Sleep In Cindy Crawford's Bed This Fall; Have A Cocktail While You Shop?

• Cindy Crawford hasn’t been back in the public eye for naught as of late — turns out she’s launching a homewares line with J.C. Penney, which will be in stores nationwide this September.

Cindy’s tablewares, window treatments, and bedding will be “moderately priced.” Don’t call her cheap, please. [WSJ]

• Men’s boutiques are learning the simplest way to make a dude buy clothes: liquor him up. One, in the West Village, offers five different kinds of scotch! Ladies, let’s not stand for this discrimination. [WSJ]
• I cannot improve, nor make sense of, this anecdote about Hermès announcing its marketing theme for the year, “Beautiful Escape.” The French luxury brand had editors assemble at a wholesale food market outside Paris at 5 a.m., and then, “Wearing white smocks, the fashion pack was eerily silent filing through the giant meat locker — where a young woman in a tuxedo tinkled a gleaming black grand piano — but woke up in the fragrant cheese hall when a mouse-headed waiter glided towards them on Rollerblades offering a tray of cubed cantal. The tour ended with gourmet samplings – from oysters to crepe suzette — while Hermès’ artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas led a crew of cyclists through the dining hall, capping off a quirky morning.” [WWD]
• Elizabeth and James, the Olsen twins‘ second-highest-end line (after their abominably priced The Row) is doing just great. [NYDN]
• Roberto Cavalli is still toying with th idea of selling part of his company. The unpredictable designer met with Italian private-equity group Clessidra SGR SpA on Tuesday, apparently to discuss selling a 20% stake in the Cavalli empire, but there’s no news on the deal because Mr. Leopard Print Sparkle Cleavage Lamé knows he won’t get as much for his business right now as he would when the economy improves. Interestingly, Cavalli said he will keep working with Ittierre SpA, the company that is the sole contracted licensee for the Just Cavalli line until 2010, despite Ittierre’s bankruptcy. When Ittierre went bust, it delivered Just Cavalli’s fall line late and poorly constructed, forcing Cavalli to cancel the younger line’s runway show just days ahead. At the time, Cavalli ranted angrily for minutes in a variety of languages to a roomful of journalists about his disappointment with Ittierre, before bursting into tears. But he can’t afford, or doesn’t want to afford, to break the contract. [WWD]
• Valentino says Michelle Obama will be the next Jackie O. Because that hasn’t occurred to anyone else ever before. [E! Online]
• James Perse is getting tough on the use and return of editorial samples. Normally, when magazines use clothing and accessories for a shoot, these items are only borrowed — and generally not from off the sales floor, either, they’re specially made samples that fashion houses keep just for sending out to magazine editors. (That’s how come me and my ilk are allowed to punch stillettoes through skirts, smear lipstick on collars, and sweat through the hottest days of the year into boiled-wool coats — the garments are just going to be recycled into further editorial use.) Ordinarily, the labels are only too happy for their samples to see such abuse, because a credit in a magazine editorial is free advertising. Not so L.A. t-shirt maker James Perse! The label is going to start charging editors 90% of retail value for the use of their samples — part of the cost will be refunded if the samples are returned within 10 days of being sent out, but returns will only be processed through their L.A. headquarters, not any of their local showrooms worldwide. The first step to getting a James Perse item in your next editorial, stylists, isn’t a call to the label’s PR rep, but the filling out of a formal credit application. [WWD]
• Bruno movie trailer! [Mediaweek]
• Retail employment was down again in March. Specialty stores cut 6,200 jobs, and department stores eliminated 300 nationwide. [WWD]