Ziff's film, Picture Me, premiered at the Gen Art film festival in New York on Monday — and after watching this trailer, I am dying to see it. Ziff's background — her parents are an NYU neurobiologist and a lawyer, and Ziff herself went to high school at Manhattan's tony Dalton school — made her an unusual fit in a profession that, as she explains, makes you feel like "a living doll." And, as she worked in the industry, she began to question its practices: from the probably harmful (in an interview with the Daily Beast, Ziff relates working with a model so young that she was playing with a coloring book) to the abstractly interesting (there's no better demonstration of the power dynamic of the photographer/model relationship than the footage, in the trailer, of Ziff turning her video camera on a backstage lensman who is shooting her). This is a girl who's clearly read her Sontag. (It must have been a struggle to find the time. A brief summary of her very successful career requires mention of everything from Chanel couture and Balenciaga shows, to Delias catalogs, and ads for DKNY and the Gap.)

In Picture Me, Ziff and her co-director, Ole Schell, get models like Diana Dondoe, Tanya Dziahileva, Olga Scherer, Lisa Cant, and Missy Rayder, as well as industry eminences grises like Gilles Bensimon, on tape discussing everything from models' weight (how heartbreaking it is to hear Rayder talking about how she always felt her hips made her stand out from the other girls in the runway lineup) to the realities of becoming the family breadwinner at the ripe old age of 14. (When Schell asks Dziahileva, who is from Belarus, to describe her family's situation prior to her modeling career, she shakes her head no, presumably from shame at her former poverty.) The full film promises to show models addressing topics like agency debt and our vulnerability to the predators who mar the industry. (Topics which are of course close to my heart.)

It helps to know that, for Ziff at least, this is a story with a happy ending. She earned enough money to buy a place of her own in the West Village, and now, at 26, she's studying English and Fine Arts at Columbia. (You can read her contributions to the university paper, the Spectator.)

It's great that a model thought to create the opportunity to talk back to an industry that sometimes leaves you feeling like a professional mute.

The Ugly Truth About Models [The Daily Beast]
Picture Me [Facebook]
Interview With Sara Ziff, Then Aged 19 [ZoneZero]

• The good news: Runway is safe. The bad news: yup, it's on Lifetime. [AdAge]
• Britney Spears cuts a revealing figure in her new Candie's ad. Candie's: the last refuge of a scoundrel. [NYDN]

• In case your priorities are totally out of whack and you don't realize that holymotherofgod the biggest thing in The World is taking place as we speak, the TopShop flagship opens in NYC today. (Which will apparently make online easier for everyone!) Last night's opening gala featured Kate Moss as mistress of ceremonies, but according to the Daily Mail, J.Lo "upstaged" her. [Daily Mail]
• "Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen and Michelle Trachtenberg worked the rock chic look at the first of the two VIP previews, while British actress Emily Mortimer opted for an Eighties-inspired Topshop outfit and Michelle Monaghan sported a pair of bold shoulders." [VogueUK]
• Was la Moss's triple-Topshop change an homage to Michelle Obama? We're gonna go with, "no." [ElleUK]
• This was obviously the party to have attended, since apparently another Topshop do featured the spectacle of Jimmy Fallon singing Sting's "Englishman in New York." [Style.com]
• Sir Philip Green has proclaimed it the best Topshop evah! "Mirroring the Oxford Circus flagship in London, the four-level, 40,000-square-foot space, with 28,000 square feet for selling, is an eyeful of energetic, packed merchandising with about 2,000 stockkeeping units, a broad price range from moderate to bridge, and dozens of mannequins and forms, either dangling from the high, 30-foot ceilings or sitting atop the alcoves. It's a wide store with columns and escalators, huge colorful illustrations of London icons, and theatrically lit Topshop marquees. Above all, it's the product, and not so much the architecture or decor, that does the talking." [WWD]
• For those in the Apple: apparently the line is lunch-break bearable! [New York]
• "Catwalk exposé Picture Me, which allegedly dishes le dirt on Irina Lazareanu, Nicole Miller, ANTM fave Gilles Bensimon and others, premieres Monday. [New York Post]
• Gucci launched a new scent, Flora, at the Chateau Marmont. Obviously, Zanessa was there. [Style.com]
• Those foot-high boots sported by Heidi Klum in the German Vogue shoot will give us nightmares. [Just Jared]
• Speaking of fashion photography! Zac Posen makes his print ad debut. Quoth the aging wunderkind, "Once Ellen (von Unwerth) saw me singing Cole Porter, laying on top of Lorraine's grand piano, she decided it had to be the spot for the picture." Indeed. [Fabsugar]
• Taylor Momsen is letting life imitate art. Which is unfortunate, because she's on Gossip Girl. Says the 15-year-old of her gig as frontwoman for "Pretty Reckless," "I'm actually designing all of my costumes. It's a rock band, so there's not costume changes but there's definitely a look." [People]
• Michelle Obama wears J.Crew in London. Make of this what you will. [E]
• In almost-as-breaking news: Madonna has been spotted sporting a fanny pack in Malawi. [NY Daily News]
• So why isn't Isaac Mizrahi making those budget basics everyone's droning on about? "People have their basics...I want what I can't resist." [NYT]
• GQ names Mark Ronson the "best-dressed man of 2009." We're gonna go ahead and color this "controversial." [GQ]
• Another rumor/confirmation of Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone's marriage. The tipster in Brazil claims he saw them "taking after-ceremony pictures with a small group of what looked like just relatives and close friends!" I guess now that the bloom is off the Beyonce-Jay-Z mystery, we need another source of suspense. [Update: this was an April Fool's! I was totally, um, fooled. -SS] [Fashionista]
• German retail sales are down. [WSJ]
• But Marks and Spencer's...aren't as bad as everyone expected! [WSJ]
• The retail version of the Carrie Bradshaw wedding gown in which she gets jilted has sold out of Vivienne Westwood "almost instantly." [Sassybella]

• Oh lord: Tom Ford is having a baby in 2008. It will be "biologically" his, not his partner Richard Buckley's. "I don't want to get to 75 years old and just have made a lot of dresses, done some houses." In the same interview: "I don't find a guy's cock or a woman's vagina offensive; in fact, I find them beautiful." So will he be penetrating one to achieve this demonspawn? He probably won't be able to keep them off him! "I was having sex with girls when I was 14, and that was because they were pouncing on me." [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Waris Dirie says she's super sorry about that whole "disappearance" thing last week. She said she got lost in Brussels and spent the whole three days she was "gone" walking around and sleeping in hotel lobbies since she didn't know where she was and didn't have any money. Um, Anne Heche enough for you? [MSNBC]
  
• Katoucha Niane's family is asking French police to investigate the possibility that she was murdered, despite the conclusion of accidental death by drowning from the autopsy. [Telegraph]
  
• ELLE Fashion News Editor Anne Slowey learns the whole "never put limp plumper under your eyes" lesson the hard way. [Fashion Week Daily]

• And in other ELLE news, soon-to-be-ousted International Creative Director Gilles Bensimon is very Zen about his looming departure from the fashion mag: "I'm surprised, but I'm not upset. It's not their obligation to use me [to shoot covers] and [creative director] Joe [Zee] does not have to explain anything to me....ELLE is my life. I've been there since I was 23 years old. I will be at ELLE until the last month, the last minute. I'm not upset at [editor-in-chief] Robbie [Myers], really. I don't want to hate people. Hate makes you weak." [Chic Report]
• And in other inspiring news, Diane von Furstenberg is thinking about writing a book about her mother, a Holocaust survivor. When her mother was forced to leave her home, en route to the first of three concentration camps she would be put in, she threw a note into the street which read, "I don't know where I'm going but I want you to know I'm leaving with a smile." [WWD, 1st item]
• Color us shocked: Rihanna says she wants to do her own clothing line. [Sunday Mirror]
• Even better: roses with the Louis Vuitton logo stamped onto them! [Inventor Spot]
• Kate Moss's personal assistant has resigned to have a baby and now Kate Moss is crying, saying her life is over. Oh Kate, maybe you'd be less hysterically self-absorbed easier if you had kids of your own...I mean... [Daily Mail]
• Beck's wife Marissa Ribisi will be showing her Whitley Kros collection at L.A. Fashion Week, which will also play host to Nicky Hilton and Lauren Conrad's shows. [LATimes]
• Urban Outfitters: It grows. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Nike: Feigning concern over the fact that some of its shoes are made in Chinese factories that are not held to the labor standards upheld by the Nike brand. [FT]
• Brace yourselves, Dubai: Bloomingdales is headed your way! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Feathers: Big for fall. Animal rights groups: Unhappy. [Independent]
• Is Colette Dinnigan doing a lingerie line for Target? And if so, will it only be for Target Australia? Wait, there's Target in Australia? [Sassybella]

• "It's really a crime - it makes me weep every time." Daniel Craig, on having to get his Tom Ford suits dirty while filming James Bond movies. [Vogue UK]
  
• Blind item! "Which aging actress was the celebrity guest for a fashion function and made the moves on the company's powerful and handsome - but married - CEO? The company no longer works with her." [Page Six]
  
• Looks like ELLE International Creative Director Gilles Bensimon is on the masthead in name only; though Bensimon has historically shot every cover in the history of the American fashion magazine, his services were not needed for its upcoming April and May covers. Incidentally, Bensimon's contract is up come December. Any bets on whether they'll continue to keep him on the payroll? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• OMG the designs from this season's Project Runway [Yes, I'll be liveblogging the finale tonight] are up for auction online! [Fashion Week Daily]

• Gucci: Giving money for playgrounds in New York's Central Park. Think those playgrounds are on the Harlem or the 10021 side? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Expensive shit alert! The new Louis Vuitton watch retails for between $10,425 and $135,000. Obviously. [Fashon Week Daily]
• And in no shit news regarding expensive shit, Jezebel girl crush Dana Thomas has concluded that Louboutins are wicked overpriced. [Sassybella]
• Oh wait, more expensive shit: A Hermes car. Which retails for $2.35 million. [Men.style.com]
• Speaking of expensive shit, want your child to grow up with a penchant for it? Than read her a children's book chronicling the life of Coco Chanel. [Chic Report]
• Avril Lavigne the clothing line? No, please. [E!]
• Take that, Sarko: Donatella Versace with be outfitting Nicolas Sarkozy's ex Cecilia for her wedding this month to Richard Attias. Carla who? [WWD, 2nd item]
• Isaac Mizrahi: Used to hate beer! But now likes it. [WWD, 6th item]
• Men's cardigans are supposedly "back." I question making "back" synonymous with "in style." [Telegraph]
• May we all blame Kate Moss's new boyfriend for her recent fashion misses? Um, ok. [Daily Mail]
• Avon, Reese Witherspoon and the U.N.: All joining together to help empower women in the third world. No, we're not sure what those three parties really have to do with one another either. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Sure, profits are way down at Liz Claiborne, Inc but fret not: Execs all received cash bonuses at year-end in 2007. [WWD, 1st item]
• Tommy Hilfiger: Gonna start making its shoes in-house. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Online shoe mueseum! [Chic Report]

• An incognito PETA operative posing as a style-maven turned up at Donna Karan's Manhattan home on Wednesday; the undercover "agent" was invited in, offered a beverage, and when Donna came home, shoved a portable DVD player with footage of animals being slaughtered alive for their pelts in the designer's face. Said Donna, "I've seen all these [videos], but for me it's just purses and accessories." [Page Six]
  
• OMG genius: In its March issue, Harper's Bazaar has recreated a minute-by-minute reenactment of the wait for the Spring 2008 Marc Jacobs show [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Project Runway held its finale fashion show this morning. We were there. Pictures begin going up in ten minutes.

• Oh models: We love when they try to help the people! Irina Lazarau has been sporting a t-shirt for Angelina Jolie's Global Action for Children backstage while getting made up for shows in an attempt to raise awareness for the organization. Alas, as of Tuesday evening Lazarau reported that, "No one has asked me about the shirt yet." [WWD, 6th item]
• Well phew I'll sleep better tonight: Shark liver oil will no longer be used in our cosmetics. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Can we discuss the fact that Macy's is the exclusive retailer for Tommy Hilfiger? Oy. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field: Not such a fan of Hillary Clinton's. Or her style at least. [Sassybella]
• Tyson Beckford on the lack of diversity amongst working models being used on the runway: "A lot of designers are aware of it, but we want to make more designers conscientious of it. I don't mean just black. We're also talking about Latino and Asian. [These companies need to know] your customer is not just one race. You never want to cater to just one race. You can call that racism." [WWD, 9th item]
• Books we cannot wait to read: Michael Tonello's Bringing Home the Birkin, out in April, an expose on the way in which the author routinely proves the two-year wait list for a Birkin bag to be a load of bullshit. [Page Six]
• Ivanka Trump: Designed the uniforms for the Trump Hotel Collection. And by "designed" we mean that the LA-based House of Uniforms "helped." [WWD, 11th item]
• American Eagle and Aeropostle are launching a campaign called "Declare Yourself" which is supposed to encourage young people to vote and Guess is doing voter registration in-stores: We think politics is a pretty good thing to care about and we're glad fashion agrees. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Rachel Zoe: Arrived at New York Fashion Week with eight steamer trunks of clothes. [Page Six]
• Botkier: Debuting shoes for spring! [Fashion Week Daily]
• ELLE's International Creative Director Gilles Bensimon: A leap year baby! [Fashion Week Daily]

• "Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington would go to big designers and say: 'If you don't want Naomi to be in your show, then I don't want to be in it'...Women of colour are not a trend...That's the bottom line." — Naomi Campbell, still fighting for the cause of models of color. [Vogue UK]
  
• Speaking of women of color: Liya Kebede is looking to diversify! The model will be launching a children's clothing line made in Ethiopia but sold in the United States. [Chic Report]
  
• Dylan McDermott on why he attended the Proenza Schouler show: "My publicist said I should come." We admire his honesty. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Saleisha from ANTM walked in the Tibi show yesterday. No one cared. [Fashion Week Daily]

• And this is why I can't get enough of wunderkind designer Chris Benz: "Fall was kind of inspired by the time when I was staying in the 8th arrondissement in Paris...and there were these amazing old women with their slips showing, who would wear a hat from 1952 that they just pulled out. It was very Carol Channing. This will be known as the granny collection!" (Though Benz told me at his presentation on Monday night that the collection was inspired by The Royal Tenenbaums, but whatevs.) [Fashion Week Daily]
• Natalia Vodianova isn't really retiring! Says the Russian model, "I think maybe I'll do one a year. I don't want to get rusty." [FabSugar]
• Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles on the Halston show: "I actually thought a lot of the models were too young to wear the clothes!" Obvs. [Chic Report]
• Rihanna on why she designed her umbrella line for Totes, "We ladies hate walking around with clumsy umbrellas all the time." True 'dat. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Why Rachel Zoe claims to have not been at the Halston show on Monday, "I have five clients in town and my television show, and my day job comes first." Haha — bitch totally got fired. [WWD, 5th item]
• Through the magic of Facebook, spoiled teens (and bored bloggers who spend way too much time on Facebook) can tell all the world if they prefer Barneys to Coach and Marc Jacobs to Victoria's Secret. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Cole Haan's new CEO wants the label to re-invent itself and become super-cool. LOL! [WWD, sub req'd]
• In case you still haven't heard: The economy's really bad. Which is why Macy's is thinking of consolidating its regional operations. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Liz Claiborne has sold Laundry by Design and C&C California to Perry Ellis. We hope they're happy together. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Ralph Lauren's net income: Up by 2%. People still love that stupid little polo horse? [WSJ]
• Wish you were at Monday night's Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony launch party? Pretend that you were with this video. [NYT]
• And watch the Proenza Schouler show for yourself here. [Sassybella]

• Dita von Teese is collaborating with Wonderbra on a lingerie collection to be called — so original! — Wonderbra by Dita von Teese. Um, what would Dita von Teese know about needing a Wonderbra? [Vogue UK]
  
• BBC reporter Jeremy Paxman, no stranger to calling attention to the pressing news stories of our time, is currently shifting the focus to the problem of...men's underwear. A letter he wrote to Marks & Spencer CEO Stuart Rose was printed in today's Times of London: "Like very large numbers of men in this country I have always bought my socks and pants [that's Britspeak for underwear, FYI] at Marks & Sparks...I have noticed that something very troubling has happened. There's no other way to put this. Their pants no longer provide adequate support." [Vogue UK]
  
• Scary: Designer Vivienne Tam has designed Mickey and Minnie Mouse new costumes for the Chinese New Year celebration at Disney China. Scarier: Replicas of the outfits are on sale in Tam's retail stores. [AP]

• Katie Couric's style tips for how to not look old: "Number one, shorten your skirt. Right where the knee melts into the lower leg is the perfect length; if it's too long, it's very mumsy. Number two, change from a dark burgundy lipstick to a pink. It's the easiest thing you can do. And number three, have great skin. The better the skin, the less make-up you need, and there's no need to pile on the foundation." Um, have great skin. What a great beauty tip! Up there with "avoid being born to someone with bad genes." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Ooooh: our favorite accessories brand we can't afford, Loeffler Randall, is debuting a swimwear line. Good thing we do not wear bathing suits! [WWD]
• Are women rejecting cheap shoes? [Independent]
• Nahhh, probably not. [LATimes]
• Where's the best place for a designer to open up a flagship boutique in Amsterdam? The red light district, of course. [Reuters]
• All this "feed the malnourished models" outrage and Erin O'Connor still thinks she is fat. [Independent]
• We think granny panties are actually sort of sexy, so fuck you. [Sassybella]
• "Little girls hear 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T' and don't know that it isn't an 'American Idol' song." Sigh. [LA Times]

• Jennifer Lopez is expected to file suit against former Sweetface design partner Andy Hilfiger, ostensibly because, uh, the line really sucks. Hilfiger, meanwhile, is expected to countersue because Lopez' hubby Marc Anthony is a psychotic asshole. [NY Daily News]
  
• In a strange twist of fate, PETA's new phone number was previously "owned" by designer Zac Posen's mother, Susan Posen. Now, when people call the number looking for Susan, PETA officials kindly inform them that her son is murdering animals for his designs. [NY Daily News]
  
• Kim Cattrall: Future PETA target? It appears her wardrobe is awfully croc-skin heavy in the upcoming Sex and the City movie. [WWD, 6th item]
  
• Karl Lagerfeld won a raffle? That seems wrong, somehow. [WWD, 3rd item]

• "I have a soft spot for Galliano; Alexander McQueen, however, that's a different story for another day." —Manolo Blahnik [Fashion Week Daily]
• The entire Elle fashion department (including Joe Zee, Anne Slowey, and Project Runway star Nina Garcia) were eating dinner at NYC restaurant Indochine at the very same time that French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld was at the restaurant for her son's birthday. [Fashion Week Daily]
• LOL of course Madonna is co-hosting Gucci's upcoming February fundraising event "A Night to Benefit Raising Malawi and UNICEF." [WWD, 1st item]
• Louis Vuitton and the Burlington Coat Factory have reached a settlement over that whole manufacturing and selling of fake bags things. [Sassybella]
• Boutique perfume label Bond No. 9's top nose Laurice Rahme has launched the first-ever known perfume bottle recycling initiative. Under Rahme's direction, all Bond No. 9 stores and counters will accept empty perfume bottles of any brand and ensure the glass is recycled. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Natalia Vodianova is the face of the upcoming Diane von Furstenberg spring 2008 advertising campaign, the first ad campaign DVF has had in decades. We never realized that Diane didn't advertise, which gives us weird, newfound respect for the wrap dress. [Vogue UK]
• For Vogue's Lauren Davis' upcoming nuptials, each of her socialite bridesmaids has been paired with a different designer who will create a different gown for each woman. (Participating designers are Derek Lam, Proenza Schouler, Vera Wang, Giambattista Valli, and Alberta Ferretti.) This is why we hate socialites. [Fashion Week Daily]
• For the gay geek in your life: A Chloe iPhone! [Portfolio]

• Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein and Marchesa co-designer Georgina Chapman got hitched on Saturday night at Weinstein's home in Westport, CT. The bride wore Marchesa, the groom Tom Ford, the Gypsy Kings gave a private concert and even Vogue's Anna Wintour attended. Also there: Model Natalia Vodianova, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Anne Hathaway and Cameron Diaz (all of whom, sadly, need no further introduction). [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Chapman designed not one but two gowns for her wedding: One for the ceremony and one for the reception. Modest! [GlamChic]
  
• This year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fun big winner Rogan Gregory is rumored to be the next designer to do a collection for Target, thus confirming Moe's theory that designers go straight from Vogue to the red bullseye, lovingly guided by Anna Wintour herself. [WWD, 2nd item]

• God bless Valentino. The man denied his retirement for an eternity, then announced he was retiring, then threw himself a giant party for the anniversary of his label, and now — just for good measure — he is being honored by the mayor of Paris with an honorary citizenship to the city. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Victoria Beckham's "V-Sculpt' make-up line scares us even more than Victoria Beckham's sculpted boobs. [BellaSugar]
• Oh Lord: Who would want Tara Reid to be the face of anything? Yet alone "sleepwear." [Sassybella]
• High Grant ex/English socialite Jemima Khan has designed a charm bracelet to benefit some charitable cause. The charms on the bracelet represent the five major world religions. Says Khan of her design, "I have been personally connected to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism through my paternal grandfather, Christianity through my mother, and Islam through my marriage and my children." Well doesn't that make her special! [Fashion Week Daily]
• All that talk about Vivienne Westwood moving her show back to London from Paris? Sorta bullshit. Westwood will only be showing her secondary line, Red Label, in Mother England. The eponymous shit will still show en Paris. [Vogue UK]
• YSL designer Stefano Pilati has decided that runway shows and scary and impersonal so he will be showing the YSL menswear collection in a presentation and a private dinner this season instead. Touching is permitted. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Oh no! Another cryptic e-mail from ELLE's Gilles Bensimon! Really, someone please stage an intervention and soon. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Another reason to love/loathe Topshop: Launching collections ''collaborated" on by English designers Jonathan Saunders, Louise Goldin, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Todd Lynn and Richard Nicoll starting in mid-January. [WWD, 5th item]
• Herve Leger is back! And now designed under the Max Azria label. Um, ok? [WWD, 4th item]

• Tim Gunn is taking some conflict-of-interest heat regarding a recent column he wrote OK! magazine. (Tim writes for OK!? How declasse!) When advising a reader about what jeans are best to fit most bodies, he steered the reader towards Liz Claiborne and Lucky Brand. Funny thing is, Gunn just happens to be the Chief Creative Officer of Liz Claiborne. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• The ads of David Beckham in his Emporio Armani undies don't hit the UK 'til March, but sales for white men's briefs have already gone up 50% since the announcement was made that Beckham's face (and balls) would be tied to the brand. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• Marc Jacobs on his camel toe costume: "I love being the unexpected, even if that means not moving for the entire night. You just kind of slide in from the front and hang out here. And the fur is all artificial of course, but there is simply too much of it!" Why are we not surprised that Jacobs would be anti-bush? [Fashion Week Daily]

• "I wear a piece of Jenni every day," says Skeletor/celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, referring to newly notable designer Jenni Kayne. [Fashion Week Daily]
• When we do spring cleaning, we end up hauling truckloads of old magazines and empty Kombucha bottles to the curb. When Karl Lagerfeld does spring cleaning, the items are curated and then put up for auction. [Vogue UK]
• Reverend Run's daughters have a clothing line. It is called Pastry. It is ugly. [FabSugar]
• Say what you will about Marc Jacobs, but at least he's using models (and good ones!) for the Louis Vuitton spring advertising campaign. Stephanie Seymour, Eva Herzigova, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Angela Lindvall and Natalia Vodianova are all set to star in the Richard Prince-inspired ads. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Uh oh: Why is Elle International Creative Director Gilles Bensimon sending out cryptic, vaguely suicidal-sounding e-mail "postcards" to his friends? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Stella McCartney has designed a pleather patent camera bag. It is actually pretty cute. But it's currently on sale for $400 (down from $1,235 originally), which seems like a fuckload of money for a bit of plastic. [GeekSugar]
• Kate Moss is the face of the spring Longchamp campaign. She looks hot. Yawn. [Sassybella]
• Martha Stewart's infamous former stockbroker/walker Peter Bacanovic is moving on past insider trading and into bling: He has just accepted the title of CEO of Fred Leighton jewelers. [WWD, 1st item]
• Krazy Karl: Thinking Russian for next year's Chanel metiers d'art collection. What would Lenin say? [WWD, 3rd item]
• John Galliano: Now doing jewelry. We really hope it's pirate-themed. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Anyone else find it interesting that not-seaweed yogawear line Lululemon's biggest competitors are Victoria's Secret, American Eagle, and Nike? [The Economist]

• We don't think we can design clothes, so why do clothing designers think they can blog? The Proenza Schouler boys, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, will be blogging for the New York Times's T: Style magazine's new site all this week. Says T's online editor, "One of the things I'm trying to avoid is solipsistic navel-gazing." Um, good luck with that! [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• What would you do with $15 million? If you're Mr. Dolce and Mr. Gabbana, you use it to give your New York flagship store a little make-over! [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• And apparently it took $15 fucking million for Mr. Dolce and Mr. Gabbana to haul their Italian booties here to New York. The designers will be back in New York for the first time in two years to celebrate the re-opening of their store at a private dinner tomorrow night. No, we weren't invited. [NYP]
  
• Say what you will about Sarah Jessica Parker, but at least she understands decorum. Of super low-rise jeans she says, "There is not going to be any inappropriate midriff showing, regardless of age," she says. "It's provocative in a way that I just don't feel comfortable with." Also? Kind of 5 years ago. [Daily Express]

• Prepare yourselves, people: Snowjoggers are the new Uggs. Just as ugly, and worn by Lohan too! [Independent]
• Stop the madness! Fashion houses are now hiring meteorologists as consultants to help them best predict the upcoming weather patterns and what kinda clothes folks are going to want to wear given the climate. Ridiculous? Or inspired? [NYT]
• The new apartment building in New York designed by Zac Posen's boyfriend is being shot by Elle international creative director Gilles Bensimon for an "advertorial" for Elle Decor. Follow? No? The lesson here is: It's all about who you're fucking. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Claire Danes walked as a model for Cynthia Rowley when she was 16. And waved to the other model going the opposite direction. Thank God this bitch isn't always so perfect! [Sassybella]
• Teen Vogue continues its strange dance between "art" and life as senior editor Kimball Hastings leaves the Condé Nast title to become the head of celebrity dressing for Polo Ralph Lauren. First: That's an actual job? Second: Apparently now Hastings himself is a "celebrity" because, uh, he's been on The Hills. [WWD, 1st item]
• The Wilhemina modeling agency is 40 years old! Mazel tov, models. [WWD, 5th item]
• Luxury markets? Not doing so well. Our guess? People are over expensive shit. [WWD, sub req'd]
• You've heard of a shaman — Rupert Sanderson is a shoe man. And when he sees a woman on the street in a pair of his handcrafted shoes, he has been known to "hurr[y] along behind her checking the balance and the line of the shoe, to see whether she [is] comfortable walking in them. [Then I] realise that I [am] getting a bit close though so I ha[ve] to cross the road in order not to appear like a stalker. But I got a better perspective on the shoes from the other side anyway." [Vogue UK]
• Burberry designer Christopher Bailey not only won Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards last week, but he also took home the Bambi Award for Fashion on Thursday and an honorary degree on Friday. All these people giving him accolades do know that he designs for Burberry, right? [Vogue UK]
• OMG cutest thing ever: A website where you can try to find your glove's lost mate! [Sassybella]

• Prince William's girlfriend Kate Middleton has quit her job as a buyer for British chain Jigsaw. The Brits think this means there's an engagement on the horizon! We think, uh, Middleton probably realized that, um, once you have dated Prince William your connections can probably land you a job in an industry slightly less ridiculous and soul-deadening than fashion? [Vogue UK]
  
• Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour went to meet with NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday. When asked by the press what they met about his staffers answered, "to convince the mayor to wear Brooks Brothers suits." Clever!
  So you mean it wasn't because she has some radical new plan for fixing the ailing public school system? [New York Daily News]
  
• And speaking of our public schools, manufacturing a $62,000 Guerlain lipstick = not gonna help things! [Sassybella]
  
• Model Helena Christensen is a DJ, or anyway she's "done it like 10 times" and "justs sit[s] with all [her] CDs and thinks about what [she] want[s] to listen to." Yup, that pretty much makes you a DJ these days! But is she as pretty as Leigh Lezark? [Fashion Week Daily]

• Estee Lauder is ousting their own: William Lauder, Estee's grandson, will be "stepping down" within next two years and some Proctor & Gamble exec who oversees their snack foods division is taking the gig. Which, um, seems like a perfectly natural fit to us? [WSJ]
• Le barf: W hotels has partnered with Puma allowing its guests to create their own custom-designed pair of sneaks from their room. The in-room "design center" is supposed to look like a Mongolian barbeque. [SO. DUMB. SRSLY.-Moe] [Fashion Week Daily]
• Juicy Couture has set up shop on Rodeo Drive. Which maybe would have been a shrewd business decision when 1. People were still shopping on Rodeo Drive and 2. People in L.A. still wore Juicy, including while shopping on Rodeo Drive, but now it just seems like some investor gave them too much money and they have to spend it somehow. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Isaac Mizrahi goes on Martha Stewart's show Dec. 21. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Says designer Donna Karan of her new fragrance Delicious Night: "We're out at night, being naughty, having fun, enjoying the city tonight. This is a fragrance that can carry you from the day into the evening, like someone you want to cuddle up to." Did we mention Donna is dating a male model? [WWD, sub req'd]
• What makes Zac Posen's Japanese food-loving mama Susan so proud? That her son can "recall what he wore to every event, everything he's put on in the last 27 years." Gifted! [NYP]
• Pointy-toed shoes: Apparently back? [FabSugar]
• The prodigiously talented Anya Hindmarch has been nominated for two British Fashion Awards. And by "prodigiously talented" we mean... you know what we mean. [Vogue UK]
• Elle magazine's International Creative Director Gilles Bensimon: Really loves handbags! [Fashion Week Daily]

• Designer Roberto Cavalli has never been known for subtlety. On working with celebrity clientele: "Well Jennifer Lopez, at this moment, she requests something very special because she is waiting for the baby. It is so complicated because every week she is getting bigger." Ha ha, and Lopez still hasn't confirmed her pregnancy. [People.com]
  
• Liz Claiborne's profits fell 63% last quarter as the company enters semi-meltdown mode. You might recall that Tim Gunn was recently tapped as the company's "Chief Creative Officer," which is one of those titles that probably means crap all but is it really realistic to expect us not to drop a "make it work" joke here? [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Okay, so there are these rumors that Gisele is supposed to oust Kate Moss as the face of Versace, and then there are these other rumors that Kate is supposed to become the face of Yves Saint Laurent, where Gisele is currently model-of-choice, and it all kind of makes sense in that way that it did when "Bennifer" broke up to create two much more predictable couplings, and Kate Moss looks kind of awkward and wrong in those Versace ads anyway, but it's still kinda disappointing. [Vogue UK]

• Is Diane von Furstenberg itching to finally tie the knot with long-time beau Barry Diller? If we're reading this blind item right, maybe.. [NYDaily News]
• Aw, we just love when internships at Harper's Bazaar are up for grabs at a charity silent auction! You know, for the children. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Jude Law's ex Sadie Frost's clothing line FrostFrench has taken London by storm and the label's flagship store is a great success and now they're opening more stores! Meanwhile, Jude Law seems to be balding. Just saying. [Vogue UK]

• WHAT?! Model Irina Lazareanu is engaged to Pete Doherty. They're already on the registry at Cokespoons N' Things! So, like what is it with this man and models? What is it with models and this man? And like, does Irina read the tabloids? Does she read at all? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Model Natalia Vodianova will be walking in the Valentino show today. She gave birth three weeks ago. Yeah, fuck her. [NY Post]
  
• Mazel Tov, Stella McCartney! Her eponymous fashion line is finally turning a profit, which makes us happy because we were seriously worried about how Stella was going to pay the bills and put food on the table. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• We can't help but wonder if it's the same, wounded-by-fashion soul who robbed both Elle international creative director Gilles Bensimon's home and Skeletor/celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe's during the flurry of fashion shows. [Fashion Week Daily]

• Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati takes a cue from Howard Dean. On making his fall advertising campaign a political manifesto (complete with Gisele-bedecked pamphlets!) he says, "I decided I had to scream a bit more - not in an angry way, because that would be impolite, but to give people more opinions." [Vogue UK]
• Normally we get bitter when celebrities act as "guest editors" at magazines. But Charlotte Gainsbourg overseeing December issue of French Vogue? That's just cool. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Nepotism! 19-year old Delfina Delettrez Fendi makes a jewelry collection and it gets sold at exclusive Paris boutique Colette! Poor family planning! 19-year old Delfina Delettrez Fendi gets knocked up and has a baby this summer! And this is why we love Italian heiresses. [WWD, 3rd item]
• The dangers of smoking? Ain't Vogue's problem. The American branch of the international fashion magazine's advertising director is reaching out to congressional leaders to pass additional legislation to teach about the health risks associated with the habit. Because the magazine will continue to practice "freedom of the press" - aka, still take advertising dollars from tobacco companies. [WWD, 1st item]
• Just us, or isa coffee table book about stylists along the same lines as Kramer's coffee table book about coffee tables? [WWD, 3rd item]
• Miuccia Prada is to be honored by Los Angeles' Hammer Museum for the art space established in Milan by herself and her husband back in 1993. [Vogue UK]
• Why aren't we becoming millionaires predicting "trends" based on info you can otherwise get for free? [Guardian]

Couture Drought [FWD]
Earlier: 'Elle' Magazine's Fashion News Department: Now With Fewer People Than Olives

• After being bounced by Elle in favor of Joe Zee, the magazine's founding creative director Gilles Bensimon finally speaks. "I was never good with giving direction, day by day. I never asked to be director of a magazine," he says. "I was only photography director. The first day I got the position... I go, 'oh my gosh that's a mistake." [WWD, 1st item]
• Sympathizing with the plight of jet-setting beauty junkies everywhere, drugstores are set to introduce pre-packaged toiletry and make-up kits for use on airplanes. [WWD, 4th item]
• Glamour has secured a print exclusive to showcase Sarah Jessica Parker and her new clothing line Bitten on the cover of its June issue. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Designers Dries Van Noten and Marc Jacobs will be showing their menswear lines in Milan, not Paris, for the upcoming June shows. [WWD, 1st item]