trying to go up. So today, if you look at the advertising for the two sides, if you remove the logos, what you're looking at is very similar. This overlap has created a blend. High and low are not so different anymore. We have to deal with it.

Speaking of fashion brands, he's been asked to start his own but "said no to all of them."

"It's too complicated. I'm good at branding. I wouldn't know what button to use. I've thought about it, though, but I'm not interested."

Now that's something to respect, someone who knows what he's good at and sticks to it.
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»Chanel: now selling a branded safety pin [Fashionista]

»Can being married to a Vogue editor and working at Gap get you into every magazine at once? [The Cut]

»Christie's is auctioning off Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent's $600 million art collection in February 2009 [Fashionista]

»Laetitia Casta has a new film on her plate [Variety]

»More shots of Reese Witherspoon's rumored Vogue shoot with Mario Testino [PopSugar]

»Daria Werbowy for Dior Fall 2008: This time in purple [TFS]

»Georgina Chapman and Harvey Weinstein talk Asian food [Page Six]

»C'N'C Costume National's Fall 2008 Myspace models [FWD]

>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Award for the most amazing campaign shot so far this Fall 2008 season: Suvi Koponen for Calvin Klein.  The first image released isn't nearly as striking, but the campaign was styled by Camilla Nickerson and Karl Templer and promises to be "graphic," so here's hoping for more stunners. [Supreme Being]

>> 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.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Vogue Italia is reportedly going Aussie for its October 2008 issue: Abbey Lee Kershaw, Catherine McNeil, and Sarah Stephens are "taking [the] issue [from] front to back, with top photographers snapping a 20-page shoot of Kershaw for the mag." [The Daily Telegraph]

*image: source