Moe better clues?

There are probably a gazillion reasons why Jenna Sauers would be photographed at a party in NYC with her arm around someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jezebel founding editor Moe Tkacik (R^). Being Jezebel’s model mole Tatiana could be one of them. UPDATE 22/07/09: CASE CLOSED - JENNA SAUERS IS TATIANA ANYMODEL.

I didn't go out of my way looking for this picture. It simply landed in my inbox this week, sent by someone who has been following the Tatiana story. It's no smoking gun - but interesting, nonetheless.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with this story, the fashion world continues to be intrigued by the anonymous model who has been dishing on the biz in the Modelslips column on the high profile, Gawker Media-owned womens blog Jezebel.

Discussion had been raging for months when I first touched on Modelslips in a post on July 16.

On July 19, I named Sauers as one of three Tatiana suspects – based on industry buzz and online speculation.

On August 1 I mentioned that a major international book publisher had been on frockwriter, looking specifically at the July 19 post – and speculated that there might be a book deal in the pipeline for the Modelslips author.

Sauers has repeatedly denied that she is Tatiana, on The Fashion Spot web forum, on her own blog, on frockwriter – and yet again in Auckland one week ago, in an interview that I did with Sauers at New Zealand Fashion Week, which coincidentally, we both attended.

In the interview, not only did Sauers categorically deny that she is Tatiana, she also cast aspersions on Tatiana's tangled web of deception.

Sauers told me:

"I’d be a bit worried if I were her....I don’t want to criticise her or anything but there’s a slight element of almost… It seems like it might be in, I don’t want to say poor taste but almost. You’re in this industry and you’re working with clients on an understanding and then to turn around and write about it in secret, I don’t know… I have respect for that but I also would be concerned."

Whoever Tatiana is, she does seem to have something of a conflict going on here.

Tatiana has two clients: fashion companies, whose remuneration she accepts.

And a media outlet. Which is paying her to dish dirt.


ali michael, fendi SS09/style.com

Ali Michael, meanwhile, was gobsmacked to find her previously 'secret' eating disorder and Paris show snubs intel outed by The Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

Who tipped off the WSJ? Michael's mother, who reportedly complained about her daughter's lack of Paris runway work and health problems to a WSJ writer.

In web forum comments Michael's mother later described the WSJ coverage as "sensationalised". That's the term many use to describe negative media coverage - particularly those in the fashion business. Which of course, runs on spin and hype.

Michael went to ground, reemerging several months later to go public in Teen Vogue and on The Today Show, about her eating disorder and the pressures on models to be thin.

Many predicted that this might be the end of Michael's career.

Michael has however been omnipresent on the SS09 runways, including this week's big ticket Burberry and Fendi shows in Milan.