Emmanuelle Alt

>> Christophe Decarnin showed a new, more "subdued" Balmain collection, according to Cathy Horyn, today for Fall 2011 — which could be in part because Emmanuelle Alt is no longer the show's stylist and Melanie Ward took her place this season. But more curious: Decarnin skipped his final bow and was a no-show backstage. "He's tired after working on the collection. He's not here. He's resting," said a Balmain spokesman. And it seems that Nicolas Ghesquiere and Carine Roitfeld have officially made up — she attended the show today, Tommy Ton tweets: "Just spotted Carine leaving Balenciaga slyly avoiding the paps." [@MeenalMistry, @HilaryAlexander, @JakandJilBlog]

• Emmanuelle Alt on her first French Vogue cover — Vogue UK Daily
• Lauren Conrad's "crowning" new achievement — People StyleWatch
• Proenza Schouler has a special place in its heart for Julia Stegner — Modelinia
• Rad or bad: are fuzzy heels awesome or un-fur-giveable? — Refinery29
• Today's top three online sales — Lucky
• A sartorial salute to Lady Gaga — The Inside Source
• Gape be gone! The Shirt by Rochelle Behrens fixes age-old problem — Stylelist
• Man Bag Monday: Bottega Veneta vintage calf flag tote — Bag Snob
• Kate Middleton signs up Philip Treacy — FabSugar UK
• J. JS Lee's frame-briefcase-backpack hybrid — Vogue Daily

>> She didn't name names, but it was fairly clear that Franca Sozzani, in a blog post last month, was criticizing one of Carine Roitfeld's last issues of Vogue Paris — the December Tom Ford guest-edited issue. In a more recent interview, Sozzani said, “Honestly, I don’t think a stylist has a vision for a magazine.” Both Roitfeld and her fashion director — and now new Vogue Paris editor — Emmanuelle Alt are stylists.

Sozzani wasn't the only one who wasn't feeling that Tom Ford-edited December issue — people in Paris speculated, Cathy Horyn reports, that it triggered Roitfeld's undoing. Roitfeld last month told Horyn that her bosses received complaints from advertisers over the Ford issue. “I was killed for that,” Roitfeld added. “You know, it’s difficult to try to do something new each month.”

According to several close to the matter, Roitfeld offered to resign when the issue of her management came under question (she was frequently out of the office on shoots). She could have been bluffing, but her resignation was accepted. When asked whether her frequent office absence was a contributing factor, Roitfeld admitted: “Maybe, maybe. Everybody has an opinion. Before, it wasn’t a problem, and anyway the magazine was doing very well. It’s difficult to work with a big team. Maybe it’s good I go back to my roots.”

But she says she doesn't regret resigning: "I’m very sad, but in a way I’m very happy, too. I don’t want to get old in this golden cage. I’m very punk in a way.”

Apparently she and Alt no longer speak, however, and neither would say why. Alt, who is attending New York Fashion Week for the first time in years, notes: “I don’t look back and see clouds anywhere. Carine is someone who needs to be free. She’s the rebel of the class. She hates authority. She dealt with it for years but . . . ” The magazine was profitable and experienced a 40 percent leap in circulation under Roitfeld's tenure.

• Shopbop launches its first print campaign for Spring 2011 — Shopbop
• Video: Crystal Renn addresses the freak-out over her weight loss — The Cut
• Emmanuelle Alt on what she plans to do with Vogue Paris — Vogue Daily
• Give your valentine a $60 JewelMint gift card for $30 — JewelMint
• Designer wristies: good idea or bad idea? — Nylon Blog
• Theyskens' Theory is almost ready to launch — FabSugarUK
• Is Blake Lively the new Carrie Bradshaw? — Vogue UK Daily
• See the New York Fashion Week livestream schedule — InStyle
• Lanvin Grosgrain Flower tote: Summer lovin' — Bag Snob
• Three dresses, one day: which one of Katy Perry's purple sparklers is your favorite? — People Stylewatch
• Macy's ramps up fashion quotient for Spring — Stylelist

>> During couture, Emmanuelle Alt hinted that Vogue Paris under her direction would be "the same, but different"; Vogue's Mark Holgate got her to expand a little more on her vision for the magazine:

“I want to keep the quality, the photographers we work with — David [Sims], Mert and Marcus, Mario [Testino], and Bruce Weber. I don’t think there should be radical changes. The magazine should still be chic and sophisticated. It’s a bit like buying an apartment: Before you move in, you have all these plans of what you are going to do, but then you get there, and you realize it is better to spend time living in it, and transforming it over time. I’d like there to be more beauty trends; there was so much of that in Vogue back in the eighties. More French girls, more French lifestyle. And I am going to keep shooting for the magazine — hopefully a story every issue." She adds: "I always want a relationship with reality: nothing too sexy, or provocative, or fashion victim. We are French — we can show smoking, nudity. We have no boundaries, and it can be good to have them."

As for her position on celebrity covers: “We don’t have a systematic point of view on it. But here in France we are back in a much more glamorous time. French actresses were respected, but not so evidently in the fashion world. Now we have Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg. I’d be very happy to put an actress on the cover if she is the right girl.” And her model favorites are no surprise: “Daria [Werbowy] is the girl I work with the most. She has a natural, strong beauty. You can put her in a white tee and she will make it look fantastic. I like Kate [Moss] too, because she cares about clothes. Most models don’t care what you put them in, they just play the game.”

>> Emmanuelle Alt made her front row debut as Vogue Paris editor at Alexis Mabille's couture show this morning. Alt's name appears on top of the magazine's masthead starting with the April 2011 issue, which will feature Gisele Bundchen on the cover, photographed in St. Barts by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. However, it apparently won't be until the August 2011 issue that the magazine completely reflects Alt's new direction. [WWD]

>> In less than two weeks, Carine Roitfeld is headed out the door at Vogue Paris, with Emmanuelle Alt set to take over on Feb. 1. Roitfeld's last issue will be for March, and although there's been no intel on who might feature on that cover — her last for the magazine — her second to last cover choice, for February 2011, is Lara Stone, captured by Mario Sorrenti (left).

So what, beyond these last few days in her current role, does Roitfeld have on her plate? There's still her biography, Carine Roitfeld: Album of a Woman of Fashion, that Olivier Zahm has been working on for over a year, which is supposed to come out in the Fall. Apparently she recently read the Keith Richards biography, Life, and has since been wanting to try shepherd's pie, Harper's Bazaar UK editor Lucy Yeomans tweets: "Just seen [British chef] Mark Hix sending shepherds pie to Carine Roitfeld in Paris.She has wanted to try one since reading SPscene in Keith Richards biog!" And now there's speculation that Roitfeld might look into launching her own brand. As The Imagist points out: "I mean if [Anna Dello Russo] can have her own fragrance, why shouldn't the masses be able to buy a little bit of le style Roitfeld?"