Brandon Holley

It's official: Eva Chen has been named the editor in chief of Lucky magazine, replacing Brandon Holley. Chen, the former beauty and health director of Teen Vogue, had been consulting at Lucky with Condé Nast's artistic director, Anna Wintour.

The staff change was announced in an internal memo sent to Condé Nast employees Tuesday. A source told Fashionista that the entire Lucky staff was summoned to an "emergency meeting" earlier in the day.

In a statement, Wintour praised Chen's international presence and called her "the quintessential Lucky girl. Eva is a woman of tremendous talent and experience. I have worked with her over the last few years, both during her time at Teen Vogue, and as she has been consulting with Lucky. Her lengthy experience in our industry gives her a solid foundation in both digital and e-commerce."

Chen's impact on the magazine will start to appear in its September issue, the most important month for print fashion magazines. Chen is also one of the few editors in chief at Condé Nast's domestic magazines who isn't white. Her colleague Keija Minor became the first black editor in chief at the company when she was appointed to lead Brides in September.

There's no word yet on what Holley's next move will be. Before coming to Lucky in 2010, Holley had been editor in chief of Yahoo! Shine.

It's only been three weeks since Anna Wintour took on her much publicized new role as artistic director at Condé Nast, but word has it she's already planning some key hires.

Fashionista confirmed on Wednesday that Wintour had hired former Teen Vogue beauty and health director Eva Chen to help with "several projects" at Lucky, where Wintour has reportedly been spending a lot of her time of late. (Last Week, The New York Post reported that the magazine's editor in chief, Brandon Holley, was among the first to reach out to Wintour for help following her promotion.)

Page Six reported today that Wintour is on the lookout for a new head of public relations, preferably with a background in business or politics, to replace Vogue's outgoing director of communications, Megan Salt. Salt will leave the magazine on May 10 to take on a new job at Amazon Fashion.

• Joseph Altuzarra has paired with denim duo Current/Elliott for six denim styles, set to debut on his Fall 2011 runway — and Vogue has a preview (left) [Vogue.com]
• New Barneys fashion director Amanda Brooks was mum last night on the subject of her new position, saying that it was only her second day, but she has started Twittering for Barneys and says she plans to attend as many New York fashion shows as she can [Harper's Bazaar]
• Zac Posen is keeping his Z Spoke collection appointments very low key this season: "Last season was for the media. This one is for the customers and retailers" [@meenalmistry]
• Jason Wu is livestreaming his Feb. 11 show on Bergdorf Goodman's website, where some Fall items will be for sale as pre-orders on Feb. 16 [Christina Binkley]
• Marc Jacobs is forgoing a Fashion Week party, instead feting the 10th anniversary of Marc by Marc Jacobs with a Valentine's Day "semiformal" [@jimshi809]
• Peep Lauren Santo Domingo on the March 2011 cover of Town & Country, attended by the headline: "Meet the next Mrs. Astor" [@jimshi809]
• Bryanboy has done videos of his fashion escapades before, but this fashion week, he's doing a 24-hour livestream of himself for Kanon Organic Vodka, which promises to "give viewers a first hand look into what it’s like to rub elbows with fashion’s elite." He's got a video preview up on his site, and it goes live beginning at 9 am on Feb. 16 at kanonvodka.com [Bryanboy]
• There are also reports that Bryanboy is shooting a pilot during New York Fashion Week with the producers of America's Next Top Model that "Bravo is supposedly very interested in" [The Cut]
• Tumblr is putting 24 bloggers up in a hotel for New York Fashion Week, has secured invites for them to more than a dozen shows — including big shows like Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta — and set up events for them like breakfast with Nina Garcia, a private brunch at Lucky editor Brandon Holley's apartment, and a meeting with Oscar de la Renta prior to his show to talk his new collection [WSJ, The Cut]
• Abbey Lee Kershaw is reportedly skipping New York Fashion Week, for a "personal music project" in London with "my band" — Our Mountain, the band of Kershaw's boyfriend, Matthew Hutchinson, which she's performed with before. She is, however, set to head to Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks [Frockwriter]
• Alexander Wang cut his front row seats in half this season, thanks to a new seating configuration; he's also hosting an intimate party on Feb. 15 to mark his store's opening [@meenalmistry, @jimshi809]

>> Lucky may have a new editor sweeping in with big changes afoot, but don't expect lots of glossy fashion editorials all of a sudden: the aforementioned new editor, Brandon Holley, plans to keep her distance from runway fashion. “I’ve developed a healthy sidelong glance at the fashion industry,” she told the New York Times. “I love fashion and I love clothes and I love the way people dress, but I don’t cry at a Marc Jacobs show.” The view is one thing she has in common with former (and founding) Lucky editor Kim France, who she succeeded in September. “[Kim] isn’t and wasn’t a fashion person, and really, neither are the readers of most fashion magazines,” noted Jean Godfrey-June, Lucky’s beauty director since day one.

But that isn't to say that Holley won't be going after that luxury advertising; she foresees the magazine branching out from midrange fashion items: “I think we should show the full scope of what’s out there and allow the reader to decide whether she buys a $4,000 Prada bag.” She later corrected her statement, saying she couldn't imagine actually putting a $4,000 bag in Lucky. “Maybe $2,000.” And the style will be different: “My style is very casual, put-together. I’m not really a boho kind of looking gal, so we’ll move away from that."

Plus, the Times reports:

"There will be 'more words,' as Ms. Holley put it, as well as more color and 'prettier,' more mainstream models. And she is focusing hard on the web site. Ms. Holley wants to transform Luckymag.com into a 'social shopping experience,' akin to eBay and etsy.com, where readers can create their own digital boutiques, perhaps giving a page in the print edition every month to the woman whose boutique sells the most."

"She is also announcing the Lucky Style Collective, a blog network that will share content and ads with the magazine, and occasionally appear in the print edition. The first Lucky Fashion and Beauty Blog Conference, which Ms. Holley hopes will be a semiannual summit for bloggers looking to learn from Lucky, will occur in New York next month."

>> Alexis Bryan Morgan, who joined Elle in January as fashion director (succeeding Nina Garcia), is leaving the magazine after ten months to become Lucky's executive fashion editor under new editor-in-chief Brandon Holley. “I’ve had several meetings with her and I love her ideas for the magazine,” Holley said of Morgan, who is currently expecting her second child. “She’s got a great sense of style and she fits perfectly with the path I’m setting here at Lucky.”

Holley also announced a few other hires: deputy editor Stephanie Trong, who most recently served as editorial director at Gilt Groupe; Laura Morgan, who was a contributing features editor at Harper’s Bazaar, in the newly-created role of special projects director; and Maura Randall, who worked with Holley at Yahoo! Shine, as online director.