• Barneys' Simon Doonan: "Criticizing Ed Hardy for being cheesy is like saying that Elvis was 'flashy' or that Liberace was 'tacky.' It's a giant case of DUH! Of course it's cheesy! That's the whole point, you doo-doo heads." [NY Observer]

• "Ed Hardy is fromage-y and hedonistic and naughty and badass and-the ultimate crime in the world of haute fashion — Ed Hardy is FUN!" Doonan, in his entertaining op-ed dissection of the concept of "good taste," paused to riff on Christian Audigier's design efforts. "The unrestrained, bedazzled, heavy-metal-goes-Bollywood aesthetic rivals the gaudy heyday of Gianni Versace. Instead of knocking it, the style arbiters of the world should be grateful. Monsieur Audigier has done a real mitzvah to the insecure fashion cognoscenti: He has given them something about which to feel superior. If Ed Hardy did not exist, they would have to invent it in order to get their snooty fix." Also, "popped his sabots" is the best euphemism for dying, ever. [NYObs]
• Cynthia Rowley is starting a kids' line. [Stylelist]
• Comme des Garçons' Osaka store is inaugurating a floor that will serve as an art gallery with a show by Yayoi Kusama. [WWD]
• Kate Moss's fourth women's fragrance, Vintage, launches this September, and the ads are coming out now. [NowSmellThis]
• Apparently, when a woman cuts her hair after a breakup, that's called a "breakover." Who knew? [Glamour]
• All those who remember fondly the extraordinary 26-page Daphne Guinness spread from Vogue Italia's September, 2008, issue, rejoice: the couture-loving heiress and photographer Steven Klein have teamed up again, and have another 20+ page editorial coming in Vogue Italia's September issue. Guinness says this one will be "moodier" and is inspired by a cult French film from the 60s, though she won't name which one. [Style.com]
• "Everybody thought they had to spend money. They thought it was a new way of life. Now they're rubbing the dust out of their eyes. ‘I don't need that handbag. What was I doing?' " said a brave, but anonymous, Condé Nast editor to Cathy Horyn. [NYTimes]
• Christina Binkley of the Wall Street Journal reports on a well-known industry secret: that the same firms who supply raw materials, and in some cases manufacture, for high-end brands also sell the same items to more down-market brands. Binkley compares a $1,750 cardigan sweater made in Italy by the Quarano, Piedmont, wool company Loro Piano, and a $145 J. Crew cardigan "spun from supersoft, luxurious Italian cashmere from a world-famous mill in the foothills of Piedmont." Lesson: some less-expensive brands still take immense care in their sourcing. [WSJ]
• Which may just be why CFDA executive director Steven Kolb became a J. Crew fan on Facebook. [FWD]
• A gaggle of minor celebrities — some dude who was in a Britney Spears video, the guy from North Dakota who plays Emmett Cullen in Twilight, etc — availed themselves of a pre-season event at French Connection in Los Angeles. Instead of merely being given bags of free clothes to wear when waiting for the paparazzi, the store embarrassed them by making them all play French Connection-themed Twister, whatever that is. [WWD]
• Dania Ramirez, a.k.a. Maya on Heroes, is a newly minted Covergirl. [People]
• Footwear brand Penny Loves Kenny has filed for bankruptcy protection. The company founder, Kenny Robinson, explained the filing as a tactical move in a 6-year legal battle with two China-based agents, and said he expects the brand to emerge intact in 3-6 months. [WWD]
• Philip Lim stepped into his SoHo boutique last weekend and helped some customers find the right sizes and pick out flattering items — all without telling them who he was. Then some fashion-savvy shoppers blew his cover. If more designers did thoughtful things like that, they'd certainly sell more clothes. [Fashionista]
• Burberry's second store in Canada, and its first in Toronto, opens this Friday. [WWD]
• Benetton's profits fell 63% in the first half of this year. [WWD]
• Barneys New York is putting a brave face on its 13 months — and counting — without a C.E.O., its double-digit sales declines, and its recent credit rating downgrade, to Caa3, for "very high investment risk." The company recently received $25 million from parent company Istithmar World Capital to shore up liquidity, and this week it hired an asset management company to help it restructure its $500 million debt. [WWD]

• One of Annie Leibovitz's Louis Vuitton ads with astronauts Sally Ride, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell is out. (Gorby was busy that weekend.) [WWD]
• Karl Lagerfeld: "Ballet is an extraordinary art: this torture of the body to make something so graceful. All this hard work, to look effortless."

• "Swans, they are the meanest animals in the world, you know. I had problems with them as a child. They hate children. I was caught by one, so I know. The idea of swans is lovely, and they have a beautiful shape, but they seem more romantic than they in fact are. I don't think really they die like this. They just drop dead, hmm? But who wants to see that?"[Guardian]
• Christian Lacroix has vowed to keep his 22-year-old label alive even as it has declared bankruptcy, but its July couture presentation is in doubt. [WWD]
• Miranda Kerr is nude on the cover of the June Rolling Stone — in Australia. Because she cares about the environment. [News.com.au]
• Whichever "fellow student" told the Daily Mail "The end of year exams are a big deal at Cambridge University and we've all spent weeks revising. I don't know how she has managed to fit any revision into her busy social life," is certainly no "friend" to model/student Lily Cole. But then, if Lily Cole didn't want tabloid attention, she might not walk around London with her boyfriend wearing a gold ring on the ring finger of her left hand. [Daily Mail]
• Everybody you might care slightly about is getting a new fragrance this year. Kate Moss is naming hers "Vintage." [WWD]
• Kind of like the departed Mr. Blackwell — or Republican trickster Roger Stone — but only for hats, Luton, England milliner Philip Wright releases an annual list of the best celebrity hat-wearers. This year, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy topped it, for her "neat, chic, pill box hat" which "was a supreme example of classic simplicity at its best - a stylish understatement which captured the attention of the world's media." She beat the Queen. [Times of London]
• I've always thought that custom-made clothing, at the right price point, could and should be a bigger part of the apparel market than it is. Because all of us have issues with the fit of standardized sizes — who doesn't have a wardrobe half full of shirts that are tight in the shoulders but loose at the waist, pants with the wrong crotch depth, and skirts that don't move quite right when you walk. But all I want to know about this Ryan Taylor, aka "Taylor the Tailor", of Los Angeles, who supposedly takes his clients' measurements and turns out custom-fitted clothing in a couple days at prices "competitive with brand name department stores" is: where does he manufacture? (A question which, funnily enough, CNN seems to have no interest in.) Because everything I know about fashion leads me to suspect that level of service is only possible if you're e-mailing those customer measurements to a guy in Malaysia. Or Hong Kong. [CNN]
• A lone man pulled off an $8.5 million jewelry heist at Chopard in the Place Vendôme in Paris. [CBS]
• A study in the U.K. found that while women make up 52% of the fashion industry's workforce, they are paid 15% less than their male counterparts, and have only 37% of the top jobs. In New York, anecdotally, I've heard from many a design assistant toiling in the trenches of a major brand that, even though here as there the industry is largely female, things like on-site daycare are nonexistent. [Independent]
• Gilt Groupe, the members-only sample sale site, sponsored Zac Posen's resort show, which is happening tonight. Interesting. [WWD]
• Shares in the national mall chain Wet Seal fell 17% in Friday's trading, following the announcement of poor first quarterly results. Same-store sales fell by 7.3%, and even though it beat analysts' expectations by turning a $5 million profit during the quarter, news that the company does not expect to meet profit forecasts in the next quarter was enough to set the stock price sliding. [The Street]
• Lord & Taylor is closing one of its 47 stores nationwide. The Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia, will no longer boast a Lord & Taylor as an anchor tenant after July 12. Both Landmark Mall and its parent company, General Growth Properties, have filed for bankruptcy protection. [WSJ]
• The U.S. division of Dutch brand Oilily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed its Madison Avenue store. This follows the bankruptcy of its parent company in Hollard nearly two months ago. [Crain's]
• A statement from Wells Fargo, the principal creditor of the bankrupt Hartmarx company, which owns the menswear brands Hickey Freeman and Hart Schaffner Marx, has put Hartmarx's potential deal with private equity firm Emerisque in doubt. Emerisque's bid of $119 million for the business had been accepted by Hartmarx last week, but Wells Fargo, which is owed $114 million, said that with only $70 million of the bid being cash it "fails to provide adequate value to Hartmarx lenders." Wells Fargo also objects to the bid on the grounds that the offer "does not even ensure that Emerisque will continue running Hartmarx's business operations after the acquisition," something which Emerisque had pledged to do. The bankruptcy court is scheduled to hear objections to the bid today. [Chicago Tribune]
• Mango might do most of its business in Spain, but that won't prevent it from opening a store this September in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq and the country's third-largest city. [Times of London]
• Benetton's seven stores in Georgia closed in protest and Georgian politicians voiced thunderous objections to the chain's decision to open an outpost in Sukhumi, the capital of the disputed Black Sea region of Abkhazia. Tbilisi regards Abkhazia as a breakaway province; the EU and NATO concur; Russia recognizes its independence; 1.5 million Russian tourists visit Sukhumi every year. No doubt lured as much by the thought of all those rubles as by the international goodwill it advertises, Benetton has nonetheless been forced to abandon its plans to open the store. [WSJ]

• Recession? What recession? "In 2011 I'll be doing more clothing," quoth "designer" Lindsay Lohan, who, in addition to leggings, is working on "self-tanner and cosmetics with her fashion and beauty company Stay Gold." [WWD]

• In case you were wondering, here's what Salma Hayek wore on her honeymoon: "a ruby-colored ensemble" from Vesperini. [WWD]
• "Which kooky fashion figure asked for illegal substances on her contract rider? She said in order for her to appear at a fashion show, she needs two bottles of Cristal and "cocaine - a lot of it." Um, you tell us! [New York Post]
• Speaking of...we don't even know, Ashley Dupre for some reason continues to be a fixture at Fashion Week. Says Veronica Webb, ""Who's that? Spitzer's call girl? Oh. Well, no matter what you do for a living, you still need clothes." [New York]
• And killing the last of our interest, apparently Bryant Park is rife with celeb spawn. [WWD]
• Eva Longoria Parker claims to be just another penny-pincher: "I've always been pretty frugal about everything I wear on the red carpet. I return it all the next day." [WWD]
• Nicky Hilton is equally somber: "I'm being smarter about my spending. I'm not going into stores and buying anything. I am buying more pieces instead of just a bunch of clothes." [WWD]
• As we feared, Eleven Minutes, the Jay McCarroll-Fashion Week documentary, apparently blows. [Yahoo]
• Speaking of the Prodge, Tim Gunn's being all elliptical about their traditional end-of-week final showing. Quoth the Silver Fox, "You'll see collections from extremely talented people, but you won't be able to place the designer with the collection." [MSNBC]
• Oy. Puma's down almost 80%. [WWD]
• Laura Ashley, meanwhile, blames stores' price-slashing for its profit warning woes, rather than the proliferation of floral chintz in said stores. [Times Online]
• Halston, for its part, gets with the times: slashing prices and embracing new technology. Doesn't it seem like now's the time for a disco revival? [WSJ]
• But Benetton's up! [WWD]
• And more good news: Armani donates a million dollars to New York City public school arts education. [New York Times]
• Which will not affect PETA's plans to protest at the New York Armani store this week, dressed in giant bunny suits. [WWD]
• Continuing to keep them guessing, Dame Vivienne Westwood is teaming up with Royal Ascot; she's styling the PR shoots for the venerable races. [WWD]
• Not shockingly, buyers and investors are trying to score fashion lines at rock-bottom prices. [Portfolio]
• Thakoon Panichgul is a big fan of Michelle Obama's stylist, Ikram Goldman: "You know what, she has guts, and she has instinct about what she likes, and she's passionate about it. And so when I first launched the collection, she said, ‘I'll buy every single piece.' And so that kind of conviction, I think, is exciting." Exciting for him, definitely! [New York]
• Designer and socialite Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss is the new face of Judith Ripka jewelry. [WWD]
• Why does Kanye West love the Paris Women's shows? "It's Paris. Women's. Shows." [PaperMag]
• Kirsten Dunst - who so would - loves Rodarte. So do we, but no one cares. [WWD]

• Nastia Liukin's long-awaited and appropriately bendy BCBG ad is the business! [Popcrunch]

• Now that stars have inaugural balls to shop for, they're "totally over" the frivolity of dressing for awards shows. Celebs "are taking the registry very seriously — no one wants to be the Laura Bush of this inauguration." [MSNBC]
• Justin Timberlake's line, William Rast, is making its Bryant Park debut next month. "And for those who might anticipate a concert, there won’t be one." [WWD]
• Oh no she didn't! Did Michelle Obama insult Vera Wang's taste?! Um, no, she didn't, TMZ. [TMZ]
• Menswear designer Thom Browne, known for "avant-garde antics and perverse, themed spectacles" brings the pain to Europe. [WWD]
• Thakoon's new "Addition" line is good. Really good. [Style.com]
• Badgley Mischka is lowering their prices. We're guessing from "exorbitant" to "extravagant." [WSJ]
• Ferragamo goes green: "The collection, entitled Eco Ferragamo, feature five day bags in the Italian label's signature style - think chic, soft leather in classic shapes. The difference? These bags have undergone a tanning process that uses natural products instead of the the usual, environmental unfriendly metal elements, making the leather biodegradable and water-resistant." Sadly, they're ugly. [ElleUK]
• Big news: Claire McCardell’s mid-century classic, What Shall I Wear, is being reissued! [Fashionista]
• Was Valentino one of Madoff's many victims? [New York]
• Valentino says no! [WWD]
• Uniqlo introduces "interactive reviews." Which is great, if Uniqlo clothes don't make you look like a frumpy teenager. [BlackBook]
• Even though Michelle Obama wore one of her dresses, reporters seem surprised that designer Maria Pinto is, um, still living and working normally. [IHT]
• Not exactly peace in the Middle East, but a start: Following security closures, Benetton reopens its Tehran locations. [WWD]
• Oy. Macy's is closing 10 stores. [WSJ]
• Want to feel inadequate all day long? The new Anna Wintour ringtone dispenses fashion advice! Alternatively, Andre Leon Talley dispenses "career advice." Cause that's not gonna get you mugged on the bus! [New York]
• Would Anna find those sporting "Save Anna" shirts to be, how you say, losers? [Gawker]
• Only the good die young: Husband and wife rad-clothing-line Obedient Sons and Daughters is an economic casualty. [Fashionista]

• Sean Combs's new fragrance, "I Am King" will premiere as a Macy's exclusive in December. 'I Am King is a statement about all men,” said Combs, during an interview at his Bad Boy Entertainment offices in Manhattan. “We are all descendents of royalty — and if we carry ourselves and respect ourselves in that manner and believe in ourselves, then we are all kings." The new fragrance, he says, is "more about sophistication. It’s strong and also sexy, with an elegance and simplicity to it.” [WWD]
• More on how design chief Patrick Robinson is trying to make The Gap cool. Can't they just...you know, carry better clothes? [Business Week]
• Lydia Hearst says she's not like Paris Hilton, ruins it by calling herself a "supermodel." "Don't ever compare New York media heiress Lydia Hearst to Paris Hilton. "Remember: I am a supermodel and have the award to prove it, and she is a celebrity. There's no comparison." [Page Six]

• Oy. Armchair activists Benetton bring their usual brand of asinine commentary to the Beijing Olympics. "Benetton on Friday took out double-page advertising spreads in a number of leading news dailies worldwide, showing a Tibetan monk and a Chinese soldier praying face to face under the word 'Victims.'" They also show pictures of Sichuan earthquake victims (Benetton supports the Red Cross) and explain that their work “attempts to make a small contribution to dialogue and engagement between Tibetan and Chinese people." [WWD]
• Judge awards LVMH huge payout from Canadian counterfeiters. [WWD]
• Bollywood spawn makes like Hollywood spawn, launches clothing line. Riddhima Kapoor, daughter of well known Bollywood actors Neetu and Rishi Kapoor, has names her line"ARA"."My collection makes a girl look hot. It is sensual but, at the same time, it's not at all vulgar. You just have to be yourself in these clothes," [Hindustan Times]
• Philllips de Pury & Co are hosting an auction of "hip hop's crown jewels" including bling "sported by 50 Cent, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Kanye West and the late Notorious B.I.G and Tupac Shakur." [Fashion Week Daily"]
• The popular kids aren't shopping either! Along with Hot Topic, Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle sales are down. [Wall Street Journal]
• Designers Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker are dressing phones. "BlackBerry smartphones are now an integral part of everyday life, so it's great to be given the opportunity to add some extra glamour to the way in which they can be carried," explain the design duo, who have taken inspiration from BlackBerry's magenta, silver and midnight blue colour palette."We've taken the stunning colours from the new summer range and really brought them to life through our pouch design. The combination pouch and handset will make even the most stylish fashionista stand out." [VogueUK]
• Andre 3000 has made it. Into The Sartorialist. [The Sartorialist]
• Polo profits up. I guess the rich are different! [WWD]
• And Ralph Lauren is sensitive about his age. [WWD]
• The same people who let all those fashionistas DJ are now letting them make films. "The aim of the project is to give stars of the fashion world the opportunity to show off their clothes and the spirit of their label in any way they see fit. Among the line-up of participants are Pierre Hardy, Peter Jensen, Todd Lynn and Rodarte. Each designer has produced a film between 30 seconds and three minutes long - and judging from the stills that we've seen each promises to be quite a spectacle." [ElleUK]
• Reebok is teaming up with toy co. Hasbro to launch a Monopoly sneaker. I want the thimble. [Fashionista]

• So, Marc Jacobs hater/International Herald Tribune critic Suzy Menkes may have loooved Marc's show, but general MJ fangirl, the NY Times' Cathy Horyn, missed it altogether! Only to then check it out online and write, "[I] can see why some people found it a little slack." Only to then be responded to huffily, via the COMMENTS, on Marc by Marc himself, if you will: "Dear Cathy....I wish you could have been at my show...I deliberately stated I was uninspired this season as I have felt that talking about inspiration is so not the point to making and showing a collection." So yeah, any time you thought about dismissing the entire industry as one big neverending middle school...you were pretty much right. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Oh no! Pink eye rampant at London Fashion Week! Think it's a deliberate conspiracy to sabotage the whole "certificate of health" thing? Yeah, fashion people are not that smart. [Vogue UK]
  
• The latest victim of an eye-infection? Hagyness herself! [The Sun UK]
  
• Aw, Benetton is getting back to its awesome ad roots: Its newest campaign is a promotion for a microlending program in Africa. [Fashion Week Daily]

• Now that the writers strike is over and the Oscars are officially on, the stars are expected to wear super bright and flashy colors. [Reuters]
• L'Oreal, meanwhile, is issuing a special limited edition color in honor of the Oscars: Red Carpet Red. Such creativity! They must've agonized over that one. [MediaPost]
• Kim Kardashian is the new face of Bongo jeans. When the jokes are this easy to make, we feel cheap making them. [Speak for your royal selves! Also...sorta liberal use of the word "face", huh? -Moe][MediaPost]
• "A good blow-dry is an absolute necessity. Let someone else do the work for you!" Harrods scion Camilla Al Fayed. [WWD, 3rd item]
• "I never had aspirations to be a shoe designer, but I just wanted a pair of elegant, animal-friendly shoes. Now I can walk into a store and there's a whole collection." Natalie Portman: And humble, too. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Balloon fashion show = awesome. Not as awesome as the condom fashion show, but. [Chic Report]
• L'Oreal profits are up 29%. All thanks to pricey makeup's growing popularity in countries where the per capita income is still like $3,000! [WSJ]
• Valentine's day Reeboks! [Chic Report]

Ashworth visited a Benetton in London and found a "range of dresses and separates," "long V-necked pullovers," and "long-sleeved dresses in soft grey prints." She claims the prices were "not cheap, but affordable." Because of this, she writes:

My past opinion of Benetton was that the publicity was fascinating, but the clothes dull. That view has now been reversed.

• Rachel Zoe: prepare to die. The celebrity stylist has announced herself mightier than Anna Wintour! Uh, didn't Zoe ever study Greek mythology in school? Don't taunt the gods. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane is BFFs with French president Nicolas Sarkozy?! (Might they be interested in a threesome?) [WWD, final item]
  
• Benetton profits up by 6.5%. Which we think is pretty impressive considering the last time we remember buying or knowing anyone who bought anything from the brand was the late 90's. [Uh, try eighties. Oh right, you were wearing diapers. -Moe] [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Doing even better than Benetton is Tod's, whose profits are up by 18.5% thanks to those pebble-soled shoes that are less ubiquitous but just as profitable as Tory Burch flats. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Dita von Teese: The new face of Cointreau. It's about time someone thought to make the direct connection between taking your clothes off and drinking. [Sassybella]

• Victoria Beckham had a spot of tea with ELLE's creative director Joe Zee and editor-in-chief Roberta Myers, eh? Do they want to help us get tickets for the Spice Girls reunion tour? Please? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Vogue UK calls the New York S/S 2008 collections "quietly competent." Which we think is the critical equivalent of saying that a potential suitor "has a real nice personality." [Vogue UK]
• Ralph Lauren is selling new polo shirts to fund breast cancer research. [Vogue UK]
• More fashion-oncology collabo! Marc Jacobs is the NYC Cancer Institute's honoree this year for having raised $400,000 for melanoma research. Oh and some oncologist is also being honored. [Fashion Week Daily]
• So People magazine thinks that Beyonce is one of the best-dressed celebs of 2007? Please god no one tell Tina Knowles. We just know this is going to make her even more unbearable. [People via FabSugar]

• That domestic-violence/Benetton campaign we blogged about yesterday? Looks to be a fake. [Salon]
  
• Skin-lightening creams may get Indian women better jobs, but they don't protect them from rape and murder. [OurBodiesOurBlog]
  
• Daily Telegraph style columnist and Vogue contributor Sarah Mower blames fashion designers for the rise of super-skinny model; fails to call out fashion magazines. [DailyTelegraph]
  
• It's official: Valerie Plame was covert. [TheLede]
  
• Don't let the terrorists — or your fat cells — win: Go to the mall! [USAToday]
  
• Two women in the NY Times' obituaries section today: Gretchen Wyler, 75, Broadway actress and animal activist; and Barbara Cox, 84, philanthropist and Cox Media heiress. [NYTimes]

• We are sick and tired of reading about women beaten, shot, stabbed, raped and injured by men they know. But we don't know that pairing purplish scars with Italian knitwear is the best way to raise awareness about domestic violence. [Feministing]
  
• Activists in Africa are turning to the Koran in an effort to cease female genital mutilation. [Feministing]
  
• Researchers have made a "landmark breakthrough" in breast cancer research with the discovery of a genetic mutation that often causes the disease. [CNN]
  
• No matter how you play it, eating too much or too little is bad for the bones. [CNN]
  
• British nurses aren't getting any. [The Sun]

• Marc Jacobs is not out of rehab. According to WWD, Jacobs had an "off day" on Sunday to celebrate his 44th birthday go shopping with Naomi Campbell. And, of course, Amanda de Cadenet. [WWD]
• Tom Ford previewed his new Madison Avenue store yesterday, which will offer, among other things, $75 socks. Is it just us or is Tom Ford sort of a douche? [WWD]
• The much-coveted, eco-friendly Anya Hindmarch-designed shopping tote is a mere $15 and coming to the U.S. this summer. [WWD, 3rd item]

• Benetton hopes to make a comeback thanks to once-a-week deliveries of new goods, inspiration from Gucci . [WSJ, subscription required]
• Sample sales vs. warehouse sales. News from the trenches. [TheBudgetFashionista]