• Lauren Conrad is On The Move, Azlan-style. After a prolonged period of alleged laziness, Conrad is promoting her eponymous clothing line all over our fifty states. [Yahoo]
• According to this Sun columnist's "hunch," Kate Moss is pregnant. Take that for what it's worth. [The Sun]
• According to model Niki Taylor — and her husband, doctor and uterus' hunch — she's pregnant too! [People]
• Fashiongate FAQ. [Washington Post]

• More signs of economic apocalypse: the cancellation of Fashion Rocks, CondeNast's annual fashion-rock concert-magazine. [AdAge]
• Here's how to get those undecided swing voters! "On Thursday morning, (Zac) Posen filmed a 15-second video urging people to vote, to vote for Barack Obama, and to dress for the occasion." [WWD]
• L'Oreal keeps its head above water, but cuts forecasts. [WSJ]
• There's hedging your bets, and then there's...this. In case they don't get Runway back, Bravo's introducing Fashion House, Celebrity Sew-Off and The Fashion Show, which sounds suspiciously like a Project Runway where viewers choose the winner. [Yahoo]
• Kate Moss, friend, rumored to be dressing up as Tina Turner, Cher for Halloween, kicks. [Fashionologie]
• "Where would Moss be without her languidly rockish locks?" Um, I don't know. Anyway, her hairdresser is releasing a budget line of hair products. So that we can continue to look nothing like her, on the cheap! [Guardian]
• Ferragamo does all the beautiful, 40s-style shoes for the epic film Australia. [W]
• As an army of Bettys and Joans can tell you tonight, Mad Men has had a serious influence on fashion. [LA Times]
• Charlotte Ronson for J.C. Penney is predictably darling. [Nylon]
• Speaking of cute fast fashion: Old Navy's latest plus-sized line is really pretty. [Fabsugar]
• On the other side of economic divide, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière ditches his celeb moddles. [New York Magazine]
• And the head of Chanel: “Even in tough times, people want to see beautiful and inspirational things." [Economist]
• Rami Kashou lectures at the Phillips Collection. Quoth the master-draper: "I want to talk about what it takes to keep a dream alive...What it's like to be a 5-year-old and have a dream." [Washington Post]
• Bottega Veneta gets into cruisewear. Believe it or not, more frequent collections is actually a Recession-proofing measure. [WWD]

• Should American Apparel be exporting its porntastic aesthetic? Ask Dov! "Magna Carta 1215! They anticipated that international merchants should be able to come to Great Britain and sell their goods. I think it's section 43 or 42, you can look it up on Google." [IHT]
• Patricia Field finally admits what we've always suspected about styling: it's bullshit. "It's easy, it pays well and you don't have to worry about inventory [as you do when running a store]. For me, it was like a windfall, because in retail you have to work very long hours and often don't make much money. But [with styling] they're paying you all this money to put clothes on a few people. I was like, wow!" [Guardian]
• What would a Monday be without Lagerfeld? "I'm suffering from an overdose of myself...At a certain point, you ask yourself, am I a puppet or not?" [Canadian Press]
• Kate Winslet's definitely playing Vivienne Westwood. [Fashionista]

• Natalia Vodianova's launching a lingerie line. [Sassybella]
• So is Molly Sims. [New York Magazine]
• Alessandra Facchinetti — who learned about her Valentino firing through the media, mind you — says, 'fuck diplomacy': "I am very embittered...I thank Valentino (group) for appreciating my 'creative contribution' and my 'refined talent'. It's a shame that they have not been adequately used." [Reuters]
• Her replacements say they'll, um, do a good job too. [WWD]
• The Aussie government has proposed a fashion "Code of Conduct" that would require magazines "to feature normal-sized models and disclose the use of digitally enhanced photos." We were never allowed to toss around the term "normal" growing up in my house, but sounds good! [News.com.au]
• The provenance of Sarah Palin's shoes generates controversy. [BlackBook]
• Hey, wanna be like Kate Moss? Yeah, neither do we. Here's a book about it for those who don't have the energy for coke or Pete Doherty. [The Sun]
• Ferragamo's new villa takes the pulse of the times. Oh, wait. "The numbers involved in the project – by spring 2010 it will include 20 villas, 26 “hotel” suites, a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, spa, two restaurants, winery and stud – are clearly not for the credit-crunched." [FT]
• What to wear to weddings number 2, 3, 4...you get the picture. [Washington Post]
• The vitamin gift bag at Louis Vuitton sounds like crap to us, but celebs were into it! [WWD]
• Young Indian girls like sexu clothes, too! [Hindustan Times]
• Cardigans are back. Were they gone? [LA Times]
• Hard times: People are cutting back on plastic surgery. Zing! [CNN]
• Maybe that's why makeup sales are up! [BrandWeek]
• In some kind of Johnny Cash tribute-cum-intimidation tactic, sports fans are urging "blackouts" in which everybody um, wears black clothes in the stands. [NY Times]
• Yes, we're sure all this 3-D imaging looks awesome. But it's no substitute for the actual humiliation of trying on swimsuits! [Business Week]<
  li>Helen Mirren to win some "Most Stylish Woman" award we've never heard of. Brava! [Mirror]
• Model dons tiny corset; walks; faints. People are surprised. [The Sun]
• Alexander McQueen goes all Donnie Darko in a freaky bunny suit. [New York Magazine]

• You know how we said yesterday we were kind of over hockey player Sean Avery's novelty Vogue internship? Yeah, now they might make a movie out of it. Devil Wears Prada meets The Cutting Edge?! [Reuters]
• Naomi Campbell wants to be a mother. FYI. [Daily Express]
• Posh's line of gowns is...not too bad. Says Posh: "The collection was inspired by the femininity and sophistication of the midcentury silhouette...I’ve always been drawn to intricate, seam-detailed designs, as their structure enhances the flattering shape of a woman’s silhouette.” Silhouette. Just to make it three! [IHT]
• Whoa whoa whoa. JLo to guest judge at Runway finale?! [NY Mag]
• Another one bites the dust: Viveca A. Fox is launching a clothing line. [USA Today]

• NYC Fashion Week Screws London Fashion Week. CFDA mediates. [WWD]
• Is anyone else incredibly weirded out by all these designers making luxury houses in Dubai? Ferragamo joins the pack. [Elle]
• Hot on the heels of her bag line, Mischa Barton follows Paris into the world of hair accessories. [WWD]
• Alice Dellal is the new Kate Moss indeed! "For the socialite model, who boasts high profile friends including James and Elizabeth Jagger and Leah Wood, is pictured in a series of curious photographs with what appears to be drug paraphernalia." [Daily Mail]
• Braced for disaster, New Orleans retailers heave a sigh of relief, re-open. [WWD]
• Oddly, the Japanese company that manufactures Sarah Palin's rimless specs is seeing a boost in sales. [Breitbart]
• Army sells out historic logo to Sears; angers some vets. [Politico]
• Not only is Kate Moss's new Top Shop collection apparently the best yet...we can get it STATESIDE!!! "Drawing on the rock chick look which has been her signature style ever since she turned 30, Moss's new collection features skinny jeans, fake fur gilets, slouchy knits and a raft of the tea dresses which have proved so popular each season with London’s army of Moss-alikes." [Daily Mail]
• Not surprisingly, Jill Stuart's uber-flowy collection was inspired by ballet. [Elle]
• Guessing a ballerina didn't inspire the following blooper from her show: "In between the floaty, wannabe off-duty ballerina layers and blush tones (except for the all black outfit worn, appropriately, by Karlie Kloss), one of the models had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction. As in, a really, really bad one that she didn't seem to be aware of, leading her to continue down the runway jiggling away anyway." [Fashionista]
• Either LiLo's weight is seriously yo-yoing or she's a diva: she asked seamstresses to take in 14 dresses while staying at the Bowery Hotel. [Page Six]

• Keeping alive the fashion industry's carefully-cultivated reputation for bitchy pettiness, current Yves Saint Laurent creative director has his former boss Tom Ford in the Times mag: "Tom is talented but not gifted. That's the way he managed the business. Tom would say: 'We can't do this silhouette because she looks fat.' Or, 'Oh, no — women don't like this fabric; we can't use it.' That mentality was something to learn but was so far from my way of thinking." In sum, Ford "didn't challenge women." [WWD]
• How many times does she have to say it? Dita Von Teese is committed to glamor! "People always think I just hang around in jeans or a tracksuit, and I’m like, Well, no. I’m sitting here right now, having just rolled out of bed, wearing a vintage slip. I don’t have any makeup on, my hair is probably a disaster, but that doesn’t mean I’ll put on jeans and a T-shirt because no one’s looking." [BlackBook]
• In one of the oddest collaborations we've run across this week, model Erin Featherston is teaming up with LU Biscuits, described by Fashionista as "the little crackers with chocolate boys on them." We're "collaborating" with a chocolate-chip muffin right now. [Fashionista]

• If you can't see Helmut Lang's mixed-media sculpture, "Alles Gleich Schwer,"in Germany, you can catch it on the web. We're guessing as conceptual, un-cuddly as his clothes. [Men.Style]
• Don't worry about the environment: fashion is on it! "The Be EcoChic campaign, which raises awareness of environmental issues, is raising its fashion profile on Sept. 4, when it kicks off its global launch with a group runway show at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Designers including Donna Karan, Ralph Rucci, Carmen Marc Valvo, Christian Cota and Vena Cava have contributed looks that feature sustainable, low-impact or recycled fabrics, while women with environmentalist cred — including Mary Richardson, the wife of Riverkeeper’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of Ted Turner — will walk in the show." [WWD]
• Normally recession-proof L'Oreal challeneged by the "flare-up in the price of raw materials and energy." [WSJ]
• Apparently being in Japan Fashion Week is really hard. [WWD]
• How hard is it to don silk pajamas? Playboy has launched an online style guide for men. "As it is a patriotic year with the Olympics and an election, I wanted to focus
  the playboy.com fall style guide on an Americana theme," said fashion director Joseph DeAcetis." [WWD]
• If you're wondering why the Project Runway models are always flaking, maybe it's because the gig sucks. Daniel's auf'd model dishes on the unpaid, ten-hour ordeal that is a day in the life. [NY Mag]
• A Canadian retailer has pulled its catalogues after customers complained about the unhealthfully thin models. "Simons department store has pulled its back-to-school catalogue from seven stores in Quebec after complaints the models in the book were too thin. The family owned company, which dates back to the 1840s, received more than 200 complaints from consumers denouncing the rail-thin models wearing the Simons Twik brand." Now if only fashion would take notice... [WWD]
• It seems like these stats are always changing, but as of today, luxury brands scoff at the recession, do brilliantly. [The Guardian]
• Ferragamo did the shoes for Baz Luhrmann's latest spectacle, Australia. Wedges and riding boots play a supporting role in the (possibly ludicrous) epic. '"My grandfather, Salvatore Ferragamo, began his career working in costume design for the American Film Company, a precursor to Twentieth Century Fox, so it is only fitting that we carry on his name and our company's heritage by collaborating once again on a film from Fox," said James Ferragamo. [FabSugar]
• As we know, the solution to all the world's problems lies in celeb-designed T-shirts. Accordingly, Julia Roberts has done one for Armani. '"Julia has helped to create beautiful and unique designs for both women and men, which will be a visible reminder of the part that we can all play in fighting AIDS in Africa,” Armani said.' [WWD]
• Kate Hahn's book Forgotten Fashion will certainly be sold at Anthropologie. "It's deadpan social satire in a tone Hahn describes as 'glamorous dark humor...inspired by things like Edward Gorey and the Limony Snicket series.' In each of the supposedly historic episodes, everything goes wonderfully until some sort of 'regrettable incident or unlucky moment' ends the fun."[Deep Glamour]
• Sports bra sales are up; we suspect this has approximately 0% to do with the Olympics. [The Sun]
• Moschino does some "witty" ballet flats for Repetto. Spoiler: they look like wood grain and have random springs of flowers springing out of them. [VogueUK]
• Ooh! The Daily News brings us "The Top 50 of The NYC Fashion Hierarchy" just in time for Fashion Week! We love to know who's insulting us! [Daily News via Sassybella]

• You, too, can look just like Kim Kardashian! The professional rich person, TV personality and cattle-driver is auctioning off a personal styling session to benefit Russell Simmons' Art for Life philanthropic event. Which is very laudable and all — but does nothing to explain why Kim's fashion savvy has already fetched a bid of $1,000! [LA Times]
• Justin Timberlake, reluctant muse, didn't want to be the face of William Rast. Unless, you know, he was in character. Says a Rast creative director: "We came up with this idea for him to play a role as this guy named William Rast. So it isn't meant to be Justin, it's Justin playing a role, as an actor. When we explained the idea, he instantly loved it and got really into building the profile of this character." [WWD]
• Correction! Kitson says that rumors that Victoria Beckham's men's denim line has been pushed back are 100% false and that the collection will appear at holiday time as originally scheduled. [New York Magazine]

• Naomi Campbell: "I'm not a bad person...I'm blessed to be able to do charitable work and good things but no one focuses on that because I don't throw it in people's faces." [E!]

• Naomi's also doing another bizarre SoBe Life Water ad. This time dancing to "Black Magic Woman." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Is Bravo deliberately sabotaging Project Runway? Folks have been noting that the normally ubiquitous posters have been MIA in the run-up to the show's final season before departing for the dowdier waters of Lifetime. Bravo execs say it's to preserve contestants' "anonymity" but such scruples have certainly never troubled them before...[Fabsugar]
• We have to wait a endless day for Project Runway to start. But the Australian version has already begun! As one of the commenters puts it, "the one guy with the hair reminded me of a smaller, nicer, less irritating Bobby Trendy." True, true. [Oh No They Didn't]
• eBay bests Tiffany in landmark ruling over counterfeit-policing responsibilities. [WWD]
• As Scott said, the rich are different from you and me. "Like the husbands who pay the bills — anything from £50,000 to £150,000 for an elaborately jewelled creation — these women don’t give tuppence for the avant-garde. They want a waist where God intended; they don’t want flashes in embarrassing places and are bemused by garments with three sleeves. They want everything just as it always has been — at least, since the 1950s. And Paris couture survives by meeting their needs." [The Times]
• More about Dubai's new "Fashion Island", aka "Hell." [MyrtusWe recessionistas like consignment shopping! Despite its "stigma." [Star Tribune]
• In case you were wondering: Jessica Stam, the 22-year-old model known for dating both Flea and DJ AM, has now hooked up with Huey Lewis' son, Austin Cregg. [Oh No They Didn't]
• Stock upgrade dramatically boosts Macy's shares. [WWD]
• Converse debuts the video for its much-hyped Julian Casablancas-Pharrell Williams-Santogold single, "My Drive Thru." The Times of London calls the song "a three-headed Frankenstein's monster of coolness." I'm keeping mum. [Brand Week]
• Wanna predict the market? Watch the runway shows. "Although designers always dismiss the correlation between skirt lengths and financial markets as a fashion historian's fantasy, the parallels are striking. Up went hemlines to dizzying heights in the financial and social whirl of the roaring 1920s - revealing women's legs for the first time in recorded history. Then came the bear market and bare was out - except for low backs on the floor-length gowns that dropped hemlines just before the 1929 Wall Street crash." Is it a coincidence that designers are quite literally tightening belts for fall? [IHT]
• Liberty prints take the high street. [ElleUK]
• It happened on this date: 1997, Gianni Versace murdered. [US News]
• Claudia Schiffer for Ferragamo. [Models.com]
• And for Dolce and Gabbana! [fashionista]
• Lauren Conrad on snubbing Marc Jacobs: "I met Marc Jacobs when we were filming and I got so nervous when I saw him that I didn’t really know what to do. I was trying to act cool, but I didn’t even stand up to shake his hand. I actually came off a little bit too cold, like I didn’t really care and I felt kind of bad. I get really starstruck over really random people and designers." [New York Magazine]
• British biker label Belstaff to outfit Batman. [ElleUK]

• Oh sweet Jesus: Is Amy Winehouse going to be the new face of Roberto Cavalli? And if so, who would be sullying whose image? Though the rumors are still unconfirmed, Cavalli has said in the past, "She is a fashion icon because she is unique." [Vogue UK]
  
• This weekend, American starlets flew to Shanghai to celebrate Ferragamo's 80th anniversary and the launch of its new fragrance, Tuscan Sun. [Vogue UK]
  
• You see, Ferragamo hopes to exploit the people of China because they have so much money to spend on luxury goods. [Guardian]
  
• Adidas, however, is paying its Chinese workers about $5 a week. Good times. [Times of London]
  
• Miuccia Prada will fire you if you eat lunch at your desk. [Page Six]

• Oh the heartbreak that comes with working as a fashion designer! Before Anna Wintour made Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte go on a diet, the designing duo could hardly afford to eat. Says Laura, "I became a waitress. We sold everything that we owned. We also sold Kate's record collection, which was immense and very in-depth." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Your jeans do not need microdermabrasion. [Chic Report]
• Us: Skeptical of "HD" make-up. [LATimes]
• Lucky Brand: Now doing watches. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Coach: Still selling lots of expensive shit. [Business Week]
• And Hugo Boss is like, totally okay, even though it's in debt. [Reuters]
• Gucci: Wants to be big in India. [Times of India]
• Moscow Fashion Week is big in...Russia. [NYT]
• If I had clothes with sensors in them that could detect my mood, they would tell you that I'm a little sleepy, a little hungry, and wishing it were fucking spring already. [Science Daily]

• Christian Siriano for president! I mean, hell, if Sienna Miller, Eve, Brett Ratner, Becki Newton, and Brittany Murphy all like him, surely the's a uniter, not a divider. [Page Six]
  
• Botkier is doing a line of bags for Target. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Designer Anna Sui on what she does: "My main objective was to design clothes for rock stars and people who went to rock concerts... The ultimate goal of making a show that is entertaining for people is always in the back of my mind. I also think, 'Is this collection going to be cool enough for people like Keith Richards to appreciate?'" [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• And designer Isabel Toledo on what she does: "I try to interpret things. A garden can have a shape and I interpret that." [WWD, sub req'd]

• English model Daisy Lowe (aka - bastard lovechild of Gavin Rossdale and Pearl Lowe) is like the new Agyness and everyone wants her "style." [Vogue UK]
• Marc Jacobs and Jason Preston are off. Again. [Perez Hilton]
• J. Crew: pushing accessories hard. Which is almost like pushing drugs hard. Almost. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Avon is in talks with crazy print-maker Marimekko to do a color cosmetics collection. Which seems weirdly enticing. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Yeah this coat is really cool. [Vogue UK]
• Want some freebie Ferragamo perfume? Than take a flight on Singapore Airlines. [Fashion Week Daily]

• Designer Miuccia Prada has broken her longstanding ban on black models in fashion shows! At the label's Milan show last night, British model Jourdan Dunn walked the runway and showed those white girls a thing or two. [Oh No They Didn't]
  
• At the Missoni party in Milan on Sunday night, model Irina Lazareanu reported that she was wearing, "Zac Posen pants and my boyfriend Pete's jacket; it's his old school jacket from cricket and I took it because I think it suits me better." Yes, that's Pete Doherty she's talking about. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• London's Telegraph's fashion critic Hilary Alexander on PETA protesters outside the Burberry show on Monday: "I I have no use for that kind of nonsense!" [Chic Report]
  
• Just what your toddler needs: A T-shirt with Agyness Deyn's face on it! [Nylon]
  
• Agyness has also been molded into a mannequin. [Telegraph]

• Though Marc Jacobs has finally gotten back into fashion critic Suzy Menkes' good graces, he's since managed to piss off the entire country of Sweden: officials claim he ripped off an iconographic, historic design of the country's in a new scarf design. [UPI]
• Start petitioning Denton to send us all to Dubai so we can partake in the first-ever Cavalli Club. Yes, as in Roberto Cavalli. [WWD, sub req'd]
• No shit: Skinny models still dominate the runways. [Times of London]
• Versace sales are up by 7.7%: Brava, Donatella. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Sales of Italian shoes: also up, which is pretty impressive considering the exchange rate isn't helping them here. Russians and trade legislation are to thank. [IHT]
• Or, um, well... things made in Italy? Often made in China. [LATimes]
• Black lipstick is turning up everywhere on the runways. Maybe because it is such a pleasing and flattering look! [BellaSugar]
• Shakira, the beauty line. [Sassybella]
• Unintentionally salient quote from a fashion person of the day: "Women inspire me and I inspire them to be independent and free which is how I feel when I use my American Express Card." —Diane von Furstenberg. [Vogue UK]

• (Photoshop of) Horrors! It's Drew Barrymore on the March Vogue and something just does not look right. [Just Jared]
  
• You won't be seeing Lily Allen in her underwear anytime soon: the rumors about her being the latest face of Agent Provocateur are allegedly BS. [Sassybella]
  
• The Gap's spring advertising campaign features Coco Rocha, Anja Rubik and other top models. Think this will finally be the advertising campaign that convinces everyone to start buying their crappy clothes again? [Sassybella]
  
• Because the Oscars are actually on (thanks WGA!), the WWD reports that all the big celebs are already headed out to Hollywood to primp for Sunday night — you know it takes a week of preparation for these things — meaning the biggest celebs that can be wrangled for the front row of the Milan shows are James Blunt and some soccer players who are not Beckham. [WWD, 1st item]

• And yet... Monica Bellucci, Naomi Campbell, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Lindsay Lohan and French actress Fanny Ardant are all expected to show for the Dolce & Gabbana show. Because, uh, that other thing we just said about no big celebs was just some stupid angle we made up. You think it's easy filling an ENTIRE NEWSPAPER with material solely about the fashion industry every day? [WWD, 4th item]
• Kanye: Likes Chanel cell phones. [Chic Report]
• Isla Fisher on her upcoming starring role in Confessions of a Shopaholic: "I've done a lot of research." LOL. [Sassybella]
• Yay Bob Mackie! The man who dressed Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross and Barbie in some of their finest frocks is being honored by the Costume Designers Guild today. [WWD, 8th item]
• Gemma Ward: The face of Karl Lagerfeld's spring line. It's all sorta suburban goth girl....so I'm weirdly into it. [Sassybella]
• J.C. Penney and Ralph Lauren have teamed up to create a new, "exclusive" label. Polo Penney! We can't say this aloud and not laugh. [NYT]
• Takashi Murakami: He's everywhere! First on Vuitton bags, then at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in April and then at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA in October. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Isaac Mizrahi's designing the costumes for the New York City Opera's production of King Arthur, which could actually be enough to get our asses to the opera. [Fashion Week Daily]
• It's so hard to be a model: "Everyone sees you as merely another pretty face, and I work really hard every day to show I am more than that," says Vanessa Hessler. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Execs at Gianfranco Ferre are all grumpy that the fashion community is being all gossipy about the unexpected (and unexpectedly swift) exit of creative director Lars Nilsson from the label. Um, are they new to the fashion industry? Gossip always takes precedence over clothes. [Vogue UK]
• Fight MS! Wear lip balm! [BellaSugar]
• Playboy cosmetics: Definitely skeeve us out. [BellaSugar]
• Matthew McConaughey. Dolce & Gabbana. Video. LOL. [Sassybella]

• The new Marc Jacobs ads featuring Victoria Beckham have finally been made public. And they're awesome. Also: We seem to remember a certain Glamour magazine beauty editor who took to doing this with a Gucci bag. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Madonna swears that the Fox News reports aren't true and that she didn't screw Gucci over and trick them into hosting a fundraiser for the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Giles Mendel's thoughts on Project Runway after serving as a guest judge on Wednesday night's episode: "OK...The authority of a TV show might not be good enough at the end to make a successful fashion house. That's a different ball game." Whoah — he didn't just question The Greatest Show on Earth, did he? [WWD, 5th item]

• Donna Karan on her experiences as a fashion student at Parsons: "Failed typing, failed draping, you know. I had a little ADD problem. Sewing? Oh, forget it. I burnt my dress. They told me I would never make it as a fashion designer at all." Oh, kooky Auntie Donna! It all worked out now, didn't it! [Page Six]
• Abercrombie & Fitch is launching a lingerie brand under a separate label, Gilly Hitch, and separate stand-alone stores. Given as A&F catalogs are supposed to be selling clothes and in reality, show models in their underwear, we can only assume that Gilly Hitch catalogs will feature models fucking each other naked. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Is it wrong that we're pulling for the success of the Joan Rivers makeup line? [BellaSugar]
• (Faux) rocker Bryan Adams is everywhere nowadays: He shot Tia Cibani's Ports 1961 presentation at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Betsey Johnson is starting up a separate line of outerwear. Lots of tulle and a corset on a raincoat, please.
• Narcisco Rodriguez's line is turning 10, and to celebrate ,the designer is doing a limited edition collection featuring 20 pieces celebrating the best of the line's history. [Chic Report]
• Fashion designer Bella Freud will be showing her upcoming collection via a short film. We're sure that great grandpappy Sigmund would have made some joke about screen memory. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Sign that Daria Werbowy is actually a good model: Even looks good in ad campaign for Pepe Jeans! [Vogue UK]
• Phillip Lim: now designing kiddie clothes. Which, to our dismay, makes us like Phillip Lim a tiny bit less. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The Missoni Spring 2008 ads: Scary. [Sassybella]
• Katherine Hamnett's "Clean Up Or Die" bags: Sure to be the next "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bags. Sadly. [Vogue UK]
• Though it declared bankruptcy in 1999, Fruit of the Loom's insurance company had to cough up $42.5 million after the company got slammed with charges from the Environmental Protection Agency in regards to four of its factories. [UPI]
• Fruit of the Loom may be bankrupt, but the luxury underwear market's never been bigger! [Telegraph]
• St. Ives, they of the dorm-fave Apricot Scrub, has decided that maybe it needs to expand its brand and reach the oldies. Hence it's new line for "aging" women, named "Elements". Aging = women age 29 and up. Ouch. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Armani: now doing a skincare line for men! We wonder if the brand will find a way to tie the face of David Beckham into this one, too. [WWD, sub req'd]
• It saddens our hearts that there's already a waiting list for the Burberry Warrior Bag. Also, if you don't feel like shelling out $23,000 for it in it's croc skin glory, you can get a plain leather one for a mere $3,150. [WWD, 3rd item]

• ANTM cycle 8 winner Jaslene Gonzalez: Now the face of Lot29. What? A Top Model winner actually booked a job after wrapping the show? [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Yes, still more on model Gemma Ward's film debut in The Black Balloon: Her character's name is Jackie. Jackie helps her boyfriend learn to accept his brother's autism. Also, Ward will be starring in another movie coming out this year, a thriller titled The Strangers which co-stars Liv Tyler. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• The new Versace fragrance is supposed to smell lke Donatella and its bottle is supposed to look like a Versace dress. We assume this means it actually smells like cocaine and cigarettes. [BellaSugar]
  
• Video! Marc Jacobs interviews Jennifer Jason Leigh, still has blue hair. [MySpace]

• More proof that everything is better in Japan: a machine washable suit will be introduced early next year. [USA Today]
• Alyona Akhmadullina, 29, is the biggest up-and-coming designer in Russia. Seeing that fashion is obsessed with all things Russian right now, expect to see her become fetishized and exploited in no time at all! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Three women in Birmingham, England were hospitalized after collapsing while waiting for a store to open after Christmas so they could score the big deals. [BBC]
• A la Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi, Ferragamo is also having a big ol' par-tay in China this year. [WWD, 3rd item]
• The dollar sucks against the pound right now, which means British fashion isn't selling so well stateside. Boo hoo, Stella McCartney. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Britain's Accessory Designer of the Year Tom Binns aspires to make women look trashier. [Vogue UK]
• Ew: Long pointy finger nails scare us. Do not want. [BellaSugar]
• Mazel Tov Karl Lagerfeld: Our favorite Krazy Kraut celebrates his 25th anniversary of designing Chanel in 2008. [Sassybella]
• Memo to all those celebrities shilling fragrances: The fragrance industry's sales are slipping. [WSJ]
• Fuck coffee: Fashion labels are going fair trade, too. [Times of London]
• The late Queen Mum was quite the soothsayer: bitching and moaning over the course of 80 years that fashion was too damn expensive. [Telegraph]

• Kate Moss: Looks sexy in new Donna Karan ads. Donna Karan: Guest judge on Project Runway tonight. That is all. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "My mother always said it was a good thing I went into fashion because it proved I didn't have any great expectations of myself, and she was right. I haven't made an empire with my name on it. I don't go around calling myself an artist. If anything, I'm a whore. I go wherever they pay me," Karl Lagerfeld. But surely you did that H&M collection for the art, right Karl? [Vogue UK]
  
• Lily Allen, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlotte Casiraghi, Natalie Imbruglia, Thandie Newton, Claudia Schiffer and Emma Watson are all expected to attend the Chanel pre-fall collection in London tomorrow. Wait: Natalie Imbruglia is still around? Remember when she dated David Schwimmer? [WWD, 1st item]

• "I think of advertisers as investors investing in my vision, and it's hard not to take people who don't support your magazine in a different breath. I run a fashion-entertainment magazine, where it's not church and state. To me, it's one big church." —Marvin Scott Jarrett, editor-in-chief of Nylon. At least he's honest? [WWD, 3rd item]
• If you find yourself in New York, might we suggest skipping posing with Santa at Macy's in favor of posing with a giant swan at the Marc Jacobs store? [Fashion Week Daily]
• What? Forever21 knocked something off? For real? The full, shocking story here. [Sassybella]
• Revenue is waaaay up at Guess? No, that's not a question; remember how it's called "Guess?" [The Street]
• Ferragamo and Prada: Both planning on going public next year! Or like, eventually someday. [WSJ]
• "Customers should know the deliveries and that the store is divided by day and evening all the time. When people don't find what they are looking for very quickly, they just leave, and we don't want people to leave!" This is Domenico Dolce, weirdly/sweetly earnest, regarding the re-opening of the Dolce & Gabbana store in New York. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The Gap founders: still planning on opening a modern art museum in San Francisco. The community: apparently excited. Why? Well, we read on. It's going to be called the Contemporary Art Museum at the Presido. "CAMP" for short. Love! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Gucci: The Movie? Directed by Ridley Scott??? Don't tell Tom Ford! [WWD, 4th item]

• Remember how, before Sofia Coppola was a fashion icon and Marc Jacobs muse and celebrity spokesmodel for numerous fashion labels, she actually worked in fashion and had her own clothing line? Yeah, well the clothing line actually still exists, in Japan. [Sassybella]
  
• Also, Marc Jacobs' new fragrance Daisy has its own film. Sigh. [Sassybella]
  
• The new face of lingerie line Agent Provocateur is Catherine Bailey. Who is 46 years old. We think this is pretty awesome, but we fear the dreaded Photoshop of Horrors. [Sassybella]
  
• Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour celebrated a birthday on Saturday! Maybe you want to send your belated birthday wishes to the Conde Nast building? [Fashion Week Daily]

• Tai-chi inspired lounge wear is the new yoga-inspired lounge wear! And Celine spokeswoman/actress Emmanuelle Seigner is teaming up with the Celine design team to create a line of it. (Actual model Karen Elson will take over.) [WWD, 1st item]
• See these Ferragamo flats? They cost $395. I got identical flats at Dolce Vita on sale for $30. [FabSugar]
• Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati on being a child of divorce: "I was always the kid - I had to be careful how to express things, I could never be aggressive. Then my sexuality developed into homosexuality. And I think that this helped me, in the sense that I finally had the chance to understand a man's world, from the inside....I never liked [my father]. I went through so many things in my life by myself, I didn't need him, but I needed a man, I needed a father. So I got used to the idea, and grew up making my own decisions." [Vogue UK]

• Amy Winehouse is reportedly making donations to a Romanian orphanage as a token of appreciation for donating the hair that makes up absurd/awesome monstrosity on her head. [Sassybella]
  
• Designer Keanan Duffy on his David Bowie-inspired line for Target: "Fashion is always out of fashion; what happens on the street is always stolen by designers who, by their very nature, are out of touch. I actually find unfashionable ideas to be more interesting." Um, yeah, you're not exactly doing a Frank Zappa-inspired collection here, so maybe get off the cocaine horse. [The Fashion Informer]
  
• "I'm supporting other women for what they do and want to do. I'm all about burning your bra." —Actress Jaime Pressly regarding her attendance at Nicky Hilton's fashion show. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• Catherine Bailey is the next face of lingerie label Agent Provocateur. Moe doesn't know who that is, but the ads can't be as fugly as those Maggie Gyllenhaal ones. [Vogue UK]
  
• Designer Adam Lippes went on Oprah. Now he's having crazy sales. We wonder if he'll be sending her 21 pairs of Louboutins as a thank you? [WWD, sub req'd]

• Totally least surprising news of the day: Designer Thakoon to collaborate with luxury leather goods label Hogan. [Vogue UK]
• In case you were losing sleep worrying about it, LVMH made a really healthy profit last quarter. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Last night in London, artist Martin Creed had a party for an installation piece of his. The Calvin Klein S/S 2008 collection was show as part of it. Naomi Watts hosted. Mary Kate Olsen was guest of honor. This doesn't exactly sound like an art show to us. [Vogue UK]

As Milan winds down, some of our favorite fashion critics [Ou est tu, Robin Givhan?] waxed not-so-poetic on what they've seen over the past few days. Gucci was universally slammed. Marni, Ferragamo, Dsquared, and Missoni got words good, bad, and ugly all thrown at them. The poison pens are out, there, and we're looking forward to the start of Paris Fashion Week on Monday - who shall be Cathy Horyn's next victim? In the meantime, we mourn those slain by Horyn this week.

"[A]nother Gucci glam slam for after dark" "energetic attempt to turn rock chick into rock chic just didn't happen" "pert party dresses and 1960s graphics...just seem so passé" "for people who party harder than they work" "many of her instincts are good" "parade of cute, commercial outfits" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] difficult thing to categorize" "boyish checked shirts, and the odd little cropped biker jacket, including a noticeably good one in black snakeskin" "unrelenting combination of black, white, and a particularly harsh sunflower yellow" "the show was bumpy" "an off moment" —Sarah Mower, Style.com


Marni:
"A dungeon might be more fun than some of Consuelo Castiglioni's sad sacks" "cruelly linear shapes" "take some expensive cotton, print it with a streaky esoteric pattern and then make a shift that's gathered in random places" "If this weren't such a cool label, you'd wonder how much design or thought was involved." "just seemed boring" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"[T]he story of the season" "the colors were a modern art riff" "intriguing example of the Marni duality" "plasticized finishes have lost their shock value" "powerful collection" "interpretation of the new fashion volumes" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] staple formula" "one of the brands upon which Italy's pride as a style leader rests" "Castiglioni took the don't-mess-with-success approach" "easy-on-the-body loose-waisted shifts" "wonky-but-right abstract gathers and tucks" "seen before" "cute petaled cone hats" "didn't seem overly concerned with breaking too much new ground" —Sarah Mower, Style.com


Missoni:
"[F]resh" "sensuous lightness" "terrific tunics and smock dresses" "[o]ccasionally it worked" "hard to see what connected a baby-doll dress of beige silk knit and stone-embroidered chiffon with a mustard tunic of lace-cut cotton" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"[A] friendly-scale line of highly identifiable knits and prints" "a bit of this and a bit of that" "has a place in a sunny holiday setting" "any piece would make a girl stand out at a relaxed party" "Missoni would do better to devise a more intimate way of showing them" —Sarah Mower, Style.com




D-Squared:
"[G]leaning the top notes of a supermarket tabloid and spitting them back to us" "a knucklehead version of Dolce & Gabbana" "popular fashion fantasy of an auto-repair garage" "you might wear at Cannes if your film career was tanking" "Rihanna looked fabulous and the gross guys in the front row grinned their heads off" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"Rihanna...took to the runway for a very believable turn as a top model" "a lot of skin for a 9 a.m. show" "pretty standard stuff" "theme, loosely, was party girls and the grease monkeys who love them" "wasn't all trash and vaudeville" "cheap yet satisfying thrills" —Nicole Phelps, Style.com


Ferragamo:
"[O]n the wild side" "just a whiff of Africa" "sophisticated clothes" "accessories are king" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[S]eized on the seventies" "hopscotching back through the decades...probably wasn't the best tack" "not without its better moments" "[t]he clothes could stand to be more distinctive" —Nicole Phelps, Style.com

• Aw, Lily Cole: So young, so naive. Says the model: "One of the more useful consequences of my role as a model might be to encourage more people to ask questions about the global clothing industry and what we can do to change it... I've long had misgivings about the industry I work in....I could say shop less. I could say shop here. But I would be an annoying hypocrite, since I shop a lot and buy clothes without reading the labels." [Vogue UK]
  
• The ads for Britney's new fragrance, Believe? Yeah, uh, believe it or not, they look pretty altered. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Sienna and Savannah Miller's London flagship store for their line Twenty8Twelve is alive at last! It's officially open today. Come on, London ladies, won't you go and scope it out for us and send horror stories? Please? Bonus points if you can snag a pic of Sienna looking "like a Christmas tree." [Vogue UK]
  
• Prepare yourselves: Keira Knightley and her lone fake Chanel boob are going everywhere. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• When asked by "The Fashion Informer" what trend they're loving right now, the Rodarte Girls replied, "Planting one's own vegetable garden." [Uh, in unison? Or what? Apparently it's unclear. -Moe.] Kate and Laura Mulleavy, one of you just earned a girl crush from us. [The Fashion Informer]

• Christina Ortiz is leaving the house of Brioni to become the chief womenswear designer for Ferragamo, succeeding Graeme Black. Mazel Tov, Christina! [LOL -Moe] Always nice to see a fellow chick assume the position of designing clothes for her fellow chicks — esp. when she's taking the reins from a man! [WSJ]
• Council of Fashion Designers of America president Diane von Furstenberg sent a letter this week to her fellow CFDA members encouraging them to "to promote health as beauty when working with models." LOL! [WWD, 2nd item]
• Matthew Williamson: the latest designer to turn over a large portion of his company to a private equity house AKA sell out for gobs of cash. [Fashion Wire Daily via Sassybella]

• Jennie Garth and Neve Campbell's hairdresser to shill line of hair care products in infomercials, natch. We think this sounds like an awesome idea... if it were 1992. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Nicole Miller has created a new lingerie line which she's naming "3rd Date" since, we guess, that on the 3rd date people who actually bother to buy designer lingerie sometimes let dudes see it? [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Big for winter: anything and everything with sparkles on it? [WWD, sub req'd]

• Ann Taylor's chief financial officer resigns the day after it is announced how unanticipated drops in sales figures had occurred in the company's first quarter. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Though meanwhile, Ann Taylor decides it should launch a line aimed specifically at baby boomers. Uh, wait: so the two other existing Ann Taylor lines are aimed at who exactly? Above item now makes much more sense. [NYTimes]
• TopShop is being accused of exploiting cheap labor in Mauritius. [Vogue UK]
• Ferragamo's brooding womenswear design consultant Graeme Black has finally made it official and said buh-bye to the Italian design house to design his own collection full-time. Paging Valentino? [Vogue UK]
• Trunk shows, once an experience offered exclusively to the rich and the aspiring, are now moving online, making them available to even poor suckers like us! Ah, the democracy of the market. [WSJ]

• Eva Longoria had accessories designer Rafe Totengco make custom clutches for each of her bridesmaids for her Friday nuptials to Tony Parker, and then had the girls carry their gifts down the aisle. Uh, isn't it kinda awkward to have bridesmaids carry clutches down the aisle? And how could the bridesmaids adequately straighten Longoria's train and tend to her every idiotic need besaddled with a clutch? Um okay we're stopping now. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• L'Oreal Paris makes our favorite mascara. They are also apparently racist. Sigh. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• The Vera Wang for Kohl's drama continues to mount as Macy's drops Wang's two lingerie lines after an annoucement that Wang will be designing a third Kohl's-exclusive line. [WWD, sub req'd]

• American Eagle Outfitters and J. Crew are predicted to be the biggest sellers among teens for the upcoming back-to-school season, which means teenagers are as boring and uncreative as we remember them being. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Topshop attempts to make up for not selling Kate Moss's line online by selling vintage designer finds on its website. [WWD, final item]
• Berlin's first-ever Fashion Week begins Thursday. Meaning: Wednesday should be a good day in at the colonic clinic! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Is Prada going English? Possibly, if rumors of a sale to an English tycoon are true. Also allegedly vying for ownership are the two private equity firms that just jousted for control of Valentino, winner Permira and loser Carlyle. What does it all mean?? Um, a lot of money will be made by all. [Yahoo]
• Ferragamo is resurrecting not only iconic images from the film La Dolce Vita for its fall advertising campaign, but also the careers of former supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Stephanie Seymour. [Vogue UK]
• Dita von Teese's beauty philosophy summarized: Why be a natural beauty when using lots and lots of makeup is so creative? Spoken like a true mall goth. [Vogue UK]