• Stephanie Seymour's divorce from Peter Brant is getting even uglier. After police were called to the couple's home following Seymour's complaint that Brant's security assaulted her, Brant has accused the model of drug use and is seeking sole child custody:

• Brant alleged in court filings that Seymour sought treatment for Vicodin abuse, and subsequently became addicted to the drug Subutex, which is used to treat opiate addiction. He says Seymour has missed multiple court-required breathalyzer tests, and has twice submitted urine samples that, though clean of Subutex, were too cold to meet the minimum valid temperature. The media mogul also says Seymour "broke in" to the couple's Florida mansion and removed $700,000 worth of items, all while the kids sat in a hotel in Connecticut. [NYP]
• When fashion goes Galt, you know we're in trouble. [TDB]
• Nanette Lepore, Michael Kors, Zac Posen, Anna Sui, Betsey Johnson, and that guy who was just endorsed by Barack Obama, whatsisname, Bill Thompson, will be on Seventh Avenue on Wednesday for a rally to save the New York Garment District. Twenty-five thousand people work in the district, and designers say they need their convenient access to sample houses and manufacturers it provides, but lax enforcement of existing zoning laws and competition from cheaper labor sources overseas have led the zone to dwindle. [NYDN]
• Not to be outdone, Mayor Bloomberg — whom some designers have criticized for failing to do enough to protect the garment district — is launching a fashion incubator program for 12 up-and-coming designers this fall. [NYP]
• Woody Allen is reportedly considering casting Adriana Lima in his new movie, which is set in Rio de Janeiro. Because he's "fascinated" by her beauty. [NYP]
• "My fashion advice is to have a flattering mirror at home and then forget about it," says Vivienne Westwood. The designer lives in Captain Cook's old house, and has never sold out to a larger company or a private investor, despite some offers. And some polite nos: reports Cathy Horyn, one backer in the 90s picked another designer instead. "They could have made money with me. They lost it. I'm a woman," says Westwood. "I'm like household management or whatever it is. I would never spend more than I have." [NYTimes]
• Tim Gunn has a cameo in the Sex And The City sequel. [E!]
• JMS, a brand owned by Hanes, is adding a dedicated plus-size apparel line to its existing plus-size offerings, which were mainly jeans and underwear. It'll be sold at Wal-Mart and the creative director promises "slimming seams, strategically placed pockets, freedom of movement and appropriate-weight materials." [WWD]
• Christian Louboutin, the designer who slimmed down Barbie's ankles when he had the chance to release a line of dolls under his own name, says he never meant to imply her ankles were big before. "Fat ankles she didn't have, she just could have had thinner ankles," explained Louboutin. Still digging, then. [WWD]
• Manolo Blahnik: "I hate celebrities. All those pointless girls — I won't name names, but you know who I mean. They are 'famous'. Ridiculous. I like women with style: actresses like Uma Thurman, icons like Audrey Hepburn. I like women with style to wear my shoes." [Vogue UK]
• Model Selita Ebanks joins Sinbad, Darryl Strawberry, and Cyndi Lauper in the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. [NYDN]
• Pat Field made a tote bag for Diet Coke to give away with purchase, which will be available later this month from Boots stores. [Daily Express]
• Erin Wasson, presumably to avoid her dreaded homelessness, makes an appearance in the fall J. Crew catalog. She eats a necklace in one shot. [Refinery29]
• Something called the Japan Jeans Association given the country's first lady, Miyuki Hatoyama, its Best Jeanist Award. (She shares it with a pop star and an actor.) Pleased, the 66-year-old Hatoyama said, "This is the prize I have long wished to win. I'm a jeans lover. I'm always putting on jeans as they're easy to wear." She also recalled that she and her husband were each wearing jeans when they met. [AFP]
• Gee, we're so glad reporter Giles Hattersley puts that nice boss, successful businesswoman, and maker of lovely shoes Tamara Mellon in her place in this hard-hitting profile. Apparently she smokes, wears "teensy" dresses, and altogether reminds Hattersley of "the heroine of some dicey Danielle Steel bonkathon." Can't have that. [ToL]
• Love Moschino, the Italian company's lower-priced clothing line, is adding accessories to its collection. [WWD]
• Georgia May Jagger, already having nabbed the Hudson Jeans campaign, is now the face of Rimmel cosmetics. [Telegraph]
• Yasmin le Bon's daily life: "If lunch is at home then I tend to eat up leftovers from the fridge. I'm the leftover queen. I can't help it. I might mix them into an omelette or throw them all into a soup. One of the children won't eat soups any more because she's worried what old food I've put in it. Simon's mother, Ann Marie, often comes round with homemade bread and cakes." [ToL]
• Alvin Ailey company dancers will wear Mark & James, Badgley Mischka's just-announced lower-priced line, to their season opening gala on December 2. [WWD]
• Henry Holland kinda maybe sorta wants to move to New York. "Every time I come, the need to live here becomes more and more urgent and I want to go home less and less. I spend my entire time here plotting about how I would do it." But even if he did cross the Atlantic, he says he would still show his line in London. [Grazia]
• The luxury market, once in free-fall, is still declining, just not as steeply as some analysts earlier expected. Instead of the overall 10% drop in luxury sales that had originally been forecast for 2009, analysts say the industry is on track for an 8% decline in sales. [WSJ]

• In non-Michelle Obama fashion news of the day, Gisele's Craig McDean Dior campaign is out. She looks sort of like she's Morris dancing. With bangs. [Fashionologie]

• Armani accused Dolce & Gabbana of copying one of his mens designs this season. Both labels apparently showed quilted silk pants on the runway in Milan this weekend — although I did look through the pictures of the Emporio show on Men.style.com, and while there were plenty of merely ugly trousers, I only saw quilted snowsuits — and Armani sniffed: "Now they copy, later they will learn." Domenico and Stefano shot back "Surely we still have much to learn, but definitely not from him," and claimed they haven't even watched Armani's shows for "years." [ShoppingBlog]
• Armani, in a separate interview, claims that unlike fellow Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, who confirmed plans to sell a minority stake in his company to a private equity firm yesterday, his business is financially strong, with no need for outside investment. [WWD]
• Not so Burberry. Although the British brand has seen strong sales — up 30% in the fourth quarter of 2008 — it is implementing sharp cost-cutting moves, in part no doubt because it's publicly traded and therefore vulnerable to shareholder pressure for constant returns. Two hundred and ninety jobs are to be shed in the UK, and up to 250 additional positions are on the line in Spain. [WSJ]
• Here begins your Michelle Obama tranche of Rag Trade. (Remember, we go back to wondering about what the Yale-educated lawyer is thinking and doing, as opposed to wearing, tomorrow.) First up: MSNBC thinks Diane von Furstenberg is out of the running for designing Michelle's inaugural ball gown because she was kinda grumpy at a party. [MSNBC]
• Mediabistro has an interesting breakdown of the three Obama fashion stories you meet in transition: The breathless speculation as to what the new first lady will wear, the filler about Inaugural Gowns Of History or how the Obamas will bring back "style" to the White House, and the coattail-rider pieces, like stories about which label this or that appointee is "announcing" they will wear. [Mediabistro]
• Also the endless street style stories about how Obama has "inspired" t-shirt hawkers to bedazzle his name on their wares. [StyleFile]
• And the stories that are a breathless play-by-play of her fashion choices. This was cute six months ago when we were all amazed she knew who Thakoon Panichgul was; it's not so cute now. [StyleFile]
• However, speaking of Thakoon, I'd as soon keep the adorable interviews he gives about how much he respects Michelle Obama and how nervous he was to see her wear his dress, lest she reveal some kind of overlooked flaw in his design. [Allure]
• And, OK, we can keep the think pieces from good fashion writers about the tricky politics of 'style' in the broader sense. [WWD]
• Now, for something completely different: Is Renee Zellweger angling for Jennifer Love Hewitt's endorsement deal? Zellweger filmed parts of New In Town in Winnipeg, Canada — a town where, the actress reports, "It's just commonplace that your face freezes within two seconds of stepping outside of the door." Hanes tights saved her life, three or four pairs at a time. "I would not be here today were it not for the Hanes," she humbly reports. [Daily Express]
• Serena Williams has signed on to be the newest face of Mission Skincare. [WWD]
• Sadly, Victoria Beckham thinks she looks all right in her Emporio Armani ads only because Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott obligingly elided her worst body parts. According to unnamed sources, Posh — who admitted having suffered from anorexia in her memoir, Learning to Fly — is still deeply uncomfortable with her body, and was grateful her stomach was "reworked with make-up and lighting" to hide her C-section scars and loose skin. Of course, a casual observer might imagine there was more than a little Photoshop reworking, too, and that it might help Posh's young, female fan base for the star to speak openly, honestly, and not through back channels, about that fact. [Daily Express]
• One sector doing almost too well through this season: apparel liquidators. Discount stores like Loehmann's and T.J. Maxx are unable to absorb the bales of unsold gear from the major department stores, who have of course been trying to move units themselves with up to 85% off sales all through the holiday period. There's simply too much supply in the liquidation pipeline. Solution: Ship the lot to Siberia. No, seriously. [WSJ]

Earlier: "Contour" Bras: Holding Us Up, Or Holding Us Back?