Chanel Iman’s been building that TV resume for over a year now.

First came MTV’s House of Style revival, than a guest appearance on Gossip Girl and then this (not quite TV) Modelinia video with Coco Rocha - but now we hear she’ll judge the next season of America’s Next Top Model.

We haven’t watched the show in a few years, but we’d tune in to hear an actual model tell maybe models what modeling’s actually like. Here’s hoping Chanel dishes some industry truths and wears some awesome outfits.

Hooray for the high fashion-ization of reality TV!

Remember this Alexander Wang dress?

Its evolution started with a runway debut on Aline Weber last September, hopped right to a V Magazine party that same week on Anja Rubik, and quickly became the new Prada lace, popping up in every single editorial until even Topshop attempted to rip it off, disastrously, and everyone who’d bought it finally tucked the piece away into the back of their closet.

But we hear Tyra Banks rocks it on the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model.

What does this mean? Well, we’ll finally see it on a womanly body, which could give those squiggles a whole new dimension. But more importantly, it means Tyra might start incorporating relevant fashion into the show (though yes, a year behind). Maybe she can put the models in Prada’s epic SS09 sandals in the second episode and see if they fare any better than the originals?

So, I really did go to Vermont this weekend, and I really did try to keep an eye out for Karl even though I was really on the wrong side of the state. But guess what? Karl’s not the only one moving his off-hours fun site to the green mountains -

On Friday, I stopped by Parker Pie, the only pizzeria for many miles in West Glover, VT (pop. couldn’t be more than 600). Just as soon as I walked in, someone exclaimed, “YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE WHO WAS JUST HERE!”

Who?

“Tyra Banks! She sat in the back with some guy and had a pizza.”

And there you have it. The apocalypse.

Despite our excitement that Whitney Thompson won the latest Top Model crown, there’s no doubt that the show is getting more boring by the season - not quite Hills boring, but almost…

So it was interesting to hear Tyra Banks admit in her recent interview with The New York Times that she, too, was bored of the show -

Namely the contestants, who “only want to be famous.”

Well shit, Tyra, we could have told you that by Cycle Four.

Tyra promises in the article that upcoming seasons of Top Model will test and weigh the contestant’s knowledge of fashion and potential for industry viability above all else.

We’ll believe it when we see it - and when she lowers the show’s age requirement from 18 to 15.

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

Much like the blonde and preening Whitney, America’s Next Top Model improves its own performance every week.

Especially impressive are this season’s photo shoots, which actually resemble real magazine spreads - last week’s Nu Rave Spin-Art session looked dangerously close to a past POP editorial, while this episode’s music shoot was straight out of Conde Nast: Fashion Rocks. We dug it, especially the acknowledgment of “Emo” as a legit genre, and the way Fatima looked like a real Vogue model - if only she weren’t such a downer!

But there was one thing to take issue with:

The “nude” shoot bestowed on Russian surfer Anya.

In a few terrifying shots, it looked like she was baring all - and we mean all - on public television, and then we realized:

She was wearing an itsy bitsy thong to shield her itsy bitsy vagina.

We’re not sure it counts as a nude shoot if the model gets to wear underwear, but we were also mystified that the Top Model producers flashed so much random skin.

Surely after all this time, they don’t need more ratings?!

(Note: Please at least look over your shoulder before you click through if you’re at work…)

When I was approached by a CW Casting Director for Tyra’s much-debated new show, I wasn’t sure what to think. On the one hand, I thought, “This could be my big break! ELLE!” - (Fashionista is now my fourth internship in the fashion world.) On the other hand, I thought, “Ew.”

After myriad debates with friends and at the office, I knew I was at least going to try it out when I found myself in the midst of the 21-page application.

But when I arrived at the casting, one for fashionistas handpicked by the CW’s casting crew, I was confronted with about 100 girls (and about twenty boys) who could have stepped out of a ShopBop catalog. I got the sense that these were hopeful kids who had never actually worked in the industry, but were cute enough for primetime TV (In fact, it should be noted that when I was approached, although I was assured that it would be more Apprentice than ANTM, I was never asked about any actual experience.)

There was a blue screen, lights, and a camera set up in the middle of a converted hotel banquet room where CW staffers demanded, “Show me your personality! Show us crazy!”

I should have known when the application asked questions like “What character are you most like from The Devil Wears Prada? (Read some application highlights after the jump!)

I snuck out of the room before the camera could find me. I just can’t picture ever being a top editor with footage of trashy housemates (and me!) performing timed runs to showrooms in six-inch platforms re-playing on late-night MTV marathons.

And I wasn’t the only one - I caught a few other hopefuls leaving early, and I heard the CW is still casting. For a show that’s supposed to air this Spring, they’re going to have to find some good candidates fast - Trashy or not, I know I’ll be watching.

—JAZZI McGILBERT

Some familiar faces at Baby Phat…

Cheese!

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

For more, check out RoidRage.

We were shocked to learn that Tyra is starting yet another reality show, about breaking into fashion magazines nonetheless.

Now, we’re even more shocked. Why? It turns out that the magazine in question is not one of the less exciting books like everyone expected - it’s fashion giant ELLE.

WWD reports that Creative Director Joe Zee and Fashion News Director Anne Slowey are close to closing the deal to play the judges on the new show. The contestants will compete for a position at ELLE working under Zee.

Oh, and the working title for the soon-to-be TV addiction? Wait for it… “Fashionista”.

We kid you not.

—JAZZI McGILBERT

It looks like Tyra Banks didn’t get the memo on what a joke The Fashionista Diaries was.

Reuters reports that the TV-loving once-model has struck a deal with the CW (the same geniuses that brought us Gossip Girl) to host a reality show about breaking into the fashion magazine world.

Each episode will center around weekly challenges, much like Tyra’s ANTM, and each challenge win will be recorded in The Book, a mock up of a fake mag that shows Tyra really took The Devil Wears Prada to heart for this.

The grand prize after the entire contest is over and all (some?) of America has watched the contestants practice timed runs to Starbucks and marathon fashion shoots? An Assistant Editor position at an unnamed fashion mag.

We know some poor, clueless kids will line up to be in this show (and yes, we’re planning on watching). The more pressing question? Which fashion book will team up with Tyra? Keep in mind that its editors will be the judges, which pretty much vetoes Vogue, Elle and any other magazine that’s doing well…

Stay tuned…

To: Faran@fashionista.com

From: Insider@BigDesigner.com

So I got a call from Jade, the crazy Top Model contestant who was just a terror. It was actually her agent asking if I was interested in booking her for fashion week in February… She called her the “million dollar face.”

I’m not doing the booking anyway, and c’mon, it’s JADE! [Redacted: too mean for print]. But she insisted on emailing me these pictures and I had to share them with you.

We were thinking about having a go see just for fun if we weren’t busy as hell. We’re not as mean as she was on the show!

There’s nothing remotely fashionable about any of this, but its pretty hilarious. Apparently Matthew Ralston shot them. Enjoy.

We hear from a source that although Saleisha has indeed signed her Elite contract and strolled through their New York office, she won’t be hitting the New York Fashion Week circuit - in fact, the agency won’t even be sending her on runway castings.

Also, although Elite models are routinely signed for three-year contracts, the binding papers for the Top Model winner may be a shorter one-year agreement.

So what will Saleisha be doing instead of fashion shows and castings?

“Press appointments and Cover Girl filming takes up the bulk of her first few months,” says the source, “And then it’s more likely she’ll go out for sportswear campaigns, like Jaslene Gonzales did last year.”

Meanwhile, Elite has another relative newbie who actually could be America’s next top model - their fifteen-year-old foundling, Karlie Kloss, is on the cover of Teen Vogue this month with Chanel Iman and Ali Michael.

Oh yes, and who do you think will win Top Model tonight? Jenna who looks like Sasha, Salesha who looks like a pop star, or Chantal, who’s really, really blonde? We think Salesha because they’ve given her the nicest edit… and because she went to Tyra’s summer camp.

The new Bravo show Make Me a Supermodel looks rather boring - except for one thing.

It’s Niki Taylor, former Cover Girl (and Sports Illustrated cover girl) who’s hosting the show - after about ten years on vacation.

But Niki’s not the only ’90s supermodel who’s got a reality gig. Heidi Klum’s fame achieved a new level when she took on Project Runway, and now Veronica Webb is Tim Gunn’s accomplice on his Guide to Style. Iman is also a Project Runway host, in Canada, and Elizabeth Hurley has the judging duties in London. Meanwhile, Rachel Hunter hosted Make Me a Supermodel in the UK and a very silly show called Style Me in the US.

Then of course there’s Tyra, who was perhaps the catalyst for the model-hostess trend in the first place. Her incredibly successful TV show turned her (back) into a star, and made her a lucrative production company in the process.

But maybe reality-models go deeper than Tyra, and into something about the very nature of mannequins. If their job has always been to heighten life, making things seem almost normal and attainable but also not really, then reality TV is their perfect place, a surreal space where you understand what’s happening, but it could never actually happen to you.

Unless, of course, you think The Hills is real.

One of our big Top Model peeves is that nearly all the girls are too old to begin a modeling career. Right now, most of the top girls are 19 and 20, and the ones that are 25-30 (Irina, Raquel, Angela, Missy) have been working for a long time. Even Agyness, 24, has been stomping in England since early 2000, although her big pickup didn’t come for two years.

But if Tyra’s girls are too old, are the V Model finalists a bit too young?

We realize that Gemma and Stam started working around age 15, but two of the five V finalists - who win a contract with Supreme and a spread on the magazine’s website - are in junior high, with Tennessee native Ashley Hanks (left) clocking in at thirteen years old.

She looks incredible, as do all the other girls, and we’re grateful to V for keeping their search realistically focused on girls who can really be models.

But there’s one problem:

If Ashley (or 14-year-old Dara, or 15-year-old Amanda) wins the Supreme contract, they won’t be able to participate in Fashion Week - at least not according to the CFDA, who ruled last year that girls under 16 can’t walk.

The New York Times has a piece today on Heather Kuzmich, the Top Model contestant who just got booted.

Most of it is stuff you already know: Heather has Asperger’s Syndrome, she often can’t look people in the eye, she still looks ridiculously good on camera.

It’s also no surprise that Heather wants to be the new spokeswoman for Asperger’s, as she tells The Times.

But we did like it when Heather admitted “I’m used to people ignoring me,” something that’s going to be very hard now that she’s a reality TV star - at least for the rest of the year, until a new ANTM cycle starts going.

We do wonder what will happen to Heather now that she’s had this unusual experience, but we also wonder about the reporter’s musings that “the addition of Heather Kuzmich to an otherwise superficial show has given millions of viewers an unusual and compelling glimpse into the little-understood world of Asperger’s.”

Really? Because we thought Tyra played it like any other plot angle - you could be the girl from the projects, or the one who had an eating disorder or an abusive boyfriend, or you could have a neurological condition - it all seems to get the same editing treatment of Tyra turning her little ducklings into wannabe swans.

Those housebound with hangovers this weekend no doubt caught the Top Model marathon, which ran longer than a James Cameron movie and proved just as frightening.

Watching Jaslene win (again) and Jade suck (always) was fun, but what we find most fascinating is the way the producers go out of their way to drive the girls out of their minds. Catwalks with cockroaches? Please. One phone for twelve girls? Dumb. But the cruelest and most unusual punishment seemed to be one challenge that was both dangerous and incredulous.

The problem?

It was also the only challenge that collided with the real world of fashion.

It was in Cycle Six, when Tyra proffered a pair of Vivienne Westwood spike heels to every girl in the contest, and asked them to walk down a flight of steps and across a runway. “You guys,” warns Tyra, “One of the most famous models in the world fell in these shoes” - it was Naomi Campbell in 1993, who later admitted to David Letterman that she could have “broken both my feet” in the shoes.

They don’t make them anymore, but the girls still had to try clomping, leaving Danielle Evans in clutches after she crashed.

Danielle eventually won the show, but the Westwood Shoe Challege still crawled under our skin in a way we’ve never felt about Top Model. We think it might have been a bit mean and nasty for the girls, who are nervous, tired, and generally uncoordinated.

But maybe instead it’s this - that the fashion world itself is sometimes mean and nasty, and the fact that Tyra shows that aspect, without any of its true aesthetics or art, just seems unfair and empty…. but still sickly addictive, which is why we screen-shotted the entire sequence, and posted it below.

The biggest news from across the pond today: Lily Allen just got her very own television show, and it sounds like a cross between MySpace and Saturday Night Live.

The internet queen, who launched her first album without a major record label by posting all of her songs online, will host a variety show with a live studio audience. Everyone on the program will be chosen from Lily’s extensive MySpace friend list - she has almost 500,000 of them.

The show will air on BBC3 and is set to premier sometime in the spring, and could make a New York pit stop in Spring ‘08, which means you’ve got to get ready:

Grab a Luella or Stella McCartney dress to make sure you’re fashion approved, and then practice your British accent -

The last time we saw Lily, in Paris, she told us that “British girls have it, and Paris girls just don’t… If you’re from New York, you could go either way, but you need to stop pretending you don’t care about clothes.”

Lily’s obviously born to be a talk show host - Tyra would totally say the same thing.

—NATALIE HORMILLA