Anna Wintour has apparently tired of the "affordable" stuff she pretended to care about in 2009, and is back to her old tricks, sending Joan Juliet Buck on an excursion to an $800-a-night spa in Utah that Buck calls "a potent combination of comfort, sensual rewards, and privilege." Vogue even did a whole photo shoot in and around the spa, starring Daria Werbowy in climbing boots, and one has to wonder whether this little retreat — like Gwyneth Paltrow's recent getaway — was comped. To distract readers from such concerns, Vogue shows how hip it is by packing its January photo shoots with tousled young musicians. Indie rock: so cool! So now! Excuse us — we're off to buy some stocks.


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• Jessica Simpson's swimwear line is here! Simpson says it's inspired by the jet-setting getaways she dreams about. [Stylelist]
• Since snow ruined the last shopping weekend before Christmas for the Northeast, expect stores to offer extended hours and other enticements. [WWD]

• In September, a hacker allegedly accessed Condé Nast's server and downloaded 1,100 files. Two months later, the blog Fashionzag posted some of the stolen content: five alternate covers of the December issue of GQ, and pages from Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Lucky. The company is suing to determine the identity of the blogger behind Fashionzag, and for unspecified damages. [WWD]
• Rodarte's line for Target is still available at many stores in a full range of sizes, but many pieces are sold out online, leading to the inevitable eBay price-gouging. [Racked]
• UK Elle is reporting a rumor that Taylor Momsen, of Gossip Girl fame, might be the new face of the fast fashion chain New Look. [UK Elle]
• Meanwhile, the show's costume designer, Eric Daman, says "statement bracelets" and painterly prints are going to be big trends next year. You know he can make it happen. [NYPost]
• Karl Lagerfeld made a kind of cute little film where Lara Stone and Baptiste Giabiconi are two well-dressed shoplifters who make off with all the goods they want from Paris area Chanel boutiques. If it only included getaway shots — the couple jumps on a Chanel motorbike, natch — it would be adorable, but Lagerfeld just can't resist moving the camera inside for some lingering dressing-room inaction, which, combined with the man's execrable sense of pacing, bogs the whole thing down. [SB]
• Why, oh why, must a fabulous-sounding photography book called Backstage Dior by the legendary backstage photographer Roxanne Lowit cost $125? Sigh. [NYTimes]
• Vivienne Westwood is launching a denim line! Unfortunately, it will cost at least as much as that book. [WWD]
• Tag Heuer will not run any ads featuring Tiger Woods in the U.S. market for the near future. [CBS]
• However, Woods will remain a face of the brand, the company stresses. [WWD]
• Oscar de la Renta won back the rights to his own fragrance license from L'Oréal, after an 18-month legal battle. [WWD]
• Did Claudia Schiffer receive special treatment on the stricken Eurostar whose engine failed just after the train emerging on the English side of the Channel tunnel? Other passengers are reporting that they saw a car drive right up to the train and collect the model, who frequently travels first-class on Eurostar between London and Paris on business. [Telegraph]
• Balenciaga is suing Steve Madden for allegedly copying its 2007 "Sportiletto" shoe. [Cityfile]
• Loïc Prigent, one of our favorite fashion documentarians, made a six-episode series, Habillees, about the search for new French design talent. And he captured Anna Wintour disparaging France's support for the next generation of designers: "I think it's totally important for all of us in the American fashion industry to support the young designers, and I think that's why New York's become such a vibrant fashion center, because people go there not only to see the Donna Karans of the world but a whole new generation. I'm just so sorry that there isn't something like that in Paris that's similar. I think that they should look for the younger generation here [in Paris] as well. Not only New York but London really supports their young talent; Franca Sozzani at Italian Vogue supports the young Italian designers, and I think when France is so known for its fashion industry — for them not to be reaching out to help younger people today is really a shame." Although New York and London each have cash awards and mentorships available to some of their young designers, to say that Franca Sozzani single-handedly puts emerging Italian designers on the map is rather a stretch. Which gives the impression this was a meandering way to get in a dig at Carine Roitfeld. [Fashionologie]
• It's the American way to turn nurturing emerging talent into mass entertainment. Robin Givhan dedicates her weekly column to Christian Siriano, who is now three collections out from winning Project Runway. [WaPo]
• Australians are apparently surprised that Louis Vuitton has found a way to sell a plain old polyamide/elastane bikini — and not even a cute one — for over a thousand dollars. [News.com.au]
• Meanwhile, we have to contend with $2,995 custom-made Proenza Schouler surfboards. And it's not even summer up here. [NYTimes]

• Madonna goes all Italian neorealist for spring's Dolce & Gabbana campaign. You'd almost swear these images were by Vittorio de Sica, not Steven Klein. The advertising shots ran as editorial content "previewed" in Italian Vanity Fair. [Swide]

• If you believe TMZ, Elin Nordegren might get back at Tiger in a way that would really hurt: by signing an endorsement deal with Puma. [TMZ]
• Well, that's a twist: Ungaro's C.E.O. is resigning, while Lindsay Lohan will remain with the house that so controversially benefited from her pasty-designing prowess. [WWD]
• Kimora Lee Simmons is not judging America's Next Top Model, not even as a guest, says her rep. [The Cut]
• Saks informed 116 employees at its cosmetics and fragrance counters that the company is eliminating their jobs as soon as the holidays are over. The move comes just weeks after the employees had voted to unionize. Merry Christmas! [NYPost]
• Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy just won the same $50,000 grant as Sapphire, author of Push. [WWD]
• Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady have yet to settle on a name for their week-old baby. Gisele vetoed the one they had picked out two days before giving birth, and they haven't been together long enough since then to really talk about it, says Brady. His only conditions are that it be "a traditional name" and something he can pronounce. [People]
• Zac Posen's collaboration with Target includes an actual gown that can be worn three ways, a tuxedo, and a red leather jacket. The print-heavy capsule collection will get the widest distribution of any Target designer collab yet. [Racked]
• Draw on your clothes lots as a kid? A dress designed by Berber Soepboer and Michiel Schuurman comes with fabric markers so the owner can add color to the eye-catching black and white print. [Daily Mail]
• Advertisements for Olay Definity eye cream featuring Twiggy were the subject of more than 700 public complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K., and yesterday, those complaints were upheld. The government watchdog found the heavily retouched advertisement was "misleading." Proctor & Gamble, which owns the Olay brand, voluntarily withdrew the offending ad and replaced it with one they claim has had no post-production in the eye area. [BBC]
• Biba is being revived. Again. [WWD]
• American Apparel is getting into the nail polish business. "We think this nail polish captures what American Apparel is all about — a Made in the USA, high-quality product in a beautiful range of colors. It's a venture of families in manufacturing, from the factory in which the polish is made to the Nail Lacquer logo created by Dov's uncle, the noted graphic designer Israel Charney," says a spokesperson. The 18 shades are named things like "Factory Grey" and "Hassid" and, naturally, "Downtown LA," and they cost $6 a bottle. Expect memos from Dov about appropriate nail and toenail styles imminently, retail drones. [Blackbook]
• Or you could buy this darling new shade of teal, called "Dickweed." [Refinery29]
• Grace Coddington granted a surprisingly revealing interview to the Times of London — and lets slip that she originally proposed Susan Boyle to play the wicked witch in her recent Hansel and Gretel shoot. Anna Wintour nixed the idea and favored Lady Gaga, whom Coddington describes thusly: "She turned up in a white rubber coat, stark naked underneath. No buttons, nothing — and completely you know, shaved." That's right, we just read about Lady Gaga's pubic hair in the pages of a daily paper! Coddington discusses Wintour (they can't fight "like a married couple," Coddington says, because "my marriages haven't been that successful"), front-row fashion week punditry ("I'm not prepared to crush some poor designer who's just spent six months slaving over a collection. I think it's horrible and they all talk about themselves. Plus, the questions are so stupid"), and the car crash that happened in her early 20s ("I remember bleeding all over a policeman and apologising for the mess. I had this driving mirror sticking in my head. I got to the hospital and they started sewing me up. Then someone said, what do you do and I said I'm a model and they said, hang on a minute. They took out all the stitches and made them more fine. Isn't that terrible? Because as a young girl, wouldn't I want the best anyway?"). Coddington admits to favoring British models — Lily Cole, Karen Elson — and says that models these days become successful so early that she sometimes thinks they have "no personality." Then she alludes to working with Karlie Kloss: "I was working with a very successful one the other day and she told me her parents were coming to take her on a trip to the place she loved best. I thought, where's she going — Africa? It was Disney World. And I thought, ‘Good for you. You're still a child'." (Kloss went to Disney World with her parents for her 17th birthday.) Erin O'Connor chimes in to praise Coddington for her work, and for "getting it past the censors." [ToL]
• Lacoste, via a new partnership, is planning to launch high-end handbags and accessories. [WWD]
• Hermès and Gucci each hosted their own name-brand equestrian competitions in the same week. Can you say, "Attempt to appeal to some kind of presumably authentic brand heritage?" [IHT]

• Victoria Beckham opens up to Women's Wear Daily about everything from the childhood bullying she endured to why she couldn't bring herself to tell Marc Jacobs she was starting a fashion line. Clearly, someone wants to be Taken Seriously:

• And Beckham sure is a busy woman these days. Not only is she judging American Idol next month, bu she recently redesigned her denim and sunglass lines, after taking them in-house (the innovations she came up with include square rivets). And she chaperones school field trips in her (limited, we imagine) spare time. When she moved into fashion, people were derisive — surely she was just another celebrity cashing in on the brand of her self. But perhaps we got it wrong? "There have been people that have wanted to knock me that haven't been able to because they haven't been able to argue with the quality or the sell-throughs," says the star, who moves about $7.5 million worth of products a year. "I've always been driven. I was mentally and physically bullied when I was at school and that gave me a very thick skin.…The only reason for me bringing that up is I have always been a fighter." [WWD]
• Yet somehow we're still happier for this Bronx priest, Father Andrew O'Connor, whose sustainable cotton clothing line was worn by Cameron Diaz in Vogue and is now selling extremely well. A chance encounter set the wheels in motion: "I was helping a young woman and her fiancé prepare for their marriage," explains Father O'Connor, "and she said I'm an editor at Vogue; I'd really like to see your clothing line." In the resultant issue, Anna Wintour herself wrote in her Editor's letter, "the neat pair of checked shorts from the charitably minded fashion company Goods of Conscience [is] my personal favorite." The profits from the line fund domestic violence initiatives in the Bronx, and support the native Guatemalan communities where the fabric is woven. [NYDN]
• Matt Tyrnauer tells the long, horrifying, funny, and strange story of making and distributing a documentary film about a subject who could be — a little difficult. And Tyrnauer financed the film by taking out credit cards with 0% introductory APRs. Whenever Giancarlo Giammetti inquired about the production's cashflow, Tyrnauer would reply, "It's fully financed by a bank called Capital One." Valentino: The Last Emperor is now shortlisted for a Best Documentary Oscar. [TDB]
• Two men were found guilty of stealing more than £4 million worth of Cartier jewelry from an airport warehouse in 2001. They had apparently gotten away with it, but were found out when their third accomplice, a contestant on a reality TV series about cooking made by Jamie Oliver, contacted police to confess the crime last year. [BBC]
• Tune in tomorrow to watch Tom Ford on the Martha Stewart Show. Then on Thursday, Roberto Cavalli takes his mark at Martha's kitchen island. [Glamchic]
• Louis Vuitton's spring campaign does in fact feature Lara Stone, the company has confirmed. The Dutch model was shot in a pastoral studio set with white doves and handbags nestled into moss by Steven Meisel. [WWD]
• The February release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will be heralded in Paris by a display of one-off Alice-inspired dresses by designers Ann Demeulemeester, Christopher Kane, Alexander McQueen, and Martin Margiela (or at least whoever it is who designs under Martin Margiela's name these days) at the Printemps department store. [Elle UK]
• Daphne Guinness has officially moved from being Steven Klein's unpaid muse to his paid one. The heiress is featured in the spring Akris campaign. [WWD]
• Coach has filed more than 100 lawsuits against retailers it suspects of selling counterfeit Coach goods in 2009, including several lawsuits in Texas. Even though selling counterfeited goods is a criminal offense, the lawsuits are civil, because the fashion company wants the court to file injunctions against the offending retailers. One manager of a Fort Worth store named in the suit says, "I didn't know it was wrong." [DN]
• Barneys is looking to open its first Brooklyn Barneys Co-Op, most likely in Cobble Hill. [Crains]
• And in other retail news, the Chelsea Filene's Basement on the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 18th Street will close this March, after the company was unable to renegotiate the terms of its lease. Seventy-five employees will be affected; the company could not say whether or not the workers would be transferred to Filene's other New York stores. It is looking for a new location nearby. [Crains]

• A friend of Daul Kim who IM'd with the model the night before Kim was found dead in her Paris apartment says that Kim complained of feeling depressed, and was in an abusive relationship. But she was scared to leave:

• Writes reporter Peter Davis, who read the chat, "She'd punched him in the face; he'd yanked her hair. But she was afraid to leave him, afraid to suffer the agony of being apart. The last time they separated, she hadn't been able to eat, dropping from 112 to 99 lbs. Her friend begged her to leave town, book a job, call her mother. No, she said. She'd miss her dog. She ended the conversation abruptly, saying she was going off to the clean the house. A few hours later, Kim was found by her boyfriend, hanged in her luxurious apartment in Paris' 10th arrondissement." This alleged history of violence between Kim and her boyfriend is the reason her father is understood to not believe his daughter killed herself. The rest of The Daily Beast's story is the usual sensationalist "5'10" stunner" bullshit, leavened with factual errors. Davis has Kim's work history spectacularly confused, and even gets both the name and the URL of Kim's acclaimed blog wrong. [TDB]
• Top Australian model Catherine McNeil — who has been taking a five-month break from her work — appeared in public in Sydney with what appear to be self-inflicted cuts on her arms. (Her agent says she "fell off her skateboard and into some bushes.") Sensitive news articles that quote experts on the subject of self-harm will probably help the situation, right? Oh, wait. The professor this paper dug up says: "Self-harm is, sadly, very common and is becoming a bit of a trend...In some groups of young people, it's even considered virtually a fashionable thing to do." [Daily Telegraph]
• Sharon Stone went to Uganda and saw some people with "nothing to eat. literally zero to eat." So her new jewelry collection for Damiani will devote a portion of its proceeds to building wells in developing countries. [WWD]
• Tom Ford: "I like Twilight. I liked the first one, and I'm dying to see the new one." [The Cut]
• Would Lady Gaga take inspiration from Doctor Who for a stage outfit? I think we all know the answer is yes. [Telegraph]
• Pierre Bergé, who is the president of French AIDS charity Sidaction — the recent auction of Bergé's and Yves Saint Laurent's household goods and art collection went to benefit Sidaction — went on French television to tell off a fund-raising telethon for children with muscular dystrophy. The telethon is "[sponging] off the generosity of the French in a populist manner by exhibiting the unhappiness of children," said Bergé. [WWD]
• Coco Chanel used to wear these big enamel bangles with the Maltese cross on them. They were made for her specially by a socialite jewelry designer who happened to be a member of the Italian nobility. Naturally, Verdura, the company the socialite founded, is reissuing the bangles in sets of two, made of 18ct yellow gold, and set with enough gemstones to make the 7-year-old rockhound in all of us squeal: there are sapphires, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, aquamarines, Madeira topaz, citrines, and a prasolite. Just in time for the holidays! They are, of course, price on application. [Telegraph]
• Stella McCartney had a comedy troupe in drag for her holiday party. Sounds like our kind of shindig. [Elle UK]
• Leona Lewis is going to do an animal-friendly fashion line with McCartney. [OK!]
• And McCartney has lined up Natalia Vodianova for her spring campaign. The Russian model will also be replacing Christy Turlington as the face of YSL — apparently Stefano Pilati is still on his supermodels kick — and she nabbed Givenchy's campaign. [Elle UK]
• Making Hermès boots involves soaking Swiss bullhides in chestnut oil. What, like you think they'd use inferior German bullhides? Pshaw. [Telegraph]
• Sean "P. Diddy" Combs will appear on a sleek, all-white set with windows that display the New York skyline, an animal skin rug on the floor, and a gas fire, to toast his latest act of selling out: Shilling his perfumes — count 'em, he's got two — on HSN. [WWD]
• Anna Wintour went to a party to celebrate current Vogue cover woman Cate Blanchett's role in A Streetcar Named Desire. [TDB]
• Charis Wilson, a model and Edward Weston's muse and wife, has died in California, aged 95. [NYTimes]
• By the way, that little fashion show Victoria's Secret threw a few nights back cost around $10 million to produce. [WWD]
• Sales of women's clothing fell 3.3% on last year for the first half of November, the opening of the traditional holiday shopping period. Department store sales fell 7.1%, and sales of men's clothing fell just 1%. Online sales across all categories rose 19.4%. [AP]

Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton, per usual, bring the Gothic deshabille.


Designer Nanette Lepore knows that if there's one crowd that won't blink at vaguely tribal girly armor, it's this one.


Michelle Harper is a fixture on the social scene and, yes, she always looks this fabulously deco-glam.


Aww, it's Danny DeVito and daughter Gracie!


Jeez louise, is Gabourey Sidibe batting 1000, or what? Nary a misstep, folks! Nary a one!


Brooke Shields can do simple elegance. She was a Calvin girl, after all.


Say what you will about Anna Wintour, say what you will about fur...man, those hems are aligned with a military precision!


Is Ashley Greene's LBD breaking any hearts? No, but I can't take my eyes off her face, so it all works out.


You know what I love most about this pic of MK and Ashley? That they're both carrying briefcases, in case they might need to have an impromptu meeting. Moguls, people.


It's true that Rose Byrne is a special favorite, but come on: this is cool. Would I wear it? Could I wear it? No and no. That's why stars: are nothing like us.


Somehow in the context of this event it would seem strange if Johnny Depp hadn't shown up with Patti Smith as his date, and if they hadn't looked exactly like this. Yes, quizzing glass, hankie and all.


We'd say Helena Bonham Carter had been in one too many Tim Burton movies, but she was always an eccentric, and she's ended up in exactly the right place and, at the end of the day, it's pretty wonderful.


Hamish Bowles (Vogue's European Editor at Large) is one of this town's most reliable and natty dandies.


David and Julia Koch do "artistic socialite." Okay, not him so much.

[Images via Getty]

A spokesman for Vogue confirms that Blue State Digital, the progressive-oriented online consultancy that famously created my.barackobama.com, has been hired to work on Vogue.com on both the editorial and business sides. They're focusing on outreach to readers and subscribers, says the spokesman.

Even though it rose to prominence for masterminding the Obama campaign's online organizing arm, Blue State Digital recently told Business Insider that revenues are up 40 percent, mostly from non-political clients who want to figure out how to create online communities.

Tom Florio, often seen as the personification of the old-line Conde Nast publisher — all swagger and Italian suits — is said to be actively involved. It's unclear if Wintour has been as well, but one thing's for sure: she's come a long way since refusing to use the word "blog."

Related: Meet Blue State Digital [Business Insider]

Two years ago, before the Iowa primaries, the Clinton campaign earned Wintour's wrath by abruptly backing out of an interview and accompanying Annie Leibovitz shoot, despite a previously warm relationship dating back to Clinton's 1998 cover during the Lewinsky scandal. By the time Clinton became a candidate, though, a Vogue rep said, "We were told by Ms. Clinton's camp that they were concerned if Clinton appeared in Vogue that she would appear too feminine." Wintour struck back in her editor's letter, writing,

"The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying...This is America, not Saudi Arabia. It's also 2008: Margaret Thatcher may have looked terrific in a blue power suit, but that was 20 years ago. I do think Americans have moved on from the power-suit mentality, which served as a bridge for a generation of women to reach boardrooms filled with men. Political campaigns that do not recognize this are making a serious misjudgment."

Now that Clinton is Obama's Secretary of State, Vogue has clearly made amends. It hasn't won every battle: there Clinton is in the December 2009 issue, in a blue power suit. Still, you have admire the mighty effort Vogue's Jonathan Van Meter shows in wedging in the fashion credits — in his opener, no less.

It is a dreary morning in early October in Washington, D.C., and perhaps because Hillary Rodham Clinton is wearing a black Oscar de la Renta suit on such a colorless day, she seems somber. I had trailed her for nearly two weeks this summer in Africa and then again in New York during the United Nations General Assembly, and I had grown accustomed to seeing her in the vivid suits she favors. Africa is nothing if not colorful, and so not only did bright red or teal or periwinkle seem situation-appropriate, but her clothes somehow matched her demeanor, which was almost uniformly cheerful. Sometimes the color/mood connection was made overt: One morning, as her motorcade arrived at the U.N. for a panel on violence against women and girls, she stepped out of a shiny black luxury sedan in a red suit and was met by Esther Bremmer, her Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, also wearing red. "Good morning, Esther," said Clinton. "I see you got the color memo."

Africa! It's colorful!

The next paragraph indicates that Clinton "looks tired and cranky" while not wearing makeup, but transforms once her deputy chief of staff hands her a compact to apply "mascara, lipstick, blush, and a little powder." The world will have to wait to find out exactly what brand of mascara Clinton uses. Maybe they don't advertise?

Yes, Vogue is a fashion magazine. But hasn't it occurred to its editors that fashion simply doesn't matter that much to Hillary Clinton, and to stop trying to force the issue? Van Meter also asks Secretary Clinton about Michelle Obama's support of young designers. "She can carry it off and she enjoys it, so more power to her," Clinton responds. It's a graceful answer that also indicates that she does not give a shit.

Incidentally, it's not at all clear that Clinton dropped out of her campaign-era Vogue shoot just because she was afraid of wearing a dress. After all, the economy was already beginning to crater, and elitism could easily have been a more damning charge than femininity. And as Julia Reed, the now-former Vogue reporter who'd been putting in time on that story, told me last year, the reasons the Clinton campaign gave her for backing out operated under two slightly different assumptions, at least one of which turned out to be false:

"Reed said she was told, 'We already have the women's vote in the bag,' and that [Howard] Wolfson said, " 'We thought we were going to be in a bigger dogfight. We don't need you anymore.' This was right before Iowa. What an idiot!"

So many missed opportunities.

Her Brilliant Career [Vogue]

Earlier: Vogue's Anna Wintour Calls Hillary Clinton A "Mannish" Coward

Related: Sharp Words [WWD Memo Pad]
If Only Hillary Had Done Vogue [WWD Memo Pad]

• Zoe Kravitz, negotiating the transition from Famous Daughter to Celebrity, has committed the necessary act of being photographed by Bruce Weber for a perfume campaign. Vera Wang was the lucky partner in fame-chasing. Shall we expect a reality show? [People]

• Judge Richard Goldstone, who authored a U.N. report about Israel's war crimes, now has the honor of his name, embroidered in Arabic by local women, being used to sell scarves in Gaza. Shop owners say the scarves are selling out. [UPN]
• That rumor we mentioned yesterday about Georgia Jagger proved true. She will be the face of Versace's spring campaign. [WWD]
• Barbara Orbison, widow of Roy, has launched a perfume named for her late husband's best-known song: Pretty Woman. [WWD]
• Lily Cole: "I'm very good at making salads, which probably sounds rather meek and model-like, but they're fancy salads. I add things like figs, blue cheese and pine nuts. I never follow a recipe –- I even make cakes by guessing what is the right amount of flour and the right number of eggs." Jesus, Cole, do you fly planes and mentally calculate pi to the 100th decimal and cure cancer, too? [Telegraph]
• The Kimberley Process was set up in 2002 as an international regulatory body for the diamond trade. Incorporating governments, businesses, and NGOs and civilian groups, the goal was to end the trade in blood diamonds, which has destabilized the continent for decades. But at the group's annual meeting in Namibia, it failed to expel Zimbabwe from membership, despite a Kimberley fact-finding mission in June that discovered that Zimbabwean diamond miners are subject to constant government harassment, and that over 100 had been killed in the past year. The income from the mines, an estimated $1 million a month, is used by Robert Mugabe to prop up his regime. But Zimbabwe can't be expelled because the Kimberley group's own rules require unanimity before such a step is taken. (Looks like Kimberley might be the League of Nations of the gem trade.) The Women's Wear Daily journalist reports a mine owner said "it was up to consumers whether they should buy diamonds, when doing so could fund tribal warfare, genocide and terrorism." When the C.E.O. of a mining company tells you not to buy diamonds... [WWD]
• Mulberry is doing a line of laptop bags with Apple. [Elle UK]
• Justin Timberlake's William Rast is expanding. The company opened three stores in California this month, and plans another 40-50 by 2012. [WWD]
• Zac Efron says he wore his favorite jeans every day for eight weeks to get them to look perfectly lived-in. [WWD]
• Nicole Ritchie will be doing a House of Harlow 1960 collaboration with Bebe. The range will cost $38-$98, and one bracelet, for $25, will have "a portion" of its sales donated to the Ritchie-Madden Children's Foundation. The collection will hit stores on November 12. [People]
• Vogue editor Lauren Santo-Domingo says that the office normally celebrates birthday parties with pizza and cupcakes — but that the question of whether or not to surprise Anna Wintour with a cake with 60 candles was obviated by her being in Washington, D.C., on the big day. "She's in Washington right now being anointed. She's being knighted by President Obama — I think that's a pretty good 60th-birthday present," said Santo-Domingo. Actually, she was appointed to a White House committee. [The Cut]
• Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had a beauty line at Wal-Mart called mary-kateandashley. Who knew? Now you can't buy it anymore, because it's dead. [WWD]
• Here's Rosie O'Donnell's account, given on her radio show, of a conversation she had with designer Eileen Fisher: "I see [her] and say, ‘I love you, and you have helped me. You can't imagine how much stress I had in my life because of clothing but once I found you three years ago everything changed. On behalf of every plus-sized woman in the world, I just want to thank you. And I want to ask you why do you only have the [plus] sizes down in SoHo?'" Fisher responded, "That's not really our demographic…you know, we sell a lot of size two." O'Donnell quipped, "Oh yeah, the plus-size two?" Fisher said, "No, the regular size two." O'Donnell leaped to the obvious conclusion. "So, you're trying to design for everyone and you don't really want the association with the plus-size people?" Fisher's response? "Well, it's just not the image that we're going for." Ouch. "It was like someone stabbed me in the heart. I was like, ‘OK, Eileen, we're broken up. I am wearing Donna Karan from now on.'" Sometimes meeting your idols is a terrible idea. But if Eileen Fisher is serious about passing over her established audience of professional women of means and age (a demographic which is severely under-served by the rest of the fashion industry) in favor of young things who want to wear leggings, then Fisher will probably get her comeuppance in the marketplace, won't she? [WWD]
• Madonna donated a pair of Christian Dior shoes to a charity working to end discrimination against Roma people, and the shoes fetched $16,600 at auction. [SB]
• Helena Rubinstein is coming back to the U.S. market with a new perfume, and Demi Moore as its face. [WWD]
  [WWD]
• If you live in New York, and somehow lack for opportunities to see men in strange outfits, you could go to Miss J's book signing next Tuesday at the TriBeCa Barnes & Noble. He wrote a tome entitled, Follow The Model: Miss J's Guide To Unleashing Presence, Poise, and Power. [Barnes & Noble]
• If you wanna chain-smoke your downtown fashion people-spotting, Carine Roitfeld is rumored to be coming to New York next Monday for an art opening. (Only semi-related: we saw Olivier Zahm at the Tracey Emin opening last night. Outside the dusky confines of the [late, lamented] Beatrice Inn, we had the revelation that the Purple Fashion editor looks exactly like Rick Moranis. Or Booger from Revenge of the Nerds; we couldn't decide. Snap poll?) [P6]
• Michael Kors says he enjoyed his Utah vacation. He went horse-riding, which he liked, and for a ride in a hot-air balloon, which left him "freaked out." "Face your fears!" says the designer. [WWD]
• Sanjana Jon, sister of rapist designer Anand, showed her new fashion collection in Delhi. It's "inspired" by her brother. [NYPost]
• Bankrupt German fashion house Escada has been bought by a daughter-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian steel baron. [NYTimes]

Coddington, a former model, spoke to New York Magazine last night, saying,

It is a big problem. I remember when I was young, they told me that if I didn't lose weight I'd be out of the show, so I spent a week living off of coffee. But I'm a very levelheaded person. These problems nowadays are with kids much, much younger than that, and that's most of the problem - when they're very young and vulnerable.

While making the point that models "have to be a little thinner than you and I because you always photograph a little fatter," she conceded that "you don't have to go to the extremes they go to. And because they're kids, they take it too far, and they can't regulate their lives, and next thing you know they're anorexic, and it is tragic." But...was she talking about the same Vogue we are? The same Anna? Quoth she,

I don't know what the answer is, except to keep on it, which we're all trying to do. Anna's trying to do it. Personally we're not allowed, at Vogue, to work with girls who are very thin, but you never know, because you could book them and think they're a certain size, and they turn up on the shoot and suddenly they've spun into this anorexic situation. And you're on the spot and you have to get the job done and you have one day to do it, and what do you do? But you try to be responsible, as Anna is.

Well, look, the woman works at Vogue, and in a seriously senior capacity. She's been there, partially-presiding, through the lean times - in every sense. Don't expect miracles here, even if her words feel a tad less lip-servicey than most. In The September Issue, Coddington came across as relatively down-to-earth, an eater of seemingly normal meals, and stupendously talented - not to mention refreshingly eccentric in her Elizabethan presentation. But the fun-house mirrors of that world go both ways, and at the end of the day, Fashion, as Robin Givhan pointed out, is a different world, and one that's not changing. Coddington does put her finger on one of the crucial points: the increasing youth of the models. We'd have thought, as creative director of Vogue, she might have a little influence on these things but, as she says in what may in fact be a back-handed way, "Usually Anna has all the ideas. I just interpret them and change them."

Grace Coddington Is Worried About How Young And Thin Models Are [New York]

• Marisa Miller has earned the most coveted position of all the Victoria's Secret runway girls: Wearer Of The Diamond-Studded Bra. Her equipment costs $3 million. "It's surprisingly comfortable," says Miller. Sure looks it. [People]

• Sir Paul Smith would love it "if fashion shows died out completely." The 63-year-old British designer explains, shows are "pure, self-indulgent theatre. How many girls were there this year in horns or neck braces with bare breasts? It wouldn't matter if they didn't take it all so seriously, but the fashion world is a dangerous, superficial and fickle place." [Telegraph]
• Although the press sometimes jumps all over Anna Wintour for repeating her outfits, it's something she does all the time, and will continue to do, because who wears clothes once, for God's sake? "I usually wear the same dress twenty times. I think it's always fun to have something new, but it doesn't mean that everything you already have in your closet has to be thrown out, you know? Recycle." [The Cut]
• The USAToday and W did the hard work of "parsing" Amelia Earhart's style. You know her, she's that woman famous for...wearing pants. [USAToday]
• Donatella Versace tells a Vogue reader who says she would buy clothes in larger sizes, if Versace made them, that "I certainly wouldn't want to do a plus-size line, as I have no problem with women of any size wearing my clothes. I guess some styles lend themselves to being scaled up, while some others just don't work." Versace's own daughter, Allegra, has struggled with anorexia. [Style.com]
• Donatella hosted a party for the Whitney, and a lot of celebrities came. (Since when are Lindsay Lohan and Taylor Momsen "just-wanna-have-fun blondes"?) Also in attendance at what was, you know, an art benefit were Chuck Close and Ellsworth Kelly. [Style.com]
• Meanwhile, that equally tanned and fashionable Italian female, Gucci creative director Frida Giannini, is headed to Yonkers today to cut the ribbon with Mary J. Blige on something called the Mary J. Blige Center for Women. [P6]
• Somebody should tell Mark Ronson that what he has designed for Gucci is not in fact a sneaker, but a boat shoe. The eyelets give it away. [Hypebeast]
• Karl Lagerfeld is heading to Argentina. Lest you think it's to enjoy some steak and a nice Malbec, know this: "I only go to places if I have a professional reason. I'm not a tourist." He'll be shooting Freja Beha Erichsen, Baptiste GIabiconi, and Claudia Schiffer in the next Chanel campaign — what, no Lara Stone? — and researching a book about Argentine architecture. [WWD]
• London Fog's holiday ad campaign features Tony Parker and Eva Longoria. There's got to be a Mad Men joke here somewhere. [People]
• Meanwhile, John Galliano himself has revealed that the spring Dior campaign will star Karlie Kloss. [WWD]
• Grace Kelly and Cartier are each getting stars on the Walk of Style on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. [HoustonChronicle]
• Angelina Jolie is apparently in talks with Ridley Scott to star in a film about the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci. [Variety]
• Tom Ford, the man Maurizio had hired to revitalize the brand, says he will do women's wear again. Just as soon as he can get financing. [WWD]
• The Times' Critical Shopper, Cintra Wilson, went to Ann Taylor. She didn't expect to like it, but then: "Clothing companies, when they panic, tend to go rococo. They get flashier, busier and more disposable by slapping on bigger logos and more useless bows and frippery. Ann Taylor must be commended for choosing less clutter and better details that aren't always: the finished seams inside a little faille opera jacket; the velvet ribbon inside the waist of a peplum coat; the Italian three-season wool." [NYTimes]
• Iconix Brand Group, the company behind everything from Candie's to Badgley Mischka, has been fined $250,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for violating certain provisions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act when it collected information during some of its promotions last year. [Crain's]
• Burberry is suing the U.K.-based pet supply store Pets At Home for using a checked fabric the company says is too similar to its own. Pets At Home, which has 250 stores, has pulled the offending products, but the dispute is ongoing. Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey told the New Yorker earlier this year about suing a pet store that advertised a dog cushion "in the famous Burberry check." [Guardian]
• Maybe the answer is that Burberry should make like Mulberry, and do its own line of pet clothes. [FWD]
• More details about the city's planned fashion incubator in the garment district have emerged: New York will subsidize 12 slots in a 10,000 sq. ft. space, reducing the rent from $2,900 to $1,500 a month. The designers, who are being selected right now, will also have access to mentoring and support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. It's not for students fresh out of school: every designer must have already been in business for at least a year, and employ a staff (even if that staff is volunteer). What a wonderful use for a vacant showroom floor. [NYTimes]
  
• Australian denim brand Ksubi is going to do a lower-priced line with the department store David Jones. And possibly another one with Topshop. [Sassybella]
• Anhropologie is extending its reach across the Atlantic. Its first European store opens on Friday in London. [WWD]

• Creator of this season's mightiest shoes, Alexander McQueen, is suing Steve Madden. McQueen's lawyers say the only reason the Madden is a knock-off and not a pure counterfeit is the omission of the logo'd zipper pull. (L-R: McQueen, Madden.) [WWD]

• There are pictures and renderings of Domenico Dolce's just-bought $29 million Manhattan penthouse. It looks predictably lavish; it even has an elevator for the designer's car. [FWD]
• Christian Lacroix will design another day! Al Hassan Bin Al Nuaimi, a United Arab Emirates sheikh, has worked out a deal to buy the bankrupt company from its owners, the Falic Group. If the deal is approved by the French bankruptcy court, it is understood that the house will continue to produce the couture collection for which it had been known. [WWD]
• Strokes member Albert Hammond, Jr., finally has pictures of his suit line. It looks pretty snazzy, albeit laughably priced, at $2,100-$2,400. [Style.com]
• Before Mounir Moufarrige, the CEO of Ungaro, hired Lindsay Lohan as the house's "artistic director," he asked her how long she planned on spending in prison. That's due diligence! [ToL]
• Speaking of non-formally-trained designers: "I cannot drape. I mean I cannot cut patterns. But I know exactly what I want and where the shoulder should be and where the seams should be," says 70-year-old Carolina Herrera. "And it's the eye you have to have for the colours, to mix colours, or proportions ... It was born in me. Because I didn't go to fashion school." [Canadian Press]
• The mood among the American press at the Paris shows was said to be grim. Top editors were absent entirely, and those who did come to the continent were spending the hours between shows wrestling with decisions about the layoffs and budget cuts they will have to make upon their return. Every Condé Nast editor has been asked to reduce his or her budget by a quarter; layoffs are expected to begin tomorrow. [FWD]
• Some see signs of the budget cuts in the fact that Anna Wintour repeated an outfit three times in ten days. But she repeats outfits all the time. [CityFile]
• Since Prince is in Paris for fashion week anyway, he just announced two shows this week at the Grand Palais. [WWD]
• Hot on the heels of Claudia Schiffer's announced intention to visit Iraq comes news that Roberto Cavalli is going to Chechnya. [FWD]
  
• The staff at the Marikina Shoe Museum were able to save Imelda Marcos's footwear collection from the knee-high waters of the most recent Tropical Storm. Three hundred people may have died, and thousands may have been left homeless — but they got the shoes! [AP]
• Gavin James Bower, a Dazed & Confused intern who became a male model for two years, has written a book about his experiences, called Dazed & Aroused. He tells the Sun: "For all the press about female models being forced to conform to an unhealthy body image, and all the horror stories about apple diets and the like, the pressure to remain a certain 'look' is just the same for male models. It's just not talked about." [Sun]
• Lily Cole says acting is like walking a tightrope. "The good actor is the one who always has a moment when they nearly fall off." [Telegraph]
• Peter Brant, in divorce filings, alleges that Stephanie Seymour spends $50,000 a month on clothes. And also that she destroyed his Kentucky Derby trophy. [p6]
• Lucky Brand's holiday shopping bags are designed specially by Sir Peter Blake, the artist who did the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Guess we're over that whole hide-your-shopping-in-the-plain-paper-of-shame thing. Happy recession everybody! [WWD]
• Liz Claiborne is going to be sold only at J.C. Penney, starting next fall. [WSJ]
• Louis Vuitton says it's on track to rise over the holiday period. [Reuters]
• Carrefour, the French retail giant, denies it is even considering selling its Chinese and Latin American operations. Because, while troubled right now, those are growth markets. Rumors are flying that investor Bernard Arnault — the head of LVMH — to cut its losses in those regions. [WWD]

The accompanying photograph even depicts Ms. Wintour smiling. The Viscountess of Vogue talks, of course, about why Fashion is Important, saying:

"Fashion reflects the times just as much as a headline in a newspaper does. If you look at the miniskirts of the sixties or the Chanel suits and jewelry of the eighties, you can see that. Vogue informs the reader about what's going on in the world, not only through fashion but also through politics, the arts, philanthropy, and sports. Fashion does not exist in a vacuum."

But Wintour takes a hard line — well, a realistic line — when it comes to young people who are interested in fashion: "Because of reality television and all these celebrities thinking they can be designers, everyone imagines that they can just become a designer, photographer, or model, but that's not the way things work," she says. "People have to go to school, learn their craft, and build a brand-that's the right, healthy way to do things. If you're an overnight sensation, you can be yesterday's news in no time, whereas building something slowly and carefully that has value and quality, that's what's going to have legs. You'd be amazed at how many people come in here, and they make perfectly nice clothes, but they don't understand how to differentiate their brand from another, or they don't have a business plan, or they don't know where to produce things. Don't run before you can crawl."

Still, it seems like she wants potential Vogue staffers to think she's not the Devil Wears Prada ice queen she's made out to be:

Q: Is there a "wrong" thing to wear to an interview with you?
A: A suit, I have to say. But who knows? Maybe next year I'll love suits. And I don't mind jeans. If there's a girl applying to work in the fashion department and she comes in here with a great pair of jeans pulled together with the right top, it's fine.

That's right, Anna Wintour says it's okay to wear jeans. The "right" top, however, is probably the Luz & Patmos sweatshirt seen in the October issue, which has a price tag of $395.

The Teen Vogue Handbook: Anna Wintour [Teen Vogue]

Model Anja Rubik — seen here with Mario Testino — has jumped on that undewear-as-outerwear trend. She looks hot.

I don't know, Lindsay. I'll assume this is Ungaro? Sparkles with black is an age-old party trick; wide trousers are cool… I just don't like this.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, daughter of Paris Vogue's Carine Roitfeld, looks like she just threw this on and walked out the door and instantly looked awesome. Not too fussy — a sort of undone casual glam. Jealous.

I think Alexandra Golovanov is a French fashion journaliste or something. She looks très Francais, which is to say: Chic.

Lara Stone is gorgeous, but this outfit is meh.

So. Over. Anna's Slytherin coat. Hamish Bowles, European Editor at Large for Vogue, is dapper as always.

[Images via Getty.]

• Does Jay-Z reference Anna Wintour in his song "Empire State of Mind"? The line in question is: "caught up in the in crowd/now you're in-style/and in the winter gets cold en vogue with your skin out." [Fashion Week Daily]

• Earlier today it was reported that Michael Vick had resigned with Nike two years after the company dropped him when he was sent to prison for dogfighting. His agent said, "Mike has a long-standing, great relationship with Nike, and he looks forward to continuing that relationship." But, now Nike has released a statement saying it has not "contractual relationship" with Vick and it merely, "agreed to supply product to Michael Vick as we do a number of athletes who are not under contract with Nike." [AP]
• Michel Phan of the ESSEC Business School, which runs the world's only luxury brand management MBA program, says luxury retailers in Asia need to focus more on service. He explains: "It's not enough to say 'Our brand is expensive, or known'. You have to make customers connect with your brand, especially during this crisis, when they're more reluctant to buy on the spur of the moment. You have to give people a good reason to buy." [Reuters]
• Peter Copping, the new designer of Nina Ricci, says Ricci's romantic designs are in line with his personal taste and belief that customers want feminine clothes. In his previous job at Louis Vuitton, he says, "whenever we did more feminine-based collections, the sales were always incredible in the stores as opposed to the more austere or hard-edged things... Obviously, one has to find a way to make that contemporary, modern and fashionable." [WWD]
• On Tuesday, Giles Deacon received an award from France's National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts along with a grant of $233,470 that will finance his spring fashion show in Paris. [WWD]
• Timberland has collaborated with Wyclef Jean to design a line of 16 boots. For every pair sold $2 will be donated to Yéle Haiti Foundation to support reforestation in Haiti. [WWD]
• At the D&G runway show in Milan, the chief executives of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman were put in the second and third rows while the chief executive of Yoox.com was in the front row. Bloggers have been invited to New York shows for a few seasons, but Europe is just warming to fashion bloggers who write for sites like Bryanboy.com, JakandJil.com, and GaranceDore.fr. [WSJ]
• Artist Brian Einersen created a Lady Gaga comic book that's selling at Marc Jacobs stores for $2. [Fashionista]
• Gareth Pugh is considering doing a fast-fashion line. He says: "I have considered it. The offers have come in, and every time we get an offer, I mull it over. I'd like more people to have access to my clothes, but the timing hasn't been right, or the project hasn't been right, or some combination of both those things. The first time I was approached, I wasn't even producing the garments I was showing on the runway. I didn't have a factory. Everything I was making, I was making by hand. Doing a fast-fashion collection seemed a little premature." He says companies should, "Keep asking. And I'll keep thinking." [N.Y. Magazine]
• Robert Lee Morris had to create toned down versions of his jewelry in during the recession in the early '90s, but now his more showy creations are becoming popular again. They were featured in several runway shows this fall and Henri Bendel will open a Robert Lee Morris boutique tomorrow. [N.Y. Times]
• At a party celebrating Sundance Channel's new show Man Shops Globe about Anthropologie buyer at large, Keith Johnson introduced guests to his partner Glen Senk, who fell in love with him in grade school. "I moved next door to him, at age 9, and the first day I saw him, I fell in love with him," Senk said. "It was otherworldly. I felt sparks all over my body. Literally, I saw stars. He was the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful person. I feel like that 44 years later." Johnson said, "It took a few years to convince me... He didn't convince me until I was 12." [N.Y. Times]
• Paolo Colonna, a partner in Permira, the European private equity firm that bought the Valentino Fashion Group, said that though the fund usually exits its private equity investments after four or five years, but, "The various [economic] crises will delay our exit. Still, we are patient money. This is a long-term deal for us. I don't see any urgency to sell at these low valuations." [NY Times]
• Giorgio Armani has reorganized his company, expanding the board of directors and delegating more power to non-family members. He's been suffering with a bout of hepatitis for months and says his illness was worsened by working long hours for decades. The reorganization is raising questions about whether the brand can outlive Armani. [WSJ]
• Pam Grier says, "I'm hoping the Smithsonian will call me for the dress from Foxy Brown. The blue one with the ruffles. I'm holding onto it. Call me, Smithsonian!" [Village Voice]

[Milan, September 24. Image via Bauer-Griffin.]

Tilda's very cozy with Pringle, for whom she's made some kind of Scottish-castle art film-advert. This is a good move, as she is both Scottish and awesome.


Spring knitwear at its finest: loving the mix of traditional and fresh here. It's also what we like to call "wearable."


I'm a big defender of the jumpsuit, but this might just signal its death throes.


This is oddly pretty!


I'm wondering if this gauzy little number is the "Tilda" dress. While lovely, it doesn't seem...eccentric enough.


Is it just me or is Anna's outfit kind of...well, let's just say off its game?


This beautifully tailored jacket is classic Pringle.


Lemon represented one of the few dashes of color in the subdued collection.


Ooh, ooh, the obligatory kilt reference!


A touch of Mrs. Roper is always a good idea.


I'm impressed with the front-row lineup Pringle garnered: Estelle is a pop star who takes her fashion obligations seriously.

[Images via Getty]

We know lots of words, but sometimes only "beautiful" does the trick.


Oh. My. God. Does old-school lady get any jazzier?


There's something deliciously 50's working-girl about this canteloupe situation.


Oh, wait, Carine Roitfeld disagrees.


But, come on, Madame - this Degas-adorable frock must make you smile!


Or, what about this Spanish-widow-inflected midcentury day-dress?


And, yup, there's the dirndl! The hills are alive!


Maybe she's confused by this Lawrence of Arabia headdress?


And would I wear a bowler with a silk chiffon gown and a stole? Possibly not.


But Zac Posen, that stone-cold dandified fox, likes it.

[Images via Getty]

• As predicted, Beyoncé will have a fragrance by springtime. For the rights to her name, Sasha Fierce is set to earn up to $20 million over the next three years. [WWD]

• Marc Jacobs didn't invite Madonna or Lady Gaga to his runway show — they asked to come, and he acquiesced. Would have been pretty awkward to turn your campaign model (Madonna) and after-party performer (Gaga) down. [WWD]
• In addition to doing a line that will sell exclusively on eBay, Narciso Rodriguez — who lost his financial backing last year — is doing more dresses that will retail at less than $1,000, rather than $1,800 and up, his typical price point. [WSJ]
• Carolina Herrera did a "Got Milk?" ad with her daughter. [JustJared]
• There is no better demonstration of the phenomenon of a collection becoming overexposed and untrendy before it even hits the stores than Pink and Shakira both attending the Video Music Awards in the same Balmain leather-and-chains minidress. It wasn't the label's flacks' fault, however: while Shakira borrowed the dress, Pink ordered it herself online. [WWD]
• Bee Schaffer took the place of her mother, Anna Wintour, at the Thakoon show on Monday afternoon. Is she as set on a career in the theater as she seems? It's hard to read about a thing like that without hearing Wintour's voice in The September Issue: "We'll see about that!" [NYObs]
• Freida Pinto popped up at fashion week to go to a party at the Harry Winston store. [WWD]
• "I am calm! I am a calm person!" is clearly not the kind of thing one should to have to shout, but if Russell Simmons couldn't get a seat at Charlotte Ronson, that definitely explains why I, a ticket-holder, couldn't even get into the show. [Radar]
• Rachel Zoe's QVC collection sold out within minutes. But fear not, for she of the sharp clavicle will be back on the idiot box on October 10. [People]
• Likewise, if you weren't refreshing your browser to buy Anna Sui for Target Sunday when the collection went live, you may now be out of luck. [Crain's]
• Ramona Singer, professional Housewife, is launching a jewelry line with the Home Shopping Network. [People]
• Urban Outfitters' president and founder Dick Hayne sold $50 million worth of his company shares. [TS]
• A Chinese company that embroidered the text, "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful" on jeans has seen its wares seized in Iran. The importers were arrested. [Guardian]
• The U.N. has recognized Indonesian batik fabric as an element of the world's cultural heritage, and added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. [NYTimes]