Conde Nast

• Riccardo Tisci is following up his Fall 2010 campaign featuring the transsexual model Lea T. with a Spring 2011 ad campaign featuring albino model Stephen Thompson, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott in black and white alongside Mariacarla Boscono, Daphne Groeneveld and Iris Strubegger; the idea came from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo of an alabaster Roman bust juxtaposed against leopard print fabric [WWD]
• 39-year-old David Lauren and 26-year-old Lauren Bush, who met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala six years ago, got engaged Friday at the museum; she Tweeted today: "Thanks for everyone's warm wishes about our engagement! I am so happy, and really enjoying every minute of it! I am truly a lucky lady!" [NY Post, @LaurenBushTweet]
• Conde Nast looks to be in shopping mode: its parent company just raised $500 million for mergers and acquisitions [All Things Digital]
• Karolina Kurkova posted a teaser photo of her and androgynous model Andrej Pejic on the set of Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2011 ad campaign [Frockwriter]
• Before The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman stops someone to ask to take their picture, he says, "I pretty much know where I'm going to stand, where I'm going to place them in relationship to the light, where in the street . . . so as soon as they say, 'Okay,' I'm pretty much ready to go." He continues: "I'm not much of a people person, I don't push to find out that much more [about his subjects]. I want to shoot them the way that I see them; as opposed to really creating a true essence of who they are, it's my idea of who they are." [NY Times]
• Christian Louboutin, on how extremes have changed in his twenty years in the business: "When I started, I remember people saying, ‘Oh my God, I can’t walk in that!’ It was like, three inches — they look like kitten heels now. The low cleavage I was doing was considered too sexy, but now what I call a low cleavage is much lower. It’s really very much a mental shift. I remember doing very pointy lasts. People would say, ‘I like the shoe, but it’s too pointy.’ And then the year after, it’s fine." [Style File]
• Marc Jacobs may bring his legendary holiday costume party — which hasn't happened since 2007 — back next year [The Cut]
• Anna Dello Russo is evasive on how she affords her two apartments and thousands' worth of designer clothing; her only response: "Of course, I am journalist! Then I have discount, I am privileged!" [Guardian UK]
• Peep Zac Posen's Pre-Fall 2011 lookbook, featuring "Zac-ettes" — his words (“They’re all women who have been significant for me this year”) — Hilary Rhoda, Crystal Renn, Anna Cleveland, and Leigh Lezark [Vogue]
• Reiss is planning on reissuing the dress Kate Middleton wore in her engagement photos as part of their Spring 2011 collection [The Cut]
• Former WWD Eye editor Emily Holt has been named fashion news editor at Vogue; she started last Monday [DFR]
• Leighton Meester is rumored to be the new face of Missoni [InTouch]
• Christian Lacroix is art directing and selecting the 150 Middle Eastern pieces to be featured in the Musee du Quai Branly's "The Orient of Women" exhibition, opening Feb. 8 [WWD]

>> Now that Style.com has moved out from under Conde Nast Digital and likewise goes for the Conde magazines' websites — including Vogue.com and WMagazine.com — which are now fully under their publishers' control, there are a few more staffing changes happening over at Conde Nast.

Vogue senior market editor Meredith Melling Burke will now be straddling both print and online responsibilities — in addition to her current role at the magazine, she has been promoted to fashion market editor at Vogue.com, where she will increase the website's fashion content. And former Elle SVP and chief brand officer Carol Smith, who surprised many when she left after eight years to join Conde Nast as VP and publishing director of Bon Appetit and Gourmet in April, has left the company. “The opportunity turned out not to be what either Conde Nast or I expected,” she said in a statement released by Conde Nast. Tom Florio, who hired Smith, left the company in June.

>> Conde Nast Confirms Move to 1 World Trade Center — After years of searching for new home base and rumors that 1 World Trade Center in New York's Financial District might be the place, Conde Nast finally confirmed it is so on Tuesday, signing a letter of intent. The move, which will consolidate Conde Nast — which is in at least three Midtown buildings currently, including 4 Times Square — into one place, is expected to happen in 2014. If the deal goes through, Conde will reportedly occupy 1 million square feet of the 2.9 million square foot skyscraper. [WWD]

I often read magazines while lunching, but now Condé Nast wants readers to lunch at its magazines' restaurants. The media empire, which owns Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The New Yorker, among others, is licensing its magazine brands to a buffet of media-inspired restaurants.

Magazines and restaurants are frequent companions, from power-lunch destinations dominated by media types to hotspots run by magazine moguls, including Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's Waverly Inn and Monkey Bar and the new Lion restaurant, backed by Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko. Other famous experiments in restaurant-media domination include Playboy's Playboy clubs and the garish ESPN Zones. But Condé Nast is remaking the model.

>> Tom Florio, according to insiders, was almost out of a job at Conde Nast late last year, but yesterday, he decided to leave on his own terms and the parting seems to be amicable.

Florio, who leaves Conde Nast as SVP and publishing director, overseeing Vogue, Teen Vogue, Bon Appetit, and Conde Nast Traveler, at the end of this month after 25 years, told WWD: “I’m just in a position to do something else. It could be in TV; it could be on many platforms. It also could be that I will be working closely with Condé Nast. We’ll see.”

Florio reportedly wants to run his own show and met with executives at IMG shortly after yesterday's announcement; an announcement in the entertainment world is said to be forthcoming.

What about Carol Smith? »

>> Tom Florio Leaving Conde Nast, Where Does That Leave Carol Smith? —Conde Nast SVP and publishing director Tom Florio, who was just promoted to the former position in November of last year, is leaving the company at the end of June. Florio has been at Conde Nast since the early '90s and moved to focus on Vogue in 2002, where he masterminded the launches of Teen Vogue, Men's Vogue, and Vogue Living. A successor for Florio has yet to be named, but certainly it's worth noting that longtime Elle SVP Carol Smith moved to Conde Nast in April, where she is currently overseeing the Bon Appetit and Gourmet brands. [WWD, DFR]

Yesterday, Condé Nast announced plans to introduce its first new food magazine since the collapse of Gourmet.

Dash will be a newspaper insert magazine, the result of a collaboration between Parade and Bon Appétit, which are both owned by Condé Nast's parent Advance Publications. It will launch online at dashrecipes.com in September, drop a preview print issue in November, and begin its regular monthly circulation to about eight million readers via 100 different newspapers in February.

With the proposed tagline of "Simple. Fast. Delicious." Dash is meant to appeal to a mainstream audience.

It will contain recipes from Parade and Bon Appétit, as well as content from Epicurious and the Gourmet archives. Unlike Gourmet, it's taken on an unabashedly aggressive approach toward appealing to packaged food companies such as ConAgra and Kraft.

Dash will compete directly with Relish, another food newspaper insert, as well as traditional magazines such as Family Circle. Thus, if you've been hoping for a Condé Nast equivalent of Gourmet, you won't be getting it anytime soon. Will you look out for it?

Source

>> Conde Nast Mulling a Move to Lower Manhattan? —Conde Nast, which has has been centered at 4 Times Square in Manhattan since 1999, is reportedly in talks about moving to 1 World Trade Center — what is planned to be the United States's tallest office tower (left) — in lower Manhattan when it is completed. The publisher of Vogue, W, Teen Vogue, and the like has been looking for a new home for as far back as 2007.  When contacted for comment, the company's spokeswoman replied, “At this time we’ve got nothing to say.” [NYTimes]

>> Speculation: Vogue Publisher Tom Florio Hired Rival Elle Publisher Carol Smith to Protect His Interests —There was speculation yesterday about why longtime Elle SVP Carol Smith was hired at Conde Nast by Vogue SVP and publishing director Tom Florio, but now, it turns out there may be further ulterior motives. Elle finished last year with more advertising pages than Vogue (2,082 to 1,988) — although WWD notes the numbers may have come at the expense of revenue — and insiders report that Florio was heard saying, "The best offense is a good defense,” regarding hiring one of his biggest rivals, personally and with regards to Vogue. Meanwhile, Joe Zee Tweeted of the news of Smith's move: "I was told 2010 is the year of change. Change at ELLE today and I am heartbroken about it." [WWD, @mrjoezee]

>> Carol Smith, Elle's senior vice president and chief brand officer, is leaving Hachette Filipacchi after eight years with the company to join Conde Nast, where she will act as vice president and publishing director of two non-fashion brands: Bon Appetit and Gourmet (the latter which folded as a magazine last October).

Smith, who leaves Elle at the end of the month, will report to Tom Florio, Vogue's senior vice president and publishing director, causing speculation that Smith is auditioning for the Vogue publisher position while Florio prepares himself for a move up within the company.

“Carol Smith will oversee business developments for the brands that will include TV, books, and online opportunities,” said a Conde Nast corporate spokeswoman.