Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Some luxury fashion companies think (or are hoping, at least) that the recession has "bottomed out," and the tide is "slowly turning." Let's hope so! [WWD]
• Related: Saks is hoping to now "wean wealthy customers from discounts" and "re-educate" them to pay full-price again. Good luck! [NYP]
• How are fashion mags hoping to remain relevant during the turbulent times? By hitching their titles to TV shows, naturally. Not that the strategy always pays off as editors might have hoped, as Elle (Stylista) and Marie Claire (Running in Heels) have discovered. [AdWeek]
• Homelessness is now "having a fashion moment." Make a note of it. [Cut]More

Men.Style.com and Kanye West hosted the "The Women of Fashion 2009" at the New York Palace Hotel last night. Intrepid nightlife reporter Douglas Marshall caught up with Kanye to ask him about, well, women and fashion:

Q: So what makes a woman fashionable? What does it for you?
A: Just something that really works well on their figure. A woman can be really, really in shape and have a great body. Or a woman can be bigger and just know how to wear clothes properly, and I really appreciate that. I love a great pair of shoes, a great bag—great accessories. But not too much, not when women let the clothes wear them. And I like a woman that respects men. They dress for their homegirls and everything, but they want us to be attracted to them, too.
Q: If you had to pick a woman who always looks great, who would that be?
A: My favorite all time favorite is [French Vogue editor] Carine Roitfeld. It may be a cliché, but it is what it is. She is the reigning, living legend. It's the element of hood. It's hood. Foxy Brown could wear the same shearling coat as Carine Roitfeld.

• Kate Moss's latest collection for Topshop hits stores (and the web) tomorrow. [Fashionologie]
• Anna, Oscar, Vera, and Carolina—among others—joined Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall this afternoon to announce Fashion's Night Out, which is scheduled for Sept. 10. [NYM]
• A former assistant to Karl Lagerfeld (and the author of a tell-all about the designer) is making waves once again with his descriptions of life inside the house of the Kaiser. [Fashionologie]
• A chat with French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. [Guardian]
• Halston's new creative director is Marios Schwab. [Vogue UK]
• Nordstrom be eyeing the Virgin Megastore space in Union Square. [WWD]
• It's Fleet Week! Why not get dressed up for the occasion? [Pipeline]

• Michelle Obama wore a magenta Michael Kors dress to the White House Correspondents' dinner on Saturday, in case you were curious. Even more exciting: Donatella Versace penned her first blog post from the event. [WWD, NYM, HuffPo]
• Rachel Zoe has a line of accessories for QVC that will debut this fall. [WWD]
• Carine Roitfeld is not a nymphomaniac, nor does she insist on weighing the staff of French Vogue daily, you'll be relieved to hear. [Fashionologie]
• Abercrombie & Fitch is opening another store on Fifth. The retailer is taking over Hickey Freeman's flagship to open a kids store. [Racked]More

Michelle Obama was the main attraction at Time magazine's sixth annual 100 "most influential" ceremony at Lincoln Center last night. She was joined by a predictably massive group of A-listers, including Oprah, Harvey Weinstein, Mort Zuckerman, Steve Schwarzman, Jeff Bewkes, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Carine Roitfeld, Gayle King, Stella McCartney, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler, Jay Leno, Lorne Michaels, Jimmy Fallon and Nancy Juvonen, Charlie Rose, David Lauren and Lauren Bush, Ann Coulter, Suze Orman, Arianna Huffington, Kate Betts, Andy Serwer, Paul Krugman, Vivi Nevo and Ziyi Zhang, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews ... More

• Mayor Bloomberg has proposed raising the sales tax by half a percentage point. That's certainly not going to do much to help struggling retailers, now is it? [NYDN]
• With a fresh batch of stores and restaurants closing each day, life on the UES has gotten pretty depressing. [NYT]
• A few weeks ago, Thom Browne denied that his fashion company was in trouble. The fact both his CEO and CFO departed the company today certainly doesn't bode well. [WWD]
• A few notables not expected at the Costume Institute Gala on Monday: Karl Lagerfeld, Carine Roitfeld, Matthew Williamson, and Bernard Arnault. [FWD] More

Being the daughter of a fashion titan like Carine Roitfeld obviously comes with certain perks, little things like automatic entrée into the highest echelon of New York society and lucrative modeling contracts for a string of ad campaigns. But as Julia Restoin Roitfeld reveals, with the privileges come certain responsibilities, like making sure Carine doesn't catch her letting herself down, letting the family down, and letting the industry down—by wearing flat shoes! "My mum told me always to wear heels. If I'm not wearing heels, she says, 'What? You're in flats?' So whenever I see her, I make sure I have heels with me."  More

• The premiere of the new Valentino documentary last night attracted the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Claire Danes, Madonna, and Anne Hathaway, although the big topic of discussion was the designer's collection of pugs—Milton, Monty, Maude, Margot, Maggie, and Molly. [WWD, BB, SW]
• So, like, what's the deal with Valentino's tan? Don't ask Matt Tyrnauer, who followed the designer around for years to make the doc: "He does have that Mediterranean skin, but beyond that, I'm not sure." [NYM]
• Project Runway finalist Kenley Collins was arrested today for assaulting her fiance with their cat. We're not sure what means either. [NYP]
• CNN's profile of French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld is now online. [Fashionologie]More

Remember those halcyon days when our fashion icons were strictly seen and not heard? Now the previously inscrutable Kate Moss happily talks on camera, Anna Wintour is starring in not one but two documentaries, and this Wednesday sees the debut of Carine Roitfeld's CNN Revealed special. Naturally, CNN is tantalizing us with plenty of snippets ahead of time, mostly focused on that earth-shattering issue: Does Carine really intend to steal Anna's job? More

• Lindsay Lohan's self-tanning mist, Sevin Nyne, launches on April 15. And she even has an elaborate website set up to mark the big occasion. [NYM]
• Kanye, Pink, and Salma all turned out for the Stella McCartney show today. Kanye likes his coffee with "mad cream and sugar," on the off chance you were wondering. [WSJ, Telegraph, Fashionista]
• Quelle horreur! PETA activists tore Carine Roitfeld's Balenciaga gown outside the JPG show! [SF]
• Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel show takes place tomorrow. And everyone will be there, naturally. [NYT, Grazia]
• Yves Saint Laurent has turned its first profit in a decade. [FT]
• Reviews of some of the other shows at Paris Fashion Week. [NYT]
• It's looking likely that Peter Copping will take over at Nina Ricci. [Fashionista]
• Kate Moss will be in NYC for Topshop's opening on April 2. [DM]
• Conspicuous consumption is no longer cool, reports the Times, in the event you've missed the 2,243 articles on the same subject up 'til now. [NYT]

Giorgio Armani celebrated the opening of his new Fifth Avenue flagship last night with a party at the store. The designer was accompanied by his niece Roberta Armani; guests on hand included Leonardo DiCaprio (left), Carine Roitfeld, Victoria Beckham, Martin Scorsese, Michael Bloomberg, Caroline Kennedy, Joel Klein, Cindi Leive, Fern Mallis, Andre Leon Talley, Ricky Martin, Rachel Zoe, Nina Garcia, John Mayer, Mario Testino,  Josh Hartnett, Liam Neeson, Richard Meier, Alicia Keys, Chace Crawford, Milla Jovovich, Thom Browne, Kevin Liles, Molly Sims, Mira Sorvino and Christopher Backus, Sally Singer, David Hershkovits, Jim Moore, Hal Rubenstein, Patrick McCarthy, Emile Hirsch, Natalia Vodianova, Zani Gugelmann, Kate Lanphear, Horacio Silva, January Jones, Elsa Pataky, Zoe Saldana, Solange Knowles, Marcus Schenkenberg, and Olivia Palermo. [PMc, Wireimage, Vogue UK, FWD, NYM]More

A recap of the shows, parties, and gossip you've missed at Fashion Week thus far after the jump.More

• As you learned three weeks ago, Michelle Obama will appear on the March cover of Vogue. As for the magenta dress she wore for the Annie Leibovitz-lensed cover, it was designed by Jason Wu. [WaPo, WWD]
• A preview of the shows and parties planned for Fashion Week. [Style, NYM]
• Didn't get tix for the festivities next week? Try Craigslist. [NYM]
• It's still unclear what's going on with Olivier Theyskens and Nina Ricci. [WWD]
• Carine Roitfeld is designing a "youth-focused" edition of French Vogue. [FWD]
• Mandy Moore is shuttering her fashion line so she can focus on music. [WWD]
• Sales of wedding dresses and engagement rings are down. [WSJ]
• Georgina Chapman graces Harper's Bazaar's new issue alongside cheetahs and snakes, but not with other vicious animals like, say, her husband. [FWD]

Cheeky French Voguettes | When we unveiled our Anna Wintour ringtone the other day, we naturally didn't dare to dream of an endorsement from the hallowed dominion of Vogue itself. Alas, we still have no idea what Anna thought of it. But that didn't stop French Vogue, whose beloved editor Carine Roitfeld has been the subject of rumors that she'll replace Wintour in New York, from happily informing readers about the sonnerie de téléphone with "the invaluable recommendations of Madame Wintour herself!" Merci, Carine! [Vogue.fr]

It's been a rough few weeks for Vogue editor Anna Wintour. There were the rumors that Condé Nast chief Si Newhouse was thinking of replacing her with Carine Roitfeld, the editor of French Vogue. Then there was more concrete evidence of Vogue's fading relevance: The number of ad pages in the magazine tumbled by nearly 10 percent in 2008, a decline more substantial than most of Vogue's competitors. Yesterday, the Times' Cathy Horyn, one of the few fashion writers daring enough to take on the industry's most powerful figure, laid out some of the magazine's problems with a piece entitled "What's Wrong with Vogue?"More