Sally Singer, the much-liked Vogue fashion news and features director, is the new editor of the New York Times style magazine T, the paper announced today.

In a note to staff that was quoted on the paper's Web site, Times executive editor Bill Keller said: "As her résumé - and her successes at Vogue - will testify, she has the combination of aesthetic sense and intellectual curiosity suited to a style magazine that wears the name of The New York Times."

Singer has an impressive background that includes a stints as fashion director at New York magazine and an editor of the London Review of Books, as well as a contributor to The Economist and The Atlantic Monthly.

She replaces Stefano Tonchi, who resigned in March to become the editor of W magazine. Speculation about who would fill his Italian slippers has been fascinating the New York fashion world for months. Although Singer was the favorite, insiders questioned whether she would be prepared to take the pay cut that jumping from Condé Nast to the cash-strapped Times would inevitably entail.

Other contenders are said to have included former Harper's Bazaar editor Kate Betts, British stylist and journalist Katie Grand and internally, T's women's fashion director Anne Christensen and its online director, the talented Horacio Silva.

T, which appears 15 times a year bundled with the Sunday New York Times, will publish its next issue in August.

Meanwhile, find out what earthy über-celeb is becoming the face for a luxury French beauty brand.