Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Gwyneth Paltrow is planning to give up her contract with Estée Lauder so she can focus on her website Goop.com, per the ever-reliable Daily Mail. More troubling: The paper says her plan is to "become an Oprah Winfrey-like lifestyle guru." [DM]
• Michelle Obama returned to NYC today. She attended the reopening of a wing at the Met (where she wore a coat by Isaac Mizrahi coat and sat next to Ralph Lauren, Iman, and Anna Wintour). Then it was over to opening night at the American Ballet Theater. [WWD, NYT]
• An excerpt from Lauren Conrad's debut novel has been posted online, in case you feel up to tackling some heavy literature. [Teen Vogue]
• Valentino, diplomat of fashion: "I saw the pictures of the Metropolitan gala evening last week and I never saw something more ugly." [Guardian]
• Speaking of Valentino, Time Out's current issue tests out self-tanners. [TONY]More

• Rachel Roy has a new line—and it's one even her soon-to-be ex-husband should be able to afford: Roy is introducing a lower-priced collection for Macy's that she's named Rachel-Rachel Roy. [Shophound]
• Besties Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss and Charlotte Ronson are teaming up on a line called Shoshanna Made With Love Charlotte Ronson. [WWD]
• What does Karl Lagerfeld look like the morning? He'll fill you in: "I look like a madman, like something out of a horror movie!" [Fashionologie]
• "Bread-line chic" is all the rage these days. [NYT]More

Hope you didn't make the big mistake of taking Michael Bloomberg's investment advice yesterday! The mayor singled out three companies, telling reporters that General Electric, Macy's and Saks were all "irreplaceable brands" and were undervalued in the current market. But with the exception of GE, which is about where it started, both Macy's and Saks are down big today. Guess a career as an investment advisor probably isn't in the cards if his re-election campaign doesn't pan out this November.

Macy's announced plans earlier this week to lay off 7,000 workers as well as cut back on employees' retirement benefits. Last month, the struggling retail chain said it would shutter 11 of its 850 stores in the U.S. But the cutbacks don't appear to be impinging on company chief Terry Lundgren's jet-set lifestyle. Although Lundgren took a $2.5 million pay cut last year, the board helped make up for it by granting him a larger chunk of stock. (He earned a total of $14.4 million in compensation.) And despite Lundgren's claim to the press this week that "this is a time when nothing should be considered a sacred cow," his perks continue to cost the company a small fortune.More

• Fashion Week will move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center beginning next year. [NYT]
• Former frenemies Rachel Zoe and Nicole Richie kissed and made up at a party in LA last week. The hugfest went down in front of a cameraman filming footage for Zoe's reality show, though, so a bit of skepticism may be in order. [WWD]
• Macy's is eliminating 7,000 jobs. [BN]
• Jonathan Adler is launching a Barbie collection in 2009; it will include "designer pottery, pillows, decorative objects." [SW]
• Douglas Hannant tells the WSJ he's traveling the country and hosting events to sell his label. He also shaves five years off his age, but who's counting? [WSJ]
• Last week, Karl Lagerfeld said the recession wasn't having much of an impact on him; today he says he's fully embraced the "New Modesty." As for why he eliminated the VIP section at the Chanel show last week, it was to "create equality in an unfair world." Thanks for doing your part, Karl. [WSJ]
• The hot, new trend from Stockholm Fashion Week? Shaved heads! [Pipeline]

• Can Michelle Obama single-handedly save America's fashion industry? Here's hoping! [NYT]
• Following the horrific holiday season, Macy's says it plans to close 11 stores in nine states. [AP]
• Communist chic is in. And just in time for the collapse of the capitalist system, too! [NYT]
• William Rast, the brand backed by Justin Timberlake, will make its Bryant Park debut next month. JT will not be performing, though. [WWD]
• Peter Som and backer Creative Design Studios have parted ways. Because of the split (and the economy), a Som show during Fashion Week is not in the cards. [WWD]
• Eight designers you need to know in 2009. [Refinery29]
• Obedient Sons & Daughters is closing its doors. [Style.com]
• New York magazine's fashion-centric biannual spinoff title, New York Look, has been discontinued. [WWD]