Chanel Insiders Reportedly Unhappy With Blake Lively's "Look"

Apparently, there have been “internal grumblings” at Chanel’s U.S. division over the brand’s choice to hire Blake Lively as a face. Certain people say that Lively’s is an “off-brand look” — “the bitchy fashion industry’s clinical way of saying that Lively’s contemporary American beauty does not dovetail with Chanel USA’s efforts to sell its fashions as the height of European sophistication,” explains the Daily News. When Lively was named the new star of the brand’s ads, she memorably told the press that Chanel handbags are special because they’re “full of dreams.” [NYDN]

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After studying Lara Stone’s underwear very closely, a CBS affiliate is willing to advance the theory that this billboard has a hidden message that reads “F U c K.” Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. [CBS]

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• Elizabeth Taylor’s famous jewelry collection — estimated value: $150 million — will be auctioned off at Christie’s in London, according to sources. [NYPost]
• Prabal Gurung has become a goodwill ambassador of the anti-human-trafficking organization Maiti Nepal. [Ekantipur, @Prabalgurung]
• Kanye West has created a line of five silk scarves with the French creative consultants M/M Paris. The scarves feature imagery like “a severed head wearing a crown and a naked sphinx straddling a likeness of West.” [Nowness]
• Lion Capital, the investment bank that basically owns American Apparel’s ass these days, allegedly advised Dov Charney “not to pay a single penny” to settle any of the five sexual-harassment lawsuits he currently faces. [NYPost]
• Prada certainly had a banner year in 2010: The company just announced that net profits for the year were $336 million, 150.4% more than the $140.2 million it raked in in 2009. Revenues rose 31%, to $2.75 billion. C.E.O. (and Mr. Miuccia Prada) Patrizio Bertelli says these numbers “were never obtained before in the history of Prada.” This certainly bodes well for Prada’s planned IPO. [WWD]
• Finally, some happy financials from Versace, which had a very rough time indeed during the first stretch of the recession. In 2010, the company reduced its debt by more than half, and sales grew 9.1%, to $385.8 million. [WWD]
• Some dude from Guns N’ Roses named DJ Ashba is starting a clothing line. [Express]
• The surfer Kelly Slater is also founding a fashion line. [Telegraph]
• Turns out Isaac Mizrahi had those models carrying cakes on his runway back in February for an episode of Cake Boss. [Gather]
• It was celebrity Sophie’s Choice this weekend when a Miami nightclub hit capacity and wouldn’t admit all the famous people who’d come to party there. Reggie Bush had to choose only two (2!) women from among his entourage, and Naomi Campbell and Vladimir Doronin had to leave their security escort waiting outside. [P6]
• Victoria’s Secret face Lily Aldridge and Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon are allegedly set to marry in California this May. [P6]
• Eva Herzigova’s neighbors are opposed to the model’s plans to renovate her London home. [Vogue UK]
• Model Bridget Hall, who was arrested for driving drunk last August and agreed to perform community service, was arrested last week for driving without a license. She said she was on her way to do community service, and couldn’t afford a cab. [P6]
• Yayoi Kusama is doing a limited-edition collection of Juicy Tubes lip gloss. [Vogue]
• Alexander Wang is adding men’s wear to his main line at last. (Wang already has men’s wear in his lower-priced T by Alexander Wang collection.) His first men’s collection will hit stores this fall, priced at $375-$2,150. [Style.com]
• Kari Sigerson and Miranda Morrison, who together founded Sigerson Morrison, are leaving the company. It has been owned by Marc Fisher since 2006. Sigerson says the news that their services were no longer required was “a surprise.” [WWD]
• Cacharel is not renewing its contract with Belgian designer Cédric Charlier. [WWD]
• A 16-year-old New Jersey teenager named David Urbanke has been moonlighting as a test photographer for some New York modeling agencies. [NYPost]
• Street-style photographer Tommy Ton can make $100-$2000 by licensing his images to magazines and newspapers around the world. But he derives only 30% of his income from it: the remainder comes from his regular gigs with Style.com and GQ.com and advertising work for clients like Topshop. He does not accept advertising on his blog, Jak & Jil, but he would take money from a brand for editorial placement on the site. [Business of Fashion]
• A blogger went to try on Costco’s new $600-and-up wedding dresses: “If you’re brave enough to venture out of the dressing room to look at yourself in the 3-way mirror, you’re more than welcome, even encouraged, but be warned that you will also probably be in full view of Costco shoppers, gawking at TVs and cameras, carrying 25-pound pans of microwave lasagne and 50-pound bags of Fresh Step kitty litter. Romantic.” So what? Who are these twee souls who assume that every aspect of the Wedding Process will be infinitely Pleasurable and Magical and Special And Uniquely Yours, Forever? They’re dresses. They don’t disintegrate if worn in the vicinity of pasta. [Racked]
• The curator of a new Montréal exhibit dedicated to Jean-Paul Gaultier’s clothing says that visitors will be greeted by a talking Gaultier mannequin. “We molded the head of Jean Paul in plaster and we will have [film] projections right onto the face,” he explained. Also getting the talking-head-film-projection experience will be mannequins of Eve Salvail and Melissa Auf der Maur. Sounds…interesting. [WWD]