Bravo can’t get their fashion fill.

They’re hard at work on a retail docu-series amid the famed halls of Santa Monica’s Fred Segal.

The show, the network’s third fashion series, will focus on the competitive nature of retail in such a high end setting and believe us, in a store like that, with its customers and commission and cutthroat salespeople, there will be more drama and fighting than Project Runway rolled into Stylista with a dose of ANTM.

A Bravo exec said, “Fred Segal is a legendary retail haven…the fashionistas who work, shop and gossip at the store promise to have arresting, entertaining, colorful personalities and lives.”

Meanwhile, will customers be cool with cameras outside their dressing room? Or will this give the Ron Hermans of the world a boost in business?

News flash:

Looks like a reality stint on the CW can actually land you a real job at ELLE. Plenty of people thought that Stylista couldn’t possibly result in an actual job at one of the world’s top magazines, even after others swore it really would.

But now, Johanna, the show’s only-season winner, is blogging for ELLE.com - check out her interview with Rad Hourani - which means she must actually have a real, paid job with the Hachette glossy.

She’s says she’s been working very closely with linebacker Stewart Bradley. How’s that for a reality check?

Good news if you’re a fan of Nina Garcia on Project Runway, and Stylista on the CW. Bad news if you think ELLE should lay off cable-related publicity:

ELLE has just hired on Creative Artists Agency as a consultant.

Why?

Because they need someone to look for “TV shows and film properties that can elevate ELLE’s brand among potential readers,” and they’re so serious they need someone to do that full-time.

Meaning?

Get ready for more ELLE on TV, which is sure to compete with Marie Claire’s Running in Heels.

In the meantime, we’re just waiting for someone to announce they’ll host live podcasts of editorial meetings and interns packing clothes. Can’t. Wait.

Vogue UK: Gunning for a Webster entry?

While reading Vogue UK this morning, I tripped over the casual use of “stylista.” The editors refer to Emma Watson as one in their boring non-story about how she doesn’t use a stylist. I meditated on the possible meanings while walking to work, and it went something like this:

1. Would I call someone a stylista? Isn’t that almost derogatory? As in, “Haha you look like someone on that show” ?

2. Do they have Stylista in England? Do they know how icky it is?

3. Why didn’t they call her a fashionista? Is this a case of elevator/lift translation? Or something more sinister?

4. Would I even call someone a fashionista? Or is that kind of wannabe, too? Is it only acceptable for blogs (hah)?

5. Ooh, I really want those shorts from Marc, are they on sale somewhere?

—BRETT KANE

This just in:

A clue as to who wins Stylist (and no, we really can’t drum up the words for the guy who hyperventilated like he was a hostage last night).

But since we know what crabby pants people can be over spoilers, it’s hidden after the jump!

From an ELLE staffer:

Like you, we watched the premiere of Stylista last night. And probably like you, we were left… unsettled.

Can we be frank? Good. Because this is getting kind of weird. It was all fun and games when Nina Garcia decided to be a judge on a show that used to be genuinely good, and all she did was give her professional opinion while sitting neat and tidy in her director’s chair, occasionally trading jokes with Michael and Heidi, which was cute.

Then when Kelly Cutrone joined the Hills cast, it was just like “ha ha” cool, because, after all, she is a publicist - as in, publicist - and she truly did not attempt to act any differently than she does in real life, which on MTV, is admirable. (We’re not even touching The Fashionista Diaries at this time - and ANTM never felt shocking since the judges on the show are hardly industry members anyway.)

But now what was once fun and games has hit a bona fide fever pitch, with the Style Channel’s new The Stylist, MTV’s Model Makers, and of course, Whitney Port’s new spinoff, The City, in which she works for an actual designer who’ll probably be on camera a total of ten seconds by season’s end. But we doubt any of these will hit home the way Stylista did last night.

Because the thing is, everyone knows these people. You’ve either seen them out, seen their work, worked with them or maybe for them, and you definitely know what they actually walk / talk / look / dress like, so watching them play their own caricature was a little like seeing your little sister’s Facebook - disturbing.

(And can we just add here that when it came out that contestant Megan is co-owner of Addict on 12th St, we literally involuntarily yelled, “WHAT?!” to the screen.)

No one expects reality television to be real, so these real, recognized people with real jobs playing their tele-real versions is kind of like getting robbed in your home - you can’t believe it’s happening, and you keep asking yourself, “is this really happening?” Because dear reader, it’s not. At least, not really.

Lately, there are a lot of invites to events flying around that make us go, “huh?” And sometimes, they actually make us go “ew”:

ELLE’s sponsoring a Fashion Week show at the Metropolitan Pavilion on the 9th. The show’s being “curated” by LA boutique Dash, the children’s boutique Smooch, and the whole thing’s being hosted by Khloe Kardashian, to no doubt be filmed for her family’s reality show.

The event’s the same date as the second episode of Stylista, at 10am.

But somehow, we expect Anne Slowey to be at Badgley Mischka instead.

The Fashion Department at ELLE needs some serious help - Fashion Week is only 16 days away!

They need someone right away to work 3 - 4 full days per week, and prior magazine or PR experience is preferred.

So please contact them only if you are super serious about organizing tons of clothes, working late to help out since most editors will be out at the shows, and know not to ask stuff like, “Can I leave at 6?”

Send your information to ELLEfashioninternship@gmail.com.

And maybe you can score a spot spying on the Stylista winner, too…

Ever since Lauren Weisberger wrote The Devil Wears Prada, there’s been an influx of fashion-related books/movies/tv shows liquifying our taste buds.

So forgive us for having totally missed that a book called Fashionistas came out three years ago, about a “young designer working at a design firm who plots to take down her ruthless boss by inventing a fictitious must-have designer.”

So why are we thinking about this today? Because Paramount Pictures is turning the novelette into a movie, and it looks like they’re keeping the original name, Fashionistas.

This is right on the heels of the realization that there will now be three tv shows all about fashion this upcoming Fall season (Stylista, The Stylist - in which Erin Wasson may be starring - The Rachel Zoe Project, and way more if you continue to count the likes of Project Runway, ANTM and The Hills).

No word on who’s set to star (our bet goes to Rachel Bilson), but they at least have the director signed up - Donald Petrie. His previous works include Mystic Pizza, Miss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Just My Luck.

You know the summer’s near its end when the Fall rumors are about the prime time lineup, too -

We hear MTV’s sending out pitches to major fashion companies about their newest show, The Stylist.

Apparently, it follows eight wannabe stylists in a “challenge type show” - and the winner gets a contract with Margaret Maldonado Agency, Rachel Zoe’s old backer, “the most powerful stylist agency in Hollywood.”

The show goes into production soon - the pitches are all about Spring ‘09 product placement, so we expect it to debut well after Stylista’s September 3rd premiere.

So - that’s Gossip Girl, Stylista, The Stylist, and the return of Project Runway.

Should TiVo do a designer collaboration? Maybe they could even do a show about it…

It looks like the CW has some direct competition for Stylista this fall:

The Style Network is launching its own as-of-yet, unnamed reality show in which three interns will compete for a position with “a top fashion magazine in New York” by the end.

They’re just starting to cast the show, and the applicant letter advertises that “no experience is necessary” but that interested candidates must be “fiercely passionate about working in the fashion, beauty & lifestyle publication industry.”

There will be upcoming auditions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville and Philadelphia, so please bring your iPhone if you’re planning on trying out!

We’re not sure if reality shows for jobs is the new norm for fashion (is it telling that we didn’t even smirk when we opened the e-mail?), but most importantly, stay tuned for which magazine…

(Full release after the jump!)

When I walked into Kate Spade’s showroom this morning, pre-coffee, I thought, I hoped, I’d actually walked on to the set of Mad Men.

I skipped past the bags my mom would probably like to the racks of nipped waists, faux fur collars, and Michael Kors-like florals generously trimmed with bows, feathers and glitter.

Matching clutches and heels abounded. There were elbow length gloves, brightly colored satin heels and fluffy headbands Blair Waldorf would kill for.

If I could have walked away with one thing, it’d have been the envelope clutch from Kate’s new Par L’avion collection, (after the jump). And if I could have asked Joe Zee one thing in the elevator on the way down, it would have been, “Why’d you change the name from Fashionista to Stylista?”

But he just wanted to talk about whether or not he’s allowed to wear shorts to work, and I wasn’t going to interrupt that discussion.

We knew Stylista would be a dramatic, over-the-top, hysterically unrealistic reality show, but seriously, we didn’t think it would be like this.

Check out the clips if you can’t believe that:

1. Contestants (because that’s what they are) have to set up Maggie Rizer’s hotel suite for her before she flies into town (Bonus info: does that mean Maggie’s in an upcoming ELLE shoot? And going to be on the show?)

2. Contestants are asked to plan Anne Slowey’s niece’s birthday party, to which the niece instructs “don’t embarrass me,” sounding like a cross between that 13-year girl from the bat mitzvah episode on SATC and Monty Burns.

3. A faux clueless contestant says, “I certainly don’t want to be carrying anyone’s coffee” with just enough of a smirk on her face saying even she knows she’ll never live this down.

4. A horrifying contestant says, “If you want to work in this industry, you have to change your body for it.”

Yikes.

To: Natalie@fashionista.com

From: ISee@All.com

Here’s something for your girls:

Rumor has it that Anne Slowey may actually be hiring her Stylista reality show contestant….(in the real, not the faux, ELLE office!).

But the show finishes filming soon (like now), so wouldn’t the new person answering her phones spoil the show a bit?

Wouldn’t everyone in the industry who calls / emails Anne end up knowing who wins?

xx

This month, ELLE has Rihanna on its cover… and Dancing with the Stars on its new website.

The magazine famous for its razor-sharp fashion coverage is launching its own celebrity news site, akin to People.com, and calling it Hollywood Up Close.

So far, the site’s homepage - which we think must be in soft launch - stars Kristy Yamaguchi, Britney Spears, and David from American Idol.

This isn’t ELLE’s first big foray into the entertainment world:

After their recent Project Runway scuffle, the magazine is launching Stylista, a reality show about a hellish editor starring the normally low-key Anne Slowey.

Is it lunchtime already?

Because we have a little snack for those of you dying to point and laugh at something along with your cubemates.

Here are some clips from what might possibly be a show stranger than ANTM.

Did you hear those breakfast trays quivering? Catch the Miranda vibe?

Now that’s the sound of “reality”!

The only saving detail - the YSL star necklace!

The first promo images from Stylista (formerly the same name as us) are out and, obviously, nobody’s surprised.

Looks like the show is going to be as Tyrrific as well all feared and hoped.

The only thing faker than those “contestants” is the office this was shot in - believe us, readers, that is not ELLE.

Can’t wait to see who gets fired over bringing Anne Slowey the wrong lunch.

Oh wait, we totally can.

This morning WWD reported that ELLE’s Joe Zee and Anne Slowey have started a New York City promo tour for the CW’s “Fashionistas”.

But there seems to be a little confusion on the Tyra front, or someone missed the memo.

Reuters now reports that the show is called Stylista, and the contestants will vie for the coveted ELLE position as well as two other prizes we haven’t heard before: a year’s paid lease on a Manhattan apartment and - perhaps the most covetable of all - a yearlong shopping allowance at H&M worth $100,000.

Hey, at least we don’t have to share our name anymore…

— JAZZI McGILBERT