• 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]

• Amy Winehouse was in the audience for a performance of Cinderella and, reportedly, heckled the cast. She shouted things like:

"He's fucking behind you" and "Fuck Cinders, Prince Charming, marry me." She also called the ugly stepsisters "bitches." When a manager tried to usher her from the venue, she kicked him between the legs. Allegedly! Police are investigating… [The Sun]

• Foul play is not suspected in Brittany Murphy's death. [People]
• Here, sources say that Brittany Murphy was sick and vomiting before she died and was taking prescription meds for flu-like symptoms. In addition, she had diabetes. [TMZ]
• Brittany Murphy was fired from a horror film called The Caller two weeks ago. In addition, an insider on another horror/thriller, Something Wicked, says she was "barely there" when called on to shoot her scenes and would "go in and out of consciousness in the middle of takes." This source and the crew assumed she was on prescription drugs. But apparently, in 2001, she told a reporter that "even if she wanted to she couldn't take drugs because she'd had a heart condition since she was a little girl." [The Wrap]
• In this piece, Hollywood insiders claim Brittany Murphy was "a mess," had "too many drugs and not enough food" and "was a space cadet." [The Daily Beast]
• Here, a neighbor describes how rescue workers tried to save Brittany's life, although the woman says, "I think she was dead already." [Radar Online]
• The medical staff at the hospital tried to revive Brittany Murphy three times. [Radar Online]
• Leave it to The Sun to keep things classy and tasteful; the headline here is "Brittany 'Killed by Jacko Drugs.'" [The Sun]
• Brittany Murphy's family has released a statement: "The sudden loss of our beloved Brittany is a terrible tragedy. She was our daughter, our wife, our love and a shining star. We ask you to respect our privacy at this time." [ET]
• Madonna and Guy Ritchie are reuniting. For Christmas. A source says: "Madonna is flying in for 24 hours so Guy can spend Christmas Day with the children. Things are amicable between them and the children love Christmas at Ashcombe House in Wiltshire, which Guy has turned into a Santa's grotto." Listen: "Grotto" is for moss-covered sex playpens. Not for Kris Kringle. [Daily Express]
• Madonna is "the most written-about celebrity of the past decade in Britain." [The Sun]
• Tiger Woods' wife Elin Nordegren is allegedly seeking sole custody of their kids and half of his $600 million. [Radar Online, NY Post]
• Tiger Woods' mom: "Hurt, angry and disappointed" with her song. Apparently she likes Elin and — no shock here — adores her grandkids. [NY Post]
• Tiger Woods's yacht, Privacy, has set sail from Florida. A source says it's headed to he Bahamas. Will some alone time on the open seas be good for the golfer? [People]
• Strippers have found that Chris Brown acts like "a perfect gentleman." [Page Six]
• Charles Barkley is hosting SNL in 2010, and this columnist asks, "Could [good friend] Tiger Woods appear with him?" [MSNBC Scoop]
• This entire article is about how Sarah Jessica Parker's dress clung to her after a gust of wind. Eyeroll. [NY Daily News]
• Breaking: Catherine Zeta-Jones has a great rack. [Page Six]
• No surprise: The ratings for Jersey Shore are up. An interesting, voyeuristic anthropological study? Comedy gold? Trainwreck? Doesn't matter. America's in love. [TV BY The Numbers]
• In this column, Jersey Shore's Pauly D. explains how he gets his hair to do what it does: "It takes me 25 minutes to do the whole process and get it right." [NY Daily News]
• Barbara Walters and Frank Langella??!?! Apparently he's been her plus one at a bunch of events. She says: "Frank and I have been friends for many years and will continue to be friends for many years, but it's not a romance." [Page Six]
• "Roman Polanski is finishing the edit of his latest movie Ghost from his house arrest in Switzerland, surrounded by family and bombarded by telephone calls of support." [AP]
• Um, if you, like, me, enjoy handbags, be sure to click here and see Gossip Girl's costume designer, Eric Daman, in the dreamiest closet of your dreamy dreams. [NY Post story, slideshow]
• Tila Tequila has tweeted: "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I am going to become a SURROGATE MOTHER for my brother & his Wife!!! That is my xmas present to them. Im pregnant!!!!" This should be interesting. [ONTD via Daily Express]
• One of Jon Bon Jovi's sons was taken to the hospital yesterday, but there are no further details. [TMZ]
• Guys! I could not even read this item about Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. because the picture accompanying the piece makes it look like they're going to make out and I got excited/distracted. [Gatecrasher]
• Evi Quaid was arrested in Marfa, Texas on Saturday — she and husband Randy did not show up to court appearances after being busted skipping out on a steep hotel bill. [Radar Online]
• Randy Quaid has also been arrested. [Radar Online]
• Did Claudia Schiffer get special treatment when she was on the train that got stuck in the Chunnel? [Daily Express]
• Was PETA postergal Bethenny Frankel wearing fur over the weekend? More importantly: Was she on the subway?!?! [Gatecrasher]
• Hollywood is out of ideas, part CXXIII: Taylor Lautner might star in a remake of Vision Quest. [Daily Express]
• Let's not even talk about the 21 Jump Street movie starring Jonah Hill. [ONTD via Variety]
• The third Jackass movie will be 3D. [ONTD via Coming Soon]
• Rage Against the Machine pissed off Simon Cowell by hijacking the UK charts and landing the Christmas No. 1 spot. (One of his X Factor contestants was on track to score number 1.) [Daily Mail, Gawker]
• In a poll of 1,000 children under 10, Simon Cowell came in first as "the most famous person in the world." The Queen was second and God was third. [Mirror]
• Kate Winslet was "undone," meaning moved, by Crazy Heart, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jeff Bridges. [Page Six]
• In 2010, Mary J. Blige will be a guest judge on American Idol, come out with a line of sunglasses and a fragrance. She says of her photograph on her new album cover: "Look at my shoulders, where I carry everything. Look at the strength of this person who continues to have trials and tribulations like everyone, and who by the grace of God makes it out." [USA Today]
• Did Nancy O'Dell leave Access Hollywood because Billy Bush is a diva and a jerk? [Gatecrasher]
• Wait, what? Def Leppard is developing a cartoon series?!?! [Reuters]
• "I don't want to just be a kind of bouncing board for men to flex their muscles and look brave and courageous and understanding, while I just look bleary-eyed in the background. No, I don't want to do that. You can also do leading roles that are riveting, but they tend to be – well, certainly in my world – they're the lower-budget, more arthouse films, because I'm not on the right list to be asked to do those really great meaty roles that you see Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett doing." — But dammit, Kristin Scott Thomas, you're amazing! She also says of Botoxed actresses: "I can't bear is seeing [people who look] like photocopies. And there's that strange waxy look that I find disturbing." [Guardian]
• "Some women can buy their own shoes, some women don't want to go to lunch, some women like to cook, but they all need sex therapy. It's the one thing every woman's going to need sooner or later. Except a nun. So this album is not for nuns." — Robin Thicke. [AP]
• "Well, I know I'm not Quasimodo but as far as I'm concerned, you know, I think I'm not aesthetically beautiful. I have a broken nose here. I had a tracheotomy when I was a kid. I had broken capillaries. I always ask my husband, do I look fat in this dress? Can you see that spot on my face?" — Catherine Zeta-Jones. [Daily Express]
• "I always felt connected to her as we shared a very special experience in our lives together. I feel love in my heart for her – and hope she is at peace. This is truly sad." — Alicia Silverstone on Clueless costar Brittany Murphy. [People]

On most of us: a hippie curtain. On Natalia Vodianova? Sophisticated perfection.


Not sure if Amber Le Bon is channeling her mother...or Duran-Duran's "Rio" period.


Dancer Kristina Rihanoff channels the pompom, which is either always - or never - perfectly appropriate.


It's like 100% of the time, Jerry Hall's wearing an awesome neon sign proclaiming, "you can take the girl our of Texas..."


Throw in a little London, and apparently you get Georgia May Hall!


Here's the question: are Eva Herzigova ...


...and Daisy Lowe wearing very similar dresses? Okay, only sort of.


Do we love Claudia Schiffer's vaguely festive psychedelia? No. Can we admit she looks amazing it it? Yes.


It's really hard to look at Jonathan Rhys Meyers the same way after seeing The Tudors, so let's focus on Reena Hammer's "Flaming June" instead.


Pixie Geldof , or Morticia Sedgwick?


There we go! Myleene Klass is like the only one working the sequins trend - at the only time of year when it's actually festive!


Why didn't Twiggy whip out this bitch face - or these White Snake leggings - during ANTM?!


Ben Grimes sports the controversial Double Purse.


I'll admit to loving anyone who played Fanny so well in Love in a Cold Climate, but come on: Rosamund Pike's hon boho on a bender is pretty bewitching!


How much do you love Victoria Beckham's Nancy-Reagan-goes-ice-skating/goes-to-a-benefit?


The craziest thing? You know this entire ensemble will sell out at Top Shop in like five minutes. And no one is going to look remotely as crazy-cool.

• Daul Kim's boyfriend was the first to find the body of the 20-year-old Korean model, artist, and writer, who died by asphyxiation. Police believe Kim's death was a suicide. Her agency has confirmed that her mother is en route to Paris. [AP]

• Don't want to wait until December 1 to watch the whole Victoria's Secret show? USAToday has video highlights, including Marisa Miller anxiously awaiting post-show cupcakes backstage, and Miranda Kerr doing a little dance on the runway to the Black Eyed Peas. [USAToday]
• Women's Wear Daily says it was "pandemonium" outside. [WWD]
• Eva Mendes has signed on to do more ads for Calvin Klein. When was the last time she was in a movie, anyway? [Elle UK]
• Valentino: The Last Emperor has been short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. [SB]
• Karl Lagerfeld, on Lily Allen: "I love Lily's humor, her cheekiness, her talent, her little upturned nose, and her perfect décolletage." [Elle]
• Rumor has it that Ungaro's two top executives, Asim Abdullah and Mounir Moufarrige (who once said of bringing Lindsay Lohan aboard, "It might work") are fighting over whether the actress should be fired or not. Her first collection for the brand was poorly received by buyers, the press, and the peanut gallery of the Internet; even Emanuel Ungaro himself called it a "disaster." [Elle UK]
• Claudia, Eva, and Helena share the new cover of i-D, like it's 1992 or something. [FWD]
• Shanna Moakler just launched a cosmetics collection. Called Smoak. [People]
• Moncler and Pharrell Williams are doing a line of clothing. It'll incorporate fabrics from Bionic, the eco-fabric company Williams invested in earlier. [WWD]
• Yves Saint Laurent's pots and pans sold for 15,000 Euros (just over $22,000) at the ongoing auction of the designer's household effects. [AFP]
• Sarah Ferguson will not be doing an apparel line with QVC. Pity. [WWD]
• Hand model Christina Ambers fell in love with Angel Rotger, one of the doormen at her Upper East Side building. Their romance and subsequent marriage cost Rotger his job, and led to them both being treated as pariahs by the other building staff, the two now allege in a $10 million lawsuit. Allegedly, the superintendent's wife got drunk and hit Rotger in the groin hard enough to cause a contusion. [NYDN]
• Here's an odd choice of knight in shining armor: supermarket magnate and modelizer Ron Burkle. Burkle has, through his company, invested millions of dollars in buying some of Barneys New York's debt from Citibank, for a reported 60 cents on the dollar. Barneys took on around $500 million in debt in 2007, when it was sold to current owners Istithmar. [WSJ]
• 100 new stores by March 31 is quite a clip, but Tommy Hilfiger thinks it can do it. [WWD]
• Gap's profits rose 25%, to $307 million, for the quarter ended October 31. It made $246 million during the same period last year. [WSJ]

• Michelle Trachtenberg is designing a line of jewelry for Coach's Poppy brand. Expect "colorful crystals." [WWD]
• Zac Posen is doing a lower-priced line, Z Spoke, which will be available exclusively through Saks Fifth Avenue come spring. It starts at $78:

• And it's a marked departure from his evening wear-heavy main line. "It's not Zac-for-less, it's not the little sister collection at all," says the designer. "The dresses — that's something I can do with my eyes closed. This is about a new identity." Hopefully that new identity includes solvency, given Posen, subject to continued rumors about his company's financial status, was forced to lay off staff recently. [WWD]
• Why is Cintra Wilson reviewing the Fifth Avenue Armani store now? That opened months ago. And it was extensively covered and reviewed in the Times back then. [NYTimes]
• Sophie Theallet's friend and longtime supporter Rupert Everett is happy she won the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Award. Theallet is going to collaborate again with Manolo Blahnik on her runway show footwear for next February, and this time, some styles will be available in stores. [WWD]
• Some "legendary" male models we've never heard of (OK, male models we have heard of comprise exactly Tyson Beckford and that guy who was in Calvin Klein ads before he played Samantha's boyfriend on Sex And The City) are in this month's VMAN. [Independent]
• Claudia Schiffer has been thinking more about that clothing line she mooted a week or so back. "I have no definite first product in mind, but I would love to do cashmere. It's something I wear all the time myself, but I'd love to do something a bit more price-friendly. Plus a lot of cashmere lines are very classic and timeless, while I'd want to do it a bit more fashion. Or I could imagine doing handbags." You know. Cashmere. Or handbags. [WWD]
• If you need a fresh reason to hate the fashion industry this morning, how about an over-privileged under-informed 17-year-old heaping scorn on Luella's closure, and bragging about how she has, like, a ton of Lacroix — in the garage? Jane Aldridge probably kisses her Vogue portrait before going to bed each night. Right after inclining her head to say her prayers to Anna. [Fashionista]
• Vivienne Westwood says of the same closure, "It's very sad, but English fashion will survive, and be stronger." [Style.com]
• A four-day auction of the last contents of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent's home has begun in Paris. Everything from the chandeliers to the pots and pans is for sale, some 1,185 objects in all. [Breitbart]
• Lanvin has attracted a minority investor. An unnamed entity, believed to be a European family, has bought a 12.5% stake in the business, for an estimated tens of millions of Euros. Last year, sales at Lanvin rose 29%. [WWD]
• Apparently it takes £230 worth of creams to look like Jane Birkin, along with Clarins and Dr. Hauschka makeup. And we always thought her so low maintenance and carefree. [Daily Mail]
• Birkin's daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg may be the face of the new Balenciaga perfume, but that won't stop Olivier Zahm from photographing the bottle between the breasts of a topless mannequin. Stay classy, Olivier! [FWD]
• John Bartlett, the recently fired men's wear designer for Liz Claiborne, has announced a collaboration with Alex Carleton of Rogues Gallery. RG/JB will launch in December at John Bartlett's Greenwich Village store, and will include a handcrafted leather log carrier and bankers' envelopes. Sounds practical. [WWD]
• Porsche is bringing back Yoko Ono's favorite sunglasses. [Luxist]
• A Gap store in Vancouver turned itself upside down to sell shoppers on a new kind of reward program called, for some reason, Sprize. They hung all the mannequins from the ceiling and turned the signage upside-down, but what you really need to know is this: Sprize reimburses you the cost difference automatically if merchandise you buy full-price later goes on sale. It's like everything you ever buy will be on sale. And it's not in the U.S. yet why??? [BrandFreak]
• Rosita and Tai Missoni seem like an adorable old couple. [Scotsman]
• Expect Burberry handbags, shoes and belts, as well as children's wear, in the near future. [Reuters]
• In coordination with something called cryptically "more trees," Louis Vuitton is paying 10 million yen (about $112,000) to reforest a 104-hectare area of land in Japan, to be known as the Louis Vuitton Forest. (Insert your own where-handbags-grow-on-trees joke.) [Japan Tourism]

• Kate Moss says her motto is, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." [WWD]

• In December Harper's Bazaar, Victoria Beckham reveals that she is itching to dress Emma Watson. [People]
• Alexander Wang is now 100,000 Euros richer, thanks to the Swiss Textiles Award. [WWD]
• Bridget Moynahan is becoming a face of Garnier Nutritioniste skincare. [WWD]
• It took a while, but someone finally got around to identifying what Sasha and Malia wore in the official White House family portrait, and putting together a press release. (Turns out it was French children's label Dino e Lucia.) [WWD]
• Miss J, on fun times with André Leon Talley: "I was working for Lars Nilsson at Bill Blass and André Leon Talley came over to the studio with Elizabeth Taylor's epic movie Boom!, which Karl Lagerfeld did the costuming for. We got down on some fried chicken, corn bread and popcorn shrimp and were in fits of hysterics well into the night. We went from working with models who don't eat all day to watching all of us get down on some soul food!" Says Miss J, "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but fabulous gets you most places." [The Moment]
• Naomi Campbell held a Fashion For Relief runway show to raise money for maternal health in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. (Previous stops have included Mumbai and New York, and have raised $1 million in aid for Hurricane Katrina and the Mumbai terrorist attacks.) Campbell walked the runway for the first time in the continent of Africa, and talked about the importance of diversity in fashion. "There's definitely space [for more black models] but has there been enough effort? It was getting better but it's slipped back this year," said the model. "The world is not made up of blonde hair and blue eyes. We need to share ourselves." [Reuters]
• Claudia Schiffer wouldn't rule out starting a clothing line. "I would consider it but it would have to be the right thing. They would need to be clothes that I would want to wear." [Telegraph]
• Liu Wen will be the first Asian model to walk in the Victoria's Secret fashion show. [Modelinia]
• Marc Jacobs' fiancé, Lorenzo Martone, and Ryan Brown, formerly of Elite, are starting a talent PR agency for models together called ARC NY. Lydia Hearst has signed on. [P6]
• Mango might ink a distribution deal with a U.S. department store, like JC Penney, Macy's, Bloomingdales or Saks, to help its retail expansion. [WWD]
• What other fashion house has ever inspired poetry upon its demise?
  "Luella, we will miss
  The frills
  The spills
  But know this

  Your work will live on
  In a sample sale shirt
  I once purchased
  Cheap as chips." [Guardian]

• As one exits, another enters: Biba is being revived. Again. [Catwalk Queen]
• Jimmy Choo has opened a Chinese restaurant in London. [Elle UK]
• For $8,500, you could own a sofa in the shape of the Chanel logo. [FWD]
• Bamboo fabric, though made from a plant that can be grown without pesticides and fertilizers, is processed with toxic solvents, just like rayon and viscose are made from wood. Eco-friendly it is not. [WSJ]
• Nordstrom's revenues for the third quarter jumped 17% on last year's results, but the company missed its earnings forecast by one cent, which sent the share price tumbling. [TS]
• Abercrombie & Fitch's quarterly profit fell to $38.8 million, from $63.9 million a year ago. [Reuters]
• Sales of department store fragrances fell by 11% on last year during the first three quarters, to $1.38 billion. [WWD]
• That hasn't stopped Gwen Stefani and her perfume partners, Coty, from putting out five new Harajuku Lovers fragrances. [WWD]

• Rumors are flying that Lindsay Lohan is donating her time (except for any free clothes she snags) as Emanuel Ungaro's new "artistic director." This gossip item, however, doesn't spell "Emanuel Ungaro" correctly, so its veracity may be questionable. [Fox 411]

• Ungaro C.E.O. Mounir Moufarrige says Lohan's pay is "quite enough. It's expensive." Before hiring her, he told the press he asked her how much time she intended to spend in jail this year; her unpredictability, he says, "has been factored in" to her compensation. [ToL]
• The New York Times' Horacio Silva says he just had a talk with Renzo Rosso, who is "thisclose to naming a new designer at Martin Margiela." Margiela's departure from his namesake house was only confirmed recently, after months of speculation. In a follow-up tweet, Silva says Rosso maintains Margiela will still be involved in the house. Haider Ackermann and Raf Simons have been mentioned as possible contenders for Margiela's old job. [Twitter]
• What if a luxury label opened a store, and nobody bothered to turn up? [Shophound]
• Diane Von Furstenberg tweets from Madrid: "I just got robbed in the street in front of the Thyssen museum... My wallet, cash and all my credit cards!!" [Twitter]
• Two Bravo executives described the network as "desperate" to get a reality TV deal with Marc Jacobs. Their pitch? A no-strings-attached everyday doc. "Just live his life, his amazing life, and let us shoot it," said Andy Cohen. "I mean, just go. Just go! Open your eyes, let us put the tape in the camera, and let us go." [The Cut]
• Mo Rocca on the future of fashion? Hell. Yes. [CBS]
• Number of times Time mentions Crystal Renn was a "size-0 model": 3. Number of times Time mentions she had anorexia: 0. [Time]
• Karl Lagerfeld: "My father…was not stingy but he hated unnecessary expense but clothes he saw as the exception — he was of a different generation — if you were well dressed, half of the job was done. So I was told, be well dressed and doors will open." [i-D via Fashionista]
• Can you imagine David Spade, Anthony Kiedis, Fred Durst, and Ron Burkle hanging out at a Zac Posen show? Us neither. L.A. is so weird. [Style.com]
• Oscar de la Renta was presented with an award by Grace Coddington and Hamish Bowles. [Yahoo]
• At the same event, Barneys creative director/author Simon Doonan said, "For years, all my writer friends would say to me, what the fuck are you doing working in a store every day? And now they're saying to me, how can I get a job in a store?" This is because "There's nothing at the moment that is worse-compensated than freelance writing. NOTHING. You can get more money panhandling on the street. It's shocking." We'd agree but we're now too depressed to move. Simon Doonan works for a C.E.O.-less department store with stock about eighteen zillion levels below investment grade, a department store so consistently subject to rumors of bankruptcy that its parent company periodically has to step in to remind everyone that it guarantees the (giant, growing, pile of) debt. And even he has it better than we do. [Daily Intel]
• Meanwhile, Doonan says he finds the recession "a colossal bore." [WWD]
• Martin Lingstrom, a brand strategist, spent three years hooking up over 2,000 people to sensors that monitored their physical and neurological responses to advertising and shopping. He says that, while deciding to buy something, our brains release dopamine. However, then there's the guilt: "It's not very strong at the beginning but increases when you swipe your credit card through the credit-card reader." That feeling is physiological. Instead of reaching the obvious conclusion from his data — shopping is against nature, a pattern of unhealthy addiction and guilt-ridden behaviors, and everyone in fashion is totally fucked — Martin Lingstrom apparently still works as a brand strategist. [WSJ]
• The Wall Street Journal tried out Christian Louboutin and Piper Heidsieck's Le Rituel, the $5,000 glass slipper intended to serve as a champagne flute. The verdict? "It takes some finesse, balance, and you can't fill it very high with bubbly...It has its charm, but drinkers of champagne mat opt to keep their flutes handy." Imagine that. [WSJ]
• Alexander Wang says he staged his first fashion show when he was 15, at his brother's wedding. "It was like 35 looks or something. We hired hair and make-up and everything." [Independent]
• Heidi Klum is launching a fashion line. The footwear collection, all 48 styles, will be available starting next fall; to follow will be swimsuits and casual wear. [WWD]
• Claudia Schiffer, on the supermodels comeback: "One of the logical reasons would be that we sort of went away at the same time and most of us had kids at the same time and then we sort of came back. We've also worked for such a long time, we are reliable and professional and you know what you'll get." [Independent]
• Schiffer, who was once unceremoniously dropped by Karl Lagerfeld, during the grunge days, has been spotted with the designer around Buenos Aires. They, along with Baptiste Giabiconi and Freja Beha Erichsen, are shooting the next Chanel campaign. Local media reports that they ate "rich barbecue" for lunch one day. [Fashionologie]
• Vivienne Westwood made a series of gowns for Leona Lewis. In exchange, the pop star will wear the dramatic metallic corseted creations in all the promotional materials for her new album and single. [Telegraph]
• Odds Costume Rental, which supplied costumes for 22 years to productions like Law & Order and Road to Perdition, has filed for bankruptcy. Rising rent is one culprit — the business was hit with a $5,000/month increase last year — and the willingness of designers to give their clothes away to film and television shows is another. [Crains]
• Salvatore Ferragamo is entering the online retail market. [WWD]

• 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]

• Handbag model Lily Allen performed live at the farming-themed, hay-strewn Chanel show this morning. [Fashionista]
• Claudia Schiffer has formally announced she will no longer do any runway modeling. She plans to fill her downtime with a trip to Iraq. [Sun]

• Marc Jacobs' and Viacom's flacks have denied the reports that Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone are to appear on a gay version of the Real Housewives for the Logo network. [CityFile]
• Vera Wang, however, says bring on the cameras. "I'm doing a TV show. It's coming. I don't know when, or how, but it's coming," said the designer at the National Arts Awards. Wang, seated at the table of collector Julie Minskoff, said she doesn't buy art because she can't afford it. But if money were no object, "I would buy Tom Sachs, because I like Hello Kitty. And the guy who does all the pills, because I take them all." Should make for some interesting viewing, then. [StyleFile]
• A Puma branded mobile phone: It's happening sometime next spring. [WWD]
• Ever phlegmatic Vogue editor Grace Coddington, on fans now recognizing her in the street: "It's probably a short-lived thing. There will be another fashion movie and another person who comes out from that." [Grazia]
• During the Givenchy show, someone stole Coddington's purse from her chauffeured car while the driver apparently napped. [NYDN]
• Prince turned up at the Yves Saint Laurent show in a gold sequined suit he designed himself. [WWD]
• The only odd thing about this sweet article on the art show Rodarte is curating in Paris: who is this documentary crew that's mentioned in passing, and why have they been following the Mulleavy sisters for four years? [NYTimes]
• Actress Ashley Judd is releasing a perfume, of which she says, "Beloved Red Rose captures the essence of love." Not that she'd be an objective source on that or anything. [People]
• Meanwhile, Tamara Mellon's Jimmy Choo has signed a 12-year fragrance licensing contract. So expect a Jimmy Choo scent soon. [WWD]
• The reason Celine had a lag of 13 months between confirming Phoebe Philo as its new creative director and actually giving her a catwalk show is apparently not because the LVMH overlords' were given pause by anything Philo did — it's simply that 2009 was marked off as "Transition Year" in Marco Gobbetti's calendar, and spring 2010, well, that's a whole ball game. [Reuters]
• French Connection is closing it s21 stores in Japan. The retailer lost $16.8 million in the first six months of this year. [WWD]
• Cher and Bob Mackie are at it again, creating costumes out of rhinestones, nude tricot, and feathers for the star's Caesar's Palace show in Vegas. What else would you expect? [People]
• Juergen Teller is working on a book of nude photographs of Raquel Zimmerman and Charlotte Rampling at the Louvre. [WWD]
• Ellen Tracy is taking its sportswear slightly downmarket. From this spring onwards, its wares will cost $50-$149. The brand has signed an exclusive distributorship deal with Macy's. [Crain's]
• For those who wish they could be Don Draper: A limited run of 250 suits inspired by Mad Men will be sold at Brooks Brothers starting October 19th. [WWD]
• Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's life and business partner, says he received death threats and was accompanied by bodyguards following his decision to auction two Qing dynasty bronzes from his and Saint Laurent's art collection that China wanted repatriated. [Reuters]
• Chef Marcus Samuelsson, television chef Giada de Laurentiis, and Zac Posen are cooking this weekend for a $325-a-head event at the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival. Samuelsson muses on the similarities between professional cooking and fashion design: "I've been backstage at a fashion show, and it's like a kitchen. It's a very similar energy." Posen, a home cook, says Martha Stewart and Jacques Pépin saved his life. "I was a very depressed middle-school student and I watched [those shows] avidly, and then Martha Stewart changed my life. Her first cookbook [Entertaining] was given to my mom, but I took it." WWD even re-prints Samuelsson's maple-glazed salmon and couscous recipe. [WWD]
• Renzo Rosso, the Diesel founder who owns Maison Martin Margiela, has confirmed that the rarely seen Belgian designer, rumored to have departed his namesake house, has been gone for "a long time." Instead, Margiela is "here but not here. We have a new fresh design team on board." This season's collection, just shown in Paris, was rated a disappointment by the fashion press, who would like to see a successor named. Haider Ackerman and Raf Simons are rumored to be under consideration, but anyone named would have to design the label anonymously. [Vogue UK]
• Roland Mouret: Just another designer broadcasting his show live on the Internet. [WWD]
• Some Very Important Designer forgot his ticket to Viktor & Rolf and nearly had to stand with the hoi polloi! [Fashionista]
• The Clean Clothes Campaign is pressuring Europe's biggest retailers, like Tesco, Aldi, and Carrefour, to institute a common guaranteed minimum wage for garment workers across Asia. Its lofty goal? Assuring that the people who make the clothes we wear are paid $475 a month and get a 48-hour workweek. You can e-mail retailers via the Campaign's website. [WWD]

[Milan, September 26. Image via Bauer-Griffin.]

[London, September 23. Image via WENN]

• The San Diego District Attorney's office has closed Tila Tequila's case against San Diego Chargers star Shawne Merriman, stating that "there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any crime was committed." [TMZ]

• Tequila's rep begs to differ: "Tila Tequila is the victim of a violent crime. The San Diego District Attorney's decision not to press charges against Shawne Merriman for the battering of Tila Tequila demonstrates an unconscionable negligence in the discharging of their public duties. We strongly feel that justice has not been served in this matter." Her rep also claims that Tequila plans to file a civil suit against Merriman. [E!]
• Lindsay Lohan says that when she was younger, she wanted to be like Britney Spears: "I think I always kind of aspired to be like Britney Spears in the tabloids when I was in middle school," she says, "It's kind of something you sign up for in the beginning and if you really want it, you know that comes with it." [TheSun]
• Former WWE wrestler Jeff Hardy has been arrested and charged with felony drug trafficking. [TheSun]
• "I love going to the Playboy Mansion party with my boyfriend. Last year, we got dressed up as dead foppish Brits with topcoats and white contact lenses. These naked girls on Ecstasy kept coming up to us, like, 'We love your contacts.' We'd twirl around and say, 'Well, we like your breasts!'"-Neil Patrick Harris [ONTD]
• Matt Damon's daughter, Alexia, got a kick out of her father's 30 pound weight gain for his role in The Informant: "She had fun with it by squeezing all the soft squishy parts and called me 'Fatty Matty,'" Damon says. [People]
• Levi Johnson is definitely going to drop his pants for Playgirl, but reportedly can't decide if he wants to show "the front or the back." [TMZ]
• A collection of 10 Andy Warhol silkscreens, all of famous athletes, has been stolen. [Yahoo]
• Audrina Patridge has filed a restraining order against an "overzealous male fan." [TMZ]
• When Nicky Hilton was asked if she was glad that her sister, Paris reunited with boyfriend Doug Reinhardt, she replied: "Ummm...no." She later said she was kidding, though. [E!]
• Katherine Heigl says her husband, Josh Kelley has always been supportive of her desire to adopt a child: ""I just wanted to make sure that I was marrying a guy who understood that that was going to have to happen," she says, "So about a year ago is when we said, 'OK, let's start the process,' and the process is intense. It's different but it isn't, do you know what I mean? It's just as intense I'm sure to have a baby biologically because you're going through the whole physical sort of thing of it." [Radar]
• Tom Brady has confirmed that he will be a father again: his wife, Gisele Bundchen is due in December. [People]
• Susan Boyle reportedly broke down in tears when she heard her album for the first time. "I think at the point where she didn't win, she was afraid everything would be taken away from her and she was going to go back to that little house," Simon Cowell says, "She didn't want to go back to that life." [ShowbizSpy]
• "As a model it is normal to be taking your clothes off all the time. I wouldn't think I was ever too old to do something like that. I mean, maybe if I was 60 or 70, then yes, I'd stop doing nude shoots, but then it depends who's asking."-Claudia Schiffer [DailyExpress]
• Amy Winehouse has agreed to sing at a Greek wedding tonight for £20,000. [TheSun]
• Meryl Streep says she's "exhausted" from making seven movies in two and a half years, and plans to slow down a bit: "I haven't ever considered giving up acting," she says, "but I do need enforced rest in my career. When each of my children was born I took a year off. It is very nice to have time to live, gather experiences and watch other people." [ShowbizSpy]
• Chace Crawford and Bar Refaeli were spotted dancing together in NYC last night: ""At one point, Bar reached down and grabbed Chace's backside," says a source, "They were very affectionate with each other." [JustJared]
• "I don't like boys who are mean to their mommies. That's a real turn off for me. And I don't like boys who aren't chivalrous. To me, not being respectful is a big deal.""-Megan Fox [ShowbizSpy]
• "No, I wouldn't call myself a feminist at all, really. I don't know what a feminist is. I believe in women having a say."-Dame Judi Dench [Guardian]

• Waiting, with Diane Von Furstenberg, for Mayor Bloomberg to arrive in Queens, Anna Wintour said, "If he doesn't show, Diane and I will run on a joint ticket and take over the city." Was that a...joke? Then Lindsay Lohan stole.

• The new Emanual Ungaro creative consultant thingamajig dutifully turned up at the Ungaro store for Fashion's Night Out, selected a leather jacket that met with her approval, and headed for the door. Sales assistants ripped off the tags. [NYDN]
• Yesterday afternoon, Gwen Stefani watched her own presentation, for her L.A.M.B. clothing line, from the audience. It took a while for anybody to recognize her, but once they did, she was mobbed — unusually, for fashion week, where everyone generally pretends not to notice the celebrities, and the celebrities wearily pretend not to notice that they're studiously being not noticed. Also Stefani and husband Gavin Rossdale made out. [The Cut]
• Claudia Schiffer, 39, has posed for an unretouched fashion cover and spread in Tank magazine. However, she is wearing makeup. [Telegraph]
• 13-year-old style blogger Tavi will be front row — with her dad — at Rodarte, due to her friendship with designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Tavi, who's on the cover of the current issue of Pop, is also reporting on the shows for the magazine. But the best part? She shops at Loehmann's with her mom. [WSJ]
• Eric Gaskins, the ex-designer behind the formerly anonymous blog The Emperor's Old Clothes, has a book deal and a television show in the works. [WWD]
• Last night, Zac Posen doused and stenciled four cream colored dresses worn live by model Anna Cleveland with paint. Because Fashion's Night Out is all about a) wearing pink leopard print capes to make grand entrances and b) stripping down to a tee shirt and getting one's hands dirty to "make people connect with the creative process." [USAToday]
• Nobody wanted to play Wii tennis with designer Chris Benz. And Justin Timberlake hid for an hour from screaming fans inside the bridal salon at Saks. [NYObs]
• Giorgio Armani says he has made a complete recovery from hepatitis. [AP]
• Peter Som, nobody should consider bread, chocolate, and cheese to be "guilty pleasures"! [GlamChic]
• The design duo behind label Libertine, Cindy Greene and Johnson Hartig, have split up. Hartig will take control over the line, and "return to its roots." [WWD]
• Vena Cava designers Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai have two special guests in from California at each one of their presentations: their mothers. [The Cut]
• Monique Lhuillier is pregnant, and due in November. She plans to name the daughter Sophia. Congratulations! [WWD]
• Life advice from Carolina Herrera: "You have to be so happy. You have to love what you are doing...life is complicated, but you have to make the best of it." [GlamChic]
• Remember how Thierry Mugler trumpeted his costume designs for Beyoncé's current tour? Turns out he may have had help from a high-profile freelancer, an experienced costume designer named Chris March. The Project Runway alum is suing Mugler for failing to pay for his services. March is also investigating starting his own line of women's wear with QVC. [WSJ]
• Dries Van Noten, after accepting his award from the Museum at FIT's Couture Council, asked to speak to FIT students. The hour-long Q&A covered everything from his aesthetic, design processes, and perspectives, to his business model. Van Noten founded his label without a backer, and remains self-owned today. "I don't have managers pushing me for fragrance licenses, but I'm informed. I know what Barneys is selling well. I'm known for flowers, but where others might be pressured to put a little bit of flowers in because that's what sells, I can still do a collection of black-and-white and checks," said the Belgian. [WWD]
• Tom Ford, on the release of his first film, A Single Man: "Of course I'm terrified because in a way it's the most personal thing I've ever done and it's the thing that is the most expressive of who I am." The main character, George, played by Colin Firth, is a middle-aged gay man who contemplates suicide following the death of his partner in a car crash. Ford says he based George's preparations for suicide on the actual suicide of a family member: "Someone did kill themselves in exactly that way — went to the store, bought a gun...went home and got a sleeping bag...laid everything out, got into the sleeping bag, zipped it up and killed himself because he didn't want to make a mess." Because it's an Isherwood adaptation, there will be lots of shots of men swimming naked, and playing tennis topless. [Reuters]
• The Buckle is continuing its peerless run of solid growth in sales and revenue, even during this recession. The retailer has now had ten consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, and its second quarter net income rose 12%, to $25 million. [TS]
• Analysts are pleased by Ann Taylor's turnaround. Although the company announced a second quarter loss last month, stock has risen 21% since then. [Crain's]

Peter Lindbergh shot an entire editorial without recourse to that particular computer program, except for minor color-correction. Kristen McMenamy, Tatjana Patitz, Nadja Auermann, Claudia Schiffer, et. al., also posed without any hair products or makeup.

And they predictably look fantastic. Does this spread in any way address the constant barrage of unrealistically altered images of women in the fashion media? Only obliquely, at best. And the skincare peg — all the models are shilling their supposed favorite spas and products — is a little annoying. I worry sometimes that these non-Photoshopped editorials are becoming more of a stunt than a corrective; French Elle had one, also shot by Lindbergh, and even Life & Style ran a Photoshop-free cover, of Kim Kardashian. How awesome would it be for a fashion magazine to state, as a matter of editorial policy, that excessive and unrealistic retouching will never find a home in its pages? That adjusting the white balance in post-production is fine, but that rhinoplasty-by-liquify-tool and 80 gazillion layers of changes are not? That would be a magazine worth buying.

Which is not to say that it isn't still wonderful to see images of real women at a variety of ages, images that haven't been "fixed" beyond recognition, even if these spreads are annoyingly presented as the fashion equivalent of Very Special Episodes. Shalom Harlow, pictured here, has always been one of my favorite models, and shots like this prove she of all people doesn't need post-production smoothing and sculpting to look bewitchingly beautiful.

Karl Lagerfeld shot this editorial, notionally inspired by Peggy Guggenheim, in Venice with Lara Stone and his latest boytoy, Baptiste Giabiconi. (Baptiste gets to wear boy clothes in this one, amazingly: Lagerfeld has a habit of styling his favorite hot young thing in women's wear and heels.)

Lara often looks kind of severe and disapproving — Cathy Horyn once compared her to Lurch — but the Gugg-inspired blonde clown hair in this spread sure isn't helping her.

These sunglasses, which if you look closely you can see are the shape of a bat spreading its wings, belonged to La Dogaressa (real, and awesome, nickname) herself.

It wouldn't be fall without some kind of a generalist "New Shapes" spread. This one, shot by Camilla Akrans, stars Kendra Spears and Katie Fogarty, who are aged 20 and 17, respectively, and accompanies text by Suzy Menkes. Representative quote: "THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It could be time to go green. Rethink jade."

Of course, Madonna's bunny ears get a shot.

It also wouldn't be fall without a long, studio-shot editorial of a model — Karmen Pedaru — jumping dazedly.

There is, however, a beautifully shot Glen Luchford editorial, starring the spooky Eniko Mihalik.

And Siri Tollerod turns up with Richard Burbridge to do one of those perennial accessories editorials where the fashion magazines try and convince their readers that even when it's fall and the mind turns to tweed, we will still somehow feel like wearing acid brights and neon and "pops of color."

Oh, look: Our old friend Jean-Paul "I have jungle fever" Goude. Styling Naomi Campbell in leopard print, racing a cheetah across the serengeti, really is daring and original.

Naomi rides an elephant. Like a real African Queen.

She jumps rope. With monkeys. Monkeys.

We all know that black models have been lamentably absent from mainstream fashion magazines and runways. But all that shoots like these do is draw offensive similarities between black women and wild animals, and reiterate, in pictures, the old colonialist assumption that black people are savage and uncivilizable. Naomi Campbell isn't from Tanzania, she's from Streatham; at what point does having a British woman wander around the African wilderness, performing truly awful received ideas of how African women behave, for a publication with a majority white audience, verge on minstrelsy? Having no black models represented in magazines is a problem. But is this kind of representation actually worse than being totally ignored?

Then, Naomi perched on the back of a crocodile — this shoot was obviously not Photoshop-free — while wearing a Dior haute couture crocodile jacket and pants.

Interestingly, the Jean-Paul Goude shoot is followed in the magazine by a 14-page Peter Lindbergh editorial starring Chanel Iman and Arlenis Sosa. The theme? The Harlem Renaissance. This shot of Chanel was taken just outside the iconic Lenox Lounge, on Lenox just south of 125th Street.

Chanel and Arlenis, who are photographed carrying trumpet cases and singing into old-fashioned microphones, make pretty great foxy jazz musician dames. And while the Harlem Renaissance is kind of a cliché — and the period doesn't really have much discernible connection with life in the Harlem of today — it's nice to see a period with a black cast mined for interest in a fashion magazine, rather than just another all-white editorial about the Summer of Love or Studio 54.

Besides, the setting is the perfect way to set off the 1940s looks so many designers have turned out for this coming fall.

Can anyone identify this block? I want to say it's one of those gorgeous brownstone streets south of Marcus Garvey Park, but it also could be Strivers' Row. Either way, it's gorgeous.

The commitment to period realism does falter slightly in places: Sylvia's restaurant was founded in 1962.

And if you look really closely in the magazine, you can see the Fairway supermarket, just under the elevated rail line. In all, though, it's a beautiful shoot.

I don't think I even want to investigate the subtext of Harper's Bazaar using a milk-pale blonde British model as a stand-in for a black American pop megastar; let's just reiterate that this spread, which was obviously thrown together at the last minute, unfolds like an uninspired afterthought. And also the clothes suck.

Jessica Stam and Benjamin Alexander Huseby pop in for an editorial all about gardening, and fall tweeds of the sort that Little Edie would have loved.

Nobody does sublime eccentricity like Stam.

And Magdalena Frackowiak has an editorial all about shopping, photographed by Terry Richardson. Seeing her play a ditzy society lady with more credit than sense would be funny, if the photos weren't desperately captioned things like "SHOP: SAVE JOBS!"

In an accompanying article, by Derek Blasberg, about the macroeconomic imperative of increasing consumer spending, Margherita Missoni says: "It was cool to talk about the recession — which I found extremely annoying. But it seems not that people are no longer embarrassed to have good things." Thank god that recession thing is so over! God, that was such a drag!

I will leave you with images from Harper's Bazaar's Sesame Street-themed shoot, which features models Sessilee Lopez and Tao Okamoto. It's Sesame Street's 40th anniversary this year, so the magazine sent designers down to where the air is sweet.

This shot of Oscar de la Renta with Oscar the Grouch might actually top Harper's Bazaar's awesome The Simpsons fashion spread. Maybe.

[Berlin, July 24. Image via WENN]

[London, May 7. Image via WENN]

V made the impossible possible by picking random crops of pictures from the Mario Testino editorial inside to use as the cover shots. After the figures were very approximately shorn of their actual backgrounds.

Which rather explains how Daria looks like she was traced with an x-acto and stuck on that lurid backdrop with paste. Is this a conceptual gesture? About how people cut pictures out of magazines and pin them on their walls? A nod to Henry Darger and collage? Is this intentional? Or just terrible, terrible Photoshop?

Naomi's cover, to my eye, is actually the best — her baseline level of camp seems just about right for the proceedings.

Kate on the other hand, looks awkward.

Look, I liked this picture much better when it was on the cover of Purple Fashion two months ago.

Half of these poses — Daria's, Naomi's — are poking fun at the cheesecake factor inherent in most swimsuit spreads. And the rest — Claudia's, Kate's — are high-fashion awkward. So what were the criteria for culling the cover shots from the editorial?

Eva Herzigova: channeling Lindsay Lohan channeling Marilyn Monroe.

Seriously, V: what happened? The issue is out next Wednesday, May 6th. I can't say I'm exactly waiting with bated breath.

Fierce Kate Moss Leads Revival Of The Supermodels As They Stalk Back Into The Spotlight [Daily Mail]
Viva Gisele [IMG Blog]

[London, April 23. Image via INF]

[London, March 17. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

• That's it. Olivier Theyskens is out, fired, goneburgers, signing off, stick-a-fork-in-it done at Nina Ricci. The Belgian has left the building. Peter Copping, senior designer at Louis Vuitton, is in. [WWD]

• Fashion designer Anand Jon's family has appealed to President Obama to intervene in the designer's ongoing rape case. Jon, who once dressed celebrities like Paris Hilton and had a guest appearance on America's Next Top Model, was indicted by a grand jury on 59 counts of rape and sexual assault against victims, mainly models, as young as 14. Prosecutors built their case around representative charges they felt were the "strongest"; last November, Jon was convicted of 16 counts of rape and sexual assault. Jon's lawyers have filed a retrial on the grounds of prosecutorial and juror misconduct, and his sister says she'll go on a hunger strike if he's not freed. [Times of India]
• Laurence Dacade, the shoemaker who brought Olivier Theyskens' mesmerizing Nina Ricci heels to life, says, "You should put these on when you walk into the boss' office to ask for a raise. He wouldn't be able to say no." [WWD]
• The creative director of recently-revived London label Ossie Clark has left the company. [Elle UK]
• Grand dame of English fashion Vivienne Westwood took her gardener, Andy Hulme, as a muse for her latest menswear collection. [Independent]
• Carine Roitfeld says she hasn't been offered Anna Wintour's job, but if she were she wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. Still, she has reservations about creative control and the size of the editorial team: "I'm very happy at French Vogue to be able to do everything — almost everything — I want in the magazine," Roitfeld said. "It would be too political at American Vogue for me. And I'm not sure I'm talking enough good English to work there." So, Carine fans of the 50 states, dream on — or just watch CNN International's doc about the editor when it airs this week. [CNN]
• Robin Givhan has an appreciation of fashion's capacity to choose diverse It girls, from Beth Ditto to Michelle Obama. [WaPo]
• Claudia Schiffer says she has so many closets of Chanel "it's like a Chanel boutique." She cleared out her wardrobe, which she's saving for her daughter Clementine, into a helicopter hanger on her property in England. [Daily Mail]
• The first images of Matthew Williamson's hotly anticipated H&M line is out. Let there be tie-dyed sequined tunics! [Racked]
• Storm, meet teacup: Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's effective widower, has withdrawn several Warhol portraits of the designer from an upcoming exhibition of the artist's work in Paris. Saint Laurent's likeness was to be hung in a section of the show called "Glamour," which included — horrors — other designers like Giorgio Armani. Bergé thought his former life partner should be in the "Artists" section. [NY Times]
• Meanwhile, Valentino is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Style. It's yet another promotional tie-in for his new documentary, titled Valentino: The Last Emperor. [WWD]
• And let it be said that there's another reason, besides the market crash, that Valentino's glad he retired when he did. The fact that the collections now are all So! 80s! "I hate the eighties," he says. "I did it, and I hate it. When I go to see my dresses of the eighties, I vomit." [NY Mag]
• Forever 21 is opening its first store in Japan next month in Tokyo's Harajuku district, but the retail chain plans to have an additional 49 outlets there in the next few years. [WWD]
• The CEO of the privately-held luxury goods brand Salvatore Ferragamo is worried about the economic outlook, though he won't divulge any numbers. The company is slowing its retail expansion for 2009, and believes concentrating on Asia might work. [FT]
• The world's biggest eyewear company, Luxottica, has posted 59.9% declines in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008. [The Street]
• Sitting comparatively pretty is Christian Siriano. The new designer saw his orders double this season, and he also added ten new stockists. [The Cut]
• And in other news from the wake of Project Runway, Jay McCarroll on the documentary 11 Minutes. "I let them [co-directors Michael and Rob Tate] be filmmakers," says the designer. "I stepped back and prayed that they wouldn't show my naked body." McCarroll also has noticed that models these days are very thin. (And that Marilyn Monroe was not.) I have actually never heard anyone put it quite like that before! What a wonderful insight. [CBS]