Poshbot

As the Elle turns. So Nina Garcia was sort-of-maybe fired on Friday, but the relationship between her, Elle, and Project Runway is so tangled that everyone may have jumped the gun a bit. Oops!

The scoop according to Fashion Week Daily:

Nina Garcia may have parted ways with Elle as fashion director, but in lieu of an outright dismissal, Fashion Week Daily has learned that Garcia has been offered a new role at the magazine: editor-at-large or contributing editor.

Should Garcia, whose contract was up for renewal this month, accept this lesser role, she would be allowed to remain on Project Runway for at least one more season. The hit reality series has just started casting for season five, with Elle as a confirmed partner, and will start filming June 8 and premiere on Bravo. According to sources, however, Elle is not expected to continue its partnership with Project Runway once the show transitions over to the Lifetime Network beginning with season six.

Photos from Necole Bitchie via Alicia Keys Daily

Songbird Alicia Keys lands on the cover of the April issue of Harper’s Bazaar. She looks beautiful as usual and I love the Fendi belt she’s rocking from the Spring collection.

See the rest of the snaps from Alicia Keys’ Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot over at Necole Bitchie.

Pop star Rihanna on the cover of Allure magazine January 2008

The chicks at Jezebel have a cadre of interns (okay, maybe just one) at their disposal with enough time on their hands to tally up the number of women of color in the December fashion editorial from the major fashion mags. Guess how many they found? Nada homegirls.

Here are the numbers for Vogue alone.

Vogue

Total number of ads: 173
Total number of black women: 10 (6 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 3 (1 celebrity)
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 2 (1 celebrity)

Total number of fashion spreads: 4
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0

Surprising? No.
Disappointing? Yes.
Enough to make me give up my favorite fashion mags? Conflicted.

First of all, a little sniggling fact. Penelope Cruz is on the cover of this month’s Vogue. Yes, she’s a celebrity and no, it’s not nearly enough, but let’s at least give them one point for the Latina.

I am glad that mainstream (read: non-ethnic) media types are calling attention to the dearth of women of color in magazines. If every woman screams about it, then maybe editors will start to realize that there are enough women who want to see diversity in their fashion spreads that sales won’t end up in the gutter and Conde Nast and Hearst won’t have to shutter their doors the minute they put a brown face on a cover.

See how the numbers break down for the rest of the fashion magazines over at Jezebel.