• American Apparel is launching a "plus-size" sister label. Called "Colossal Clothing." It's only for the menfolk. [Kempt]
• The company is also busy harassing Woody Allen. The director called the clothier "sleazy" and "adolescent." [Page Six]

• Sienna Miller, by her own admission, doesn't actually do much for her fashion line, Twenty8Twelve. "My sister's the sketcher. I can barely draw a stick man, let alone a frock," the actress admitted. "I'll say, you know, can we get a top and make it that crinkly material? And she's like, 'Organza.' I don't speak the jargon." That sister — Savannah — went to fashion school, if you recall. "But I have an aesthetic that she understands," Sienna clarified. [Style.com]
• Georges Marciano, a co-founder of Guess?, is running as an independent candidate for the governorship of California. Platform: something about taxes (and, this is just a wild guess, fabulousness). [WWD]
• Model Jenny Shimizu named the late Richard Avedon as her favorite artist. "He would bring out stuff in you that you would never think was in you. He and I used to play together like apes in his studio. He was an incredible man, a genius." [Daily Beast]
• Sarah Brown, wife of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, gave up paid work in PR as her husband advanced his political career, to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. For glitzy state occasions, she can't buy a new designer dress every time — so she rents them. Smart lady. [Telegraph]
• Daul Kim, the South Korean supe who made hilarious videos for New York once upon a time, dyed her hair ash blonde in Paris. And blogged funny pictures. [I Like To Fork Myself]
• Maria Sharapova, in addition to being the face of Cole Haan, will design for the brand. "Somebody needed to make a shoe that you can stand around for hours in," the tennis star said of her design inspiration. The stilettos for her line have Nike Air cushioning. [WWD]
• Miranda Kerr, the Australian Victoria's Secret model who dates Orlando Bloom, totally wants his sweet, widdle, scrumptious behbehs. At least, that's what the Daily Fail reckons. What Kerr actually said was "Yeah, one day down the line, of course I'd love to be a mum." Then the Fail calls her 23, then 25. Then 23. [Daily Mail]
• Naomi's on the cover of Giant, and she looks good. [The Life Files]
• News of Barbie's interminable semicentennial is kind of getting stale, but if you care, Henry Holland "curated" a Barbie stand at Dover St. Market. Interestingly, Holland's mum didn't allow her children to play much with the toy as a child, "because she gave lectures on the welfare state and sharing the wealth." When Holland and his siblings finally did get their hands on a Barbie, they took turns shooting at it with a bow and arrow. "My mum was well happy!" Now you know. [Dazed Digital]
• The owners of Christian Lacroix are looking to sell a stake in the brand. That puts them in the same boat as Brioni and Roberto Cavalli. For Lacroix, sales have been slow, and retailers are scaling back their orders, meaning the label will be further squeezed for cash over the coming seasons. [WSJ]
• Alessandro Dell'Acqua left Malo, the Italian knitwear label he had designed for less than a year, because of pressure from its owners over cost. The label is owned by IT Holdings SpA, an Italian apparel company that went into bankruptcy in February. No new creative director will be appointed — IT Holdings prefers to maintain the current design team, without a banner name heading it. Surely it is cheaper that way. [UK Vogue]
• Your Target or Macy's faux-leather handbag: another thing that could be killing you. No further details are available. Thanks, evening news. [KPBS]
• Missoni is going ahead with the opening of a luxury hotel bearing its name in Edinburgh, Scotland. Because the thing was already mostly built before the recession bit. The second Missoni hotel will open this summer in Dubai. [FT]
• Four words: Yves Saint Laurent Musical. Are these tears of joy or despair? I can't even tell anymore. Pierre Bergé, what have you wrought? [WWD]

Uh oh, the Splenda-philes are thinking. But here's the catch: the study was funded by the Sugar Association, aka "the lobbying group for the natural-sugar industry and a chief competitor to and legal adversary of Splenda," the Times reports. Curious! This isn't the first time a much-beloved by and marketed-to women product has come under scrutiny. Below, some beverages, drugs, and makeup that turned out to be less than female-friendly.

Tab: While Tab is still on the market, it had to change its formula several times, and still has a cancerous taint about it. First, because it used a combination of cyclamate and saccharine, which was shown to cause bladder cancer in rats and created malformed chicks. So Tab was reformulated with saccharine alone…until Congress required Tab to put a warning label on its products that said "may cause cervical cancer" in the early 80s. This enforced labeling was repealed in 2000, but today, Tab, which contains a combination of saccharine and aspartame, flies mainly under the radar but for a few outspoken enthusiasts.

Makeup: Earlier this year, the state of Minnesota banned mercury from mascara, eyeliner, and skin-lightening creams. Federal law allows up to 65 parts per million of mercury in these products, but apparently those hard frozen asses up in MN won't let that fly. "Mercury does cause neurological damage to people even in tiny quantities," Minnesota State Senator John Marty told CBS News. Also, remember all those lipsticks found to have lead in them earlier this year? Watch your faces ladies!

Pills: Until they were banned in 1979, many, many women were basically using amphetamines as diet aides. Other weight loss drugs that were totally dangerous and eventually banned by the FDA include Dinitrophenol and Fen-Phen. Even more famous was Thalidomide, which was meant to control pregnancy symptoms like morning sickness, but actually contributed to many, many birth defects.

See, Splenda doesn't seem so bad now, right? Destroyed stomach enzymes, here we come!

New Salvo in Splenda Skirmish [NYT]
The Bitter Truth About a Sweetener Scare [WSJ via Junk Science]
Tab Scare [New Yorker]
Minnesota Bans Adding Mercury To Cosmetics [CBS News]

Earlier: Is Your Lipstick Poisoning You?

"Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure."

One thing to note about the findings: The researchers purchased lipstick in different stores in different states, and lead levels varied from state to state, even within the same brand or color. So you can't really use the report as a shopping list. But to find out some brands that were safe, download the report and go to page 9.

Here's a list of the lipsticks that were found to have unsafe lead levels (i.e., higher than the 0.1ppm that the FDA says is safe for candy):

• Maybelline NY Moisture Extreme Scarlet Simmer (0.11)
  
• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor Maximum Red (0.12)
  
• Peacekeeper Paint Me Compassionate (0.12)
  
• Maybelline NY Moisture Extreme Midnight Red (0.18)
  
• Maybelline NY Moisture Extreme Cocoa Plum (0.19)
  
• Dior Addict Positive Red (0.21)
  
• Cover Girl Continuous Color Cherry Brandy (0.28)
  
• LʹOreal Colour Riche True Red (0.50)
  
• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor Maximum Red (0.56)
  
• LʹOreal Colour Riche Classic Wine (0.58)
  
• LʹOreal Colour Riche True Red 0.65

60% Of Lipsticks Contain Lead [Consumerist]