Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour in friendlier times.

Hearst Magazines has named Carine Roitfeld  the global fashion director for Harper’s Bazaar.  This move ramps up the rivalry between the former editrix of French Vogue and Condé Nast. Ms. Roitfeld, who was once seen as a possible successor to Anna Wintour, abruptly left Condé Nast in 2010.

Ms. Roitfeld introduced her new magazine, CR Fashion Book, just last month and will continue to put out the biannual magazine, which is published by Fashion Media Group, the company behind Visionaire and V magazines.

Hearst said her collaboration “may include covers of many of Harper’s Bazaar’s international editions.”

“This collaboration marks the first time anything like this has been done, and we’re very excited about what Carine will bring to Bazaar editions around the world,” said Duncan Edwards, the president and chief executive of Hearst Magazines International, in a statement.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Edwards described Ms. Roitfeld’s new role "as similar to that of a syndicated columnist." Ms. Roitfeld will write stories that are included in multiple international editions of Bazaar but will be  “independent and separate to the rest of the magazine,” Mr. Edwards told the Times.

Here are our picks for the very most of this month’s Elle, Lucky, Glamour, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire. (Vogue, as usual, will arrive fashionably late.)

Best Cover: A purple-hair-era Katy Perry on Elle takes the prize, if only for the very au courant nail art. (She still manages to squeeze her “Jesus” tattoo into the shot, though.) Given that the culture at large spends September shaking sand out of its beach tote, very few of this month’s cover stars—Jennifer Lopez, InStyle? Still?—have an imminent project to promote. (And Victoria Beckham, in a bubble bath on Glamour, isn’t even wearing clothes.)

Most Nostalgic: Harper’s Bazaar, in a cover line, advises readers to “Think Pink!”—a line from Funny Face, the movie based on Diana Vreeland and Richard Avedon’s time at Bazaar. (Cover girl Gwen Stefani, you’re great, but you’re no Audrey Hepburn.) Ms. Vreeland’s time at the magazine is elucidated in a piece that uses the word “Vogue” zero times. (Some anti-Vogue rancor is discernible at Glenda Bailey’s magazine: Another former Voguette, ousted French editrix Carine Roitfeld, gets a glowing profile in Bazaar.)

Best Editor’s Letter, Lede Division: “Naomi Wolf wants you to feel good. Really good,” writes Roberta Myers in Elle. (The feminist firebrand is profiled there and has a piece in Bazaar on dating.)

Best Editor’s Letter, Unintentional Revelations Division: Joanna Coles describes regretfully turning down her dream job as a journalist covering Parliament in the Marie Claire supplement @Work, which features Chelsea Handler on the cover.

Most Unlikely Suggestion: In her capacity as Glamour guest editor, Ms. Beckham writes that she suggested some future cover subjects from the indie-film universe: “Chloe Moretz, Clémence Poésy, Bella Heathcote ...” Maybe if Jessica Simpson falls ill!

Least Fortuitous Timing, Celebrity Division: Kristen Stewart, interviewed pre-cheating-scandal by InStyle. On Cartier’s Juste un Clou bracelet: “It reminds me of the person who gave it to me.” She wanted, and likely still wants, to go on a “very secluded” Mexican vacation.

Least Fortuitous Timing, Cinema Division: Both Elle and InStyle feature sneak peeks at what would have been this winter’s biggest movie, The Great Gatsby. After the magazines went to press, Gatsby was delayed until summer 2013.

Best Logroll: Marie Claire’s nine-page package on Project Runway, a show that features the magazine’s fashion director Nina Garcia. Before suggesting Runway-inflected trips to Parsons and Burger Joint, the author notes, “Sex and the City isn’t the only show that boasts the Big Apple as a main character.” Sure isn’t!

Best Advertising Opportunity: Justin Bieber’s perfume sponsored some of Lucky’s stickers (used to point out must-buy items—like Pinterest, but monthly!), as did uplifting toiletry brand Dove. Thanks to the good folks at Unilever, you can label Eva Longoria’s shorts “brave,” “graceful” or “STRENGTH.” [sic.]

Best Homage to Something Else Popular: Glamour informs us: “Hey, it’s okay ... to own 50 shades of gray ... cashmere sweaters.” Meanwhile, Elle titles its Katy Perry profile “Girl on Fire,” a reference to The Hunger Games, while Miley Cyrus is now getting magazine cover profiles solely in her capacity as Liam Hemsworth’s fiancée, also a nod to The Hunger Games. (Jennifer Lawrence clearly wasn’t available.)

Most Ubiquitous: Who knew Lana Del Rey was such a trendsetter? She gets a full-page spread, “Let’s All Look Like Lana!,” in Glamour (looking like Lana means having long hair) and is cited as a nail-care icon in Elle. Meanwhile, Solange Knowles, noted sister of Beyoncé, gets a photo shoot of her house in Elle and a two-page spread on her style evolution in Glamour.

Biggest Vitamin-Related Exclusive: “I wake up at 7 a.m., I shower, shave, eat breakfast, and have a double espresso, a cigarette, vitamins,” Marc Jacobs tells Marie Claire. “I wake up, have a double espresso and a cigarette, then I shower,” Mr. Jacobs tells Glamour.

Biggest Web-to-Print Leap: Fashion blogger Bryanboy, citing Carly Rae Jepsen in Glamour, a magazine that elsewhere features the “Shit Girls Say” video stars and the “Man Repeller” blogger.

Biggest Print-to-Web Synergy: InStyle has enlisted Katie Couric and Tommy Hilfiger as celebrity “Pinners” for their Pinterest pages; Mr. Hilfiger notes he is inspired by “classic autumnal colors.”

Biggest Print-to-Book-to-Print Leap: Elizabeth Wurtzel, for Harper’s Bazaar: “I want everyone to try as hard as I do to please be gorgeous, because it’s not that hard, girls. Looking great is a matter of feminism.”

Most Horrifying, Unsurprising Revelation: Lucky’s oral history of Guess reveals that Paris Hilton keeps a blow-up of her early-2000s jeans ad next to her bed.

Most Compelling Subhed: “Guest editor Victoria Beckham’s dear friend and go-to hair guy, Ken Paves, is on a mission to help at-risk women. Love that.”

Best Use of Profile-Speak: Miley Cyrus, per Marie Claire, is “a 19-year-old firecracker with washboard abs, a smoky laugh, and a filthy mouth.” Elsewhere her voice is described as “tangy and redolent of her native Nashville.”

Most Disconnected From Readers’ Reality: “Everyone I know with taste gets plates from Heath Ceramics,” says Jessica de Ruiter, stylist, in Lucky. “They use them at Axe.” (It’s pronounced “a-shay.”)

Biggest Indications Fashion Magazine Readers Aren’t In It For the Fashion: When asked, an Elle reader notes her biggest wish is not the Bottega Veneta dress Ms. Perry wears on the cover but “my mother’s love and my father’s approval”; a Glamour reader poll yields favorite designers including “anything Jennifer Aniston wears” and Old Navy.

Pilati and Golbin.

“You can find greatness everywhere. You just have to look for it,” said Harper’s Bazaar editrix, Glenda Bailey, quoting former Yves Saint Laurent creative director Stefano Pilati in a brief, prepared introduction. Ms. Bailey had been charged with welcoming the recently departed YSL designer to the stage as a part of French Institute Alliance Française’s Fashion Talks program. (Other fashion stalwarts this year include former president and executive creative direct of Coach, Reed Krakoff and designer Dries van Noten.)

With considerable buzz about Mr. Pilati’s exit after ten years at Yves Saint Laurent—one which had been the subject of many rumors—it was inevitable that the elephant in the room would be addressed. A throng of eager YSL devotees crowded Florence Gould Hall to witness Pamela Golbin, chief curator of Paris’ Musée de la Mode et du Textile, in conversation with Mr. Pilati.

The dashing Milanese, clad elegantly in a blazer, neck-foulard and thin-rimmed sunglasses, was greeted with much applause as he took his seat on stage. Mr. Pilati’s comfortable grin gave the impression that he had little to hide behind his shades… Thankfully Ms. Golbin started right away with the big question. Four weeks have passed since Mr. Pilati broke ties with the PPR mega-brand and Ms. Golbin inquired about how he was holding up. “I have a great state of mind! I’m really good, which is very unusual for me,” Mr. Pilati replied earnestly. He said that with his new found freedom, he has his “career in his hands.”

The Observer didn’t get too much more on the situation, except that the designer seems content with his numerous accomplishments and not having to dwell on the future: “I haven’t planned anymore,” Mr. Pilati told Ms. Golbin about his next professional step.

The designer with Glenda Bailey.

Most of Tuesday’s talk focused on Mr. Pilati’s quick ascension to the top of the high fashion world: From his internship with Nino Cerruti to his work at Giorgio Armani in men’s ready-to-wear (1993-95) and then a stint in Prada’s fabric research department, before becoming Miuccia Prada’s right hand man at Miu Miu (1995-2000). Mr. Pilati demonstrated a natural talent for selecting fabrics and navigated the politics of the design world well. It came as second nature for him— common sense—as if “to cook pasta without water!” Mr. Pilati credits Signora Prada as one of his major inspirations and mentors. The atmosphere at Prada though, was more familial than at Yves Saint Laurent, the designer stated. Prada was about the meaning whereas YSL was about managing an image. Mr. Pilati started at the famed French maison in 2000, working under Tom Ford, an experience he called challenging, but which gave him great confidence. Mr. Pilati was charged with reviving declining sales at the fashion empire and making YSL profitable, which meant creating “what the market was asking for.” Accessories became the principal solution and to this day, some of Mr. Pilati’s most memorable creations are iconic shoes and bags. He said the learning process of making coveted accessories as a highlight of his tenure at YSL, where he served as creative director from 2004 until this March.

Mr. Pilati describes himself as a passionate and complex person who loves to be spontaneous. These characteristics certainly influenced Mr. Pilati’s prêt-à-porter designs at Yves Saint Laurent and his work was not always adored by critics or the legendary founder himself. “To be controversial makes people think… there is always criticism… A controversy makes people stop… they can think what they want.” However, the passing of Mr. Saint Laurent in 2008 “gave me freedom,” Mr. Pilati confessed.

“If fashion was elegant it would be nicer to walk around and see people,” Mr. Pilati concluded with élan. When asked how the fashion world should remember his decade at Yves Saint Laurent, the designer commented that he doesn’t need any fanfare to commemorate his work,” Fashion is a privileged place.” Mr. Pilati’s words highlight his contentment with his achievements and the generous lifestyle he leads. It seems that despite all the fuss of calling it quits at Yves Saint Laurent, Stefano Pilati has found great peace.

It's a quick return to GQ for Ms. Kunis, who shared its cover with a venti iced coffee in April.

But she wasn't the only cover girl or boy who worked a double for a magazine editor in 2011.

Harper's Bazaar featured Lady Gaga in May and October (although without makeup, she might as well be a different person) and Vanity Fair put Johnny Depp on January and November covers.

Any magazine cover repeats we missed? No counting Kim Kardashian and US. Our photo collage app doesn't have a big enough grid.

Publishing is a bit more nuanced.

As a result, Hearst’s takeover of Hachette Filipacchi Media is going to lead to some awkward elevator run-ins. Take, for instance, the expected reunion between Marie Claire fashion director Nina Garcia and her former colleagues at Elle. She was fired by the magazine amid rumors of an iffy endorsement deal but landed safely at the rival mag. The move allowed her to maintain her more visible gig as a judge on Project Runway, which also made the switch from Elle to Marie Claire.

Things might get equally uncomfortable for Kevin Martinez, who defected from Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar to become Elle’s publisher a little over a year ago. Mr. Martinez has been bumped down the ladder to associate publisher to make way for Kevin O’Malley, the former publisher of Esquire, now publisher and chief revenue officer of Elle. Meanwhile, Mr. Martinez’s former boss at Harper’s Bazaar, Valerie Salembier, has moved to Town & Country.

And another Elle alumnus, Carol Smith, who most recently did a half-baked stint at Condé Nast’s food group, has been brought in to replace her. There’s more: James B. Meigs, who was fired from his job as editor of Hachette’s Premiere a decade ago, eventually becoming editor of Popular Mechanics, will now oversee the popular-among-mechanics former Hachette titles Car and Driver and Road and Track, in the newly created position of editorial director, men’s enthusiast group.

Sounds a little claustrophobic! Fortunately, Off the Record hears, some Hearst-Hachette staff will spill over from the $500 million tower to the building next door, the Sheffield condominiums. Hearst had the foresight to purchase at least six floors of the Sheffield back in 2007, before Hachette was even a glimmer in David Carey’s eye.

The Sheffield condominiums, formerly known as Sheffield57, long suffered from management problems under developer Kent Swig, but there’s at least one tenant who must feel right at home: socialite and publishing heiress Lydia Hearst bought a place there in 2008.

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel

Mr. Carey, president of Hearst's magazine division, said that he wasn't that surprised by the win. “I knew it had a good chance of winning because, for the last year or so, it’s been on the bulletin board of my 17-year-old daughter, who is a huge fan of Robert Pattinson,” he told the crowd.

The cover, which was shot by Mark Seliger, appeared on the December 2009 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Amazon customers cast votes to decide the winner. View a slideshow of all the contestants here.

Earlier: Back to School Night For the Hearst Empire; David Carey Drops Marie Claire and Raises a Glass

Mr. Carey dropped the magazine on the floor. Thwack.

"It didn't sound like that in January!" Mr. Carey said, grinning.

"We call that the thud factor!" said the magazine's publisher Nancy Berger Cardone.

It was back to school night last night for the boys and girls of the Hearst empire, and if you closed your eyes long enough you'd think it was the '90s — or maybe just a party full of slightly stressed magazine folks putting on a brave face. Though the event was technically a Fashion Week party, it was by all means a coming-out night for the new principal at the Hearst Tower on Eighth Avenue. Mr. Carey stunned the media world earlier this summer when he abruptly left Four Times Square to become the head of the magazine division at Hearst.

Glasses of Prosecco flew around the patch of Lincoln Center behind Jonathan Benno's new Italian restaurant. A low wall made from rectangular blocks of ice stacked two-high separated guests from foot traffic coming from 65^th Street. The DJ blasted "Freedom" by George Michael. Say, when was the last time Hearst had a party like this?

"This is the first year," said Cathie Black, now chairman of Hearst after giving up her job to make room for Mr. Carey. "You know, a lot of these people were operating at a loss several years ago. It's like a coming-out party."

Mr. Carey was holding court by the entrance to the party, speaking with Esquire editor David Granger, when the Observer asked him to explain the difference between Hearst and Condé Nast.

"The cafeteria!" Mr. Carey said. "The sushi is really terrific at Hearst. I enjoy the sushi."

Not that his summer hasn't been without a little getting up to speed.

"I feel a lot of pressure," he said. "Email me at 3 o'clock in the morning and see how quickly I get back to you."

He was quick to add: "I love my job."

Yes, but how does everyone else feel about their new corporate boss?

"So far so good," said Town & Country editor Stephen Drucker. "It's great. He's doing his job. So."

Where's that Prosecco!

"You may notice my husband has a black eye," Marie Clarie editor Joanna Coles said. "Various people have suggested that I might have hit him."

Here we go. Never mind about Mr. Carey and Hearst. Please do go on.

"The real story is that we got a dog at the weekend. And in his excitement to let the dog out of the car, the car door hit him in the face," she said.

Anyway! What's Hearst like these days, Ms. Coles?

"It's very hard to get jaded when you work in a Norman Foster building," she said. She was standing in front of the reflecting pool with Henry Moore's sculpture of gigantic vertebrae at her back

"Everyday you feel like you're an extra in a movie," Ms. Coles said. "That's what it feels like working at Hearst." She suggested that if Oliver Stone were making a movie about the magazine world, he would film it in the Hearst offices.

Assorted cookies came by.

"I'm just going to pinch one of these. Don't tell anyone, but I'm having a carb," she said. She picked up a cookie.

"I like being busy. I love being busy. I get up early. I'm like Margaret Thatcher," she said. "'Never underestimate what you can do in 10 minutes!' which is Margaret Thatcher's motto. And actually it's very useful for Fashion Week. You can do a lot in the 10 minutes between different shows. You can do a lot in the back of a cab."

Well the party is running late, so the Observer better get going.

"We're very excited to have David," said Harper's Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey. "He's come with lots of enthusiasm and great ideas. I think that's what it's all about."

We asked Ms. Bailey if editing her magazine had become less fun in the last few years.

"Harper's Bazaar is up by 11 percent on the newsstand." Ms. Bailey paused for five seconds and stared into the Observer's eyes. She blinked emphatically.

Then Ms. Bailey stared for a few more seconds. "We're up in advertising," she added.

zturner@observer.com / @zekeft

Ms. Shafrir did the math. Putting 40-year-old women on the cover is not the norm.

The average age of Vogue cover models in the past year is 34.5; Harper's Bazaar, 32.5; Elle, 31.6; InStyle, 34.2; and W, 34.9. Harper's had the biggest range, putting 17-year-old Miley Cyrus on its February cover and 47-year-old Demi Moore out front in April.

Laura Brown, a features director for Bazaar, told Ms. Shafrir that most readers are in their 30s, and they look up to characters like Ms. Aniston (she used the word "aspirational"). Ms. Brown also explained that she thinks women in their 40s are more fashionable. "One of the things about getting older is you do grow into your sense of self. You don't look victim-y anymore," she said.

Anna Holmes, the founding editor of Jezebel, chimed in: "Bazaar editor wins the day for dumbest quote."

Ms. Subkoff's ordeal was made public last summer when Art Production Fund founder Yvonne Force Villareal, gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, pal Arden Wohl and rumored former boyfriend Wes Anderson organized a fund-raiser (Ms. Subkoff didn't have health insurance) at Deitch Projects. At the time, Mr. Deitch told the Transom, "It is about our community coming together to support a friend who we love and admire. This benefit for Tara is an example of how the New York art world is not just a business, but a real community where people support each other." Jasper Johns, Nate Lowman, Cecily Brown and John Currin donated art works for auction. But according to Ms. Subkoff, the fund-raiser "didn't work out."

"All of my close friends knew my financial situation, which is why they organized a benefit with a charity in my honor last July. … Unfortunately, for myriad reasons, it didn't work out, but it came from such a good place," Ms. Subkoff tells the magazine. "The charity paid for two medical bills and is now returning the remainder of the money to the donors."

Below, a few other revelations from the story.

Initially, Ms. Subkoff's doctor misdiagnosed the tumor as TMJ:

"I told my doctor I wanted an MRI. He made me feel like a neurotic New Yorker—a Woody Allen character come to life. He rationalized that I should be spending my creative energy and imagination on my work, not my health. I trusted him, and I didn't get a second opinion."

The surgery was a success, but the recovery is ongoing:

"They said the recovery would be intense. I would have temporary facial paralysis on one side and auditory hallucinations; I would be disoriented and sick. I have to have regular MRIs for the rest of my life. I've permanently lost the balance nerve and full hearing on my right side. Because of this, there is the challenge of constant vertigo."

She is getting back to acting:

"I scored a role in Abandoned, the late Brittany Murphy's last film; she was an amazing girl and a good friend. I will also appear in the new Jim Brooks film with Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Owen Wilson, and Tatiana von Furstenberg cast me in a short film she made in Austria."

And designing:

"While I've been recovering, I've decided to bring back IOC in its most basic incarnation: easy-to-wear staples with an edge. I'm calling this line just "Imitation." I'm inspired by Coco Chanel and her use of jersey. I'd like to do that with Imitation. I want something as effortless as a T-shirt, but in dress, trench, and jacket shapes."

She plans to slow down a bit and is sorry for some of the things she said and did in her youth:

"Looking back, I feel like the Sinéad O'Connor of the fashion world. I started working in this industry when I was so young and such a little punk. I was discussing stuff I wasn't mature enough to understand, and some of the things I said were so silly and controversial. But I'd like to think I understand it all a little better now. What can I say? I'm in a much different place, and I'd like to apologize to anyone I offended in my brash days."

And, according to a deed filed Monday, Harper's Bazaar publisher Valerie Salembier bought an apartment at 860 U.N. Plaza. She and her husband, Paul Block, the former president of Revlon, paid $2,550,000.

The couple got a bargain: The apartment was originally listed for $3.1 million, which fell to $2.9 million and then $2.7 million. According to a floor plan, their seven-room apartment has three bedrooms; a library and a living room overlooking the East River; a nice-sized maid's room next-door to the kitchen; and four bathrooms.

Ms. Salembier is not the first classy New Yorker to inhabit the co-op (which is officially called 860/870 U.N. Plaza). Past neighbors include Walter Cronkite, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., Kay Graham, and Truman Capote, who spent his In Cold Blood royalties on a 25th-floor, $62,000 apartment.

cmalle@observer.com, mabelson@observer.com