Victoria Beckham Does Not Care if You Think She's a Tabloid Sourpuss

Victoria Beckham was shot by Karl Lagerfeld in Coco Chanel’s former apartment for French Elle. She tells the magazine, “I’m very different than what people write in the tabloids. That’s the first thing that people tell me when they meet me. It’s true that I appear kind of reserved in photos, but who cares if I smile or not for pictures? I work hard, I love my family, I’m trying to be the best mother and the best woman I can. It’s been a long time since I cared what other people think of me.” [Elle.fr]

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Prabal Gurung and Target have announced that they are working on a designer collaboration. This is the only currently photo available of the line, which will hit stores in February and retail for $19.99-$199.99. [Lucky]

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Azealia Banks is “definitely boycotting” Dolce & Gabbana over the luxury label’s use of racist imagery in its spring collection. Someone noticed those Mammy earrings. [Fashin]

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Iris Apfel’s shoe line for HSN looks cute. [The Cut]

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Mango booked Madison Headrick and Karlie Kloss for its winter catalog. [FabSugar]

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These new $90 Nike running tights are emblazoned with x-ray images of legs. [AdWeek]

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• HMX Group, the largest remaining manufacturer of men’s suits in the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in four years. HMX, which employs around 1100 garment workers alone, filed Chapter 11 and listed assets of $50,000 and liabilities of $50-$100 million. Authentic Brands is interested in acquiring HMX and says a plan is in place to keep factory jobs in the U.S. [WWD]
• Tory Burch talked to NBC about the fashion label she and ex-husband Chris Burch founded and Chris Burch’s latest venture, C. Wonder. “I have seen the stuff, and some of it is too referential,” said Tory Burch. “And I think that he’s going to be changing that.” Tory Burch is currently facing a lawsuit from her ex for allegedly interfering with his new business and breach of contract. [Fashionista]
• Gilles Mendel dressed six actresses for the Emmy Awards, including Kat Dennings, Jessica Lange, and Anna Gunn. The designer offers his explanation for his label’s red-carpet popularity:
• “I chalk it up to a combination of things: we are one of the design houses in America that is very conscious of Old Hollywood glamour — the old world. We’re not trendy. The red carpet is very much reflective of that world. Women want to wear dresses that flatter their bodies, but are also light and comfortable. I’m making everything lighter — but there is still corsetting in these dresses, there is still shape. Also, we are proactive about dressing stars. I will send them sketches, I work with them, I really enjoy collaborating with them and their stylists. If they have particular needs and ideas, then we have a real dialogue.”
• Mendel adds, “The red carpet had taught me a lot — and a dress being seen in three dimensions, how the camera sees it and lights it up — it taught me that’s it’s very necessary for the woman feel comfortable in it.” [THR]
• Alessandra Ambrosio says that shooting the Victoria’s Secret holiday catalog two months after she gave birth this spring had its upsides (nursing cleavage) and its downsides (she was nervous about showing her stomach on camera). “Oh my god, are you kidding? I was like four times bigger than normal,” remembers Ambrosio, who will be wearing the bra with $2.5 million worth of diamonds on it at this year’s Victoria’s Secret show. [The Cut]
• Carolyn Murphy talked about her love for Honey Boo Boo at Bergdorf Goodman’s 111th birthday party:
• “Something did recently catch my interest…What is this Honey Boo Boo show? It’s quite intriguing. I don’t know how classy it is, but I’m intrigued.”
• [Fashionista]
• According to a new study by Visa, 90% of people who use the Internet at least once per week have shopped online recently, up from 67% one year ago. Fashion is the second most common category for online purchases (37%) after books and DVDs (45%). [WWD]
• Vera Wang says she spends a good portion of her day in a van that sounds more like a mobile office:
• I have two drivers, one for the first eight hours and another for the next eight. The van is my moving office. I have everything: a tiny pharmacy, a fridge, water, Swedish Fish, blankets and pillows, a sketchbook so I can draw. I always joke that if it had a toilet I could live in it. Everyone laughs and says it’s ugly, but I don’t care. I call it my jet, because I don’t have a private jet.
• […]Once, after a dinner for Hillary Clinton, there were two vans outside. I jumped in one, and three of the handsomest guys I ever saw drew guns. I said, “Oops, wrong van!” But that’s how Hillary rolls too.
• [Fashionista]
• Marc Jacobs booked just one model, Ruby Jean Williams, for his spring campaign. Juergen Teller shot the ads, as per usual. [WWD]
• Lourdes had a summer job in the wardrobe department of her mother’s MDNA tour. She says:
• “Being in the wardrobe department meant me and a few other girls dressed the dancers during the show when they had quick changes. Thirty seconds to totally dress a sweaty dancer can be insane and provoke mucho anxiety. Doing this night after night was pretty cray, but I loved every minute of it.”
• [People]
• Paraguayan officials working in collaboration with U.S. Homeland Security officials seized a shipment of counterfeit watches believed to be bound for the U.S. The fake watches were branded Hublot, Tag Heuer, Bulgari and Patek Philippe and would have been worth over $34 million had they been real. [WWD]
• American model Louise Parker was an exclusive for the Saint Laurent show in Paris. She says after Hedi Slimane saw a video of her, she met with Slimane’s casting director in New York. Then she was summoned to Paris for a meeting, with no promise of work:
• “I just went in and I walked for them, and they put me in the Saint Laurent shoes, which were crazy. I don’t have much experience walking in heels, and these were difficult to walk in. Hedi told me that I had a pretty bad walk, and that I needed to work on it, but he was really nice about it – he said, “Oh you’re great, you’ll work for me, but your walk really needs some help.” And then I started working with them three days later.”
• [The Cut]
• Karl Lagerfeld will present an award to Haider Ackermann at this week’s Fashion Group International awards. [WWD]
• By the way, Lagerfeld says he totally did not call the French president “an idiot.” [The Cut]
• Versace is opening a new boutique in New York City. The gimmick: the brand picks a succession of “curators” who, according to Women’s Wear Daily, “will offer their personal visions or interpretations of the brand through a collection of limited-edition products.” Christopher Kane is the first curator, and while one might argue that as the company’s co-creative director everything Versace does already reflects Kane’s “personal visions or interpretations of the brand,” but no matter: apparently Kane dug deep and came up with Versace t-shirts, “golden earphones embellished with the brand’s iconic Medusa head,” and even a board game called “Medusa & Greca.” [WWD]
• Jean Paul Gaultier is ending his relationship with Aeffe, the Italian sourcing and production concern that has manufactured Gaultier’s namesake line since the mid-1990s. [WWD]