*Fop Fight: *Dandyism’s Sophistocrat lays some well-coiffured smack down on fake “Bobo Dandys” Patrick McDonald, Fonzworth Bentley, Sebastian Horsley and Pete Doherty. Oh snap! [Dandyism.net]

Departure: Graydon Carter’s former assistant and current Departures Associate Articles Editor Matt Trainor will look to transform Ralph’s site. In other news, polos will still be available in many colors. [WWD, second entry]

Internal Promotion: No major superstar hirings to come at Valentino menswear after he retires—give it a season or two. [Reuters UK]

Photography: Patrick McMullan

Curiously-coiffed Vanity Fair editor E. Graydon Carter has finally revealed the secret to Spy magazine’s success—and no, it wasn’t the invention of snark.

As we might have guessed, the key lay in looking the part. “Because we were small and because we were scrappy, I made a very conscious effort to wear a suit and tie to work every day,” Carter tells the London Guardian in a just-published profile. “You can get away with a lot more if you look like a junior part of the establishment than if you look like a renegade.”

Good advice for all you would-be rebels out there »

Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.

A few months ago we appealed to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter—in an avuncular fashion—to discard the double-breasted suits which added an unflattering layer to his majestic midsection; the wrong kind of camouflage, if you will.

He has apparently taken our advice to heart»

Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.

We’re sorry to say it, but Graydon Carter is a stubborn ass. Not eight weeks after we commended him for ditching unflatteringly-padded double-breasted suits in favor of sleek-making single-b.’s, the Vanity Fair editor is back enfolded in extra layers of fabric again, drawing undue attention to all those late night snacks at the Waverly.

We consider the pitfalls of the double-breasted jacket»

Photographed by our fearless lensman, Patrick McMullan.

Has well-upholstered Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter finally seen the error of his ways? We had reason to chide the glossy gourmand a few months back for wearing a double-breasted blazer after we distinctly instructed him to eschew the look. While we would scarcely expect a fellow who owns a glamorous greasy spoon to keep his girlish figure, we do feel one of Mr. Carter’s stature ought to employ his tailor in the artful concealment of same.

Therefore, we were delighted to see him sporting a (relatively) trim single-breasted navy blazer at the book bash for his latest coffee-table tome, Vanity Fair: The Portraits. Compare this photo to those of the earlier double-breasted numbers and witness the miraculous transformation. Here is a fellow we would call leonine, majestic, statuesque. And yes, that’s him on the right.

Vanityfair.com just executed what might be the best foreign policy/fashion bifecta ever to grace the slideshow form. The subject is Muammar Quaddafi, and his various bizzaro style choices—ranging from absurdly rococo kufis to HIStory-era MJ uniforms. Never has a world leader looked so much like a homeless person and remained in power.

The piece might seem a bit breezy considering how repressive Qaddafi’s been for the past 40 years, but we bet there are dozens of Libyan newspapermen who would kill to be able to write this piece. He’s deserved a good deflating for decades now, and it would appear that Graydon Carter has given it to him.

We don’t want to spoil it for you, so we’ll just single out this picture as worth a look. It’s actually one of his more understated outfits, but it might be enough to qualify him for a new kind of watch list…