• The latest on the Nina Garcia saga: If she takes the editor-at-large gig she'll only be there til mid-October, when ELLE's contract with Project Runway ends and then she'll be let go for reals. (Dear Nina: You can do better than that.) Meanwhile, no one at ELLE or its publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media has issued a single comment on the entire situation. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Meanwhile, everyone at ELLE is pissed that the taping of its reality show Fashionista is ruining everyone's lives. [NY Daily News]
  
• Audrey Tatou is rumored to be the newest face of Chanel No. 5. Does this mean that Nicole Kidman got the boot? Maybe she and Nina can start a sort of ex-wives club together. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "I think the luxury is not only what we give to ourselves, but what we can give to others. Obviously, we can get more of this and this, but the true luxury is being able to give back. When one has been blessed with the ability to have made it...it's our social responsibility." Nice try, Donna Karan. But...no. [WWD, sub req'd]

• "You can sort of tell the designers by the pieces," says Gap designer Patrick Robinson on the retailer's white shirt sdesigned by Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Michael Bastian and Threeasfour. Um, wouldn't it be troublesome if you couldn't? Isn't this sort of a given when it comes to design? [WWD, sub req'd]
• Victoria Beckham is not above groveling to get L.A. boutique Kitson to not drop her denim line from its stores. [PopSugar]
• Women need to learn to "shop like a man"? My ass! Don't know about you, but the ladies I know think a lot more about where they put their dollars then the fellas in my life. [Telegraph]
• Margaret Thatcher: Style icon? Sure, and Hillary's yellow pantsuits are going to be the next big thing for spring! [Telegraph]
• Kenneth Cole has poached Liz Claiborne executive vice president Jill Granoff to make her the company's new CEO. Smells like another failure of the Tim Gunn-Bill McComb regime at Claiborne to me. [WWD, sub req'd]
• LVMH's profits are up by 12%, largely because of the roaring success of the Louis Vuitton label. Marc Jacobs: 1, haters: 0. [WWD, sub req'd]
• How the hell are Burberry's profits up by over 19%? Really: Explain it to me. [WWD, sub req'd]
• And L'Oreal's profits are in the shitter. [Reuters]
• Who's the most accomplished Versace sibling now? Santo Versace, who has just joined Italy's House of Parliament. Can't you just see Donatella busting in there, screaming, "Geeeeeeeet outtttttt!" 'Cause I can. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Gucci has hired David Lynch to direct commercials and James Franco to front its new men's fragrance. [WWD, 3rd item]
• So word on the street is that Sasha Pivovarova is being ousted as the face of Prada for Linda Evangelista. Drama! [Sassybella]
• Designer Roland Mouret on what makes a fashion icon: "Icons last but fashion changes. What I try to do is allow a woman to work with the icon inside herself. The body is an icon, and I create a shell for that body." Just like Invasion of the Body Snatchers! [Vogue UK]
• These shoes scare me. [Chic Report]

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