Betsey Johnson Now Practically Owned By Steve Madden

• Betsey Johnson defaulted on a $50 million loan. Steve Madden bought the debt, and as collateral, Johnson put up all of her company’s intellectual property — every design, every idea, everything that makes the brand its lovable pink-punk self.

If Betsey Johnson cannot repay its loan by August of 2012, Steve Madden will effectively own the Betsey Johnson brand, to do with what it will. [WWD]

• Blake Lively: “I was speaking with Anna Wintour and we were just talking about different fashion houses and I said, ‘I love Chanel,’ and she said, ‘You should come with me to the show.’ I also said I loved Dior. She said, ‘Okay, well I’ll take you to the Chanel and Dior shows and we’ll meet with Karl and John afterwards.’ Insane!” [Wonderwall]
• Lanvin‘s line for H&M will include dresses, coats, eveningwear, jewelry, hats, sunglasses, handbags, footwear and lipstick. The full collection will be unveiled on November 2 via a short film directed by Mike Figgis, who did Leaving Las Vegas. And on November 20, the newly opened H&M store in the Caesar’s Palace mall will become the first store in the world to sell the line; all other piners for cheap Lanvin will have to wait till the 23rd, when it drops at over 200 other locations worldwide. [WWD]
• Online discounter Gilt Groupe charged some customers more than the advertised price at a recent flash sale. Several complained to Racked, and Gilt admitted to Women’s Wear Daily, “We had a lot of technical difficulties with that sale.” The site says it is reaching out to affected customers to refund them the difference. The Federal Trade Commission prohibits retailers from charging more than the price they advertise. [Racked, Racked, WWD]
• Bridget Hall has lawyered up and is fighting the drunk driving charge she racked up in the Hamptons last weekend. Her explanation? Must’ve been a faulty breathalyzer. [P6]
• Alexa Chung: “I’d really like to do a Spice Girls restaurant. We can call it Spice Up Your Life. It can have Spice Girl memorabilia everywhere and serve curry.” [Daily Candy]
• Victoria Beckham is Tweeting fashion week. So far she’s talked about Fashion’s Night Out, her son Romeo‘s laser tag party, and her nomination for designer brand of the year at the British Fashion Council awards. [@vbfashionweek]
• The Jews are unhappy that Fashion’s Night Out takes place before Rosh Hashanah ends. “No one would dare ask us to work on Christmas,” “snipped” one, according to the Post. But, but, there’s a whole synagogue praying for the talented Chosen People of New York City fashion! Isn’t that enough? [P6]
• Catherine Malandrino‘s St. Tropez vacation is sickeningly, horribly, disgustipatingly glorious-sounding. [WWD]
• Jelena Jankovic comes across as sweet but a little overwhelmed in this piece on her visit to the Stuart Weitzman store, where she will spend Fashion’s Night Out in order to raise money for charity. She tried on a pair of 6″ heels, stood up, and said, “These are too risky for a tennis player.” Weitzman’s take? “Of course, a girl can’t resist a free pair of shoes. She is like a kid in a candy store.” [WWD]
• Ke$ha: “Right before I go onstage, I lather my body in baby oil and cover my entire body with a shield of glitter. Because it just pops! It just looks great! It’s really hard to get the glitter off. I’ve just given up. I’ve accepted that it will just be there. It’s in all my suitcases, it’s usually in my food, in my drinks. Sometimes when I pee, it’s in the toilet. I don’t know how it got there…In my fantasy world, I would just wear headdresses and run around in body paint and a glitter diaper and that’s it.” [MTV]
• Terrible person Michaele Salahi is auctioning off her lucky gatecrashing sari. She recently told friend-of-Jezebel Louis Virtel that she held the sari responsible for all the media attention her and her husband’s decision to crash a White House party received: “I think it was the red sari, I really do. I think it was too bright — like if I’d gone with a black or gray [it would have escaped notice], but that red was like, ‘Woo!'” [TMZ, Movieline]
• Argentine model Tatiana Cotliar, who opened the Marc Jacobs show last season, recalls the experience as “not very nice.” She says: “The girls at Marc’s show looked at me differently. People were like, ‘Who are you?’ After the show a journalist asked me, ‘Are you from the streets?’ Because, of course, Marc pulls people in from the streets. I said, ‘No, I am a model.'” Actually, the question wasn’t completely out of left field: last season, Jacobs‘ show was indeed partly street-cast. [Telegraph, Fashionologie]
• Dolce & Gabbana are releasing t-shirts to celebrate Naomi Campbell‘s twenty-fifth year working as a model. [TLF]
• Karl Lagerfeld‘s collection for Hogan drops on October 2. [WWD]
• Once, years ago, the co-founder of Flaunt styled a shoot with models who were around size 14. Finding interesting, fashionable clothes to fit these models was such a struggle that, reader, he has never attempted the task again. But he really hopes things are changing in fashion! [Fashionista]
• Kim Kardashian: now “designing” costume jewelry in collaboration with Pascal Mouawad. [People]
• Philippe Starck has redesigned l’Air du Temps perfume bottle into something that looks a little like bio-weapon from Existenz. [WWD]
• Acne‘s new collection of Western-style shirts is, says the label, aimed at transvestites. Isn’t that edgy. [Vogue UK]
• New Balance is making all-leather versions of its 576 sneakers. [DazedDigital]
• Banks want to buy Jimmy Choo, but Jimmy Choo is being all, Nuh-uh, we are sooooo successful that we’re not even for sale. This seems like a naked ploy to drive up demand for an impending sale. [WWD]