[New York, September 10. Image via Splash.]

Actress Zoe Saldana was next to Nigel, wearing something shimmery. They were inundated by photographers and video cameras. I'd arrived at 2:45 for the 3pm show; it was 3:35 before two men in black t-shirts and black pants peeled back the protective plastic covering on the mirrored runway. Then: Darkness. The show started. Brazilian music, white bikinis, red retro one-pieces. Lots of red and white, then some green neutrals. Oh, and black models! I especially liked one white suit with a belt of bling; the hideous brown pirate sleeved cover-up that came later, not so much. In any case, if you're the beachy sort who has a swimsuit wardrobe, this show is for you. Gallery below.

Rosa Cha:

Later that night, it was still pouring like crazy, but I was back in midtown for the Patricia Field show at the Edison Ballroom on 47th street. Her line is designed by David Dalrymple, and the scene in the ballroom was less stuffy fashion show and more fabulous downtown party. The music was loud, there was an open bar, and the crowd! It was a mix of club types, celebs and drag queens.
Andre J was there!
Also: The Legendary Lady Bunny! Seen here with an absolutely shocked Vanessa Williams. Also in attendance from Ugly Betty: Ana Ortiz and Judith Light. Project Runway's Jack Mackenroth was in the front row, across from Patricia Field herself, who was never without a drink in her hand.

I arrived at 8:45 for a 9:00 PM show and at ten minutes after 10:00, I thought it would never start. Then Becki Newton, aka Ugly Betty's Amanda walked in and sat next to Jack Mackenroth, and the show started. While the clothes were hit and miss, the presentation — each model headed to a "destination" on stage: A cruise ship, a disco, a funeral, a car race — was pretty cool. Oh, and black models! Gallery below.

David Dalrymple For Patricia Field:

Sunday morning at 11:30 AM, I was back at the Tent for the Tracy Reese show, but there were protesters outside shouting, "DKNY has got to go!" It was sort of early for blood-splattered bunny suits, but I took a picture anyway.

Tracy Reese is one of the few black designers at New York Fashion Week. Sitting in the first seat in the first row — his seat number was A:1:1 — was Andre Leon Talley. Also in the front row: Miss Jay from America's Next Top Model, wearing jeans with elaborately stitched back pockets, Fashion Week prez Fern Mallis, Sanaa Lathan, and some people I couldn't see from where I was sitting, boo. Okay, the clothes: Dreamy, romantic, soft, with sparkle and beading. The trench coats were beautiful, in supersoft-looking fabrics, and there were some dresses with delicate fabric flowers or frothy appliqués that just looked heavenly. Looking at the pictures later, not everything looks as good as it did in person, but I liked the overall feel and mood.

Tracy Reese:

All in all, despite the weather, it was a typical fashion week experience: Lots of standing around waiting, some clothes, some booze, some celebrities. I don't know how the rest of the designers are faring, but I saw diverse runways at all three shows — Tracy Reese has always used Asian, black and white models. We'll see if this first weekend was a sign of things to come or if it all goes downhill from here.

• Like everyone in Fashion, Vogue Editor at XL Andre Leon Talley has many opinions, feels they should be heard. "Asked how Americans can still look fabulous despite the recession, Talley said, 'Wear something old that you love' until Election Day. 'Then, vote for Barack Obama, who'll fix the economy.'" [NY Daily News]
• Most depressing/embarrassing WSJ video ever. "Guy" reporter goes to the Mall of America and interviews people about Republican style. [WSJ]
• Beloved former Chloe brain Phoebe Philo snapped up by Celine! [WWD]
• Nastia Liukin is so over gymnastics. The gold medalist, who's gonna be front and center at Fashion Week, is launching a line. "The five foot three athlete is working with Vanilla Star jeans on launching Nastia Liukin Gold jeans and tops for holiday sales. She is also in talks to design a line of activewear for GK, the company that makes her leotards, which she designs with her mom." [NY Mag]

• Chanel boycotts Russia because of Georgian situation...?! Oh, wait, no, the conflict just meant they couldn't get the venue they wanted. "A Chanel spokeswoman said the decision to nix Moscow was made in July before the crisis in Georgia as the company could not secure the venue it wanted in the Russian capital." [WWD]
• Crasher alert! "A man calling himself "Tom Klein" has been infiltrating chic soirees, claiming he works for Women's Wear Daily. This Klein character got caught when he tried to get on the list for last night's Gossip Girl party at the Empire Hotel, hosted by Dior Beauty, a source said. The crasher, claiming to be a senior editor at Fairchild Media, sends e-mails from a fake address. A WWD spokeswoman told Page Six, 'He is not an employee of Fairchild or Condé Nast.'" [P6]
• Here's how to deal with the recession: Meet the new status phones! "Constructed of precious metals, studded with diamonds and other jewels, and wrapped in exotic leathers, they have struck a chord among the small group of people who can afford them—namely, millionaires and celebrities." [BusinessWeek]
• Banana Republic courts Details readers...or the other way around? Are they different? "Beginning Wednesday through Sept. 17, each retail location will have extensive in-store magazine branding with "look cards," store displays, signage and fitting room signs. Bananarepublic.com will host a microsite with more style tips from Details and special offers from the retailer." [WWD]
• Stefano Pilati's beautiful YSL fashion look book being ignored because it's in a free tote. "When the news hit the fashion blogs last week, it was all about the cute bag, not the amazing images of Naomi Campbell, photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. To think, a real ‘It’ bag, for free, considering a Muse starts around $1,395. And, on the handout, the YSL logo is fetchingly printed upside down." [NYT]
• For those of us who already can't afford Tracy Reese, the news of her new, high-end line will not come as a joyful surprise. [WWD]
• Uniqlo might be bringing its cheap cashmere to India, Russia. [WSJ]
• What recession? H&M expands. Says the CEO, "Our strategy is based on the concept of fashion and quality at the best price...It helps us stay balanced even during economic downturns." [Business Week]
• Apparently, fashionistas have no qualms about fast fashion! Reports a Racked spy,"I was in the Forever21 in Soho and heard the one of the managers tell her staff in a meeting to 'look out' and 'be prepared' for stylists, editors and celebrities coming this week for Fashion Week." [Racked]
• Todd Oldham admits his show Top Design kind of blows. Okay, not really. "I would not want to be a contestant on this show at all," he says. "It's just too brutal. I said it before, but this is the only show I know on TV that is a thousand times harder than what it looks. It was way, way harder than what it looked like." [Breitbart]
• Designer and glamorous eccentric Isabel Toledo feted by the fashion elite: "A drag queen performed a cabaret homage to Ms. Toledo—"Isabel, you've chaaaaanged!"—which featured the word "motherfucker." Then Emcee Simon Doonan, of Barney's...narrated a slideshow of Ms. Toledo's life, from 'the Cuban Revolution to this incredibly un-Communist luncheon.'" [Observer]
• The Hef effect? "At New York fashion week, which kicks off Friday, designers including Phillip Lim, Michael Bastian and Tim Hamilton are expected to show a number of pajama-inspired clothes that are meant to be worn in broad daylight. The looks include colored piping on jackets and shirts, spread-open pajama collars, soft, unpadded jackets that hang loosely off the shoulders — and, of course, voluminous drawstring pants." [WSJ]
• Jonathan Saunders for Target might be awesome. Why must they tempt us with their fast fashion?! [Fabsugar]
• "With casual sweaters and sharp suits in shades of black, white and grey, Ji Wenbo became the first Chinese designer to showcase a collection at Japan's Fashion Week in a bid to woo customers in fashion-savvy Tokyo." [Reuters]
• With fashion in transition, we lack a Savior: "Still, there is no world-beater. There are no names that suggest clear-cut potential both to reshape fashion and somehow with it the global culture of style. There is no one, to take the obvious example, likely to replace Yves Saint Laurent, who died in June and seemingly took with him not merely a genius for conjuring glamour from whole cloth, but also for draping his designs to suit the mood of his time." [NYT]
• The New York Observer throws its pink hat into the fashion-glossy ring with Observer Style, "a semiannual magazine due to make its debut Nov. 16 and focused on the local fashion scene." [WWD]
• Carlos Miele is expecting a baby. "Insiders" say it's a boy called Leonardo. The item is titled, "stork to bring stylish baby." [P6]

• As previously reported, for reasons one can only imagine, Tyra Banks plays first lady in the new issue of Harper's Bazaar. This article reads: "Voguing like a supermodel, Tyra pays homage to Michelle Obama and Jackie Kennedy with pearls, slinky black shift and curly flip, draped against a Barack Obama lookalike and smiling at a tyke playing hide-and-seek à la JFK Jr. Banks confessed that if she were first lady, her Secret Service code name would be 'KMFA: Kiss My Fat Ass.'" Yes. Well. No further comment. [New York Post]
• Tyra also says: "Michelle Obama, you're one hot mama." [WWD]
• Don't worry, Vogue editor-at-large and python duster-enthusiast Andre Leon Talley (who famously stuck Jennifer Hudson in a hideous metallic bolero) will not be messing with the real-life Michelle Obama any time soon, rumors to the contrary. Quoth the less-than-jolly giant, "I think that Michelle Obama does not need advice." [BlackBook]
• Michelle's also on the cover of Ebony. "She wore her own clothing for the shoot —
  including a suit from favored designer Maria Pinto." [WWD]

• They're finally airing that too-hot-for-TV-naked Eva Mendes Calvin Klein ad - albeit after nine pm! The "Secret Obsession" campaign "taps into the secrecy of a private moment - where it's clear that Eva is having illicit thoughts," marketer Lori Singer told WWD. [Page Six]
• Wanna see it? (NSFW, obvs) [E!]
• Everything Lagerfeld touches turns to awesome! Now he's collabing with architect Zaha Hadid on an installation, The Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion, "a gleaming futuristic pavilion with the startling appearance of a glamorous spaceship...a pavilion that, like a handbag, is a completely portable and functional container with vast symbolic potential." Indeed, Kaiser. [Independent]
• Celeb spawn modeling? No! Dakota Johnson, daughter of Don and Melanie Griffith, is in illustrious company: "The model, who is best friends with Demi Moore's daughter Rumer Willis, has just been signed to star alongside the MisShapes' Leigh Lezark and another famous Hollywood child, Isabella Rossellini's daughter Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann, to front the new season campaign for Italian fashion house Hogan." [ElleUK]
• Ho-hum. Another naked dame for PETA. This time it's Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard, which is, I guess, at least promoting a healthy body image. [Reuters]
• Speaking of which, designers like Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are cashing in on the Olympics. "More and more we are seeing fashion brands getting involved in sports like the Olympics or Wimbledon or the U.S. Open." [Yahoo]
• Shockingly, all those "modeling agencies" on Craig's List aren't on the level. Sadly, a lot of teens are falling prey to them. [The Sun]
• Vids of Lauren Conrad's ads for Avon's new Mark Cosmetics, the younger line. [ONTD]
• An Australian study shows that women are way more concerned with the size on a garment's tag than they should be. "People are paying more attention to the size tag than the price tag and feeling down when they can't fit their standard size." This is why we're all 2s at Banana Republic, people! [Reuters]
• Sudanese model Alek Wek on breaking industry stereotypes: "I was told, 'You can’t make it – you're this, you're that, your nose is too wide, etc.'" [Daily Express]
• Thanks, Vogue: freckles are "in." [The Independent]
• Recessionistas, take note: Patricia Field's podcast on styling H&M. It's actually totally unhelpful, but still kinda entertaining. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Fashion mags launch search for "real women" (because we're so hard to find.) The Condies are searching for veritable dames with "interesting careers" to shoot for "major fashion layouts." So, if that sounds like you and you're between 20 and 30 years old, five foot five and five foot eleven, and wear a 2 to 6 dress size, you qualify to be one of those "real women." [New York Magazine]
• Dior profits way up. [WWD]
• Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. "Kelly Rutherford's baby is a real fashion victim. The hot mom in Gossip Girl was shopping recently in the Hamptons and was overheard saying that she and her husband, German businessman Daniel Giersch, named their nearly 2-year-old boy Hermés Gustaf Daniel Giersch because she loves the Hermes designer label. She also said her husband once worked as a mailman and the messenger god is Hermes." [Page Six]
• The case of the suited crook: "A former Saks Fifth Avenue suit salesman used his access to fine clothes to gain access to Midtown buildings, where he swiped cash and credit cards from empty offices." [New York Post]
• Is some random store ripping off Lanvin's Elaz tees? [Fashionista]
• Cosabella's fall Sex and the City lingerie collection is here. Some feel Charlotte, Miranda are somewhat misrepresented. [Fabsugar]

• Poor Posh. After the embarrassingly poor sales of her denim line and ensuing abandonment by retailers, we hear that her men's dVb line has been pushed back "until next year" by L.A. boutique Kitson. Plucky Posh is undaunted, having spoken of her desire to launch a couture line and show at New York's fashion week. dVb denies the line is floundering, claiming that "it is currently being manufactured but is likely to reach stores later than anticipated." [This Is London]
• A man has confessed to the murder of Canadian model Diana O'Brien, whose body was found last week in Shanghai, where the 20-year-old was on a 3-month modeling contract. 18-year-old Chen Jun was arrested Friday morning in Anhui province; he apparently killed the model during an armed robbery of her apartment. [CNN]
• Gwyneth Paltrow is really slacking in her obligations to Estee Lauder's new "Sensous" perfume, refusing to show for any of the hundred ridiculous promos the company's set up (opening the stock market, anyone?) and leaving the burden on the slender shoulders of co-pitchwomen Hilary Rhoda, Carolyn Murphy, and Elizabeth Hurley. Recriminations all around. [New York Magazine]

• Seems the Nuclear Wintour has thawed for Obama: the fashionista was on the newly-published list of "major donors" to the Dem's campaign, indicating that she's raised fifty grand or more. [Neew York Times]
• Wait, fashion, and bloggers...petty? Hard to believe, but it would seem that style sites Fashion Indie and Coutorture are engaged in the most ridiculous war of words (and pictures) ever. Says The Pipeline, "in our years of reading and writing for fashion blogs, this is as mad a skirmish as we've ever seen." [Pipeline]
• The CEO of Overstock.com, that online retailer with all the insinuating "Big O" commercials, has decided not to sell fur through his sites. “You don’t have to think about it very much before you realize … you’re completely objectifying an animal when you say I’m going to wear it as a decorative object. That’s over the line for anyone who gives it any thought, I would think,' said Patrick Byrne, who's made waves in the past for his "battles against hedge funds." [Reuters]
• Are low necklines responsible for Marks and Spencer's market slump? Some suggest that the chain's base of older folks has been alienated by attempts to appeal to a more youthful demographic. "The clothes are not suitable for our age group,' says one older lady. "The dresses are too low on top and they don't have sleeves. They just show too much cleavage and at our age we can't wear that sort of style."' [Independent]
• Charity "Clothes Off Our Backs" latest fundraiser is selling off Rodo shoes. The twist/catch? Celebs like Kate Beckinsale, Cate Blanchett, Sheryl Crow, Kirsten Dunst, Zooey Deschanel and America Ferrera have each decorated a pair "as they chose." Apparently not everyone finds these words ominous: Pink's pair has already racked up $400 in bids; the heels Kristin Davis decorated have scored a more modest $170. [EOnline]
• Next up for Target GO!: Purses by Monica Botkier, coming up next week, and a jewelry line by Dean Harris on 8/17. We've not had great luck with the designer accessories lines in the past, but hope springs eternal in the breast of Recessionistas. [The Budget Fashionista]
• "Black is best when you're in court/The judge will be impressed!" That's Singin' In The Rain. This isThe Daily News on Christie Brinkley's courtroom choices :"The media-savvy former model - who's tried hard on the stand to argue she has been a perfect wife and mother - has picked crisp button-down shirts smoothed into sharp pencil skirts for her divorce trial against estranged husband Cook. Call it the Serious Woman's Uniform - and a smart wardrobe choice when you're up for a fight. "It's not threatening, that's the bottom line," says fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson. "The pencil skirt is a piece of clothing that all women respond to."" [Daily News]
• New York consumer confidence at all-time low. [Crain's]
• Super-scrawny menswear designer Hedi Slimane will be the cover model for the debut of Vogue Homme Japan. Said Kazuhiro Saito, editor in chief of Vogue Nippon and the new men's spin-off of Slimane's aesthetic, '"There were those very skinny, boyish male models. That works for Japanese guys."' [WWD]
• The public asks Tim Gunn ten really asinine questions like, "What movie or TV cast has had the biggest impact on fashion?" He makes it work. [Time]

[Ad via Vintage Ads.]

• Naomi Campbell has finally been charged for her April freakout at London's Heathrow airport. “Campbell is accused of three counts of assaulting a constable, one count of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior to cabin crew, according to reports.” Her court date is set for June 20th; does anyone think that maybe a stint in juvie could set her straight? [The Guardian]
• Christian Dior cosmetics spokesmodel Sharon Stone continues to pay for her ridiculous remarks regarding last week's earthquake in China: Dior is pulling all ads starring the Hollywood wackadoo "from all of the department stores and from all of China". Karma, baby! [NY Times]
• Andre Leon Talley is returning to the Savannah College of Art and Design to speak at the school's May 31 commencement ceremony. Think he'll wear the "floor-length red satin robe and silver crown accented with red 'rubies'" this time around? [Paris Parfait]

• Is Chloe Sevigny is never not working? The Big Love star and Opening Ceremony fashion designer is coming out with a limited edition tome based on her first OC look book. "You can flip all the clothing around. You can kind of, like, mix the heads with the bodies," OC's Humberto Leon tells New York magazine. [New York]
• Stars scheduled to appear at the CFDA awards on Monday: Victoria Beckham, Eva Mendes and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Posh will be in Marc Jacobs, Mendes in Calvin Klein, and Maggie G in Proenza. [Elle UK]
• Laura Bennett, the redhead overachiever from Project Runway has 8 million kids, a clothing line, a huge apartment, and a comic strip in the Village Voice. [Blogging Project Runway]
• Proenza Schouler, who have been nominated for the 3rd year in a row for CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award, spill all (er, some) in an interview with Fashion Week Daily. These guys must have been nuns in a past life or something. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Patricia Field won’t be applying for welfare anytime soon. The stylist who got her start throwing glitter on the hot-pants of drag queens is now developing a line of clothing for Australian department chain, Myer. [The Australian]
• Beauty may fade, but supermodels are forever. Miles Socha reports in WWD how old-school models are returning to big-time ad campaigns. “Linda Evangelista is starring in Prada, Naomi Campbell in Yves Saint Laurent, Claudia Schiffer in Chanel and Salvatore Ferragamo, Eva Herzigova in Louis Vuitton and Christy Turlington in Escada.” More here: [WWD]
• Need to know how to deal with articles of clothing that have shrunk? The WSJ offers groundbreaking suggestions such as, check the label for cleaning directions, store your receipts in a shoebox, and other things my grandmother told me in 1957. [Wall Street Journal]
• Michael Kors confesses that he used to layer legwarmers: “I not only wore them, I used to wear two or three pairs. Everything was some shade of dusty mauve and rose, what I call 'ishy colors.' At the time I was wearing a burgundy boot.” [Style.com]
• Ugh. Members of the Chinese elite “are willing to spend their savings on designer fashions, seen as the ultimate status symbol in a communist country that is increasingly becoming preoccupied with the trappings of wealth.” [Reuters]
• Coach Inc., plans to open 50 new retail units in China. Um, I’m sorry, but wasn’t there just a devastating earthquake there? [WWD]
• Anthropologie: "[The store's] retail environment is an artful rendition of a French market that creates a mood of discovery and whimsy. While the merchandise is a unique mix of found objects from around the globe, the store is as close to a genuine French flea market as is the French bread sold at Safeway." [Business Week]
• Vogue is prepping a photo shoot starring its own editorial and fashion assistants. Says one source: "...At Vogue, you have to dress like a model anyway, so this probably isn't a stretch for the various women involved." [Fashionista]

• Vivienne Westwood rules for many reasons; here's reason number 1,457: when the designer received honors of British ranking at Buckingham Palace in the '90s, she went “knickerless on both occasions.” [The Star]
• Proenza Schouler is teaming up with Guiseppe Zanotti to expand its line of footwear. I’m crossing my fingers that the prices won’t be unbearable, because this news excites me more than you know. [Elle UK]
• This is the stuff nightmares are made of. Photographer Nick Knight plans to create 3-D images of a 30-foot Naomi Campbell. “He has scanned Naomi 'straddling the barrel of a large tank' to form one sculpture, and another is envisioned as a 'circle of three Naomis, like The Three Graces.'" Please, people, stop encouraging this woman's egomania. [Fashionologie]

• Jennifer Hudson tells New York Magazine that she regrets wearing the jacket Vogue's Andre Leon Talley picked out for her for the Oscars. [New York]

• James Gandolfini's bathrobe from The Sopranos is being auctioned off, along with a bunch of bloody Sopranos shirts, to benefit a nonprofit group that assists severely wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Yahoo]

• More news on the Jerry Hall clothing auction at Sotheby’s in the UK: she is not auctioning off her wedding dress but her daughter Lizzie is pissed she’s selling other awesome outfits. [Telegraph]
• Roberto Cavalli will lecture at Oxford University's student union today, reports Fashion Week Daily. I wonder if he’ll be able to convince the smartest students in the world that he knows the line between sexy and vulgar? He didn’t convince me, and I barely graduated high school. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Designer Martin Margiela designed a T-shirt with a horse graphic that sold out at the stunning price tag of $1,395, but rumors swirl that it’s not so original. “The image on the tee is nearly identical to an image painted by British artist David Penfound in 1998, which also covers t-shirts . . . that retail for $19.95,” says Fashionologie, via the LA Times. [Fashionologie]
• Interview with model Theodora Richards on her new position as VP of Creative Director of 4 Stroke Jeans: “…Jeans and me, we go together like peanut butter and jelly,” she says. [The Fashion Informer]
• Noémie Lenoir is the first black model to grace the cover of French Vogue solo in over a year, although the June/July issue actually has two covers, the other featuring model Laetitia Casta. [Fashionista]
• American Eagle Outfitters' profits have fallen. [Reuters]
• Burberry is planning on expanding its shoe line. Does this mean we can expect to see things like plaid-printed wedges as well as wellies? [Times of London]
• Benetton, a company known for its glossy ad campaigns and pastel sweaters, is looking into investing in "troubled" airline Alitalia. [Forbes]

• Breaking news: a Telegraph profile today inspired me to finally watch the Agyness Deyn music video. It is generic and derivative and cynically targeted at the aging Britpop nostalgists who write blogs and I fucking love it. Oh man, and I don't even hate myself for this. Embedded after the jump. [Telegraph]
  
• Tinsley Mortimer's makeup may look light and natural but it is actually deceptively heavy and high-maintenance! One brave New York writer consumed three hours she will never get back in an effort to emulate the Tinz. And you wonder why they pay her the big bucks. [NY Mag]

• It's intern theme day at Rag Trade! Hockey player Sean Avery just started his internship at Vogue. WWD thinks it's kind of scandalous that he maybe gets to attend the couture shows with Andre Leon Talley. Fashionista thinks it's kind of scandalous that he's actually getting paid minimum wage when "almost every single other intern there not only doesn't get paid at all, but usually ends up actually paying to be there (as I, dear reader, did three times for Conde internships)." We can think of other things involving the minimum wage that scandalize us more, but why discuss the travails of ordinary Americans when...
• We found out the real reason Teen Vogue banned high school interns! A tipster tells us: "so last year, one of teen vogue's interns crashed the met ball in a dress she had borrowed without permission from the teen vogue fashion closet, and then [blogged] about all the celebrities she met and exactly what they said to her... and then Kimball Hastings lost his shit, obviously."
• We had high hopes that a recession would usher in a new era of fashion, but this is somewhat worrisome: retail sales are so dismal that H&M sales fell last quarter for the first time since the Clinton Administration. [WWD]
• And yet! Abercrombie & Fitch somehow continues to thrive. [WWD]
• Which can only be auspicious for the...Ugg clothing line! [FabSugar]

The trouble with last night's party at the Met, if I may speak frankly, is that it was a little like being sucked into a sequined wind tunnel. It started with a little breeziness before the superhero displays—Oh, hey, Narciso and Claire! Hi Liya! Alessandra! Isaac! Diane! Tom!—and then, suddenly, people seemed to be flying around the room....But I thought Anna Wintour looked great in her Chanel dress—fantastical fashion....And though I didn't see Victoria Beckham until later, in pictures, her lace Armani coat dress was definitely a look—Hollywood grandeur with a wink. Zac Posen and his date Kate Mara, in outfits painfully inspired by Superman, get the try-harder award. I'll be interested to know who you all thought looked super—and not.

One could probably read as many metaphors about the transformative power of fashion in the silver-sequined, elaborately padded Chanel gown that Anna Wintour wore to the Costume Institute gala on Monday night as one could in Superman's cape, which happened to be hanging in a gallery down the hall. The floor-length dress had curiously curling crescents attached at the hips and the shoulders, giving Ms. Wintour, the Vogue editor and overseer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Party of the Year, the fuller-bodied appearance of Botticelli's Venus on her clamshell. She seemed to be broadcasting a message of total earthly control. (Or it could have been that all the Vogue assistants standing along the way to Ms. Wintour's receiving line had been strictly instructed not to speak to anyone, not even to people they recognized, or that so many guests were unusually prompt.) With this year's gala titled "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," Ms. Wintour pointed out that she was Storm, the "X-Men" character. "I control the weather," she said.

Blake Lively wore black gloves and a snug black Ralph Lauren gown involving feathers. She said that her favorite superhero was "Spider-Man. Cause he's awesome! He gets to swing around, and, I don't know....I've always seen pictures growing up, being a teenager, and thought, 'I'd love to go to that, a night just to dress up in ball gowns.' And here I am!"...Vogue editor and hostess Anna Wintour was the first to arrive, at 6:33 p.m., wearing a Chanel gown adorned with what appeared to be seahorse tails and accompanied by daughter Bee Shaffer, who required two men, including the formidable Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley, to carry the train of her voluminous blue Nina Ricci dress up the stairs....Designer Phillip Lim came with teenage model-of-the-moment Chanel Iman,..."I've been here last year, and this is her first time here, so she's the newbie...it's a lot of pressure."

It was a silver moment for Julia Roberts, wearing a swoop-neck dress by Giorgio Armani, who underwrote the event. Her co-chairs were Clooney and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, who wore a Superwoman creation by Chanel with snakes of padding at shoulders and thighs. Fashion's superheroes included Donatella Versace, who dressed Janet Jackson in a cut-away back dress, Karl Lagerfeld, wearing a sparkling silver jacket while he dressed Kate Bosworth in a multicolored patchwork of vintage Chanel; and Valentino, who was with the model Claudia Schiffer wearing a frilled blue dress from the retired designer's last collection....The cast of the newly revived "Hair" sang "The Age of Aquarius" and "Let the Sun Shine In." David Bowie, sitting with his wife, Iman, looked pained at this new rendition of the counterculture musical.

[George] Clooney joked that he had wanted to dress as Batman, but the costume was already in the exhibition, so he settled for a midnight blue Giorgio Armani tuxedo. Anna Wintour, shimmering in silver cyber-couture, by Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, declared: "I stopped the rain"....The tennis star Venus Williams and American Vogue's editor-at-large, André Leon Talley, shared a red satin, super-cape for two that was custom-made by Chanel. The actress Scarlett Johansson wore a Dolce & Gabbana gown with a large diamond solitaire which announced her engagement to the actor, Ryan Reynolds. The designer Marc Jacobs confessed to wearing Superman underwear beneath his tuxedo....The "Superheroes" exhibition opens with a mirrored illusion of Clark Kent morphing into Superman and features radical catwalk creations by some of the world's top designers and comic book costumes from Hollywood blockbusters such as Spiderman and Batman.

It's the Oscars of the fashion industry, but if the looks on parade at Monday's Costume Institute gala in New York were anything to go by, that industry is in a sorry state of disarray. Hosted by Vogue editor Anna Wintour (in a Starlight Express moment, perhaps taking the superhero theme somewhat literally) and Giorgio Armani (looking as buff, relaxed and fashionably weathered as ever) the normally ultra-glamorous event fell flat as the proverbial pancake, where the frocks were concerned at least....how about Katie Holmes, who's clearly sharing a sunbed with her new best friend, Victoria Beckham? Someone really ought to have warned her that tomato red and orange is a challenging colour combination and that her razor-sharp bob is more Playmobil nurse than intergalactic heroine. And what of the aforementioned Mrs Beckham? Even by this particular fashion car crash's standards, her dress was disastrous. Nancy Reagan circa 1985, anyone? That cool-as-a-cucumber chignon, meanwhile, isn't kidding anyone. A Hitchcock heroine the artist formerly known as Posh most certainly is not.

Armani dressed Clooney and Roberts. "He asked me very sweetly if I'd be his date," Roberts, wearing a platinum Giorgio Armani Privé gown, said about the designer, who also outfitted other A-list celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Beyoncé Knowles and John Mayer....Clooney was taking it all in stride. "I get to have a drink. It's easy for me," he said. As for the superhero theme, he said he had a favorite when he was a kid: "Well, you know, I loved one that no one ever talks about, the Green Hornet. He was really cool." [Thandie] Newton, in a short dress in black lace with a long cape, said, "I like this because it's one look — and two looks. She made up her own superhero inspiration. "I'm Love Woman," she said. "I wanted to do a bit of skin."

"I think the secret of a good exhibition is when it happens very easily, which is what happened here," Anna Wintour told us of the Metropolitan Museum's Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy installation. We had many more looks in the exhibition than we could use, so [the idea] is obviously, once you start to look, really out there. It was largely Andrew [Bolton, the exhibition curator]'s vision that brought it all together but we've been very fortunate that at the same time," she added. "All these movies are coming out and the Olympics are coming up, so it all sort of came together."

Holy Stars, Batman! It was a celeb-studded affair at the Metropolitan Museum on Monday night as the world's fashion elite and Hollywood heavyweights met on Fifth Ave. to kick off the Costume Institute's latest exhibit, "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy." And while the night's theme celebrated cat suits and unitards, the red carpet featured far more glam getups: Co-hosts Julia Roberts and George Clooney giggled together as they strolled in wearing Giorgio Armani. "I wore the dress because he made it for me," said Roberts, who gave the designer, who sponsored the evening with Vogue magazine, a hug....Fashion darling Zac Posen took the theme seriously, rocking out Clark Kent-worthy spectacles and revealing his own secret identity. "I worked here as an intern for three years," he said. "I got paid $60 to do the event."

The Good:
With little daughter Tallulah on his arm, Bruce Willis' actual date Emma Hemming is totally forgettable.
Irina Pantaeva has still got it.
Good for Russell Simmons: The hat is nice and Porschia Coleman seems a lot less heinous than Kimora.

The Bad:
Why is Anika Noni Rose not dressed for the red carpet?
Now surely Andre Leon Talley can do better than this. Did he have American Apparel make their gross pleather leggings into a coat for him?
Send in some queer eyes to get Carson Kressley a better fitting suit and some blotting papers, stat.
Is Donna Karan preparing for an apocalypse that renders her an evil Lawrence of Arabia?
As a major Debbie Harry fan, this hurts me to say, but these yellow plaid pants (are they flannel?!) make my heart cry a thousand times.
Glenda Bailey has clearly forgotten that a high-neck velvet dress is just one step above wearing an ugly Christmas sweater without irony.
Christian Siriano in yet another vest-and-skinny-black-pants look? He needs a new outfit.
Socialite Olivia Palermo's dress is just trying too hard.

The Ugly:
Arden Wohl's outfit is so bad it is clearly exhausted her with its ugliness.

[Images via Getty.]

• "Of course I am a Spice Girls fan. I love everything that teenage girls love. I am the oldest teenage girl." That's Michael Kors, who went to see the Spice Girls when they performed in the New York area this week. Other fashion world luminaries who showed up the concert to hear such sonic gems as "Two become One": ELLE editor-in-chief Roberta Myers and fashion director Nina Garcia, Harper's Bazaar EIC Glenda Bailey, and Vogue European editor-at-large Hamish Bowles. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• "They're the most exciting thing since Warhol," says Vogue's Andre Leon Talley of English rockers/designers Rodnik. So enamored is he that he was willing to give up his front-row seat at Proenza Schouler last week so that he could join the Rodnik designers in the standing room area. [Vogue UK]
  
• Marc Jacobs: Fond of male escorts! [NY Daily News]
  
• The Times of India asks: Is fashion industry caste and gender biased? We're gonna go out on a limb and say "yeah." [TOI]

• Lilly Pulitzer is launching its very first fragrance. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Beauty product name or adult film title? [BellaSugar]
• Cynthia Rowley is now entering the wild world of mother-daughter fragrances, the very thought of which makes us throw up a little in our mouths. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Oh God: Hannah Montana shampoo??? [WWD, sub req'd]
• Luella Bartley: Now designing tees to fund kids going to the dentist in Colombia. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Who needs YouTube when there's ShoeTube? [UPI]

• The facts speak for themselves: Heidi Klum is designing a capsule collection for Jordache, for which she has been modeling over the past year. Think she'll offer hair extensions to cover nipples as well? [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Kathy Hilton just released her own perfume. It's called "My Secret." We don't really want to think about what Kathy Hilton's secret might smell like. [BellaSugar]
  
• Gloria Steinem would not approve: Georgina Chapman, Marchesa designer and wife of Halston co-owner Harvey Weinstein, was named "Georgina Weinstein" on her front row seat at Halston yesterday. Only, as Chapman herself put it, "I didn't change my name, they did it for me." [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Jimmy Choo's CEO Tamara Mellon thinks that boyfriend Christian Slater should take a more active, or acting, role in fashion. Mellon says Slater would be "perfect" to play Halston in any upcoming biopic on the designer. [WWD, 1st item]

• One last Halston item! Rachel Zoe, who sits on the label's creative advisory team, wasn't at yesterday's debut show. A rep for the label was quick to issue a statement that Zoe has not been fired. Um, the lady doth protest too much? [WWD, 2nd item]
• Does the fashion industry hate the Bush Administration? Laura Bush is having a luncheon next week for all the designers who participated in this year's The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection but Nicole Miler, Donna Karan, Carmen Marc Valvo, Tracy Reese, and Marchesa designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig have all said that they won't be able to attend. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Is anyone else depressed that Naomi Campbell and Andre Leon Talley collaborated to star and style in a SoBe "Thrillicious" commercial? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Burberry faux-fur parkas actually use dog fur. Fun! [UPI]
• Charges have been dropped against the manager of the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Virginia Beach, who was scapegoated by a cop whose delicate sensibilities were offended by A&F ads. [MSNBC]
• The latest item up for sale under Bono's (Product) RED line: The Mulberry Roxanne bag, done in sweatshirt material (red, naturally), for the Gap. [Sassybella]
• Count Fergie in as the latest face of MAC Viva Glam lipstick. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Brittany Murphy on Mr. and Mrs. Max Azria: "They're a very nice family, with great morals, very grounded. Plus, they'll even invite you over for Shabbat dinner. Who would turn that down?" [WWD, 4th item]
• Model Caroline Trentini has declared that she will be donating a percentage of her earnings from New York fashion shows to the Center of Support of Underprivileged Children with Cancer in her native Brazil. [WWD, 5th item]
• Is model/First Lady of France Carla Bruni pregnant with a son? [Vogue UK]
• Just what the world needed: Chocolate Armani Easter eggs. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Avon profits have dropped by 30%. There is no time for beauty in a recession. [Breitbart]

(Click on any image to view gallery)

Ms. Hardison then read a statement from Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley, who could not attend because he was in Chicago in conjunction with the Barack Obama campaign. (Talley was assisting with making phone calls to voters in South Carolina in support of Mr. Obama.) Talley's message was eloquent and impassioned, beginning with the fact that black people first arrived in this country as cargo and that it's been a battle for them in the hundreds of years since. He stated: "This struggle is so important to all of us... They will say this is not an issue, but it is..." Borrowing from the Obama slogan, Mr. Talley wrote that "Change we can believe in has to happen."

Next up were freelance creative director James Scully (who has worked for Tom Ford and Harper's Bazaar) and Nian Fish, creative director of KCD, the pr/event production firm responsible for many of the top runway shows. As he did in October, Mr. Scully blamed Prada for the influx of "15-year-old Russian girls" on the runway, a look he claimed other designers copied and fashion people got accustomed to seeing and not critiquing. Ms. Fish pointed to the early '90s, when many British designers and stylists came to the U.S. with a certain aesthetic and wanted only white models. She stated that she had been privy to conversations with designers and stylists who would literally say, "we already have one of those" when pointing to a black model as an excuse not to hire another.

Many other people spoke: model Lily Taylor said that when she started in the business at 15, her agency wanted her to get a nose job and she refused. Another model from Ethiopia claimed that she attended the Ford Supermodel Of The World event and saw that 80% of the models chosen were white or Eastern European. Harriet Cole of Ebony magazine pointed out that models are supposed to reflect the world and that fashion is global. "With the political season upon us, if the globe doesn't recognize black people, what does that say?" she asked, rhetorically.

A man named Roman Young from Elite Model Management, hails from Hawaii and said that the modeling agencies cannot bear all of the blame. "When a client says 'I want the girl next door,' I say 'The girl next door to who?'" Mr. Young told the crowd. Model Jessica White, who recently inked a deal with Maybelline, said that celebrities are taking the spots of many black models — after all why should marketeres get a model for their advertisements when they can get Beyoncé or Halle Berry? But, Ms. Hardison countered, neither Beyoncé nor Halle Berry ever walk the runways in Milan or Paris. Veteran model Coco Mitchell suggested that black people not purchase items from designers who do not use black models and pointed out that neither Prada nor Jil Sander ever do. Damon Dash spoke of his transition from music to fashion with wife Rachel Roy and said, "We gotta watch each others' backs." And Mr. Scully suggested the group start shopping at the Gap as Patrick Robinson is now the head designer.

Ms Hardison reminded the audience that the issue of the lack of black models is not about creating an all-black runway but diversity. "I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do," she continued. "I'm just trying to raise consciousness. We can make a change just by being here."

Ealier: Is Prada To Blame For the Lack Of Black Models?
Black Fashion Industry Insiders Ask: Where Are The Black Models?
Where Are All The Black Models? Let's Start By Asking Anna Wintour

• Kate Bosworth is the new face of Calvin Klein jeans. Looks good enough to make us forget another girl named Kate who once was the face of CK jeans. [Vogue UK]
  
• In case you forgot, here's what Brooke Shields looked like in her Calvins. [Sassybella])
  
• With nary a girl to dress for red carpet season, Badgley Mischka has made an awards-attending Barbie. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Mazel Tov to Stella McCartney, who just gave birth to baby number three, a son, Beckett Robert Lee Willis. McCartney and her husband Aldashair WIllis have two other children and one ex-wicked stepmother. [WWD, 2nd item]

• Tyson Beckford's ego really must be stopped: "What's so great about me is I can call Naomi Campbell and be like 'Yo Naomi, we need you to teach these girls how to walk.' I don't think anybody else in fashion can do that without her charging you a brick. I can do that because I'm her friend...I can call anyone in fashion. I can say 'André Talley, come here'...I can say, 'Hey, André Talley, come hang out with me,' and he'll do that...I can call Ralph Lauren, you know. I can go sit in Ralph's office and put my feet on his desk and say 'Ralph, I need a favor.'" [Fashion Week Daily]
• Our favorite Project Runway judge Nina Garcia: Moved to tears by Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, rocks out to Amy WInehouse and James Brown. [The Fashion Informer]
• Now you too can buy your very own spacesuit! [Guardian]
• Want to sell clothes? Or a bologna sandwich? Put Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus's name anywhere near an object you need to move off the shelf and it will go flying so fast you'll think you've been robbed. [NYPost]
• Donna Karan's new line of handbags are inspired by the different signs of the Zodiac. "I live by astrology," says Karan. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive is just like us: Doesn't call her grandmother enough! [Fashion Week Daily]
• Let this news from Australia be true: Skinny models are out, healthy looking girls are in. [The Age]
• Aspirin + apple cider vinegar = clean hair? [BellaSugar]
• Really expensive handbag line Mulberry is now venturing into the world of really expensive shoes. [Vogue UK]
• Valentino: Getting a medal from the mayor of Paris! Aw? [WWD, 5th item]
• Retailers' profits are sucking big time. [WSJ]
• Bravo's new show Make Me A Supermodel premieres tonight with swank (we guess?) corporate sponsors Mercedes Benz, Alltel Wireless, and Garnier hair products. [MediaWeek]
• Lucky Seattle: Getting 3 new H&M's in the next year! [Charleston Post-Courier]

• Model Agyness Deyn and designer Henry Holland went as Mr. and Mrs. Beetlejuice for Halloween. They did their own makeup. [Vogue UK]
  
• Jennifer Hudson on Vogue editor-at-large/hideous capelet advocate Andre Leon Talley: "I was like André, you don't have a cell phone? André, you don't e-mail? He's like, 'I don't e-mail honey, I don't do that,' I was like, 'No, no, no, we have to get that together." [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Jacob "Jacob the Jeweler" Arabov has pleaded guilty to the charges of falsifying records and lying to a federal agent during a drug investigation. We hope all that ice can buy a man a carton of cigarettes in the big house. [WWD, sub req'd]

• Liz Claiborne is thisclose to selling off 4 of its final 9 brands. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Nina Ricci designer/wunderkind Olivier Theyskens is designing socialite Lauren Davis' wedding dress. Says Davis of the design, "[I]t's very bridal." Um. [Fashion Week Daily]
• T-shirt-for-a-cause alert! Marni shirts (ranging in price from $67 to $135) benefiting NGO Mani Tese, which helps underprivileged kids in developing countries. The shirts are portraits of six of the children who would benefit from this funding. Hmm. [Fashion Week Daily]
• What is model Iekeliene Stange's biggest secret in life? "I'm obsessed with roller-skating and having pancake parties!" Ah, models. [Fashion Week Daily]
• We confess: We would buy any magazine with Cate Blanchett on the cover. [Sassybella]

• Those invited to Marc Jacobs' annual holiday costume party (aka - not us) need to start preparing their costumes now. The theme has finally been announced! "Arabian Nights." We double-dare someone to go as Edward Said. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• The most important movie of all time, the Sex and the City movie, shot at the offices of the most important magazine of all time, Vogue. My god, how did the world not combust when these two forces joined powers? Also, Anna Wintour will not be appearing in the movie. But Andre Leon Talley will! And we hope that Jennifer Hudson, who is playing Carrie Bradshaw's assistant in the movie, manages to restrain herself re: that whole idiotic bolero-from-Mars thingy he made her wear to the Oscars. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Why we love Barneys New York's Creative Director Simon Doonan, reason #482: "Everyone in the music industry looks like a hooker. Let's call it porno-chic. It seems to me nowadays that Janis Joplin wouldn't be able to get her clog in the door without a full makeover!" [Fashion Week Daily]

• Aerin Lauder's new line of products for Estee Lauder has nary a cosmetic in it. No, no: It's a full-fledged line of hostess gifts. Gag! [Fashion Week Daily]
• Bono's eco-aware fashion line with Rogan Gregory, Edun, is once again making T-shirts to help African children and also the images of certain highly-remunerated celebrities who will be endorsing it i.e. Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck in ads shot by Helena Christensen. The stars even styled themselves to help cut back on costs. [Vogue UK]
• Tennis star Andre Agassi has filed an injunction against Target for selling sandals with his name on them without his permission. Huh. Is Agassi still a big draw? [MSNBC]
• California-cool fashion line Trovata joins its fashion brethren in claiming that Forever 21 copied their designs and is now also suing their fundamentalist Christian asses blah blah take a number folks. [NY Times]
• French Vogue: Still a gajilliony times cooler than American Vogue. (This is why we're going as Carine Roitfeld for Halloween.) [Radar]

• Anna Wintour-mocking Rachel Zoe has been dropped from her management company because "they didn't want to anger Anna and Anna is more important." [NY Post]
  
• Agyness Deyn, the Most Important Model In The Universe right now, turns out to not really be 18 or even 21 (ages she's given to various interviewers) but 24. Which explains why Dodai calls her "Hagness". [Daily Mail]
  
• Vogue's Andre Leon Talley is really glad that Calvin Klein is using black actor Djimon Hounsou as the face of his campaign because Talley feels that black faces are not getting the exposure they deserve. Which is why, we assume, he referred to Honsou as "what's his name... [the] black man." LOL. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Paradox of the day: Dockers trunk shows. [WSJ]

• Designer Veronique Branquinho edited the October issue of A Magazine, published in her mother country of Belgium, because editing fashion magazines is so mindless and simple that even a fashion designer — or Kirsten Dunst! — can do it. If it were any harder the editors would maybe have to eat something. [WWD, 1st item]
• Proof "at last" that fashion folk have no idea what the fuck they're talking about. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Chanel artistic director Jean Helleu, he who compared Keira Knightley and her fake breasts to an urchin or something, died Friday evening at age 69. He believed "taste is a gift." Hah, the gift that keeps on taking away our money! RIP. [Vogue UK]
• Status watches the new status bags? We thought that's what status meals were! [IHT]
• Ugh, another model with a makeup line. Someone tell Trish Goff we don't care. [WWD, 2nd item]

[New York, September 12. Image via FilmMagic]

Earlier: Black Women: Wise Best Friends To White Women Everywhere
Vivica A. Fox: Jessica Simpson's "Best Black Friend"?

• New York Fashion Week and the showing of the Spring/Summer 2008 Ready-to-Wear collections start today. Expect us to be increasingly tired and irritable as the week goes on. Unless we see Vogue's Anna Wintour, in which case we will perk up momentarily, grab our BlackBerrys, and then go back to being tired and irritable. [Vogue UK]
  
• Models who were dancers say that their dance backgrounds give them a leg up in the industry because they are already well-versed in performance. We say that models who were dancers have a leg up in the industry because they've had years of practice starving themselves. [NYT]
  
• Those close to Oscar de la Renta say that "None of the girls who just show up to places to get their pictures taken were invited. Oscar thinks they are tacky and is only interested in the women who actually support his work and, you know, buy the clothes." [NY Post]
  
• Marc Jacobs, however, seems to totally dig those kind of girls, and has invited Lauren Conrad to participate in his show. [NY Post]

• Donna Karan apparently likes her men young and strapping. How the hell is Donna Karan dating a male model and we can't even get a date? [NY Daily News]
• Valentino: Still retiring. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Guess's net income sky rockets by 81.5% percent this quarter. Which can only mean one thing: The spirit of Anna Nicole Smith lives on. [WWD, sub req'd]
• JA Apparel Group owns the Joseph Abboud trademark. Designer Joseph Abboud does not. The latter is now being sued by the former for copyright infringement. And we are very, very confused. [WSJ]
• Even before we step foot in the tents today, we feel fully confident in saying this pic of an Olsen-designed furry coat (for their Elizabeth and James line) is the most terrifying fashion we'll see all day. [FabSugar]

• Amanda Bynes is designing a line for Steve & Barry's. It's called Dear. It has a MySpace page. With 9 'friends'. [Racked]
  
• An Italian town named Biella hopes to brand its name and assert its authority in the wonderful world of cashmere. You know how you don't say 'tissues', you say 'Kleenex'? Biella wants it to be like that. [NYPost]
  
• Donna Karan's new fragrance Delicious Night, is said to smell like "the magic of New York at night." Oh, Donna, trust us: New York at night smells like stale Parliaments, cheap wine, sweat, and, er, bad decisions. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Vogue impresario/notorious megalomaniac Andre Leon Talley's advice to budding fashion industry drones? "Stay humble." Because nothing says "humble" like velvet loafers and massive fur capes. [WWD, 2nd item]

• Oh that progressive Miuccia! The lovely Ms. Prada is now designing costumes! For, uh, an anime cartoon? [WWD, sub req'd]
• On the heels of its vows to become more youthful (read: slutty), Escada says it is losing money. [WWD]
• Kenneth Cole's new "Awearness" campaign to combat homelessness, AIDS, and probably most yucky stuff. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Iconic fashion photographer Mario Testino just bought a $6.3 million condo in Ian Schrager's 40 Bond St development in New York's SoHo. We walked past it the other day, gagged its ugly exterior, and asked outloud, Who the fuck would want to live here? And now our questions are answered. [WSJ, 1st item]
• Heart shaped sunglasses are sorta cool — when you're four. [Vogue UK]