Anna Wintour and Sally Singer: together again.

Sally Singer is heading back to Vogue in the newly created role of digital creative director, The Fix reports.

Ms. Singer left Condé Nast, where she was Vogue’s fashion news and features director,  in 2010 to become the editor in chief of T. But her two-year stint at the Times came to an abrupt end this past in August. WSJ. editor Deborah Needleman assumed the top role at the Times’s luxury mag last month.

In her new role, Ms. Singer will again report to Anna Wintour and collaborate with Caroline Palmer, Vogue.com's editor. Ms. Singer's will return to Vogue on October 29.

Guess some things never go out of style ...

The not-unexpected news comes after the abrupt departure of Sally Singer at the end of the summer. 

Full press release below:

Press Release

The New York Times Names Deborah Needleman Editor of T Magazine

NEW YORK, September 27, 2012 – The New York Times announced today that Deborah Needleman has been named the new editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine.  Ms. Needleman joins The Times from The Wall Street Journal where she currently serves as editor in chief of WSJ. Magazine.  Ms. Needleman also has editorial oversight of Off Duty, the Journal’s weekend lifestyle section, which she created and launched in September 2010.

In making the announcement, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, said, “Deborah is a creative and innovative editor with an impeccable sense of style and design.  As we look to expand and extend T and continue to evolve it for our loyal and sophisticated New York Times audience, we will rely on Deborah’s broad range of experience and creative energy.  She is coming on board to strengthen the franchise and re-imagine its future on all platforms.  Given the depth of her talent and experience, I am certain that T is in very good hands.

T magazine is currently published 15 times a year and is dedicated to coverage of fashion, living, beauty, design and travel.

Ms. Needleman was the founding editor in chief of Condé Nast’s Domino magazine, which launched in 2005 and quickly became a leading guide to style and decorating with an incredibly devoted following.  It was one of the most honored magazines in its first year, including being named best new magazine by Adweek. Domino was closed in 2009 despite its critical success.

Previously, Ms. Needleman wrote on style, design and gardens for publications such as Slate and House & Garden.  She was editor at large for House & Garden for several years.  She began her career as the photography editor for The Washington Post.

Ms. Needleman is co-author of The Domino Book of Decorating and author of The Perfectly Imperfect Home.

A graduate of The George Washington University, she lives with her family in Manhattan.

Cindy Sherman. (Adriel Reboh/Patrick McMullan)

“Look who it is: it’s Edwina, the Edwina,” Isaac Mizrahi exclaimed to The Observer this past Saturday, as he approached Edwina von Gal, the designer who, Ross Bleckner told us, “did the landscaping at my house in Sagaponack.”

We were at Cindy Sherman’s new East Hampton home at a benefit for the Azuero Earth Project, the Panama-based ecological nonprofit of which Ms. von Gal is president. It was a cozy beginning-of-the-end to the Hamptons summer season. Guests sat on benches under a white tent to eat empanadas and watch performances by Suzanne Vega, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. Children climbed into pendulous bamboo cocoons, stuffed with pillows, that swayed from the trees.

“I live just up the road,” Ms. Vega, who had been asked at the last minute to replace Rubén Blades, told us. “I originally came as a guest of Laurie’s, and I thought I was going to see Rubén Blades!” Wearing a top hat—a “tip of the hat to Marlene Dietrich”—Ms. Vega performed “Marlene on the Wall” and “Gypsy,” written when she was a “folk-singing and disco-dancing counselor” at a summer camp in the Adirondacks. She had M.C. Bob Balaban serve as an impromptu music stand, holding a handwritten lyric sheet for a new Dylan-inspired number about the tarot’s Queen of Pentacles.

“I probably shouldn’t have kissed her,” Mr. Balaban confided to us afterward. “It’s rude to kiss somebody you’ve just met.” Mr. Balaban told us about his upcoming appearance as Lena Dunham’s psychiatrist on Girls, and recommended we visit Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s former home down the road. “It’s just a little hut,” he explained. “They didn’t have any money.” (We read that Ms. Sherman paid $4.65 million for her estate, though we weren’t invited inside.)

Gorgeous in two shades of blue mufti (a baby blue wrap over a navy dress), the chameleonic Ms. Sherman told us that though she had just moved in a month ago, “There’s just a few little things that need to be tweaked, but I’m pretty settled.” Was this party a little housewarming, then? “A big housewarming,” she corrected us. Ms. Sherman also talked about transplanting her career retrospective from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to San Francisco’s MOMA, where it’s currently on view. “The space is different; it was hard to edit out some of the work.”

We watched Gina Gershon and Martha Stewart, both in pre-Labor Day white, run around taking pictures, and stood by as Mr. Mizrahi introduced Mr. Bleckner to his husband, Arnold Germer.

“We’re married, you know,” said Mr. Mizrahi.

“I didn’t know!” Mr. Bleckner replied

“Now we’re moving in together,” Mr. Germer went on.

“That’s exactly what married people do!” Mr. Bleckner pointed out. “Usually it’s the step before, but I guess you’re playing it safe.”

Messrs. Germer and Mizrahi (whose bandana matched that of Bruce Weber, also in attendance) weren’t the only couple at the party to have taken advantage of New York’s new same-sex marriage laws. David Maupin and Stefano Tonchi brought their twin girls, Maura and Isabella.

We asked Mr. Tonchi about changes at The New York Times’s T Magazine, which he left two years ago to edit W, specifically about the recent departure of his successor, Sally Singer. “Oh, please. Old news,” Mr. Tonchi answered summarily.

Mr. Wainwright brought his husband, Jörn Weisbrodt, whom he had married the week prior. He opened his performance with what he called a “really Hamptons-y song about a bored housewife ... which I have become. Love it!” Later, he sang about his own Hamptons domesticity in “Montauk”: “This next song is about my daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen, and also my incredible new husband, Jörn Weis-” he caught himself and laughed. “Jörn Wainwright. Or Rufus Weisbrodt, however you do it. In fact, his name is Weisbrodt, which means ‘white bread’ in German, and what is it, there’s something about a honeymoon? In Dutch, a honeymoon is called a ‘white bread,’ white bread weeks. You can get fat, basically, now that you’re married.”

Lou Reed, married for four years but with his wife for a decade prior, came off a little less enchanted. “Are you done? Jesus. And we’re related,” Mr. Reed muttered jokingly, as Laurie Anderson plugged in her violin next to him, generating a loud electronic buzz.

“I would cut my legs and tits off/When I think of Boris Karloff,” Mr. Reed sang, in a song from last year’s much-maligned Metallica collaboration Lulu. He next performed a monologue in the voice of his mentor Andy Warhol: “Lou Reed got married and didn’t invite me ... you know I hate Lou, I really do.”

Ms. Anderson performed a monologue of her own, about observing the Amish in Western Pennsylvania—“Gee, I wonder what it’s like to live that way,” she mused—which nearly cleared the tent, though her political criticism drew some laughs. “Ever since hearing Clint Eastwood talk about optimism the other night at the Republican Convention,” Ms. Anderson narrated, her voice electronically shifted several octaves down, accompanied by slow synth chords, “I actually became extremely pessimistic about the future. I mean, look at the odds for a second. You have more chance of getting hit and killed in a car crash than dying in a plane crash.” (Here, she lost us again.)

As the wind off of Accabanac Harbor picked up (“I’m getting the best hairdo of my life thanks to this body of water,” Mr. Wainwright joked), guests began to wrap their shoulders in complimentary green picnic blankets.

Patrizia Pinzon, visiting from Panama, bemoaned the absence of Mr. Blades, the one Panamanian who had been scheduled to perform. “Everybody’s here, but they don’t know what it’s about.”

Have we come to the day when Gawker Media's hard up for pictures of an Olympic swimmer's pool noodle (a euphemism for "penis")? Maybe it's just decided to use that money to hire people (like its competition). And speaking of budgets, do we know what really rocked the relationship between Sally Singer and T to its anticlimactic end yesterday? We don't, but does someone else? Do you? Did we put "Gawker Media" in the headline instead of "Deadspin" because more media wonks will read it? We have the answer to approximately 3.4 of those five questions, but will only answer two, right here in your Wednesday Evening Press Clips: 

Website's Hot Pursuit of Penis Photographs Goes Limp: Haven't you heard? In the spirit of the Brett Favre story it once broke, Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin would like to get its hands on Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s penis photographs, which are apparently out there. The site put it (i.e. the matter of these penis photographs) to its readers yesterday, asking them to donate the potential funds to buy said pictures from the enterprising individual who apparently has them. The donations amounted to $141, and as such, Deadspin will be declining to purchase said pictures. This is either a important and intelligent step in the great history of checkbook journalism, or a hilarious negotiation tactic meant to nickel-and-dime someone so someone else won't have to dip into the discretionary bonus money pool and use it to get his hands on a penis photograph. The question of whether or not these photographs of a penis leak out notwithstanding, it did produce something very important: a photograph of some Gawker Media staffers who opted to gather around a desk to examine a picture of a famous person's penis. In the photograph above, you can see (from left) Gawker Media photo-illustrator Jim Cooke, Deadspin writer Dom Consentinoand Gizmodo's resident nihilist Sam Biddle, all three of whom are (so far as we know) straight men clearly having a great time. The rest are people we don't recognize, but to be fair, they're either unimpressed, bemused or simply not nearly as captivated as the other three. Also, Deadspin writer John Koblin, who has a far better reason to be there than anyone else (it is his desk, after all).  [Deadspin]  

Grantland(s) Two More: Meanwhile, in news of sports websites whose penis budget has yet to fully take shape, Grantland is adding a few more names to its murderer's row of writers: SI.com's The Point Forward blogger Zach Lowe and Pitchfork, Salon and A.V. Club contributor Steven Hyden are joining up as staff writers. [via @sean_fennessey]

The Sally Tally: WWD's Amy Wicks did a fantastic job breaking the news of Sally Singer’s departure from T Magazine yesterday, and today she broke the news down even further after getting the shove-off from both Singer and Times executive editor Jill Abramson. Basically, the ad sales team couldn't close on Singer's vision of T, budget issues, etc., etc., but very, very richly, the money quote:

Times executives just wanted a magazine that could make money without the hassle of getting involved in arguments over art direction.

Don't we all? Whether or not she stepped down or left isn't sussed out, though it sounds like it was a pretty mutual parting either way.  Especially when you take this into account:

Then there were her well-known clashes with Hugo Lindgren, editor of The New York Times Magazine. Singer was said to have angled to take over the magazine as well as T, while Lindgren reportedly wanted fashion to be folded back into the Sunday magazine to boost its ad pages.

In a power struggle, there's always a winner and a loser, even if the stakes aren't the same and both participants aren't actively engaged in it. As for this particular situation, the question now is: what happens to the winner, and the Times’s expectations of him? [WWD / MemoPad]

What Does It Take to Get Fired From Yahoo News? Now you know. [Politico]

Further Progress in Editor/Publisher Relations: How does xoJane editor in chief Jane Pratt answer her CEO's question of where she is at the moment? Well, here is a photograph of Jane Pratt, tweeted out by Jane Pratt, of Jane Pratt, in her own words "double fisting." [Instagram via @JanePratt]

What, You Didn't Hear About The Huffington Post's "Oasis" Scandal? So maybe you learned today about how the Huffington Post is offering massages at the Republican National Convention? And how those doing the massaging supposedly weren't getting paid?! Well, for one thing, we learned that they're actually volunteers or what have you, they work on tips, and the Huffington Post made a donation to their cause. For another, Rachel Sklar, erstwhile Huffington Post media writer, stopped by the Oasis. Now you know. [Huffington Post]

Music Writer Finally Reads Other Music Writers: So, which blog post for a certain major-city publication made one music journalist write the words "Related: I don’t want to be a music writer anymore." Luke O'Neil  is, in all likelihood, not alone. [Bullett]

NYT Corrects Sentence Regarding Superhuman Speed: 

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this column misstated the average pace at which women in the University of Exeter study were able to run after 10 weeks of training. Most were able to run for 30 minutes at a pace of about 12 or 13 minutes per mile -- not 12 or 13 miles per minute.

Somehow, here, "an editing error" manages to sound euphemistic. [NYT Well]

- - -

That's all we've got today. What do you have? Free, nonprofit subsidized back-rubs? The first piece of non-redundant information in the last 20 years of political conventions? Tips? Story ideas? Beats, rhythm and life? Send ’em here.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Organizers had lavished as much attention on setting the scene at the ball as on the art. Guests were able to adorn a wire-frame sculpture with crepe paper, and an energetic accordionist (his accordion labeled "Caligula") moved from room to room, performing Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" accompanied by a belly dancer wearing bells.

Actress Parker Posey, wearing neon-pink vintage, was engaged in discussion with her boyfriend, the artist Scott Lenhardt, and a group of clowns in glow-in-the-dark hats and rings. "Should we go up? Should we start down and go up?" The actress decided to ascend the five flights of stairs.

"I loved the clowns--their hats!" Ms. Posey told The Observer, once we'd both arrived safely at the fifth floor. Could she herself be an artist? "I could never do that--I'm in awe of that. I think--if you can make it alone," gesturing at her artist boyfriend. "He's alone in his studio. I need collaborators. I go to actor camp." Ms. Posey plans to make a documentary with former MTV News-woman Serena Altschul about the death of etiquette--oh no, is it really dead? The actress assured us it wasn't, and that her belief in common courtesy was reinforced that morning while listening to NPR.

The Observer wandered a floor down. On the fourth floor, the smell of a certain medicinal drug wafted through the air, though the source was unclear. The student artists' work was all for sale; one artist set out a plate of homemade chocolate-chip cookies. Fabiola Beracasa, in cream eyelet and two-tone spike heels, was on the hunt: "I'm always looking for art to purchase-but if I tell you which art, someone else will buy it!" She knew the game. "This all has me inspired to go to art school. I'm interested in making art out of things other people consider useless or garbage, making it useful." The Observer stepped to the stairs, dodging a pair of roving saxophonists blaring away in the stairwell.

Actress Jena Malone, donning an oversize blue blazer and white floor-length gown, was totally covered up compared to her scantily clad character in Sucker Punch. She said she wouldn't be willing to put paintbrush to easel: "I don't put that kind of parameter on it. Creation is creation." The accordionist roved through again, with his belly dancer jingling behind him.

Yet one more floor down, sitting in the second-floor bar, was Sally Singer, editor of T. "It makes me realize, I couldn't be an artist. I couldn't do what anyone here does." Ms. Singer twirled her hair. "They're training in deeply unironic ways. There's a kind of magic to that."

Ms. Singer had convinced The Observer of the power of art-sadly, we were sitting in black upholstered armchairs, with no art around, save for the bartenders' black feathered wings. (When asked why he wore the wings, the bartender gestured at the gothy décor and declared, "It's the room.") Still, there was something greater here! We had to return to the irony and pettiness of fashion, though: what Ms. Singer was wearing. "It's Marco Zanini for Rochas," she sighed. We apologized for the shallowness of our question, and were cut off. "Listen. I live in that world. It's a spring dress from Rochas."

Ms. Singer's predecessor at T was wandering a floor above. "Oh, it's good. It's like being an extra on Work of Art," declared Stefano Tonchi, now of W. What kind of art would Mr. Tonchi produce? "I'd make conceptual art--I like to make people guess what it is." Would W become conceptual? "No! I want people to know what it is right away."

The actress Leelee Sobieski had surpassed Mr. Tonchi--she already is an artist. "Well, I do paint." And what from the news inspires her? "When one would think inspire, you would think in a positive direction-I don't know what to say to that. Everyone's going through tough times right now." Ms. Sobieski gazed at a painting by a New York Academy student of chickens pecking one another to death. She only looked for a few moments before stepping away, but she looked as though she were inspired.

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

Edited by Daisy Prince

Click here to see photos from the week's best parties.

"Ethel has fearless style," Ms. Singer said in a release, adding that Ms. Park understands fashion's role as an "instigator in our culture." At Vogue, Ms. Park worked closely with two of Ms. Singer's more prominent colleagues, André Leon Talley and fashion director Tonne Goodman.

Ms. Singer has also hired Sara Moonves, daughter of Les, and Vanessa Traina, daughter of author Danielle Steel, as freelance fashion editors, according to Memo Pad. Both women also have experience at Vogue.

The new hires join Ms. Singer's other new non-Vogue hires earlier this month, fashion director Michelle Kessle-Sanders and features editor Jacob Brown.

Ms. Park's first day is August 30, and Ms. Singer will be in the office soon after Labor Day. Their first issue, the holiday edition of T, will come out on December 5.

The Times announced in a release this morning that Ms. Singer is bringing on Michelle Kessler-Sanders, who was most recently an SVP at Donna Karan, to replace Anne Christensen as fashion director. Ms. Christensen left T for Condé Nast last month to help Cindi Leive with Glamour.

Ms. Singer has also grabbed VMAN editor Jacob Brown to replace Armand Limnander as features editor. Mr. Limander followed Stefano Tonchi from T to W.

Related: New Front in WSJ vs. The Times — The Glossies!

One source told The Observer that The Times was able to convince Ms. Singer to leave Vogue by giving her the power to fire people, an unusual practice at the Times, which almost never relieves staffers unless there is a very significant reason.

Bill Keller told The News that "Having appointed a new chief editor, it's only natural that we would be assembling a team — some T veterans, some new recruits — to work alongside her." But it is not common practice at the paper and magazine to let staffers leave the building without finding a new job first.

Watch for Ms. Singer to make plenty of moves over the next few weeks and months ahead.