• Whitney Port isn't in Kell On Earth. And on Lauren Conrad: "We still keep in touch on a friendship level. But in terms of fashion we don't really talk about it anymore because we're not in the same arena." [PopEater]

• AIDS prevention is a cause dear to Carla Bruni's heart. Her brother, Virginio, died of the disease in 2006, and she told French television yesterday that working in fashion in the 1980s, the disease was omnipresent. "The fashion world was hit head-on by the AIDS pandemic," she said. "It really did lose members of its family." Bruni is now an ambassador with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria, and yesterday the Elysée Palace was festooned for the first time with red ribbons. [AFP]
• A fan named Diane called in to P. Diddy's Home Shopping Network show Monday night. "I'm so nervous!" she squealed. "Don't be nervous," replied the suave object of her affections. "I wish I could just jump through the screen and give you a hug, girl." [The Cut]
• Alber Elbaz designed some sweet heart-shaped Lanvin stamps, covered with his doodles, for the French postal service. [WWD]
• Maria Sharapova would like a fashion line, just as soon as she's finished kicking everyone's asses on the court. [Reuters]
• Liberty of London is taking its gorgeous William Morris aesthetic to the masses: it's partnering up with Target. [WWD]
• John Galliano not only designed a gorgeous Christmas tree that looks right out of a Hokusai print: it will be installed at the Claridge's hotel in a constellation of 20 of his haute-couture dresses. Swoon. [Telegraph]
• If Simon Doonan wanted a crowd, he should have gone the way of XOXO's flagship, which features a rotating cast of two female models paid to dress and undress in front of a glass window on 5th Avenue. The creative director who came up with the concept, in case you're wondering, is a woman. [CNN]
• Mango inked a deal with J.C. Penney. The Spanish brand has 1,200 stores worldwide, but only 12 in the U.S., so their distribution in this country has just officially mushroomed. [Crains]
• Carmen Dell'Orefice is working on a coffee table book of photography, scheduled for release on her 80th birthday. This story is funny mainly for how the Post mangles her name. Carmen De L'Orifice, indeed. [P6]
• Jil Sander's latest jewelry collection, made with Damiani, is out. "Jil Sander, even being considered as the brand of pureness, can create a product category such as jewelry," sniffed creative director Raf Simons. Prices start at around €890 for the baubles; Jil Sander watches are coming in the spring. [Independent]
• Seamstresses and designers who were employed in Christian Lacroix's workshop were yesterday told they had lost their jobs, following the court ruling that the bankrupt house could be transformed into a licensing operation. Dressmaker Nadia Schoope said, "I didn't think it would finish like that. I can't understand how a house like Lacroix cannot draw buyers." Monika Soszynska, who worked in couture accessories, said, "It's surreal, we can't believe that it's stopping, it's not possible. I can't believe we won't be doing the next haute couture collection." [ToL]
• H&M wants to open home stores. The Swedish retailer, which has been plagued by declining sales, opened 240 stores this year. [WWD]
• Dockers thinks the tag line "Behold the second dawn of man" will move some khaki pants. Global marketing vice president Jennifer Sey tells BrandWeek about the genesis of the campaign: "We started to do some research. In today's world, men have lost a bit of footing, in part because women have come so far, but we also found a few surprising facts: Eighty-percent of those who suffered unemployment in the last year were men. Women outnumber men in the workforce now. But the most surprising fact of all was that men's testosterone levels have been dropping by a percentage point a year for the last 20 years. All these factors add to up say, 'Wow, men are struggling in today's world.'" She's not trying to sell pants with pathetic anti-feminist rhetoric, she's just trying to "inspire today's men to be men," ladies. [BW]
• Roland Mouret has a capsule collection for Net-A-Porter on sale now. The seven lovely silk dresses come in seven bright colors, and cost $1,495-$3,070. [WWD]
• The fate of all Victoria's Secret diamond-encrusted bras is to be dismantled for parts. Because nobody ever buys them. [WSJ]
• Christian Louboutin, on Jennifer Lopez's single, "Louboutins" — which name-checks his brand 45 times, yes, he counted: "Jennifer told me about the song back in January, and I was extremely flattered. But of course, in America the public pronounces my name in like a million different ways. So Jennifer called me, and she was like, 'Listen, I want to make sure that I get it right.' And she did...from the very first time! I know the song by heart now. Because the brilliant part of the single is that it's not about me. It's about a girl and her shoe. When something is so in mass culture and you have almost nothing to do with it, it's kind of cool. It's weird but not disagreeable." [FWD]

• Alicia Keys has a jewelry line; her bangles and rings come engraved with the words of the Japanese pseudoscientist Masaru Emoto. You can't make this up. [WWD]
• Marie Claire has published some clear pictures of Rodarte's line for Target. [Nitrolicious]

• John Galliano's Christmas tree design for Claridge's is extraordinary and very weird. [Vogue UK]
• Madonna has rebounded from Louis Vuitton's decision not to re-hire her for a third season of ad campaigns rather well: she shot the spring Dolce & Gabbana campaign with Steven Klein in a Brooklyn studio on Friday. [WWD]
• Zac Posen has eliminated his public relations officer because of budget constraints. [WWD]
• Jamba Juice is getting into the rag trade. The maker of delicious smoothies thinks it can whip up "Jamba-inspired" t-shirts, sweatshirts, and headwear that everyone will want. No delivery date for the first collection was given. [BrandWeek]
• Express is suing Forever 21 for copyright violations concerning several plaid patterns, in what has to be the endgame for fashion originality. [WWD]
• Scarlett Johanson is apparently still doing ad campaigns for Mango. [FWD]
• Diane Von Furstenberg dropped a few dresses off with Ikram Goldman during a recent trip to Chicago. We all know what that means! [WWD]
• Thakoon Panichgul is now the creative director of the Japanese jewelry brand Tasaki. [Style.com]
• Tom Ford's profile in the Advocate is alternately touching, perhaps too revealing, and kind of crass — kind of like the man's designs. He opens up about his depression, his struggles with alcohol dependency, admits to chasing youth with Botox and Restylane, and how he once shaved his eyebrow off when he was on mescaline, but most fascinatingly of all, to our ears, is the revelation that in his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man, he gave the main character a last name after his first boyfriend, Ian Falconer. Oh! Also there's this: "Yves and his partner, Pierre Bergé, were so difficult and so evil and made my life such misery. I'd lived in France off and on and had always loved it. I went to college in France. It wasn't until I started working in France that I began to dislike it. They would call the fiscal police, and they would show up at our offices…They'd come marching in, and you had to let them in and they'd interview my secretary. And they can fine you and shut you down. Pierre was the one calling them. I've never talked about this on the record before, but it was an awful time for me. Pierre and Yves were just evil. So Yves Saint Laurent doesn't exist for me…I have letters from Yves Saint Laurent that are so mean you cannot even believe such vitriol is possible." [Advocate]
• Says Vogue/CDFA Fashion Fund finalist Flora Gill, of Ohne Titel: "My parents were always very supportive. They actually bought me books about Comme des Garçons when I was 8 years old, which I think is not…usual." Meet the other nine finalists in this video. [Style.com]
• Simon Fuller, who already holds a 51% stake in London's Storm Models, is rumored to be investigating setting up a New York agency. Posh is supposedly involved. This sounds awfully similar to the Simon-Fuller-and-Kate-Moss-are-going-to-found-an-agency rumor of a few months back. [Daily Mail]
• The woman who runs British lingerie brand Ultimo (current face: Peaches Geldof) noticed her 10-year-old daughter talking about going on a diet. So she has decided to ban excessive Photoshopping in Ultimo's advertising images. (Whether she'll ban the company from employing women like Peaches Geldof as role models is unanswered.) [Sun]
• Friday, Lady Gaga tweeted that she was visiting Nick Knight's Showstudio. The singer is apparently working with the fashion photographer/videographer on a video for her upcoming tour. The concept apparently involves "a veritable menagerie of animals." [Showstudio]
• Style.com ranked 2009's top fashion partiers; all the usual suspects — Olivier Zahm, Alex Wang, Lauren Santo-Domingo, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Leigh Lezark, Derek Blasberg, and Karl Lagerfeld — make the cut. But more importantly: can we never, ever refer to the Meatpacking District as "MePa" again? [Style.com]
• Cacharel, relaunched this October under Belgian designer Cedric Charlier, is returning to worldwide distribution in the spring. [WWD]
• And, just like that, it's over: Versace face, British Vogue cover model, Rimmel campaign-nabber Georgia May Jagger says she's quitting the biz. At least for the rest of the year: she's 17, so she has school, you know. [Vogue UK]
• Luella is closing. [Vogue UK]
• Former Gucci creative director Dawn Mello was allegedly run down by a bicycle messenger outside Bergdorf's. She has a shattered femur. [P6]

• Jennifer Aniston has agreed to do a weekly talk show for Oprah's new cable channel, OWN. A source says:

"She is doing this for one reason only; she absolutely wants to do it.." [NY Post]

• Madonna has arrived in Malawi to visit the girls school she is building there; a groundbreaking ceremony takes place today. [AP]
• "Lindsay Lohan has a new addiction." Shopping! Specifically: Shoes. [Gatecrasher]
• Jon and Kate Gosselin's lawyers will be in court today regarding the money missing from their joint bank account. [People]
• On November 19, Rihanna will perform in a very special location: On the Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, operated by Royal Caribbean. Wonder if she'll sing, "Love… Exciting and new... come aboard… We're expecting you…" [USA Today]
• Courtney Love has moved to New York because her home in Malibu has been the target of raids by people claiming to be LAPD. She says: "I tried to be charming. But one of the guys points a gun at me. My daughter, Frances, ran and hid under the house." And! "My biggest problem is that I'm Courtney Love." [NY Daily News]
• Lady Gaga's dad had heart surgery on Thursday, and she's been spending time at the hospital giving him footrubs and so on. She Tweeted: "He's my hero." [Daily Express]
• Lady Gaga is a sad little Harlequin in French Vogue. [The Life Files]
• Ivanka Trump married New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner over the weekend; pic at the link. [NY Post]
• Nick Prugo, the 18-year-old suspected of stealing from Lindsay Lohan and Audrina Patridge, had his computer seized, and it shows Google searches like "can a stolen mac be traced" and "if i register a mac can it be tracked." In addition, the computer was full of searches for the addresses of a number of celebrities whose houses were burglarized and photographs of jewelry worn by those celebs. [TMZ]
• Nick Prugo's computer also had the address of Dr. 90210 (Dr. Rey), though his home was not broken into. [TMZ]
• A source says that Nick Prugo wore Paris Hilton's heels: "He could fit into her shoes… He put them on and got into a dance and said, 'Don't I look good?'" Also, the "ring leader" of this teen thief gang is Rachel Lee, 18; she's described as a kleptomaniac. [NY Post]
• Lawyers for Jennifer Lopez have sent a cease and desist letter to shut down production of a movie about her life with her first husband, waiter and model Ojani Noa. He's claiming How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J-lo and and Ojani Noa Story is a mockumentary and "100% parody." [The Wrap]
• Emily Blunt will wear custom John Galliano when she marries John Krasinski , in case you weren't already ridiculously jealous. [Gatecrasher]
• Sean Penn is in Cuba to interview Fidel Castro for Vanity Fair. No, really. [AFP]
• Recently divorced Amy Winehouse and Blake Formerly Incarcerated have both changed their Facebook status back to married. [Telegraph]
• Morrissey collapsed on stage and was rushed to the hospital on Sunday; he's since been discharged. [Independent]
• Susan Boyle was at a soccer match on Thursday, waving a scarf over her head, and everyone saw that her pants were undone. [MSNBC Scoop]
• A song in True Blood sparked Stephen Moyer's marriage proposal to Anna Paquin. [People]
• Jackie Jackson saw his brother Michael Jackson's movie, This Is It. He says the film is "truly riveting" and: "We get a glimpse of a true genius at work." [TMZ]
• Here's a partial set list of the songs in the Michael Jackson movie. [NY Post]
• Seventy unreleased songs created by Michael Jackson after 2004 are up for grabs; Sony Music and Universal Music may bid against each other. [NY Post]
• The man who is accused of punching Leona Lewis in the face has been sanctioned under the Mental Health Act and is not fit to go to court. [The Sun]
• In the play After Miss Julie, Sienna Miller grabs the scrotum of Jonny Lee Miller. Or at least appears to. She reveals her acting secret at the link. She also admits that ex flings Jude Law and Daniel Craig — who are also on Broadway right now — have not yet come to see her play. [NY Daily News]
• By the by, Jude Law thinks it's okay to smoke in NYC bars. [Page Six]
• As for Samantha Burke, she sold baby pix and an interview about her fling with Jude Law to a Brit mag for about $300,000. [Gatecrasher]
• In this interview, Carrie Fisher touches on bipolar disorder, doing acid, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, and Agnes Of God. She also pulls out her iPhone and watches her audition tape for Star Wars. [The Daily Beast]
• Shauna Sand's sex tape should be out any day now, since a handwriting expert proved that she had, in fact, signed off on it. [TMZ]
• Interesting: Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning writer-director whose credits include Crash, Million Dollar Baby and Letters From Iwo Jima, has left the Church of Scientology. In a letter, he writes that the Church's "public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and
  lesbian citizens of California – rights that were granted them by the
  Supreme Court of our state – shames us." [Showbiz 411]
• Patrick Swayze's widow, Lisa Niemi, will speak publicly for the first time tomorrow at a women's conference in Long Beach, CA on a panel on loss and grieving with Elizabeth Edwards and actress Susan St. James, both of whom lost children in accidents. [NY Post]
• A man named Robert George says Glee hates women. [NY Post]
• "Fatboy Slim was 'too drunk' to have a baby." [Daily Express]
• Nadya "Octomom" Suleman's Halloween costume is horrifying, but maybe not in the way you think. [NY Post]
• Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. His rep says he is "now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year." [AP]
• James Gandolfini and Al Sharpton seem to be having a bromance. [Page Six]
• Unsolicited uterus update: Jenna Elfman talks about how her second pregnancy is harder than her first. [E!]
• In a random online poll, Twilight's Edward Cullen has been named favorite vampire. [Mirror]
• A Run-DMC musical on Broadway? It's tricky. [Gatecrasher]
• "[I was] freaking out. Dying inside. But then when the towel dropped I was like, 'fuck that.' You just have to relax, and it's just like you're taking a shower at your house. There is no one around, you are taking a shower, it's very simple. I literally took a shower the way I take a shower." — Gilles Marini, on his Sex And The City nude scene. [BlackBook]
• "I was still showing up to work but I wasn't nearly as good as I should have been. Jon and the guys said, 'Hey, you've gotta take care of this and you've gotta take care of this now.'" — Richie Sambora, on his Bon Jovi bandmates staging an intervention and urging him to enter rehab. [Daily Express]
• Q: If you could have been born in a different century, which would it be?
  A: "Roman times. You never had to leave the couch." — Ozzy Osbourne. [Telegraph]
• "The nude scenes never felt magical. They felt like a pain in the arse." — Eric Bana on The Time Traveler's Wife. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• "We didn't have trailers. That's unheard of. After Season 2, for two seasons we had a communal trailer that we all shared — me, Larry [David], Jeff [Garlin], Cheryl [Hines], any of the guests stars, we were all in the same trailer. Changing together, using the same bathroom. You think those Sex and the City girls didn't have trailers from day one? Oh yes they did!" — Susie Essman on the early days of Curb Your Enthusiasm. [Page Six]
• "I remember thinking, 'I don't know if I can do radio.' I never even listen to it. [But] There's no censorship. That's why I said yes. I couldn't imagine doing a show where I'd once again have to answer to corporate interests." — Rosie O'Donnell, on her new radio show, which she can do from home. She adds: "I don't even have a bra on! That's the best part of this job." [USA Today]
• "I take pride in saying I'm a fat girl, fabulous and thick, fluffy and tender, full and tasty. Don't it just make you happy to say that? Big from birth. Nine pounds, 13 ounces. They told my mother it was baby fat and I would grow out of it. At 41 years old, I am now 217 pounds. I didn't grow out of it. I grew into it… Am I wrong for not saying that beauty has to be blonde hair and blue eyes and a size zero? Now, that is beautiful. But beauty is also black with nappy hair, and it could be a size 52. Beauty comes in everything. It's what your eyes perceive to be beautiful. I just don't choose to buy into the foolishness of what this country says we deem is beauty. Who are you?" — Mo'Nique, who also talks about losing weight for her health, at the link. [CBS News]

• Marisa Miller has earned the most coveted position of all the Victoria's Secret runway girls: Wearer Of The Diamond-Studded Bra. Her equipment costs $3 million. "It's surprisingly comfortable," says Miller. Sure looks it. [People]

• Sir Paul Smith would love it "if fashion shows died out completely." The 63-year-old British designer explains, shows are "pure, self-indulgent theatre. How many girls were there this year in horns or neck braces with bare breasts? It wouldn't matter if they didn't take it all so seriously, but the fashion world is a dangerous, superficial and fickle place." [Telegraph]
• Although the press sometimes jumps all over Anna Wintour for repeating her outfits, it's something she does all the time, and will continue to do, because who wears clothes once, for God's sake? "I usually wear the same dress twenty times. I think it's always fun to have something new, but it doesn't mean that everything you already have in your closet has to be thrown out, you know? Recycle." [The Cut]
• The USAToday and W did the hard work of "parsing" Amelia Earhart's style. You know her, she's that woman famous for...wearing pants. [USAToday]
• Donatella Versace tells a Vogue reader who says she would buy clothes in larger sizes, if Versace made them, that "I certainly wouldn't want to do a plus-size line, as I have no problem with women of any size wearing my clothes. I guess some styles lend themselves to being scaled up, while some others just don't work." Versace's own daughter, Allegra, has struggled with anorexia. [Style.com]
• Donatella hosted a party for the Whitney, and a lot of celebrities came. (Since when are Lindsay Lohan and Taylor Momsen "just-wanna-have-fun blondes"?) Also in attendance at what was, you know, an art benefit were Chuck Close and Ellsworth Kelly. [Style.com]
• Meanwhile, that equally tanned and fashionable Italian female, Gucci creative director Frida Giannini, is headed to Yonkers today to cut the ribbon with Mary J. Blige on something called the Mary J. Blige Center for Women. [P6]
• Somebody should tell Mark Ronson that what he has designed for Gucci is not in fact a sneaker, but a boat shoe. The eyelets give it away. [Hypebeast]
• Karl Lagerfeld is heading to Argentina. Lest you think it's to enjoy some steak and a nice Malbec, know this: "I only go to places if I have a professional reason. I'm not a tourist." He'll be shooting Freja Beha Erichsen, Baptiste GIabiconi, and Claudia Schiffer in the next Chanel campaign — what, no Lara Stone? — and researching a book about Argentine architecture. [WWD]
• London Fog's holiday ad campaign features Tony Parker and Eva Longoria. There's got to be a Mad Men joke here somewhere. [People]
• Meanwhile, John Galliano himself has revealed that the spring Dior campaign will star Karlie Kloss. [WWD]
• Grace Kelly and Cartier are each getting stars on the Walk of Style on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. [HoustonChronicle]
• Angelina Jolie is apparently in talks with Ridley Scott to star in a film about the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci. [Variety]
• Tom Ford, the man Maurizio had hired to revitalize the brand, says he will do women's wear again. Just as soon as he can get financing. [WWD]
• The Times' Critical Shopper, Cintra Wilson, went to Ann Taylor. She didn't expect to like it, but then: "Clothing companies, when they panic, tend to go rococo. They get flashier, busier and more disposable by slapping on bigger logos and more useless bows and frippery. Ann Taylor must be commended for choosing less clutter and better details that aren't always: the finished seams inside a little faille opera jacket; the velvet ribbon inside the waist of a peplum coat; the Italian three-season wool." [NYTimes]
• Iconix Brand Group, the company behind everything from Candie's to Badgley Mischka, has been fined $250,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for violating certain provisions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act when it collected information during some of its promotions last year. [Crain's]
• Burberry is suing the U.K.-based pet supply store Pets At Home for using a checked fabric the company says is too similar to its own. Pets At Home, which has 250 stores, has pulled the offending products, but the dispute is ongoing. Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey told the New Yorker earlier this year about suing a pet store that advertised a dog cushion "in the famous Burberry check." [Guardian]
• Maybe the answer is that Burberry should make like Mulberry, and do its own line of pet clothes. [FWD]
• More details about the city's planned fashion incubator in the garment district have emerged: New York will subsidize 12 slots in a 10,000 sq. ft. space, reducing the rent from $2,900 to $1,500 a month. The designers, who are being selected right now, will also have access to mentoring and support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. It's not for students fresh out of school: every designer must have already been in business for at least a year, and employ a staff (even if that staff is volunteer). What a wonderful use for a vacant showroom floor. [NYTimes]
  
• Australian denim brand Ksubi is going to do a lower-priced line with the department store David Jones. And possibly another one with Topshop. [Sassybella]
• Anhropologie is extending its reach across the Atlantic. Its first European store opens on Friday in London. [WWD]

You want glitz? Galliano serves up a disco-Grecian-harlequin snow queen! Obviously.


So pretty - and the bubbles add to the 20s (or Lawrence Welk) flair!


Can't say I'm sold on the whole "transparency" trend - and dread seeing its "reality" incarnation - but this eccentric Victorian widow almost makes me a believer. Almost.


I wouldn't have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes that you could mix "20s," "90s," and "sinister dress-up."


Very Kiki de Montparnasse. And yes, she was considered avante-garde!


A hint of a smile is good! It just adds to this flapper-manque's mystery!


...although I guess harlequins are allowed to be sad.

[Images via Getty]

Girlish ruffles in a sweet spring frock!

Dazzling, crystal-encrusted evening wear!

Naughty nightie styles!

Pretend to be Ingrid Bergman in Notorious!

Boudoir-inspired beauty!

Positively Rita Hayworth!

Shimmer and shine! Glitz and glam!

Hedy Lamarr would be so jealous!

Time to rent Joan Bennett's The Woman In The Window!

Check into a hotel using the name Lana Turner!

Or Ava Gardner!

Make sure you have an innocent look and an alibi!

He's just a Bogart, looking for his Bacall!

Fashion is often accused of being beyond parody because it does such a good job on its own. Lately, especially. It made waves when Erin Wasson declared that the vagrants in Venice Beach were her fashion inspirations ("The people with the best style, for me, are the people that are the poorest...I'm like, oh my god, you're pulling out like crazy looks. They pulled shit out of like garbage bags") - but it turns out she was prescient! Now, according to the Times, everyone from designer Keanan Duffty to the September W have come out in support of homeless style - never mind that they were probably inspired more by what was clean, warm, and available than the runway trends. And that's in the cases where the muses are not being "inspired" by chic mental illness and substance abuse! Unlike the Bush family, they've apparently never seen Zoolander.

The objections are almost too obvious to enumerate. As when Galliano unleashed his parade of bums in straitjackets, words like "out of touch" and "exploitative" spring to mind with the agility of a tipsy Roberto Cavalli. The solipsism of casting someone else's survival in one's own aggressively superficial terms, on the other hand, nearly defies language. Now, let it be said that while I'm perpetuating the lumping-together of Scott "Sartorialist" Schuman's controversial feature of a homeless man with these other incidents of pov-sploitation, in fact I do see a distinction. Schuman takes thousands of pictures a year, of people whose looks catch his eye, not all of whom are fashionistas but many of whom merely, be design or otherwise, bring something interesting to their outfits. To not have pictured the guy he did would, arguably, have been self-conscious and patronizing. Lots of different people can have style, and Schuman treated him as an individual. This is a crucial distinction.

What struck me most while reading the Times piece was how not merely how out of touch this all feels - but how out of touch it is! If this wave of homeless chic is a nod to the recession, well, what about the fact that homelessness, as we've been told, has a new face? Sure, many people "look" homeless as we understand it. But if anything, the recent financial turmoil has been characterized by the number of middle and working-class casualties, people who might not look "homeless enough" to qualify as a fashion inspiration, but who are also dealing with very real and growing problems of being without jobs and homes. In a sense, this full-scale embrace of the classic "beggar" aesthetic is practically nostalgic: a look back at a time when rich was rich and poor was poor and everyone dressed for his role. Now, the lines are blurred, and for the people actually living the life of these muses, life probably involves a lot of shades of gray - whether or not that's big for Fall.

Aware Of The Homeless? Well, You Could Say That [NY Times]
Homeless Chic Comes Full Circle [BlackBook]

A Whole New Meaning to Homeless-Chic [FashionWeekDaily]

Changing Face Of Homelessness [Washington Times]
Youth Homelessness In America [Suite101]
Face Of Homeless Is Changing [SeattleTimes]

• For the September issue of Harper's Bazaar, the magazine interviewed Karl Lagerfeld, speaking as Coco Chanel. In character, the Grand Teuton shared such idiotic reflections as: "I was never a feminist because I was never ugly enough for that." [FWD]

• A very painterly, Frenchified image of 90s supe Linda Evangelista made the grade as John Galliano's fall campaign. [SassyBella]
• On Sunday, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., hosted an exhibition of the Indonesian batik textiles collected by President Obama's mother, Anne Dunham, during her years in the country. There were traditional Indonesian dance and music performances, and fashion shows from two Indonesian designers. [WWD]
• Victoria Beckham has decided not to renew her contract with Emporio Armani, apparently because she wants to concentrate on her dress line. [UK Vogue]
• Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller has acquired a 51% stake in Storm, the London model agency that represents such top names as Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn, Eva Herzigova, and Lily Cole. [Telegraph]
• This fall is going to be an exciting time for designer fast-fashion lines. Unrolling next season at a chain near you: Jimmy Choo for H&M, Stella McCartney for Gap Kids, Anna Sui for Target, Christopher Kane for TopShop, Adam Lippes for Mango, and, uh, Lauren Conrad for Kohl's. [TS]
• Add to that list Jil Sander's hotly anticipated +J line for Uniqlo, which will begin hitting stores in October. The 140-piece collection is believed to start at around $25. [Fashionologie]
• Stars like Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Emeril Lagasse, and Martha Stewart are promoting Macy's "Come Together" program, a special night of dinner parties intended to inspire charitable giving. Americans are asked to host a special dinner in their homes, and solicit donations to Feeding America, in lieu of any gifts for the host. Macy's will match those donations until enough money has been raised to serve 10 million meals to poor families this fall and winter. You can register a dinner party or get new information at Come Together. [People]
• Are you a man? Are you really, really ridiculously good-looking? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Calvin Klein underwear model? Do you live in one of nine European countries? In that case, you might be in luck: to launch a new underwear line, Calvin Klein is holding a model search. Jamie Dornan will be one of the judges. [WWD]
• "She's like, 'What about Maximilian? Bruno? Sebastian? Hector? Guido?' I always tell her I'll put it on my list." Karolina Kurkova's Slovak mother sure does have interesting taste in baby boy names. [USAToday]
• Donald Fisher, the Gap founder, and his wife Doris spent the last 50 years collecting art by such eminent figures as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alexander Calder. But San Francisco preservationists have nixed the Fishers' plans to build a museum in the Presidio, a historic military base inside the city. The Fishers would prefer to keep the priceless collection in San Francisco, perhaps at the De Young or at the SFMOMA, but after the rejection of their standalone museum idea, other art museums are actively wooing the couple. [LATimes]
• Australian Merino lambs are routinely mulesed — that is, they have the skin around their buttocks cut off, often without anaesthetic, to prevent a disease called flystrike, which occurs when flies lay maggots in the folds of the lambs' skin, and those maggots then commence eating the animals' flesh. Although flystrike is horrifying, many animal rights activists are even more aghast at the mulesing, and with Australian farmers now announcing that they will fail to meet an agreed-upon 2010 deadline for ending the practice, some top fashion chains are discussing a ban on Australian merino wool. In which case, might I suggest New Zealand merino as an alternative? New Zealand is already phasing out mulesing. [Guardian]
• Heidi Klum had to close her five-year-old jewelry line because of a trademark infringement lawsuit from Van Cleef & Arpels, who objected to her use of its signature clover design. "We stopped because we had a lawsuit with Van Cleef & Arpels — they wanted to have the clover, even though our designs had never matched," said the supermodel. "I think when you're a small company, which we are, we're not a Van Cleef — they have a thousand lawyers. I'm a small fry next to that." [LATimes]
• Imagine the delicate hell of being a parts model: "Most people can walk away from work when they're done with a job, but parts models can't, because [our parts] have to be flawless. I moisturize 20 to 30 times a day, and wear gloves 90 percent of the time," says hand model Ashley Covington. [CNN]
• Coach C.E.O. Lew Frankfort, who has been with the company for 30 years, extended his contract until 2013. [Crain's]
• Paula Dorf cosmetics is bankrupt. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing more than 50 creditors a total of $3.9 million. [Crain's]
• K Swiss lost $11.5 million in the second quarter of this year. Last year, they made a $26.4 million profit in the same period. [WWD]
• Astoundingly, high-end children's clothing is also suffering in this economy. A Connecticut store that sold $995 Peter Som girls' dresses close its doors this summer, and companies are dialing back their kids lines. [WSJ]
• A new strategy in the open question of how, and whom, to sue over the online trade in counterfeit luxury goods: after the failure to get auction sites like eBay held accountable — L'Oréal lost its multi-million-dollar suit, and Steve Madden had to drop its lawsuit just last week — Gucci has hit upon suing the credit card processing companies. The lawsuit accuses the companies of facilitating the sale of fake purses, and names the companies "full partners in those counterfeiting activities." Gucci has already wrangled a $5.2 million settlement from the Laurette Company, which runs the website TheBagAddiction.com, where counterfeit bags were often sold, and the credit card processing companies are those companies which worked closely with Laurette. [Reuters]

• Nicolas Ghesquière picked the intolerably cool Charlotte Gainsbourg to advertise Balenciaga's perfume. Ghesquière calls his friend "one of the most inspiring girls in the world." Gainsbourg said, "I was secretly hoping to be the face of Nicolas' first perfume." [WWD]

• Sources are saying Rihanna has an editorial, shot by Steven Klein, in Italian Vogue's September issue. [Fashionologie]
• Julia Restoin-Roitfelt, French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld's daughter, is the face of a new perfume by Jil Sander. [NowSmellThis]
• Hold onto your quirky hats, everybody! There's going to be a new hour-long television drama set in the New York fashion world. Because it's going to star a lady, it'll be just like the new Sex And The City! Isn't that exciting? [Variety]
• The ten finalists in this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund are: Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel; Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin; Patrik Ervell, Sophie Theallet, Waris Ahluwalia of House of Waris, Wayne Lee of Wayne, George Esquivel of Esquivel Shoes, Gary Graham, Monique Péan, and Simon Spurr of Spurr. Congratulations to them all! The winners of the six-year-old cash and mentorship award will be announced on November 16; past honorees include Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, and Doo-Ri Chung. [WWD]
• Doo-Ri Chung is just one of many designers whose business has been hurt by the economic downturn. Chung is owed more than $60,000 by the owners of Jake, a small, independent Chicago boutique. Specialty retailers have been among the hardest-hit in the whole retail sector, but the two men behind Jake, Jim Wetzel and Lance Lawson, actually managed to reorganize their company when it went bankrupt, and continue on as employees of a new entity, the Jake Retail Group. Except that Jake Retail Group did not assume liability for any of the store's debts — meaning that Chung, plus other young designers like Brian Réyes, Tina Lutz and Marsha Patmos of Lutz & Patmos, and Emma Fletcher of Lyell, are out tens of thousands of dollars each for clothes they made and shipped, and Jake sold, but which haven't been paid for. [NYTimes]
• Lyle Lodwick, brother of fameballer Jakob, is a male model. He says that male models take their jobs less seriously than women models do — which is generally true — but also that women models are, naturally, bitchier. "I've heard horror stories of girls putting needles in a girl's shoes so when she's on the runway she'll fall over." Lodwick: Whichever sweet model lady told you that is pulling your leg. [TDB]
• Ossie Clark, the iconic British label that was briefly revived by private investors, is closing again. [WWD]
• The occasion of Berlin designer Patrick Mohr's recent homelessness-themed collection, where he had homeless people walk his runway caked in mud, is used to peg a list of other politically edgy collections of varying levels of success — like John Galliano's own Spring 2000 homelessness-themed couture work, Rei Kawakubo's 1995 Comme des Garçons collection that looked like concentration camp victim uniforms, and Karl Lagerfeld's 1994 appropriation of verses from the Koran. Somehow, the list ends with nary a mention of Miguel Adrover's 2001 MeetEast collection, which was so widely panned it drove the talented designer out of business. [TDB]
• Alber Elbaz: ""The people I chose to run my new store in London are nice. I cannot work with bitches, I can't, I can't. Maybe I am too sensitive, I get blocked. There are some people who don't give a damn. With me, I find that if there is no energy flowing or no connection, I can't think. Talent is amazing - I love it, appreciate it. I respect talent a lot. But if you ask me, ‘Talent and bitch, or less talent and good?' I'll go with less talent." [MyFashionLife]
• New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo caught the firm behind the "Lifestyle Lift" cosmetic surgery procedure posting fake customer reviews and testimonials on the Internet — and won a $300,000 settlement for the astroturfing. [Clickz]
• U.K. lingerie maker Intimas is in bankruptcy administration. Around 200 jobs are at risk. [ToL]
• Liz Claiborne, which has been struggling in the recession, renewed its C.E.O. William McComb's contract, but didn't give him a raise — just a bigger bonus. [WSJ]
• That story about how Crocs are going bust is getting written again, this time kind of artlessly. [WaPo]
• In the second quarter, net income at Joe's Jeans fell 17.8%, on a same-store sales decline of 4.3% [WWD]
• Chemists have traditionally been unable to produce fabrics that are reliably water-repellent when doused with hot, instead of cold, water. Which is why the development of a hydrophobic fabric coating that can repel hot water is potentially exciting news. Scientists think it could have applications in protective clothing, for instance for people who are at risk of scalding burns. [NS]

• Britney Spears' second trip out the gate for Candie's is an equestrian-themed acid-trip Photoshopped to ridiculousness. [DListed]
• No Shit Headline Of The Day: "New Report Sees Luxury Struggling." [WWD]

• Megan Fox said at the Armani Privé couture show that she is going to star in a fashion campaign for "a worldwide brand." [WWD]
• Lipstick sales may not actually spike during a recession, but that doesn't mean you can't make money off the colorful tubes. If you want to have a go at naming designer Chris Benz's shade of Lancôme lipstick, which will be worn by models at his September show as well as sold to the public, you could win a $500 gift certificate and a whole bunch of the lipsticks. And even if you aren't into lipsticks, you can re-sell these limited-edition rouges on eBay. One of Proenza Schouler's Lancôme lipsticks went for $120. Write your suggestions on Benz's Facebook fan page and wait for the money to roll in. [Fashionista]
• Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs wore a giant, caped caftan printed with lobsters and multi-colored eyeballs to Glastonbury. She topped it off with a Native-American-inspired headdress made of fringed hands of Fatima. [British Vogue]
• Meanwhile Roberto Cavalli, the animal-print-enamored designer who says "I don't know anything about the financial crisis," is opening a made-to-measure service. While it won't technically be a couture collection, it will hit a couture price point: The cheapest item is a $41,000 cocktail dress. [WWD]
• Louise Wilson, head of the fashion design M.A. program at Central St. Martins in London, shared some harsh words for her students and her industry in an interview with Cathy Horyn. "There are immensely talented people around but I feel huge vortexes of them are sucked into this mediocre world where nobody criticizes and it's all terribly politically correct. Even journalists are the same. You now hardly get a bad a review. In their mind the journalists are supporting the industry, so they don't want to dish it. For me it's that banality of what is youth....[A]nother thing I've noticed today — everything is farmed out. Someone else is going to cut it, and someone else is going to supply the fabrics. The hands-on gets more and more removed. If Lee McQueen or Christopher Kane had nothing, they could still make their garments. They have the skills. I think the problem is that fashion has become too fashionable. For years, fashion wasn't fashionable. Today fashion is so fashionable that it's almost embarrassing to say you're part of fashion. All the parodies of it. All the dreadful magazines. That has destroyed it as well, because everybody thinks fashion is attainable." [OnTheRunway]
• For her part, Miley Cyrus says of her upcoming collection for Wal-Mart, designed with Max Azria, "The jeans are my favorite part of the entire line. Because, like, literally this is going to be good for, like, Middle America, and it will be great for kids that really want to be in fashion but that don't have it available." [Sassybella]
• Cheaper designer clothes are our manifest economic destiny! Retailers are requesting collections be produced to hit a much wider range of price points — and designers are mostly happy to comply. [WWD]
• After winning the Council of Fashion Designers of America womenswear award last month for their label Rodarte, the Mulleavy sisters vacationed at Yellowstone National Park, where they saw herds of bison. They would like to go to Redwood National Park next. [W]
• Unsurprisingly, the Dior atelier was a hive of activity prior to yesterday's couture show, the first the company has done in-house in some time. The seamstresses and tailors worked through the night, and the towering floral displays took 4,000 roses to construct. The audience of 500 was actually smaller than the crowds were at some of Christian Dior's own shows at the salon in the 1950s, because fire codes now prevent, for example, letting guests sit on the stairs. [WWD]
• New York Times critic Cathy Horyn's review just went up on her blog. She liked Galliano's collection, although she did admit to needing to "mentally erase the distraction" of certain of the lingerie-inspired elements. "Despite the archive references, the collection didn't feel archival. Every delicate, restrained tuck of the jackets made the difference, as did the emphasis on short dresses and modest splashes of embroidery. There were a few big skirts at the end, including one with a tiny beige silk corset and layers of white tulle, but longer lengths now seem as annoying as Rapunzel's hair. Oh, just chop it off." [OnTheRunway]
• Horyn also put up pictures of model Magdalena Frackowiak reading Proust while her hair was crimped to perfection. [OnTheRunway]
• A judge has upheld designer Anand Jon Alexander's convictions for rape and sexual assault of young women models despite juror misconduct. During the trial, one juror passed a note to Sanjana Alexander, the designer's sister, and she subsequently called him, twice, to discuss the case. Sanjana Alexander alleged the juror asked for money or sex as a bribe to influence the verdict, but this was not evident from her secret recording of one conversation. The judge held that both Sanjana Alexander and the juror, Alvin Dymally, committed misconduct, and found them both to be in contempt of court, but did not agree that the "trifling" misconduct cast doubt upon the jury's verdicts. Anand Jon Alexander, who was automatically sentenced to life in prison, has vowed to appeal. [LATimes]
• On the President's trip to Russia to talk about nuclear weapons, Michelle Obama wore Narciso Rodriguez and the same Sonia Rykiel plastic belt she wore on the cover of O. Malia and Sasha Obama wore J. Crew's kid's line, Crewcuts. [E]
• When they left U.S. soil, Michelle Obama was wearing the Talbots dress from her Essence cover, Sasha was wearing more Crewcuts — and Malia appears to be wearing a See by Chloé skirt. Designer birthday present? [ABC]

Like this one, which we could imagine actually taking flight.


The collection was presented at Dior's gray salon on Avenue Montaigne. The label's PR department tried to play the move as a return to the essence of the brand, but it can't be entirely coincidental that Dior has sought to avoid the expense of a location show in a year when all the major couture houses are expecting significant drops in orders.


Makeup artist Pat McGrath gave everyone Dovima brows.


Hat or sea anemone?


Hat.

Hat or daisy?


Hat.


John Galliano named this collection "C'est la fievre de la cabine", or Cabine Fever ("cabine" in French means both "cabin" and "dressing room.") Which explains all the lingerie-inspired touches, like visible girdles, visible slips, and visible stockings.


As well as occasional total bottomlessness.


Did we say occasional?


Clearly, the whole no pants thing remains hot for fall.


Not that Mr. Galliano doesn't throw toplessness a bone now and then!


There's a reason Tyra calls it "couture pose."


Let's hold an imaginary pose-off, right now!


Even 1987 Madonna can't deny the appeal of the clavicle-pushing shoulder hunch.


But this girl wins.


Chanel Iman's hat is giving off shades of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding.


Galliano loves his sheer fabrics. And when he can cut like that, who can blame him?


Some of these dresses, however, we have seen before.


Is this what we can expect from designers right now? Is it the economy, all those "consumers want to invest in classic pieces" warnings taken too much to heart? Whatever has driven Galliano back into the archives can't but disappoint those acquainted with the range of his genius. It remains to be seen whether customers will fork over tens of thousands for dresses that are merely beautiful.


But when he's on, he's on.

• Rodarte's Laura and Kate Mulleavy scooped up the Women's Wear award at last night's CFDAs. In another surprise, the menswear prize was a tie between Calvin Klein's Italo Zucchelli and Band of Outsiders' Scott Sternberg. [WWD]

• Having lost the women's wear prize to the Mulleavy sisters, and the accessories award to Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs won only the International Award, which had been pre-announced. The consolation of already having a bunch of CFDAs to his name must have nipped any sour grapes in the bud. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world," he said during an emotional acceptance speech. "I have two amazing jobs and I work with the greatest people." Fellow special award winner Michelle Obama, accepted hers via a pre-taped video. [Style.com]
• Michelle Obama's husband, the President, is now considered by other men to be the most stylish man in the world. [Reuters]
• Jacobs, of course, still has a wedding to look forward to. The designer plans to wed his Brazilian fiancé in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but the date is a closely guarded secret. Some Provincetowners were sure the wedding even happened last weekend. [WWD]
• Stop the presses: Dolce & Gabbana are lowering their prices by 10-20%, without hurting quality, simply by eliminating waste from their production chain. This leaves Versace and who else clinging to pre-recession pricing? [WWD]
• Katy Perry, born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, has long maintained she wants to start a clothing label. So she's doing her due diligence by having her lawyers threaten an Australian designer named Katie Perry, born Katie Perry. Perry, who has been in business two years and trades under her own name, says lawyers for the pop star, "asked me to give up the trademark, withdraw sale of my clothes, withdraw any advertising and any websites, and sign that I will not in the future use a similar trademark to Katy Perry. I pretty much burst into tears." Smooth move, Hudson. [News.com.au]
• The 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week this September might just be a big enough event that Anna Wintour will have to squeeze it into her schedule. In addition to Matthew Williamson and Burberry confirming plans to show in London for the first time in years, the 17 winners of TopShop's sponsorship for the NewGen line-up have just been confirmed. And they include a raft of exciting up-and-coming names — Mark Fast, Mary Katrantzou, Peter Pilotto — and, uh, Henry Holland. Is Agyness's BFF taking a spot from those who might warrant it, or is Holland honestly so hard up he still can't show under his own steam? [Telegraph]
• The graduate fashion shows in London last weekend were apparently awash with talent. Says the Independent's writer, "Anatomical imagery was another trope used to the same effect, both unnervingly and with a sense of humour. Central St. Martin's graduate Kye showed a sweet knitted jumper decorated with a to-scale representation of the model's digestive system." Funny, where have we seen that before? [Independent]
• Crombie, the moderately priced British suit label, might save Aquascutum from bankruptcy, after all. [WWD]
• The Victoria & Albert museum is having a hard time sourcing clothes for its planned John Galliano retrospective because so many of the garments desired have been worn past the point of museum display quality. That's got to make Galliano feel pretty good. [Fashionista]
• In further evidence of British fashion supremacy, Stephen Jones has made Jasmine Guinness an absolutely superb, breathtaking hat. It looks like two sundials fighting, beautifully. [Telegraph]
• Gisele's May cover of Vanity Fair was the mag's worst-selling issue on the newsstand in almost two years. The Brazilian supermodel's April cover of Harper's Bazaar was its worst-seller since Drew Barrymore made the cover last November. While I personally don't want to read about Gisele in Vanity Fair any more than I do Paris Hilton, this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of model covers for fashion magazines. [NY Observer]
• Jessica Simpson's swimwear, hitting stores this December, will retail at $15.50-$25 for tops and bottoms, and up to $58 for cover-ups. [WWD]
• Animal-rights activism has hurt the fur trade significantly in the U.S. and Western Europe — but emerging markets, like China and Russia, have picked up the slack in sales. The industry as a whole still had revenues of nearly $12 billion in 2004. 85% of the world's fur currently comes from farms, not wild trapping, which might be considered progress, depending on your position. [SciAm]
• Executive Vice President of Prada Carlo Mazzi confirmed the Financial Times' anonymously sourced story that the company was in negotiations to restructure its debt. "It is true. It's the normal activity of the company, the normal rescheduling of finance," said Mazzi. Prada has a total debt of around 1.1 billion Euros, but the amount under discussion is $483.9 million owed by the holding company to two main banks, and set to mature this summer. Prada would like an extra year or two with the money. [Reuters]
• The re-opened auction for the bankrupt Filene's Basement chain was won by a joint bid from Syms, the New Jersey-based discount chain, and Vornado Realty, the landlord of Filene's flagship in Boston Crossing. Syms/Vornado's $62.4 million offer was accepted even though opponents Crown realty and the Men's Wearhouse bid $64.9 million, because Syms/Vornado's bid included more Filene's stores. [WWD]
• New Balance is planning a marketing campaign touting its domestic manufacturing. A quarter of its shoes are either made or assembled in the U.S. [AdAge]

The recession has already spawned its own language of buzzwords, as if the right combination of meaningful letters whispered in the consumer's ear will suddenly unlock her wallet: there's "investment" fashion, "green" fashion, the "new vintage." (That one sold out, so perhaps Stefano Pilati's on to something.) "Ethical" fashion. We're told there will be "slow" fashion, to match our slow food. There's the fantasy that we'll all start making our own clothes, and the competing theories that we'll have more of our clothes made in America — or that we'll continue having more made overseas.

What this confusion of language speaks to is the underlying truth that this recession will permanently change the apparel industry — and the profound uncertainties that still cloud what those changes will be. How we dress, how we shop, how we are marketed to, where our clothes come from and who makes them are all up for reconsideration. The propagation of inanities like the concept of "investment" dressing is just evidence that even most industry experts are only grasping at straws, like the rest of us.

Cathy Horyn was asked to speak on fashion and the economy last week at an event for Citi's Women & Co., a $125-a-year members-only women's professional organization run by the bank. Horyn's speech, a "trimmed" version of which she later posted to her blog, and then chased with more thoughts yesterday, amounted to a kind of fashion state of the union.

Horyn gets down to business by assessing the state of fashion before this recession began — and noting how it's different than past periods of economic instability. The downturn of the early 2000s, she argues, barely registered in fashion (in 2001, consumer spending actually increased). The late 90s and the early 2000s, taken together, were a period of remarkable consolidation and expansion in the rag trade. As Horyn explains,

This was the era when luxury groups were being formed — when Saint Laurent sold out to Gucci, when Bernard Arnault hired John Galliano and Marc Jacobs to shake up Dior and Vuitton respectively, when Prada made a bid for global power by buying Jil Sander and Helmut Lang, and when PPR eventually took control of Gucci...This shift from a largely craft-based, family-owned culture to a brand management culture mirrored what was happening in the financial markets, in the explosion in the art markets, and the excitement surrounding new architecture, particularly in countries like China and Dubai. Dress codes and divisions of all kinds have been breaking down for years — we scarcely notice when someone mixes high-low elements. But the late 90s and early 2000s saw fashion's ivory tower crumble a little more as designers became ardent marketers — selling the image rather than, in some cases, the clothes. In 2001, Marc Jacobs brought out the Vuitton bag splashed with Stephen Sprouse graffiti. It was followed by the Murakami bag, along with those indelible, digitally enhanced advertising images by the photographers Mert and Marcus. These designs were plainly creative, but the point is these bags were not precious objects. They expressed perfectly the blending of art and commerce, and insolence over elegance — a mood also conveyed in the ironic images of the photographer Juergen Teller, who for more than a decade has created Jacobs' ad campaigns for his own label, including the one of Victoria Beckham as a commoditized celebrity in a shopping bag.

So the recession of 2001 did not throw anyone off the rails.

In many ways, Louis Vuitton is the perfect embodiment of this grading-down of luxury. Until the 80s, Louis Vuitton was just another nice French handbag brand, perhaps known for quality and definitely known for high prices, sure, but not a "fashion" brand with much season-to-season variance, and certainly not a true "luxury" one either. Its coated-canvas monogram wares were widely available and sold in department stores like any other high-end bag; for nearly 20 years, handbags were even made under license for the U.S. market. Then that all changed: Louis Vuitton restricted the sale of its bags to its standalone boutiques, and started aggressively associating its bags with luxury and status through advertising. Naturally, the company raised its prices, which only raised its cachet. But the Speedy 30 that was sold off the shelf at Saks in 1980 is still fundamentally the same bag that runs $700 at Louis Vuitton's own store today. It was a triumph effected with marketing and precious little besides; the bags did not noticeably change or actually become more "luxurious" in their trip up from "good brand" to "luxury brand." But we bought them anyway. Now the deal isn't looking so good.

The stock market crash of 1973 and the long period of stagflation that ensued, as Horyn remarks, is a formal pendant for the current economic situation: a Wall St. crisis that spurred a recession in the "real" economy. But within the apparel industry, too much has changed to allow for any direct analogy between then and now:

In the mid 70[s], fashion was also a relatively small, familial world, with manufacturers forming relationships with stores through expert buyers, and styles evolving slowly. In 1975, a widely popular style was the quilted Chinese jacket, no doubt influenced by the opening of diplomatic relations with China. I am reminded of a conversation I had years ago with the comic Sandra Bernhard, who told me that when she began to do stand-up, she would include as part of her act a reading from Women's Wear Daily's pages. That's how strange and remote the fashion world seemed — those socialite names sounded exotic. By contrast, in the past decade, fashion has become a marketing tool for all kinds of non-fashion products, from stylish cell phones to boutique hotels. And, for better or worse, it has transformed urban neighborhoods, like the Meatpacking District in New York or South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas.

So what is next? And what are the issues on the table, according to Horyn?

[T]his recession is different. Just about every luxury group and upscale retail chain has reported declines, and no category, with the exception perhaps of watches, is performing very well. Private investment in fashion companies is virtually non-existent, and there is very little acquisition activity. Of course, part of the problem is over-capacity — there's just too much stuff around.

That's not strictly true; certain luxury categories are performing well. Hermès leather goods division — the sector of the company that sells $50,000 crocodile handbags with a three-year waiting list — experienced a 21.7% jump in sales during the first quarter of this year. (It's the expensive but comparatively lower-priced goods, like watches and perfumes, that aren't doing so well for the French brand.) But other luxury companies are deeply troubled. Harry Winston and Tiffany's both just released quarterly results that were marked by steep losses.

Horyn sees the industry facing challenges along two primary axes. For one, there will continue to be steep growth in consumer spending in emerging markets, like Asia and South America — especially at the high end of the retail continuum. While the recession might be stalling luxury spending in Japan, it won't stop growth in China and India. It can't. At the couture shows in Paris this January, the happiest man around was the consultant who helps introduce wealthy Indian women to the designers and advises them on which pieces to buy. (And by "piece," we are talking here of $75,000 dresses.) These consumers will be predominantly under 35, and they will want "real" luxury — not $4,000 Prada it-bags that only hold any allure for a season. There's a reason they're going to the Paris couture collections.

As for the rest of us? Horyn thinks the designers that will be successful over the coming years and after the recession will be those who cast off "history-minded" dressing and think instead of, wait for it, the future.

It involves thinking of the consequences of technology, and relating these changes more imaginatively to how we dress, how we shop — the design of stores, the potential of online magazines and stores. A "sartorial consciousness," to use Quentin Bell's term, is not limited to moral indignation; it also applies to the raw materials, the energy sources, and labor practices used in making a garment. "Green fashion" will become more and more important, and young consumers in particular will expect to see innovation and experimentation in this area — the kind they see in proposals for wind-powered skyscrapers and carbon-free transportation systems. Indeed, I am somewhat surprised that a big luxury group has not had the foresight to create a separate eco-brand of high-quality garments, with a casual yet sophisticated aesthetic. We've seen a number of niche labels, but not one that draws on the brand power and advertising reach of a luxury group.

Perhaps that's exactly what LVMH is thinking in acquiring Edun, and bringing its tremendous marketing resources and distribution network to bear on the organic cotton, sustainably-made fashion line.

Horyn's closing remarks I'll give in full:

a great many people in the fashion world would share the photographer Horst's view that "fashion is a universe full of art and excess where no one thought of the outside world," even though that statement was made about the late 1930s. This may be why many designers do not know how to fully relate the Internet to fashion — imaginatively. I mean only that it took radio roughly 40 years to reach 50 million people, while it took the Internet just 4 years to reach the same number of people.
This is the dynamic that fashion must embrace in the coming years in order to be truly creative and relevant. It's great to talk about "slow fashion" and the value of handcraft in informing our imagination. These qualities will still be important, as Paris is, but imagine the other system of thought that revolts and finally breaks free of the old world.

If that's the future of fashion, I want to be there to see it. Provided it costs less than $700 for a canvas bag.

The Bigger Picture [On The Runway]
Bic Pic: Further Thoughts [On The Runway]

Related:
Green Fashion: Is It More Than Marketing Hype? [Fast Company]
Pilati Unveils YSL "New Vintage" At Barneys [WWD]
Rethinking Outsourcing In The Recession [Forbes]
Apparel Import Slump: U.S. Importing Much Less Clothing Because Of The Recession [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Dress For Less And Less [NY Times]
In The Bag: how Hermès Beats The Recession [ABC News]
LVMH Near A Big Stake In Bono Firm [WSJ]

Earlier:
"Investing" In Your Closet Not Recommended By Actual Investment Experts
New York Times Bets Against Anna Wintour, American Vogue

That low barrier to entry might just be what left the septuagenarian Canadian Vietnam war correspondent feeling entitled to come to some very definite opinions about other sartorial matters during the course of his reporting on Anna Wintour for last night's 60 Minutes. I edited the juiciest examples of Safer's judgments on his newfound area of expertise into the clip at left.

Exposure to the month-long rigmarole of the international ready-to-wear season made Safer so cranky he seems to have forgotten the London shows even existed, as he blithely elides them from his list of fashion weeks. But seated there in the front row, with Wintour as his guide, Safer at least learned enough to confidently diss Karl Lagerfeld's "Dracula" look, and accuse Italian Vogue's legendary Anna Piaggi of being "campy." He calls models "as angry as they are emaciated" while footage of Alyona Osmanova in the fall/winter Prada show rolls. Then his camera zooms in on the straining sleevecap of John Galliano's suit as Safer, in perfect underminey ladymagspeak, intones that "some might say" the designer would benefit from "a better tailor." Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy chief executive Bernard Arnault, whom Safer later interviewed, definitely had that tailor, so the journalist gives him props. But wait! As we find out in this clip, when Safer gets a tour of the Vogue accessories closet, there's a whole lot more to style than just picking the right suit.

"I guess all of this constitutes accessories," says Safer warily, peering at rows of hats and bags. "Right!" explains a Vogue worker bee, helpfully. "Everything that is not a piece of clothing is an accessory." So much to learn, and so little time. Keep working on it, Morley!

Anna Wintour, Behind The Shades [CBS News]
More Anna Wintour Clips And Outtakes [CBS News]

• Unlike her husband, who plans on doing zero promotional work for his Adidas line, Victoria Beckham is in New York to unveil a new 20 ft Emporio Armani ad at Macy's. [UPI]

• Posh is also expanding her fashion reach, manufacturing her dVb jeans in-house in London, and signing a new sunglasses deal with maker Cutler & Gross. [WWD]
• Around 200 people waited on the street for Michelle Obama to emerge from the US mission to the UN on Tuesday. The First Lady wore the same Tracy Feith dress she wore to a post-inaugural prayer breakfast in January. [WWD]
• Three words: Target. Anna. Sui. [WWD]
• Did Kate Moss really refuse to shake Agyness Deyn's hand in the receiving line at the Met ball on Monday? [Racked]
• And did Gisele Bundchen and Bar Refaeli — ex- and current girlfriend, respectively, of Leonardo DiCaprio — have a frosty encounter at the end of the night? That sounds kind of like the last party I went to, only it was on a tiny fire escape, not at the Temple of Dendur, and the awkward partner-in-common pairing was male, not female, and, oh yeah, nobody was wearing Versace. [The Observer]
• Madonna apparently says Jesus Luz's name in the Lamb of God pronunciation, not the From South America pronunciation. [WWD]
• Dasha Zhukova, a socialite who took over Katie Grand's job at Pop despite having no editorial experience, said at Rodarte's Met afterparty, "Are we in a basement? Because this is the chicest underground party I've been to. Literally, underground." The venue, the SubMercer, is indeed underground. Well done, Dasha. [Style.com]
• Pierre Cardin was hospitalized in Marseille after a fainting episode earlier this week. He is expected to be discharged today. What, you wonder, does Pierre Cardin amuse himself with in his twilight years? Why, the meticulous restoration of the chateau of the Marquis de Sade. [AP]
• The new issue of Worldwide Women's Wear Digest is out, for anyone who tires of fashion's efforts at self-parody. [WWWD]
• Simon Doonan of Barneys asked Stella McCartney what the deal is with her and jumpsuits when the designer made an appearance at the store in New York. "I love them because they're just so effortless," McCartney replied. She then mentioned that at the Met ball, to which she wore a jumpsuit, she required the assistance of a friend every time she needed to use the rest room. Effortless, indeed. [Fashionista]
• Barneys, meanwhile, is said to be looking to close two of its seven stores, including the one it opened just last year in Las Vegas. Rumors have flown as of late about the luxury retailer's troubles. [WSJ]
• Designer Antonio Berardi says it took three attempts to be accepted at Central St. Martins, England's top fashion school — but not because his work wasn't up to scratch (he was already working in John Galliano's atelier). "I was 18 stone [252 lbs] and people didn't really see me, even in class. And, then, all of a sudden it changed and that was equally weird." [Telegraph]
• Anya Hindmarch's London Pont St. store was burglarized on Monday, and the thieves made off with just under $70,000 worth of spring and summer stock. It is the sixth time Hindmarch's stores have been targeted. You might think she'd beef up security, no? [Vogue UK]
• In a surprise move, the bankrupt Filene's Basement chain will not be liquidated by its new owners. The much-beloved designer discounter, which sells unwanted end-of-season wares from department stores at significantly lower prices, found its business fell off as high-end department stores scrambling for customers practically matched Filene's level of discounting. But the new owners, Crown Acquisitions and the Chetrit Group, who picked up the chain for only $22 million, plan to inject $25 million into inventory and marketing. Their focus will be on what they see as Filene's Basement's core customer — city-dwellers looking for a bargain. "The weakest stores they had were in the suburbs," explained the head of Crown Acquisitions. [NY Post]
• A French e-tailer is allowing users to buy items from its site for any sum they wish — so long as it's over 1 Euro and they order a maximum of two. Since this is a recession, and all. [Reuters]
• Olivier Theyskens says all that talk about him becoming creative director of Halston, now that he's been let go from Nina Ricci, is just rumors. [The Cut]
• Serena Williams did three hours on the Home Shopping Network and moved 25,000 units of her clothing and accessories. Not bad for an afternoon's work. [PR Newswire]
• Marks & Spencer, Britain's biggest lingerie retailer, has decided that all you ladies with curves should pay an extra £2 for the privilege of wearing anything larger than their D-sized bras. [Daily Mail]
• Model Katie Fogarty, on Internet folks watching videos of her fall on the Prada runway: "Whatever lightens people's days!" We're glad she sees it as a no harm, no foul situation. (And we're especially glad Fogarty didn't actually come to any harm during that mishap.) [Teen Vogue]
• True Religion jeans reported a 10% jump in earnings for the first quarter of this year, on the back of a 19% iincrease in sales. [The Street]
• Steve Madden's earnings for the same period jumped 68%. Profits were $6.6 million. [WWD]
• Kenneth Cole lost $8.2 million in the same quarter. Sales decreased by 16%. [The Street]

• This shoe is made by Christian Louboutin, out of python skin, leather, cobbler's glue, and, we assume, diamond-plated unicorn farts. Because what else could justify a $2,875 price tag? Happy recession! [The.Life.Files]

• Lindsay Lohan made the cover of Taiwan Harper's Bazaar, which a celebrity blogger initially misidentified as China Harper's Bazaar. An international incident unfolded in the comments. "Actually it is from Taiwan's Harper's Bazaar,not China……." wrote the user SAM. "Taiwan is a part of China," shot back someone called liangjuan. "Taiwan is independent as territory of the ROC, it is not part of the PRC," offered a stickler for details. "TAIWAN IS NOT PART OF CHINA!!!!! It is an independent country and it has NOTHING to do with China," said Taiwan Is My Life. Someone else pointed out the extensive use of Photoshop, and several users debated the invisibility of Lindsay's freckles, and downright Freudian levels of cocaine use. Someone called A split the difference: "photoshop does wonders ha. and taiwan and china are not the same." Then someone who reads Mandarin on The Fashion Spot pointed out the cover is from April 2008, not April 2009, and the seeming importance of all this faded. [JustJared]
• Charlotte Ronson threw a party for her J.C. Penney line, I Heart Ronson (which is pretty bad). This story doesn't mention how Lindsay Lohan was turned away at the door by security. Then she Twittered that Sam Ronson had broken her heart. [WWD]
• In response, Lindsay threw herself into her work. She's now designing pantyhose! Control-top pantyhose. [The Cut]
• People has the details of Gisele Bundchen's wedding gown. Presumably they shot this grainy telephoto image of a woman wearing an white dress before their photographers' window was shot out by a trigger-happy bodyguard? The dress and veil were John Galliano, custom, of course. Gisele's veil involved six feet of white silk tulle and hand-sewn lace, while her gown was bias-cut silk satin. [People]
• Veronica Webb might launch a jewelry line. "I would make accessories that would be the ultimate building blocks of women's wardrobes," she told New York last week at a Topshop opening party. "You know, things that they could interchange from season to season, and no matter what, they'd have the perfect little thing at their fingertip every time you need to get dressed in twenty minutes and leave the house — the belt that matters, the hoops that matter." Ah, yes. Accessories that matter. I've always craved those. Then she said Kate Moss was only as tall as her 6-year-old. [The Cut]
• Roberto Cavalli went ahead and extended his licensing deal with Itterre SpA, the bankrupted manufacturer whose subpar construction and late deliveries Cavalli alleged was the reason he had to cancel his fall Just Cavalli show at the last minute. At the time, Cavalli ranted — and cried — about Ittierre's actions to the international media, and Ittierre threatened to sue. Cavalli's new deal wipes away $26.5 million in royalties the designer claims Ittierre owes him. He must really want to sell that 20% stake in his company. [WWD]
• Alessandro Dell'Acqua has quit as creative director of Malo after less than a year in the position. IT Holdings SpA, the parent company of Ittierre, owns Malo and the label Gianfranco Ferré, which has been rudderless since the death of its founder last year. After Ittierre went bankrupt, IT Holdings was forced to announce its own bankruptcy. [WWD]
• Karen Elson, the British supermodel who married Jack White, moved to Nashville and opened a vintage store with a stylist friend. They look very happy. And well-dressed. [Blackbook]
• The CEO of the Gap, Glenn Murphy, took home $9.3 million last year. Despite his company's under-performance. [WWD]
• Christian Siriano would like everyone to know that CariDee English, formerly of that television show about weaves and feelings, is not his casting choice for his fall campaign. CariDee happened to do a test shoot recently with Brad Walsh, Siriano's photographer boyfriend, and for that shoot, Walsh styled CariDee in clothes from Siriano's main collection and shoes from his Payless line. Then, CariDee gave an interview to After Elton about how OMG she loves teh geighs SO MUCH!!! (and Fashion!), and somehow, the interviewer came away with the impression that the shoot was for Siriano's campaign. Which is not true. Christian loves CariDee, and he would do anything for her, but he won't do that. [The Cut]
• Yves Saint Laurent will offer a "new vintage" capsule collection starting next month at Barney's. The clothes will be made from fabrics from the label's archives. It's all part of a strategy to increase consumer spending on luxury items that doesn't involve sales — brands think they can do this by making their offerings seem more special and personal. [WWD]
• Beyoncé's $11,000 shopping spree at Patricia Field's store included the purchase of a hand-made mask. Pat has no idea what she'll use it for, either. [The Cut]
• There are three good stories at the end of this link: for one, Oscar de la Renta is still digging. On learning that the First Lady, who has yet to wear anything designed by him, had worked a few pieces by European designers into her wardrobe for her trip to, you know, Europe, he said, "Our industry right now is having a very difficult time. I think it would be great if the First Lady dressed in American styles. There are a lot of talented people here too." Which would sound less like a gloss on sour grapes coming from a guy who wasn't saying just last week that Mrs. Obama looked dowdy in that sweater she wore to meet the Queen. Secondly, Lord & Taylor is picking up Liz Claiborne again after five years. Because Isaac Mizrahi is the designer now, and L & T recognizes that kaleidoplaid is the way of the future. Thirdly, Stila is maybe bankrupt/for sale. Their website is down, and carries a warning that orders placed in late March might be canceled. [WWD]
• A good-looking 30-year-old San Francisco businessman, who happens to be a practicing Sikh, was spotted last year by the designer Kenneth Cole. Now he's working for GQ, which just proves that...hotness knows no religion? [Telegraph]

I don't know what is going on with the sleeves and the skirt, I only know that I like it.

This is what you call an exaggerated hip. But the fabric looks so luxe! And the embroidery is gorgeous.

Whirling dervish chic.

Heidi wants to go sledding, but she's not wearing the appropriate footwear.

This shade of blue is divine.

Are you sensing a trend in the shoes for fall? (Hint: Preposterous platforms.)

Gah, the embroidery!

I have a birthday party to go to, maybe I'll try this.

When does diaphanous become merely see-through? This angel's nightgown may hold clues.

How do you put this on? How does it not rip? How is she walking in those shoes? Also, does anyone else have the urge to rent The Corpse Bride?

Maybe there's a way you can just hang this over your bed like a beautiful mosquito net.

This amazing, silky dove gray dress — without the metallic medallions — is red-carpet worthy.

Theda Bara alert!

Fairy tales can come true; it can happen to you.

If there's a message here, it is: Accessorize without fear.

The man, the myth, the legend. Monsieur Galliano himself.


This report claims the models were meant to resemble "frozen Ukranian brides." Mission accomplished?

Galliano's Frozen Ukrainian Brides [WWD]

[Images via Getty and AP.]

• Like everyone, Anna Wintour heard that rumor Nina Ricci was firing Olivier Theyskens. Her reaction? "How could you do this to me!" It's nice to know her concern rests with the possibly unemployed guy. [Blackbook]

• But does Cathy Horyn know something about that unconfirmed scuttlebutt we don't? The New York Times critic wrote on her blog that last week's Nina Ricci show "appeared to be Mr. Theyskens' swan song for the house," and that senior Louis Vuitton designer Peter Copping will replace the Belgian when his contract expires in October. [On The Runway]
• The Council of Fashion Designers of America awards will be at Lincoln Center's newly reopened Alice Tully Hall this year, breaking the tradition of using the New York Public Library and the Bryant Park Grill as venues. (This confirms the general upward-westerly trend in New York fashion: next season, all the shows will be at Lincoln Center instead of Bryant Park as well.) The awards, once again sponsored by Swarovski, will be given on June 15; nominations are due next week and the nominees will be announced on March 16. [WWD]
• The Wall Street Journal's fashion magazine has an excellent profile of LVMH head Bernard Arnault — otherwise known as the man who can make John Galliano say, meekly, "If you tell me so, sir." [WSJ]
• Aretha Franklin will part with her inauguration day hat. Although previously unsure if she could cede the fancy bit of millinery to a mere institution like the Smithsonian, she has announced that, indeed, that's exactly where it will go. After the period of its loan to the museum, Aretha's hat will be displayed permanently at Barack Obama's presidential library. [The Cut]
• Michelle Obama wore a shirt from Isaac Mizrahi's first — or, if you will, inaugural — collection for Liz Claiborne this week. It's expected to sell out, since wearing a shirt like Michelle Obama's will make you automatically as awesome as she is. [WWD]
• Even though neither the president nor the first lady wears fur, the inauguration caused a spike in D.C. fur sales in December and January, and an unusually high number of the people in the crowd were wearing items of fur. Since Obama's presidency began, a guy who works at the Kennedy Center coat check has seen "ridiculous" quantities of fur. People think this has to do with two things: the fact that the new president has brought so many Chicagoans to Washington, and Chicago is second only to New York City in fur sales, according to an industry group, and also the fact that African-American fur consumption is growing at a much faster rate than consumption of fur by whites. PETA doesn't like this very much. [WSJ]
• PETA, possibly noting the increase in fur on the runways this season, or possibly just riveted by the attention paid their assholery, is stepping up its protests at Paris fashion week. After creating a raucous crush of street harassment outside the Dior show, PETA protesters actually ripped the sleeve off French Vogue editor and regular fur wearer Carine Roitfeld's Balenciaga dress outside Jean Paul Gaultier. She was also wearing a lilac coat apparently made of goat fur; presumably that was the intended target. [Style.com]
• The animal rights organization is also launching a gruesome television commercial wherein Ricky Gervais, Pink, and Stella McCartney — who uses no leather or fur in any of her designs — speak as animals who've been skinned for the garment industry. [Telegraph]
• British journalist Jonathan Heaf tries to get to the bottom of the latest men's catwalk trend — leggings. So he calls up that guy from The Darkness, who tells him to "Step and thrust," and pulls on a pair of sparkly black Margiela leggings. Things seem to go well until his girlfriend tells him his pants hurt her eyes. [Guardian]
• The founder of Net-a-Porter.com, Natalie Massenet, is launching a new business. To be called TheOutnet.com, it'll sell out-of-season designer goods at a discount — but unlike sites like Gilt, it won't require a membership to shop. [Times of London]
• Liz Jones of the Daily Mail does not understand this person named "Agyness Deyn." In fact, Liz Jones thinks "Agyness Deyn" dresses rather strangely. Also, Liz Jones would like "Agyness Deyn" to get off her lawn. [Daily Mail]
• Dancing With The Stars' Cheryl Burke has a new line of fitness wear, available online this week for $46-85. [People]
• It's confirmed: Freida Pinto is to be a new face of Estee Lauder. [Telegraph]
• And, finally an appropriate celebrity product endorsement! Lindsay Lohan is launching a fake tanning lotion. [WWD]
• Nicole Richie's long-planned House of Harlow jewelry line has debuted; Richie went to L.A. boutique Kitson to promote it in person. [Fabsugar]
• Christian Audigier says the rumored partnership with Madonna won't be a clothing line with Ed Hardy, but "a completely new project" with a new brand. I know I am on the edge of my seat. [WWD]
• In London, L'Oreal is suing eBay for allegedly fostering the trade of counterfeit cosmetics and beauty products, in what is seen as a test case for online retail and the enforcement of trade agreements. [Financial Times]
• Daphne Selfe, age 80, still works as a model for photographers like Nick Knight and Mario Testino, and books the occasional Dolce & Gabbana campaign to boot. She says she's only become more striking since her hair greyed. [Telegraph]
• Interior designer Jonathan Adler created a real-life Barbie's dream house, in — where else? — Malibu. [AP]

• This seems like a heavenly match: Britney Spears asked DSquared to create the costumes for her comeback tour. Dan and Dean Caten's fetishistic, high-energy sense of style should be a perfect foil for Brit. [WWD]

• Let slip the knock-offs! The Oscar gowns worn by Kate Winslet, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Angelina Jolie will be among those replicated by the notorious inspiration-takers on the design team at prom label Faviana. (This is the utterly shameless company who called its collection re-creating things Michelle Obama wore the "First Lady Collection.") Interestingly enough, last year Faviana knocked off Miley Cyrus's Oscar dress — but not this season. Perhaps being copied is the ultimate test of taste. [NY Post]
• Amber Le Bon, daughter of Simon and Yasmin, just signed with Models 1 in London — her mom's agency — and says she might make her catwalk debut next season. For now, she's sticking to watching shows in Milan and "guest-editing" the Moschino online boutique, whatever that means. [WWD]
• That "announcement" that Roberto Cavalli said he'd make about the future of his Just Cavalli line? At the showroom presentation he held in lieu of his normal splashy runway show, the chain-smoking designer launched into a 45-minute rant in a variety of languages about the bankruptcy of Just Cavalli's production licensee, Ittierre, the just-announced bankruptcy of Ittierre's parent company, IT Holdings SpA, and the state of the fashion industry and the shrinking consumer dollar it chases. I never thought I could feel bad for a man who believes in leopard print sequined everything, but my heart actually goes out to him. I mean, he cried. [Guardian]
• In case you missed that: the bankruptcy a few weeks ago of Ittierre, licensee to John Galliano, Just Cavalli and Versace Sport, among others, has been followed by the bankruptcy of parent company IT Holdings SpA. IT Holdings owns the brands Gianfranco Ferré and Malo, both of which still plan to show and present, respectively, at Milan fashion week. IT Holding's debts total $376 million. [WWD]
• Mango, the Spanish fast fashion chain, is continuing its pattern of rapid expansion into the US market, even despite the recession. Earlier this month, the company announced what passes for healthy sales figures in the retail sector these days — revenue growth for '08 of 8%. [WWD]
• Eddie Bauer, on the other hand, sees a meager future in women's fashion apparel. It's retreating to its neglected core concern — outfitting the rugged menz for adventuresome outdoor pursuits. [WSJ]
• Fourth quarter profits at the Gap shrank 8.3%, which beat analysts' expectations because sales for the same quarter fell 13%. The retailer has been focusing on cutting costs and reducing inventory. [AP]
• Some of the many women who work at LVMH, the luxury conglomerate, posed for black-and-white portraits for a photo project concentrating on women in fashion. An exhibit of the photos opens on March 8, International Women's Day, at LVMH's Avenue Montaigne HQ in Paris. [WWD]
• Newlyweds Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo confirmed they are expecting their first child together. [People]
• Seeking to diversify his portfolio of irritations, Pete Wentz has designed some t-shirts. [FWD]
• And Pamela Anderson has garnered a spot in the runway lineup for Vivienne Westwood's Red label, showing next week in Paris. [Vogue.co.uk]
• The perks of being a celebrity's parent: you get to go randomly to fashion week and hang out backstage. Hello, Gerard Hathaway, nice to meet you! [Times]
• The re-launched Versace diffusion line, Versus, is designed by Christopher Kane. It includes bags and shoes. [Telegraph]
• Model Erin Wasson left her issues with the homeless to go to London to launch her RVCA collaboration line. Which promptly sold out. [UK Elle]
• Cecille Villacorta was either a spectacular jewelry sales associate at Saks, earning over $400,000 in salary and commission in her final year with the company, or an inveterate thief who kept customers coming back by giving them unauthorized refunds and credits that were only discovered when the company updated its computer system. A criminal case and a countersuit in New York City aim to determine which it was. [NY Times]

WWD inferred the worst from Marc Jacobs' decision not to throw one of his typical post-show megabashes, as well as the fact that Zac Posen, Calvin Klein, and Alexander Wang were among those who similarly cancelled their party plans. This week, even the New York Times couldn't seem to resist the convenience of the party-over metaphor, casting a vernissage at the new Diesel store as a gathering of lost souls. Welcome to the brave new fashion, where frivolity is out and celebs don't pack the Beatrice Inn. Except it didn't happen that way.

I'm no gadfly compared to some, but I go to the occasional night spot, and I can't say I've noticed any appreciable difference in the quality or tone of revelry on offer this season. Maybe I wasn't going to the echelon of party that was canceled to begin with. But this week it seemed like there was the same familiar mixture of people in day-glo accessories, fedoras, Derek Blasberg, your boyfriend's also-a-model ex, and cash bars as ever. Perhaps I've always sensed a ticking heart of melancholia at the center of these kinds of gatherings, where the dance floor has air quotes and everyone puts up the tiresome pretense of not mugging for the party photographer, even back when the economy was gaining ground as opposed to ceding it. (But that probably has always said more about me than about my surroundings.)

Earlier this week I actually saw Lara Stone in person, and I couldn't help but unabashedly stare at her while I stood waiting to pay $18 for a martini that proved to taste like it had been mixed inside an empty orange juice carton. I also saw a man dressed in chain mail and a guy who had light-up rods, actual spiny, glowing bones, sewn onto the outside of his black gloves, like an extra from Blade Runner. Alexander Wang was being congratulated on the stairs, and someone wanted to go to the Purple party, but someone else was like, "When is Olivier Zahm ever not at the Beatrice?" and frankly it all felt very September '08, which is to say it felt very much like any other fashion week. It was sniffy noses and ironic flannel and heavy eyeliner. It was Blackberries and coats that looked like muppets killed for a good cause and testing your clout by lighting that cigarette inside. The other night someone who looked about 19 asked Patrick McMullan who he was shooting for. "I would've recognized your son, I think," she said, semi-apologetically.

Every story this season is about how fashion has become such a terrible, morose End Times-y affair. The narrative is that before, shows were always buoyed by the rising tide of economic good fortune and front-row bold-face names and the parties, they were always terribly glamorous and fun. Now shows are always things you sneak into out of the drudgery of obligation, and when you're caught in the act, you give mealy quotes to the press about how sorry you are, how inconsequential even you recognize it all to be, and how attendance at this particular temple of Baal is unfortunately mandated by your job at this little magazine that covers fashion. And the parties that follow the shows, well, nobody who recognizes the seriousness of Our Straitened Circumstances could possibly acknowledge any interest in such frothy frivolity.

Thing is, you could have written that kind of story last season, or any other season for that matter. Models were getting paid in trade last season too, and a great many seasons before. Editors have always been people aware enough to acknowledge some self-doubt on the question of the actual relative importance of this season's heel or bag; the fashion set is not dumb. But nobody in the media would have thought to cast any previous season in any such light. The before/after is a constructed narrative, and it's one I'm just getting a little sick of reading. This industry, which I love, is troubled — nearly 20,000 jobs were lost in textile and apparel manufacturing and retail in the month of January, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and many designers and stores are struggling across the spectrum of price points — but all the deckchairs on the Titanic rhetoric seems like unwarranted melodrama, simultaneously too dire and not serious enough. (The last recession, in the early 1990s, gave us Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Marc Jacobs.) It's too early to write fashion off; and it is, dare I say it, frivolous to do so because of some party that was or wasn't thrown.

As The Economy Goes, So Do The Parties [WWD]
Despite Happy Meals, There Are Troubling Signs Around Fashion Week [NY Times]
At Fashion Week, Everyone Looks Sullen, Not Just The Models [NY Times]

Earlier: Chloé Sevigny Party Made Me Hate Fashion Week, Life
I Think I Hate Fashion Week