Memo Pad: VF Around Town... Calm Is The New Chic.... Watching Wintour...

VF AROUND TOWN: Vogue isn’t the only Condé Nast magazine kicking off a shopping-related event on Thursday. Vanity Fair’s second annual Campaign New York, a program that combines commercialism, culture, altruism and sportsmanship, also begins that night and runs through Sept. 17. The series of editorial and advertiser-sponsored events around the city includes Spotlight on Madison, a program that celebrates shopping by helping to drive consumers to the 118 stores, galleries, restaurants, hotels, spas and salons on the street. On vfagenda.com, a Spotlight section lists special offers and events at participating businesses.

The centerpiece of Campaign New York will be the Proust Parlour at 50 Greene Street, which will house an exhibit of Vanity Fair contributing artist Robert Risko’s illustrations from the Proust Questionnaire column that runs each month in the magazine. Visitors to the parlour will be able to answer video questionnaires, which will be uploaded to a microsite on vfagenda.com. On Thursday evening, an opening party sponsored by Grand Marnier will showcase the liquor company’s latest ad campaign by illustrator Jordi Labanda. The new 2010 Buick LaCrosse will shuttle Proust Parlour guests around Manhattan.

On Saturday, the magazine will mark the launch of BrandaidProject NYC at the newly opened DVF Gallery in the Meatpacking District. Artwork from artisans working in economically challenged communities will be on display. BrandaidProject is an organization that buys art from the artists at market rates.

At the Paris Theater on Monday, Vanity Fair will host the U.S. premiere of “Bright Star” Jane Campion’s film about poet John Keats and his 18-year-old muse, Fanny Brawn.

Campaign New York will close with an event sponsored by Hermès at SPiN, the table tennis-cum-social club launched by Susan Sarandon. “It will give [Hermès] access to a younger target,” said Vanity Fair vice president and publisher Edward J. Menicheschi. “It puts them into something downtown, ‘It’ girl, really cool and talked about.” — Sharon Edelson