• Detmar Blow on Alexander McQueen: "Money changed him and then drugs changed him. I remember reading of how he had flown his boyfriend somewhere for £130,000. What did Issie get? Some clothes. I find that quite shocking."

• After Tom Brady's game on Monday night, maybe-cheating Gisele Bündchen called shotgun for the ride home while he was relegated to the back seat. (They have a driver.) Clearly we can infer that she is a castrating Brazilian super-harpy. [People]

• Orlando Bloom and Charlize Theron are the new faces of Uniqlo. Bloom is practically as adept in front of the camera as his wife, while Theron drives an old Citroen and looks attractively wistful in her video. [Nicola Formichetti]

• Alexa Chung says His Kaiserness Mr. Karl, The Gloved One "is actually really easy to talk to because he knows everything. So if you're stuck you just say, 'Um, tell me about Medieval times.'" [The Cut]

• Balenciaga asked Cindy Sherman to create a series of six of her trademark in-character self-portraits for the brand. In each, naturally Sherman wears Balenciaga head-to-toe. [The Cut]
• Pop covergirl Britney Spears might perform at the magazine's FNO party. [DFR]

• If you were excited about seeing Lindsay Lohan in Marc Ecko's new campaign, well, too bad: the label used a model for a body double and 'Shopped on Lindsay's face. But who is the masked girl? [Daily Mail]

• Sarah Burton, who has worked for Alexander McQueen since 1996, was named its new creative director. Cathy Horyn came out in support of Burton as a potential McQueen successor in March. Burton was previously head of women's wear. [WWD, Telegraph]

• Claire Danes and her spooky, enhanced spiderleg eyelashes will soon be staring down at you from ads for Latisse, the eyelash-growing goop that has this totally minor side effect where sometimes it permanently changes a user's eye color. [AOL]

• Baleful, photogenic robot Scarlett Johanson paused in her daily quest to EXTERMINATE long enough for Mario Sorrenti to take her picture for this Spanish fashion label called Mango. [Nitrolicious]
• And Tilda Swinton posed for the spring Pringle campaign. [DesignScene]

Depression (as I see it, at least) causes apathy in the face of this unease, lethargy approaching total paralysis, an inability to feel much of anything one way or another. In contrast, melancholia generates a deep feeling in regard to this same anxiety, a turbulence of heart that results in an active questioning of the status quo, a perpetual longing to create new ways of being and seeing.

[S]cholars may conclude instead that this was the year in which designers finally succumbed to the baser desires of an overheated celebrity culture, in which the only thing that matters is fame and the only means to succeed is by screaming, "Look at me!" At least, that's what they might think after reviewing some of the year's worst fashion moments, in which actions seem so obviously calculated to provoke.

At Balenciaga, the models' legs were caged in futuristic footwear made of metal plates laced up to the knees with braids. At Yves Saint Laurent, the soles of Mr. Pilati's needle-thin stilettos were replaced by a thin metal rod that connected the heel to the toe, leaving the most sensitive — some would say erotic — underbelly of the foot vulnerably exposed. The models looked as if they were walking a tightrope, and the audience was made to feel alternately fascinated and terrified.

...what is a reader to make of a Vuitton ad, coming in the big September books, that stars Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union? A decade ago, Mr. Gorbachev's appearance in a Pizza Hut commercial was generally greeted as a low point in his career.