“Alex and Nina are both inspired visual storytellers, and I am excited about what they will each bring to this new phase in Marie Claire’s evolution,” said Anne Fulenwider, who has been the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire since September. “Alex’s impeccable taste and discerning eye will add a fresh point of view, and Nina truly embodies Marie Claire from a fashion and style perspective."

Mr. Gonzalez, who is coming from a stint as creative director of W, will be in charge of the overall design of Marie Claire. Before W, Mr. Gonzalez was the creative director of GQ and Mirabella, and relaunched German Vogue, Manner Vogue and L’Uomo Vogue.

Both Ms. Garcia and Mr. Gonzalez have other jobs in addition to Marie Claire. Mr. Gonzalez will continue as executive creative director of the branding advertising agency AR New York, which he co-founded in 1996. Ms. Garcia is a  Project Runway judge. Mr. Gonzalez starts next week, and Ms. Garcia’s promotion is effective immediately.

The humble amateur violinist. (via nytimes.com)

Joe Zee and his violin were featured in "Posessed," the Times Sunday Styles feature that gives free, tightly controlled publicity to bold face names with projects to promote (see Rose McGowan, Conan the Barbarian),  and Stephen Adly Guirgis, The Motherfucker With The Hat) under the pretense of writing about their favorite objets.

Joe Zee, whose Sundance reality show "All on the Line" starts up again in November, would like to tell us about his violin because it's a symbol of how he's good at... everything.

“I was good at everything,” said Mr. Zee. “I was like Tracy Flick, sitting in the front row and raising my hand for everything. English, math -- anything with a textbook. I was good at consuming knowledge. And I was great at home ec!” 

He taught himself how to be good at violin. “Because of the piano, I could read music. And I’m a really good mimic, so I could watch TV footage of great concert violinists, watch how they sat, how they held the bow, and tried to just mimic that, over and over. One day it all fell into place, and I just kept doing it until I got it perfect.”

It turned out Joe Zee was good at other instruments too: "After conquering the violin, Mr. Zee taught himself the viola, then the cello, then the bass. 'It was fascinating to be able to do every part of a quartet,' he said."

Joe Zee was not good at one thing: “I wasn’t so good at phys ed."

But according to his column in this month's Elle, it won't be long before he's good at that too.

"I am obsessed with dance. Hip-hop, ballet, ballroom--I don't discriminate. I watch it, I support it, and  in the past few years, have attended classes regularly in an attempt to master it."

His self-professed work ethic is impressive, but we suspect what matters now is how good Mr. Zee gets at promoting Elle on "All on the Line." And with former Elle fashion director Nina Garcia now representing rival magazine Marie Claire on "Project Runway," it's no bunny hop!

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

Everyone knows that this kind of exclusivity is a red rag to gatecrashers.  And since, despite repeated attempts to gain access to the show by emailing weeks in advance, our invitation appeared to have been lost in the post we decided to take matters into our own hands.

We thought of buying a ticket outside the door from one of the junior fashion editors (somebody had made us an offer at the Charlotte Ronson show, so apparently there is a healthy black market).  However, there was no need to roll out the dough because we spotted an open door and darted inside behind the bank of photographers. Once in the room, it wasn't long before we found our favorite editor to chat with, Joanna Coles.  Marie-Claire's über-Editor and the star of Running in Heels was in sleek black trousers with a chic blond leather jacket.  She was next to her fashion director, Nina Garcia, who had just come back from maternity leave and was already back in her sample sizes. 

As there was some time to kill before the show began, we thought that given the non-conformist nature of the Rodarte line, that the guests would be open to answering slightly unusual question about fashion.

We asked a bunch of editors which designers they would like be buried in.

"Hmmm, maybe Givenchy, because he has that religious element," said Nina Garcia reflectively.

Brad Goreski, Demi Moore's new stylist, didn't even blink before answering, "Tom Ford. Definitely."

Vogue's Eve MacSweeney said, "It's too late but it would have been Alexander McQueen."

Vanity Fair scribe Amy Fine Collins put a different spin on it, "Could I be buried with all of my wardrobe?"

And from Jay Fielden, the leonine new EIC of Town and Country, "Whatever I'm wearing at my desk probably."

When the show began, it fulfilled all expectations.  The Rodarte sisters manage to create incredible dresses and keep a sense of fun and flirtiness to their designs. Our favorites included a long champagne colored dress with silk flowers sewn all over it and a cornflower blue dress fringed with wheat sheaves.  They retained a little punk edginess too, with a couple of Valentine's Day red pouffy sequin and mesh numbers.

On the way out, a few editors were shaking their heads and whispering that the collection wasn't what it had been last season.  Rodarte might have reached the height of popularity so quickly that a backlash has now begun but, for our part, we would have happily ripped any one of those dresses off the models' backs and run for the hills wearing it.  

--Recording exec Edgar Bronfman Jr. buys a $23 million pad. Or does he? The item was in The New York Post this morning but is no longer up on the Web site.

--Martha Stewart's spot in the sky at 173 Perry Street -- long an Observer favorite -- just got a $2 million price cut. The apartment, which was asking $15.9 million in February is back on the market with Sotheby's for $13.9 million with some new pics.

--Project Runway lovely Nina Garcia lists UES combo for $8.5 million. Ms. Garcia bought the two units for $3.7 million and $1.2 million in 2005 and 2006. Real Estalker offers a tour so thorough it's almost better than the real thing, including every last powder room, walk-in closet and, of course, the dozen emerald-velvet dining room chairs. And no, reality TV doesn't pay quite that well. Ms. Garcia is apparently also the heiress of a shipping tycoon. 

--As if there weren't enough beautiful people already on the market, another Project Runway alum, designer Nicholas D'Aurizio, is said to be checking out a $2,575-per-month, 883-square-foot duplex with a private balcony at the new 75 Grand rental development. Brooklyn may be good enough for us common folks, but for celebs it "might be a bit off the beaten path," says the Post.

lkusisto@observer.com

Andrew Ross Sorkin on Hugh Hefner's Playboy buyback. [NYT]

Nina Garcia is now Target's fashion expert. [WWD]

Fabulous Fab denies fraud. [NYT]

Loud Dobbs' daughter wins a substantial riding prize. [NYP]

The city has 8,000 unused desks, which is apparently a lot. [NYP]

UES townhouses may take a hit, following one dramatically low sale. [WSJ]

Bloomberg defends his staff's right to mock Sarah Palin. [NYDN]

Natasha VC in WWD. [WWD]

Possible Ken Starr victim puts $30 million home on the market. [WSJ]

Slate does some debunking. [Slate]

Yale Repertory Theater receives $950,000. [NYT]

There Will Be Blood earned Paul Dano a lifetime of free milkshakes. [NYDN]

Facebook employees take loud late night shuttles! This bothers their neighbors! [AllThingsD]

The state's standardized tests will become harder. [NYT]

Each May, the city's colleges compete to attract the brightest celebrity wattage to their commencement ceremonies. How did they fare this year? You be the judge.

VIEW SLIDESHOW > SAGESSE FROM THE STARS

Last year's speaker was Annie Leibovitz, who has been having some financial difficulties this year. "You are starting out in a career at a very different time. And it's important that you not be afraid," she told the graduating class last May. "Although I suppose you can take heart in that you are not graduating from Harvard Business School. Those guys have real career dilemmas."

She added later: "As a member of the graduating class of FIT today, you are at a turning point in your life. Graduation is a turning point in everyone's life. But what is unusual about your position is that everyone else who works in the worlds of magazines and advertising and fashion is also at a turning point, not just the new graduates in the field. We're all in this together."

Hopefully, Ms. Garcia will deliver some brighter news.

Bravo is a funny network, isn’t it? And yet? Brilliant. Because think about it, even when you are watching a Bravo show, be it Top Chef or Make Me a Supermodel, one feels that while you might be watching fluffy garbage, it’s seamless, well-produced shiny garbage, which in fact translates to totally entertaining television. (In other words, it's not VH1.)  Project Runway was always better than its imitators, partly because the contestants all have real skills and are forced to use them in a way that we, the viewer, can smugly watch and think “how mother-of-the-bride” (even when we can’t even sew a button without assistance). There’s awesome Tim Gunn, and bitchy Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, that pretty tall German lady, and usually a handful of truly talented designers. Season 4’s Christian Siriano has actually been able to make the leap to legit designer. And if season five only seemed memorable because of what a bitch that chick Kenley seemed to be, well at least it was always Good TV.

Although the sixth season has already wrapped, with the finale being held as usual at Bryant Park during fashion week, pictures of the clothing lines were duitifully posted on the internet. But without watching the weeks of lead-in, it was kind of hard to care (if a reality show falls in the forest…). We know that PR was filmed for the first time in Los Angeles (no Atlas apartments!) and – shriek! – contestants had to make do with some sort of weird faux-replication of Mood Fabrics (which does have a West Coast branch but was apparently too far away to actually shoot there). And there's reportedly less time given to Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, who are said to only make “a handful of appearances.”

Will the show be able to retain its mysterious magic while away from the Bravo mothership? We'll admit to tuning into Liftetime now and then for reruns of 90s fluff, but we're woefully unfamiliar with its original programming. We'll just have to tune in this summer to see if Lifetime can keep things as smooth and, er, seamless as we're used to.

The book, The Style Strategy: A Less is More Approach to Staying Chic and Shopping Smart, will be guide to dressing expensively on a budget and will come out in August. It seems that Ms. Garcia and her editor, Rene Alegria, sensed an opportunity in the current economy for doling out some handy style tips to all the hedge fund wives who'll have to downsize their shopping budgets in the next year.

"In this third book, Nina takes into account the reality of the times in which we find ourselves, and shows us ways in which to shop smart and save money, while not sacrificing fashionable self expression," Mr. Alegria told Daily Transom in an email. "This will be her most practical book to date, and one which we are confident every woman will come to use as a resource and guide for strategizing the most optimal shopping experience."

Perhaps we'll even see Ms. Garcia tirelessly banging out chapters of the book on Style Network's new reality show Running in Heels, which promises to expose the private and professional lives of Marie Claire's editors. We may even get to see if she too will begin to "shop smart."