• Karl Lagerfeld is directing a silent movie. Obviously. "Expect a fast-paced, laugh-packed and loose interpretation of Gabrielle Chanel’s adventures between 1913 and 1923." Riotous, we're sure. [WWD]
• We had heard, of course, about the new Chanel fishing rod. However! Until now we had not seen its quilted case and dainty tackle box! [Fashion Week Daily]
• Hermes heir grabs a pilot's crotch, punches him in the face. This was perceived as interfering with the flight. [NY Times]
• Lauren Conrad's fashion show was apparently standing room only. Although given that the front row was propped up by Lo Bosworth and Holly Madison, we're guessing it wasn't exactly Anna Wintour clamoring to get in. [Yahoo News]

• The new high-end J.Crew store really nails the pulse of the times: "The first thing you see inside the store is a jacket covered in hand-painted French sequins to look like tortoiseshell, with a price of $3,000." Again, if you had that kind of money...wouldn't you go somewhere else? [NY Times]
• Want to watch a weird cartoon Mariah Carey ask you to design a dress for her perfume/breast cancer awareness/publicity? Look no further! [MariahCarey.com]
• Marc Jacobs on heels: "I don't always wear high heels...I always get nuts when women go, 'Oh, men don't know what it's like — women in heels, women in skirts, women in dresses — what it's like to suffer for fashion.'..Although I've always wanted to be taller, which is the real reason I wore them, I also thought I can show that I, too, will suffer for fashion." Natch he found the pain a small price to pay. [NY Mag]
• In other Marc Jacobs news, he's getting into swimsuits. [WWD]
• You'd think I'd kind of give an automatic thxbutnothx, but these whimsical temporary tattoos by artist Julia Pott are so bizarre and almost Edward Gorey-delicate that I'm actually drawn to them. Not to wear one, but, you know. [Nylon]
• Pierre Cardin: "The future of fashion is sleeveless...Who needs sleeves anymore? You need to be able to move and be comfortable. To layer. Seasons don't exist like they used to. Now it's cold in summer and hot in winter...Fashion needs to look forward." [Media Bistro]
• Michelle Kwan is starting a clothing line. But before you roll your eyes - it's athletic wear! [New York Magazine]
• The HuffPo further explores its newfound fascination with middle-aged women's flaws by examining Sarah Palin's blush. [Huffington Post]
• Gisele nets Dior Spring. That's a coup to a moddle, btw. [Fashionologie]
• Independent]
• Harper's Bazaar is studded with crystals. Does that make it harder to recycle? [MagCulture]
• Liz Hurley's the new face of Blackglama Furs. We know someone who's not going to take that lying down, and his name starts with a "P." [The Sun]
• Calvin Klein breaks into furniture with two lines, lower and higher-end. It looks kind of like you'd expect. [NY Times]
• Bobbi Brown's latest beauty guide sounding suspiciously like her other beauty guides. [WWD]
• Heidi Klum's got milk. "Posing with a prize-winning milking cow, she wears a traditional Bavarian maid's outfit and pigtails in the image." [VogueUK]
• We were psyched that Fashionista did a spread on "winter day dresses," but the token cheap ones are by far the worst. [Fashionista]

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

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

• Europeans are always more progressive than Americans. Rumor is, Italian Vogue may be producing a cover featuring only black models. [Fashionista]
  
• Oh. My. God. High School Musical and Hannah Montana-inspired Crocs, soon available at a store near you. [Yahoo]
  
• Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola will be the next faces of Louis Vuitton's "core values" campaign (the very same campaign in which Keith Richards agreed to participate in exchange for a LV monogrammed guitar case.) What do you think the Coppolas get out of this? An LV director's chair? An LV vinyard? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "Boyfriend" jackets are big for spring. But Peter Som says the ones he designed for Bill Blass are inspired by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. [WSJ]

• Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers has decided not to assume the role of president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, most likely because she is too hell-bent on becoming a reality TV star. [WWD, 1st item]
• Rumer Willis, Kristin Cavallari, Christina Milian, Josie Maran, Pete Wentz, Corbin Bleu and Wilmer Valderrama have all apparently gotten desperate and all collectively facing Wal-Mart's Op line's latest ad campaign. [Just Jared]
• If you are dying to know what's in Kimora Lee Simmons' makeup bag, well, here's an itemized list. [Marie Claire]
• The rumors are true: Linda Evangelista will be the face of Prada's Fall 2008 ad campaign. [FabSugar]
• Tory Burch refers to her employees as her "family". [WWD, sub req'd]
• Kanye West-endorsed, Damien Hirst-designed t-shirts to benefit Bono's Product (RED)? Oh my. [Chic Report]
• Uber fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone likes chopping vegetables and washing dishes. [WSJ]
• Moby: Wants you to design a t-shirt for him. [USA Today]

• "I go to the same Starbucks every day in Beverly Hills and they're like, 'Can you please tell them that we want to have new outfits?'...I sit in American Airlines, same thing. I get it all the time. Those chains or big companies, they always come to me." Imagine: the entire American service industry remade in the image of Heidi Klum! [Sassybella]
  
• Every time we read an interview with Kate Bosworth, she talks about high school and sort of ups the ante in terms of the profound alienation she supposedly felt there. Here's the latest installment. [Vogue UK]
  
• "Four kids later, I'm a 32D, but my entire life I was told I was a 34B." And there you have things we never wanted to know about model-cum-Interview fashion director Stephanie Seymour. [Chic Report]

• Best protest sign outside of the new John Varvatos store in the old CBGB's space: "$1,600 used jackets destroy communities." [Does someone still care about CBGB closing, is that the issue here? Because guess what, guys, there's a global food crisis on and Al Qaeda is bombing countries you've never heard of, stagflation is upon us and we're in danger of electing a president who doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shiite, so get over it, thanks. -Moe] [Fashion Week Daily]
• Fun contest! Giorgio Armani is sponsoring a contest where the little people can pitch him concepts for the new ad campaign for his latest fragrance. Ten finalists get to meet Mr. Armani, though only one will have their ideas usurped for the perpetuation of Mr. Armani's own wealth. [Vogue UK]
• Why isn't one of the options for this "Do You Wear Religious Symbols" poll "Only as tattoos"?! [FabSugar]
• "Wow! It just seems like the next step to our larger goal. Every time we conceive a collection, we try to think of all the elements that would go along with our designs. And bags are next! We want to conquer that next year," says Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez. Oh really, bags! What a novel idea. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Says Duckie Brown co-designer Steven Cox, "I've always had this fantasy of making a dress out of bricks." Aren't you just ill that Duckie Brown only does menswear? [Washington Post]
• Apparently there is no "right" hemline this season, but if there were, it would involve pairing a long skirt with a long sweater. We don't make the news, we just report on it! [Guardian]
• The color blue: It's important. [Washington Post]
• Showing off your baby bump is so totally out of fashion. Duh. [IHT]
• Crocs is shutting down its factory in Quebec City, meaning 669 people now are out of work. Which also means there is a whole new demographic of people who really hate Crocs! [NYT]
• I actually don't believe anything I read about ELLE's fledgling reality show (which may or may not be titled Fashionista) anymore, but some say that editors at the mag are calling in sick to avoid having to work on it. [Jossip]

• The latest on the Nina Garcia saga: If she takes the editor-at-large gig she'll only be there til mid-October, when ELLE's contract with Project Runway ends and then she'll be let go for reals. (Dear Nina: You can do better than that.) Meanwhile, no one at ELLE or its publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media has issued a single comment on the entire situation. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Meanwhile, everyone at ELLE is pissed that the taping of its reality show Fashionista is ruining everyone's lives. [NY Daily News]
  
• Audrey Tatou is rumored to be the newest face of Chanel No. 5. Does this mean that Nicole Kidman got the boot? Maybe she and Nina can start a sort of ex-wives club together. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "I think the luxury is not only what we give to ourselves, but what we can give to others. Obviously, we can get more of this and this, but the true luxury is being able to give back. When one has been blessed with the ability to have made it...it's our social responsibility." Nice try, Donna Karan. But...no. [WWD, sub req'd]

• "You can sort of tell the designers by the pieces," says Gap designer Patrick Robinson on the retailer's white shirt sdesigned by Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Michael Bastian and Threeasfour. Um, wouldn't it be troublesome if you couldn't? Isn't this sort of a given when it comes to design? [WWD, sub req'd]
• Victoria Beckham is not above groveling to get L.A. boutique Kitson to not drop her denim line from its stores. [PopSugar]
• Women need to learn to "shop like a man"? My ass! Don't know about you, but the ladies I know think a lot more about where they put their dollars then the fellas in my life. [Telegraph]
• Margaret Thatcher: Style icon? Sure, and Hillary's yellow pantsuits are going to be the next big thing for spring! [Telegraph]
• Kenneth Cole has poached Liz Claiborne executive vice president Jill Granoff to make her the company's new CEO. Smells like another failure of the Tim Gunn-Bill McComb regime at Claiborne to me. [WWD, sub req'd]
• LVMH's profits are up by 12%, largely because of the roaring success of the Louis Vuitton label. Marc Jacobs: 1, haters: 0. [WWD, sub req'd]
• How the hell are Burberry's profits up by over 19%? Really: Explain it to me. [WWD, sub req'd]
• And L'Oreal's profits are in the shitter. [Reuters]
• Who's the most accomplished Versace sibling now? Santo Versace, who has just joined Italy's House of Parliament. Can't you just see Donatella busting in there, screaming, "Geeeeeeeet outtttttt!" 'Cause I can. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Gucci has hired David Lynch to direct commercials and James Franco to front its new men's fragrance. [WWD, 3rd item]
• So word on the street is that Sasha Pivovarova is being ousted as the face of Prada for Linda Evangelista. Drama! [Sassybella]
• Designer Roland Mouret on what makes a fashion icon: "Icons last but fashion changes. What I try to do is allow a woman to work with the icon inside herself. The body is an icon, and I create a shell for that body." Just like Invasion of the Body Snatchers! [Vogue UK]
• These shoes scare me. [Chic Report]

• Takashi Murakami: would you just look at that fucking face? That is a face that will almost melt your cynicism away. You'll forget most people know who he is because he designed a line of handbags for Louis Vuitton...
  
• And that handbag line got knocked off to the point that he's arguably America's most famous contemporary artist. You forget the museum is packed with models and Marc Jacobs, Tinsley Mortimer, and Louis Vuitton executives saying things like "Vuitton has a long tradition of these collaborations, of relationships with artists, going back to the Impressionists," and "If I work with Takashi, and we do something colorful, I think it will help make New York strong again," (italics mine) and you might actually find yourself thinking, "Well, the financial sector ain't gonna make New York strong again," and enjoying the Kanye performance. This item, btw, refers to the Murakami exhibit, which was the most important thing that happened all weekend. [NY Times]
  
• Celebrity stylist Estee Stanley had a wedding and the Olsens came wearing masks, in silent remembrance of Heath Ledger. [PopSugar]
  
• Straight from the set of the new ELLE reality show "Fashionista": "[The contestants] are smart, most of them, but their style is really poor, at least so far. They dress like what they see magazine editors in movies wear, not what you guys actually wear. The producers are calling them 'Twenty percents,' like, they have 20% of the skills necessary to work at a magazine right now..." You gotta love how immediately "skills" reveal themselves to consist of "outfits" in magazine publishing. It's such an honest industry that way. [Fashionista]

• The recession may compel socialites to walk their own dogs, but the first thing they'll probably give up is all those charities they spend so much time helping. [NY Mag]
• A new Facebook application allows you to "gift" your Facebook friends limited edition Louis Vuitton Murakami wallets, bracelets, pendants, etc. How long before we get to witness the first virtual raid on some Coco Canal hustler's stockpile of pirated Facebook Louis Vuitton gifts? [Fashionista]
• You know what gets me really excited? When an ailing mall retailer decides it is going to reinvent its brand by starting a higher-end sub-brand priced 40% higher than the usual brand — which was priced 50% higher before they opened 2,000 stores and let quality standards drop 75% — and opens a special store dedicated to the new "limited edition" sub brand in which the brand's new "philosophy" is etched on a wall in the store: "Step out of the everyday and into the extraordinary. A limited edition collection defined by exquisite fabrics, distinctive details and modern silhouettes, Monogram is the most eloquent expression of style." Barf. [WWD]
• How sweet! Another designer opens up her brand to target fashion-conscious kiddies. [WWD]
• So Margherita Missoni designs a thousand-dollar bracelet with some profits to benefit that continent where all the diamonds come from, and to read the way they convey this news on Fashion Week Daily you would seriously think she cured fibromyalgia or something. No, I swear: every time you think you get how far up its own ass this industry's head is, you click on something like this. [FWD]
• Good news! You can now buy overpriced beauty products by such brands as Kiehl's and Bumble & Bumble at Target, secure in the knowledge that Kiehl's and Bumble & Bumble are not happy about it. [Bellasugar]

And finally, the story claims her photo was snapped by Fashionista at a party. This would make sense, since Fashionista and Teen Vogue do not exactly go to great lengths to distance themselves from one another, but when we texted Fashionista editor Faran Krentcil she claimed she had never done such a thing. It was only after we elaborated that she texted back to say "Oh, yeah, Teen Vogue intern..search Ilana" Right, Teen Vogue's new "It Girl"...

Related: Self-Professed 'Fashion Victim' Claims Rachel Zoe Copies All Her Ideas From 'Vogue' In The First Place [BryanBoy]
Earlier: Rachel Zoe And Teen Vogue: A Match Made In Purge-Atory

There are a lot of Fashion Week blogs full of content that would probably be terribly interesting to people who don't read blogs while they're at Fashion Week. Sound like a familiar conundrum, anyone? Here, Intern Maria sifts through the Fashion Week blogs for anything of interest to, uh, anyone we might know.

• Tinsley Mortimer can't find the time to make it to all of the shows and parties she was invited to but she does find the time to get her roots done and go have drinks with SamRon at the Beatrice Inn. [Slaves To Fashion]
  
• Pete Wentz apologizes to parents about being such a powerful aesthetic icon that he started that guyliner trend (Is this actually a trend? Really?) but the girls at Fashionista call him out on his claim and say he should be apologizing for "tricking children into listening to bad music." [Fashionista]
  
• Fashionista's Faran Krentcil takes over the blogging reins at Teen Vogue for Fashion Week and gets to interview people who would otherwise never speak to her like Gwen Stefani. [Style File]
  
• Designers deny the old myth that the dropping hemlines seen on the runways are an omen of dropping market prices and instead credit their own mass uncreativity and desperate need for consumer attention to the new lenghts seen this week. [Heard on the Runway, 5th item]

• How would you dress Chloe Sevingy for Fashion Week? Answer: predictably offbeat in Karen Walker and Vena Cava, say the people at StyleHive. [StyleHive]
• Models have problems too! Maggie Rizer talks about her bruised and hairy legs in a confusing and jumbled-font format at Elle. Maybe she needs a little WebMD check-up for those strange bruises? [ NY Fashion Week with Elle 2nd item]

"everyone always laughs at you faran when you go out. trust me on this."

And another!

the next time someone says you look nice, do they actually mean you look like a rabbit with curls...?

I don't think the assistant will realize it's her, no. For various reasons, but mostly because although the girl's accessories are very over-the-top, her work ethic is incredible and she's probably packing Prada samples right now, not reading blogs.

OMG, I Love Your Bracelet.. [Fashionista]

Can I please make one last attempt to have all public relations offices of major fashion houses NOT INVITE SOCIALITES? C'mon, like, WHO THE FUCK IS GENEVIEVE JONES and WHY DO WE CARE WHAT SHE DOES? And if I see Lisa Airan at another runway show I swear I'm going to call the American Medical Association to have her license revoked.

Why, yes we do!

Greener Pastures [WWD]
Earlier: Who's Behind View From The Fourth Row?
Possibly Related? Want To Be The Next Warren Buffett? The Line Forms In Nebraska [WSJ]

Maybe If They Knew How To Accessorize, They Wouldn't Be Extinct? [Fashionista]
Earlier: Anna Wintour's Heart Of Darkness
Related: Elephants [WorldWildlifeFund]

• Filipa Fino, Senior Accessories Editor, Vogue
• Luisana Mendoza, Associate Accessories Editor, Vogue
• Sylvana Soto-Ward, Associate Accessories Editor, Vogue

• Rae Ann Scandroli Herman, Accessories Director, Glamour
• Alison Hope Nichols, Senior Fashion Editor, Accessories, Glamour
• Dawn Gabbriellini, Senior Accessories Editor, Lucky
  
• Suzanne Singer, Associate Acessories Editor, Lucky
• Taylor Tomasi, Accessories Director, Teen Vogue
  
• Sarah Frances Kuhn, Associate Accessories Editor, Teen Vogue
• Leah Karp, Accessories Director, Allure

Got a guess or the inside scoop? Pass it on!

Dear View From The Fourth Row: Love Is Blind. We Are Not [Fashionista]
Earlier: Rag Trade: Drug Abuse At 4 Times Square

• Some good news for Donatella Versace and ailing, anorexic daughter Allegra: Their family's company is raking it in, and might even go public. And yes, we will probably go to hell because of that headline. [WWD]
• Denim Fight! [WWD]
• Project Runway-winner Jeffrey Sebelia debuted his new Cosa Nostra collection the other day. Here's (an admittedly badly-lit) sneak peek. [JaneMag]
• Burberry has closed one of its British factories in Wales, resulting in the loss of 309 jobs for locals. [BBC]
• Fashionista editors are so desperate for attention, they've stooped to stalking famous British models around downtown NYC. Kidding! [Fashionista]

Sometime last month someone announced the news that Sarah Jessica Parker is "designing", by which we mean, "profiting from the sale of," a line of clothes for poor people. And not you-and-me poor, but the type of poor that is targeted by the "Layaway" section at my corner Dollar Store - basically you and me if we had a few kids and no laptops poor. The line is being sold at Steve & Barry's, a chain of discount sporting goods stores - we love how WWD keeps calling it a "sportswear" store! as if you can buy Ackris in there!! - that according to this Business Week story is known for undercutting Wal-Mart prices by as much as 40%. (And if that doesn't scream "Kathie Lee Gifford" to you, you definitely did not take econ alongside upstanding young capitalists like Steve & Barry.) (Who incidentally, started the chain that would conract the "designing skills" of SJP, after graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which Jezzy #2 dropped out after realizing we would pretty much never not be too poor to pay for it.)

Ok, the point of all this is not that the line, "Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker," makes "boyfriend trousers" look haute, which it does, but that the whole deal resulted in a blogger-media-access clusterfuck the likes of which has already crashed our laptop 12 times. After the jump, we analyze the coverage on the blogs that culminated in today's WWD story.

The blog Fashionista came out on top in the coverage of the coverage of this Monumental Event - even though the Budget Fashionista knew about it first!

WWD: But last week, Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers' new blog site, Fashionista, published photographs from a password-protected area of a preliminary Bitten Web site intended only for long-lead-time monthly magazines.

Budget Fashionista: Also, TBF was the FIRST to post anything about the line as a fashion blind item over a month before any of the other sites got word of it. I only held onto to it because I was asked to (which now I realized I should have just published it in full for you guys on February 8th.)

Commenters universally panned the clothes — camo capris? Ewww! - but gave SJP props for doing the charitable thing by making clothes for poor people.

Budget Fashionista: I am also pretty skeptical of the overly touched up pictures (usually sign of poor quality garments).

WWD: On other sites, readers praised the "Sex and the City" star for making affordable fashion for the masses instead of inking a potentially more lucrative contract elsewhere.

Hahahaha, I totes feel the same way about the nice men who run those payday loan operations! I mean, they could have gone to work for Merrill Lynch, but they decided to reach out to the at-risk and underprivileged!

The blogosphere has an IMPACT!

WWD: The next day, Fashionista blogger Faran Krentcil received an anonymous e-mail from a tipster who claimed to work with the Bitten team and said they are trying to redesign the pieces.

Or not.

"We are not changing a thing in the line," said Howard Schacter, chief partnership officer for Steve & Barry's.

Bloggers Not Bitten [WWD]
Yay or Nay: Bitten By Sarah Jessica Parker [The Budget Fashionista] (pics of the clothes found here!)
Steve & Barry's Rules The Mall [Business Week]