T Magazine

Sally Singer will leave her job as editor of T Magazine, the New York Times's fashion magazine, at the end of the week. No reason has been given for her departure, and the Times hasn't yet named a successor.

"Sally's contributions are clear to anyone who's read the magazine during her tenure," wrote the Times's executive editor Jill Abramson in a staff memo announcing Singer's departure. "Gorgeous visuals, interesting stories and enterprising features — both in print and online — have been hallmarks of her stewardship. We wish her every success."

While Singer may have expanded T's coverage to include interesting non-fashion stories, she didn't succeed in making it more profitable. T had, in the Times's former executive editor Bill Keller's estimation, been created to "generate the revenues that help subsidize the stuff that drew most of us into the business." But after a year on the job, T's advertising pages had only increased by .7 percent. The Spring 2012 fashion issue, for example, saw an eight percent decline in ads, which wasn't good news in a month where many other magazines, including Vogue, Glamour, W, and Harper's Bazaar posted ad page gains between two and 31 percent.

Singer came to T in June 2010, leaving her position as fashion news and features editor at Vogue. She replaced Stefano Tonchi, who had moved on to be editor in chief of W Magazine. At the time, Singer said, "I imagine at some point [T Magazine] will naturally evolve into something that reflects more my taste and concerns than those of my predecessor. But hopefully that will be an organic process and not an imposition."

Liya Kebede says having a more active role in her modeling work is what's kept her interested and fresh after over a decade in the industry.

Kebede, who recently starred in an editorial in T Magazine's Fall 2012 women's style issue, said she feels more engaged in her work now than she has in the past — and working with people like Cass Bird, who shot the pictures for T, helps.

"Working with people I haven't worked with before is always exciting, because I've done modeling for so long," Kebede says. "I feel like all the pictures that I do now are more collaborative than they used to be before, which I really like — having an input in stuff. And so it's more of a team effort, and so I enjoy it, in a way, more."

The model also runs a clothing line called Lemlem that she founded to help employ weavers in her native Ethiopia, and she also runs a foundation dedicated to the health of mothers and children in third-world countries. Where does she find time to manage it all that and model for everyone from Balenciaga to H&M?

"I think you just kind of do it," Kebede says. "I don't think I have a very perfect organized plan about it. I kind of do what needs to be done in whatever order it has to be done, kind of thing. It's quite chaotic, but it's nice. I like it."

Source: T Magazine

See those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Victoire de Castellane took a break from her day job as Dior's fine-jewelry designer to create a plant-filled logo for T magazine's Fall women's style issue. "I wanted to create imaginary flowers that would wrap around the T, re-creating a natural structure," she said of the design. [The Moment]
  

• Calvin Klein's ex-boyfriend Nick Gruber is working on a tell-all book about his two-year relationship with the designer. "This is the only way he can get closure," said a writer working with Gruber on the project. "He has a lot of secrets about Calvin, and he has the right to tell people." [New York Daily News]
  

• Giles Deacon, Richard Nicoll, Michael van der Ham, Lulu Guinness, and a group of other British designers will create tributes to Minnie Mouse that will be displayed during London Fashion Week. [Vogue UK]
  

• Hearst Tower has bathed its lobby in pink light this week to commemorate the passing of legendary Cosmpolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, who loved the color so much that the wallpaper in her office was bright pink. [Page Six]
  

• Prabal Gurung takes stealthy photos of fashionable women who inspire him with his iPhone — and he doesn't ask their permission. "I don't like to bother people," he says. [The Cut]
  

• Vogue intern Sean Avery says he's "on a big Givenchy run right now," but he gets "weird about actually wearing it because I love the pieces so much." [Refinery29]

Photo courtesy of T magazine

>> T's online director Horacio Silva, who has been working at the New York Times's fashion magazines for just over ten years now, has stepped down. "It's no secret I've been toying with the idea," he said. Silva was reportedly vying to replace Stefano Tonchi as T editor a year ago, a position which eventually went to Sally Singer. Silva noticeably doesn't mention Singer when saying he's grateful for the people he's worked with: "I have had the privilege of working with some amazing people, including three of the best editors T has gone through. Amy Spindler, Stefano Tonchi, and Andy Port." As for Silva's future plans, he says he has a number of brand clients lined up for consulting work. "It's an interesting time right now as the lines between editorial and advertising are becoming more and more nebulous, it'll be interesting to be in the forefront there," he explained. "I've also been threatening to write a book for some time." [The Cut]

• Givenchy called Adriana Lima when she was four months pregnant to walk in their Spring 2010 show, she says: "They take my measurements and I’m like, 'Oh my God, oh my God, I'm big!' And then they say, 'You’re not big enough!' Because they wanted to see the belly." [The Cut]
• Roland Mouret is anti-diffusion line: “I would never do a diffusion line. I don’t think the future is that. People mix brands all the time already, so you need to do something else. We are living in a different fashion world now.” [Style File]
• Karlie Kloss and Jourdan Dunn spent some quality time together yesterday, Kloss Tweeted: "Lovely day in London w/bff ms.dunn...lunch at Claridges, shopping at Selfridges, and now off to the eurostar...goodbye london hello paris!" [@karlie_kloss]
• Street style favorite and Harper's Bazaar senior fashion market editor Joanna Hillman is documenting her style daily during December for the magazine's blog [Harper's Bazaar]
• Gap's Spring 2011 faces include Anja Rubik, Liu Wen, Anais Mali, Carolyn Murphy, Karmen Pedaru, and Monika "Jac" Jagaciak [TFS]
• Talon cuff fans: Pamela Love just launched an online store [Pamela Love]
• Peek Naty Chabanenko in Cushnie et Ochs's new Spring 2011 lookbook (pictured) [Refinery29]
• Cathy Horyn takes an in-depth look at Chinese couturier Guo Pei as part of Sally Singer's first issue of T, which is slowing leaking online [T]

>> Sally Singer has spoken about her vision for T, but how does that vision translate? Apparently into a Mick Jagger cover, shot by photographer Max Vadukul for Singer's first issue — Holiday-centric, and out Dec. 5. Singer has also reportedly assigned a piece on autism for the issue — causing some to draw similarities to the New York Times Magazine's subject matter (as opposed to Stefano Tonchi's more stylized, ad-heavy take on the book), but when contacted for comment, Singer emailed from Paris: "I don't really feel comfortable discussing the holiday issue because it's still being put together and all sorts of things could happen." [NY Observer]

>> Sally Singer rides her bicycle to work every day, orders weekly cruelty-free organic food delivery from an upstate New York farm, and is currently reworking the New York Times's T magazine as its new editor-in-chief. For the first time since her appointment, Singer speaks about her vision for the magazine, in conversation with Paper's Kim Hastreiter: "I hope that there will be actual stories to read in it, because the Times is first and foremost a paper of great reporting. And it has to be relevant and honest and interesting. There also have to be real narratives and a sense of continuity between the world of the paper and the world in which the T images exist."

Singer continues: "To me, the most exquisite fashion credit I can remember in my lifetime was the day of [President Obama's] inauguration, when Michelle walked the parade route in that greenish-yellow Isabel Toledo dress. Because this was a real moment in which fashion, and quite directional fashion, played a role. When I think about the project of T and the Times, I think about that. I think about fashion outside of the studio and fashion that lives on the street. It doesn't mean you're going to repeat that moment, but I do think there's a way in which you can make lifestyle choices seem pertinent to the way we experience the world, and you can draw those connections in a magazine."

She wants an "emotional" magazine »