The modeling industry went through a variety of dramatic changes during the last decade. It was in these years that two relatively economically underdeveloped regions — South America and the former Eastern Bloc — supplanted the West as the industry's main source of tall, skinny 16-year-olds. (And the skinny 16-year-olds became skinnier 14-year-olds.) Lots of stuff happened: models died. The industry hesitantly considered self-regulation. There was a recession that decimated the luxury sector.

Who were the faces that cropped up during these tumultuous years and stood out from the crowd? Think of the Brazilian bombshells who stomped into prominence on the runways of Versace in the late '90s and held sway over the industry for the first few years of the decade that is now coming to a close. Remember the post-9/11 mini-vogue for "intellectual"-looking Belgians? (Though some — An Oost — have been unfortunately largely forgotten, others — Hannelore Knuts — still work regularly.) The doll-like models of the mid-2000s (hello Gemma, hello Lily!) The Russians who gained prominence during the last years of the decade. Who will be remembered as the faces of the 2000s? Our money's on these ladies.

Gisele Bündchen

There's a strong case for calling Gisele the face of the decade. Although she technically rose to fame at the very end of the 1990s — she was Vogue/VH1 Model of the Year for 1999, and nabbed the November 1999, December 1999, and January 2000 covers of American Vogue in a rare hat-trick — Gisele has continued to dominate the entire fashion spectrum. Claudia Schiffer called her the only true modern supermodel. Gisele is a category-killer, pulling off high-fashion editorial work, commercial gigs, Victoria's Secret, and campaigns for Dior and Versace, with equal aplomb. (She is also one of the only contemporary models to have gained any kind of tabloid notoriety, which celebrity ironically makes her a more likely cover choice for fashion magazines, now that they don't put mere models on their covers.) Through every change in style, Gisele has remained on top. She goes by one name. She is the highest-earning model in the world. She has a line of sandals in her native Brazil. Her work ethic is highly praised, and an economist even made a Gisele Index to mathematically prove that companies that hire her make money. It outperformed the Dow! Other models should probably just give up now.

Crossover Stars Heidi Klum And Tyra Banks

Karl Lagerfeld may not know who Heidi Klum is, but millions of Americans do, thanks to Project Runway. Although Klum and Banks were both well-known models in the mid-to-late 1990s, thanks especially to their respective work for that august periodical, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, it was in the 2000s that their careers kicked into overdrive. In 2003, Tyra Banks debuted a little reality-television show called America's Next Top Model, and even if it was a little short on the reality, it certainly made great television. She parlayed it into her own talk show, a New York Times Magazine cover story, and continued to make occasional appearances in magazine editorials. Klum became the host and executive producer of Project Runway in 2004, and thus introduced the world to the magnificence that is Tim Gunn, and her own adenoidal catchphrase, Auf Weidersehen. Klum maintained her Victoria's Secret contract, and is currently the face of a rejuvenated Ann Taylor. Maybe these women recognized that modeling, qua modeling, was mostly a losing game in the oughts; maybe they knew their careers were dwindling into catalog obscurity anyway. Either way, they went and did their own thing, and are now more recognizable than ever.

Natalia Vodianova

After the Brazilians, came the Russians. And no Russian was more successful than Natalia Vodianova. A favorite of Calvin Klein, she walked every runway and cleaned up on the campaign circuit, starting in about 2004. With her spooky, wide-set eyes and thick hair, she could look alternately romantic and hard-edged. Unashamed of her impoverished background — she worked at a fruit stand before starting modeling in her early teens — she is an active philanthropist in her native Russia. Also she sometimes talks about how it's not a good idea to expect models to be so thin that they can develop disordered eating habits. We pretty much love her for that.

Gemma Ward

Gemma Ward had basically done it in fashion all by the time she was 19. After debuting as a runway exclusive for Prada, Ward saw covers, editorial work with Mario Testino (this shot comes from a Vogue Paris shoot with the photographer), Steven Meisel, and Patrick Demarchelier, and campaigns for brands like Burberry, Roberto Cavalli, and Dior all came her way. All told, she was on more than 30 different covers of Vogue around the world, including the debut issues of Vogue China and Vogue India. Her uniquely beautiful features commonly earned comparisons to those of a baby doll, and Ward originated the vogue for eery-looking, wide-eyed, pale girls, like Heather Marks and Vlada Roslyakova. Then, suddenly, in 2008, she took a break from modeling. She filled her time by taking a supporting role in the Australian film The Black Balloon, for which she was nominated for a Film Critics Circle of Australia Award in the category of Best Actress. She most recently popped into the news to quash — for a second time — rumors of her retirement; she says she'll return to modeling in 2010. Perhaps she can be a face of the next decade, too.

Liya Kebede

Liya Kebede burst onto the scene in 2002, when the then-largely-unknown was featured on the cover of Vogue Paris. And this Ethiopian model has continually been featured in editorials and campaigns during a decade that will probably go down in the fashion history books as one of the least diverse. (Kebede was the only black model before the fold on Vogue's supermodels cover from earlier this year.) She's been the face of brands from Estée Lauder to Tiffany's to Louis Vuitton (pictured), advocates for maternal health in the developing world, and has her own children's clothing line, which is entirely handmade in Ethiopia.

Daria Werbowy

With her cat eyes and multi-faceted nose, Polish-born, Canadian-bred Werbowy so captivated Steven Meisel that he put her on the cover of Vogue Italia twice in a row in 2003 (this is the first one). Plenty more work followed, including campaigns for Prada, Gucci, and Chanel, and a multi-year contract with Lancôme. She also is one of the bevy of supermodels who do ads for the jeweler David Yurman. Most recently, Werbowy motivated countless women to buy insanely colorful Matthew Williamson for H&M summer duds by merely glancing in Solve Sundsbo's direction.

Agyness Deyn

For a while in 2007, this girl's mug was inescapable. It seemed that Deyn — born Laura Hollins, some five years earlier than her agency had initially claimed — was in every editorial, on every billboard, and on every runway. With her highly recognizable haircut and signature mouth-agape look, she could radiate innocence or sex. Given she had oodles of style — or at least, a willingness to dress in really ridiculously 80s outfits in public — the obvious move would have been for her to transition from modeling into being a designer's long-term muse, a stylist, or to get a clothing line. Instead, she dabbled in music, did ads for Uniqlo, and dyed her hair black. Whether or not she makes a comeback, she's still got that 2000s look — po-mo anti-historical Salvation Army hipster — to a T. Her pictures will instantly conjure the period.

Coco Rocha

One of our all-time favorite model bloggers, the Canadian Rocha has been heavily featured in editorials and advertising for companies including Dior and Yves Saint Laurent since about 2006, and once did a jig on Jean-Paul Gaultier's runway. A favorite of Grace Coddington at American Vogue, she also dyed her hair red at the request of Steven Meisel himself. Rocha, who worked for several long years in secondary markets before making it big, is also one of the few models willing, like Natalia Vodianova, to talk about the industry's pressures regarding weight. (She herself has used diuretics to stay thin in the past.) Rocha practically has a patent on the open-mouthed, furrowed-brow, angry-cute expression we've seen so much of over the past few years.

Lakshmi Menon

When we first saw this woman's pictures, in 2008, we swooned. Menon worked in India for years to put herself through school while studying economics, and then hit the international circuit to do the occasional job for, well, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alexander Wang, Stella McCartney, Givenchy, MaxMara, and H&M. At 27, practically elderly by the ridiculous standards of the industry, she became the face of Hermès and took pictures with an elephant. She even hammed it up for American Vogue, and all the while her unique look quietly worked its way into fashion's mainstream.

Lara Stone

A Bardot-ish blonde with gappy teeth, and features that can seem alternately androgynous and hyper-sexual, Lara Stone is a true model oddity. Cathy Horyn once compared her walk to Lurch's. We would love to disqualify her from this list for being in that God-awful blackface shoot, but the woman grabbed dozens of campaigns, a cover of British Vogue, two covers of Vogue Paris, and one group cover of American Vogue this year alone. Whether she's doing cannibal-zombie editorials or joking about pushing girls down the stairs, people seem to be fascinated.

Karlie Kloss

Karlie Kloss almost didn't make this list, because a lot of her work is very recent. After debuting as a runway exclusive for Calvin Klein and then Gucci in September of 2007, her breakout season was February of 2008, when the then-15-year-old walked for an astounding 66 designers in three cities. But editorial and campaign work, especially in the U.S., was a little bit slower in coming. No longer: Seems like someone up and became Anna Wintour's favorite. This year, Kloss racked up more international Vogue pages and covers than any other model, and she has been featured in some 23 editorials in American Vogue since first appearing in its pages this February. Add campaigns for Alexander McQueen and a Marc Jacobs perfume to the mix, and we can expect to see lots more of this 6' girl with the unusual eyebrows in the next decade.

• The Kardashian sisters are going to put on their thinking kaps and hopefully kome up with a kollection for Bebe. [Kim Kardashian]
• Which makes about as much sense as Jermaine Jackson's rumored clothing line. [Times Of India]

• Megan Fox has been gunning for her just-announced Armani campaign, for which she was paid a rumored $2 million, for years — or approximately as long as she's been famous. She has worn Armani to events and finally met the designer at his couture show this summer. [AP]
• After missing the opportunity to release a Sarah Jessica Parker scent to coincide with the Sex And The City movie, Coty, the clever clogs company behing the actress' perfume deal, vowed to be prepared next time around. And lo, SJP NYC, a cute little pink thing in a beveled bottle, will launch next May, just in time for Sex And The City 2: Electric Boogaloo. [WWD]
• Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas has signed a perfume deal with Avon, the preferred perfume partner of Reese Witherspoon, Courteney Cox, and Patrick Dempsey. [WWD]
• See how Selena Gomez's new clothing line, Dream Out Loud, stacks up against the luminaries of tween clothing collections past: the Olsen twins' Wal-Mart line, Miley Cyrus and Max Azria's concatenation of sequins, and the criminally God-awful Stuff By Hilary Duff. [Refinery29]
• Yeohlee Teng has been honored by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. She says, "Fashion is so often about the Eighties, about the Seventies, but not about original thinking." Teng's preferred design philosophy? "Construct a cube, then put it on the body and watch the body activate it." Check out her current show at the Crow Collection of Asian Art in downtown Dallas. [DN]
• In some kind of grand, music-fashion-industry circle jerk, Michael Stipe will give an award to Renzo Rosso, Jon Bon Jovi will present something to Kenneth Cole, Oscar de la Renta will receive a prize from Grace Coddington, and Dita Von Teese will bestow something on Stephen Jones. In fashion, everyone's a winner. [WWD]
• Coach creative director Reed Krakoff is not only getting an eponymous fashion line, but a New York Fashion Week debut. Expect to see Krakoff on the schedule for February. [FWD]
• When I, like the Italian luxury — luxury as in $30,000 suits — label Brioni, turn 65, remind me to celebrate by releasing a limited-edition perfume and selling each of my 7,000 bottles for $399 (100 ml) r $830 (300 ml). Then, inexplicably, I'll invite Bryan Ferry to the launch. [WWD]
• Nitrolicious was given a free pair of Steve Madden's "Seryna" booties — the alleged knock-off Alexander McQueen is suing Steve Madden over — and posted an understandably glowing review, with photos. But with praise like, "These are really a good copy of the original boots but cost a fraction of the price," not to mention the fact that posts like these serve as timestamped evidence that Steve Madden is continuing to promote the product, could the company only end up developing Alexander McQueen's case? [Nitrolicious]
• We know Vera Wang won't be on the next season of Dancing With The Stars, but is it because the producers wouldn't let her design her own costumes? [FWD]
• Wang's president of creative direction, Constance Darrow, announced her resignation from the company yesterday. The designer is understood to have offered Darrow a promotion to stay. The senior vice president of worldwide marketing and communications, Elizabeth Musmanno, left Vera Wang last week. These developments could be related either to Wang's rumored reality television show, or to the arrival of new company president Mario Grauso, who starts work today. [WWD]
• Thus says model Liya Kebede: "Mothers are the world's best stimulus package because they invest in their families and their communities. When a mother dies, her children are up to 10 times more likely to die within two years. They are less likely to be immunized, more likely to be malnourished, more likely to contract HIV, and more likely to be exploited. When a mother lives, her children are fed, attend school, and know that someone exists who will do absolutely anything to make their lives better." [TDB]
• The American launch of A*Muse, Richie Rich and Pamela Anderson's eco-friendly swimwear line, sounds much like the international launch, at New Zealand Fashion Week in September. Even down to Richie's rollerskates. (I'm beginning to feel bad for the models who have to wear the samples, no doubt well-rubbed with body makeup and other people's sweat, by now.) [People]
• Ruffian's new collection for Anthropologie, Mise en Scene, is out. It's less whimsical than the retailer's typical fare, though the connection to vintage fashion is still obvious. [WWD]

• Fran Drescher is launching a skincare line — called FranBrand — this fall on HSN. The products are organic and paraben-free, because, as Drescher puts it, "Women are schmearing stuff on their décolleté, wondering why we're all getting breast cancer..."

• "...Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it's hard to go back to sleep. So I'm sounding the alarm." Drescher, a survivor of uterine cancer, founded the organization Cancer Schmancer. (And she also taught us to love Loehmann's.) [The Cut]
• As we learned yesterday, London Fog confirmed Gisele Bundchen's pregnancy by the roundabout way of announcing it had airbrushed her 5-6 month belly out of its latest campaign "to protect her privacy." But the outerwear brand also released a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot, which includes footage of the raw, unretouched shots as they appear on the computer monitor. A side-by-side comparison reveals exactly what London Fog thought wouldn't move units this fall. [SassyBella]
• Bar Refaeli is allegedly seeing Israeli multi-millionaire Teddy Sagi. Sagi owns a company that makes software for Internet gambling sites, and the nicest thing the Daily Mail can say about him is that he "has a lovely smile." The supermodel's relationship with Leonardo Di Caprio ended earlier this year. [Daily Mail]
• Liya Kebede addressed the UN Secretary-General's Forum on the topic of maternal health. Writes the supermodel, "In times of economic crisis, it is tempting to turn inward, to ignore or postpone the problems of the outside world and focus on ourselves. But, if we hope to thrive once again, we must realize that there are no outside problems in today's interwoven, globalized world. Each mother who dies leaves behind a devastated family and weakened community that will eventually, somehow, affect each of us. Each mother who dies deepens the financial and social strain on our world and puts economic recovery further away. Mothers are our best stimulus package because they invest in their families and in our collective future." [HuffPo]
• SassyBella unearthed footage of Karen Mulder hosting an E! special in 1999. The Dutch model encounters a new girl, who, when she introduces herself, turns out to be an 18-year-old Adriana Lima. [SassyBella]
• The first pictures of Rad by Rad Hourani, the Canadian designer's diffusion line, are looking pretty good, at least for those who were already fans of Hourani's unisex, pared-down rocker aesthetic. "This is exactly the same thing," as his main line, Hourani confirmed. Only instead of costing thousands of dollars it costs hundreds. We need more of this. [WWD]
• The writer of the sometimes entertaining, sometimes savage, always fascinating fashion blog The Emperor's Old Clothes has revealed himself — as New York designer Eric Gaskins. Gaskins, after 22 years in business, was this week forced to close his doors because of the economy. [NYTimes]
• And in September, Daphne Guinness is releasing a signature scent with Comme des Garçons. Only unlike most celebrity perfumes lines, this is actually the distinctive fragrance Guinness has, herself, been mixing for years. "I'll be in airports or in a taxi and the driver will say, ‘What are you wearing?'" reports the heiress. [WWD]
• Designer Hussein Chalayan is "weirded out" by models with clothing lines, like Kate Moss, Amber Valetta, Erin Wasson, and Elle MacPherson: "If you have a really strong sense of style and people want to aspire to being like you, I can understand that. But if you really are doing it just because you think of yourself as a brand and you haven't had the training and you know nothing about clothes, it kind of demeans all the training that designers have had." Chalayan thought Kate Moss's line for Topshop was a poor effort. "I don't think it represented her, and I didn't think she worked hard enough. I even told her to her face." How did la Moss respond? "She said, ‘Oh, I'm just trying to do a light thing; I'm not trying to do anything serious.' But I said, ‘That's not the point.'" [WWD]
• In which case, add Jessica Stam to the list of models who've raised Chalayan's ire. The Canadian just announced a collaboration with Rag & Bone. [Style.com]
• Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo, on being told her boss Anna Wintour had worn flats to a party in the Hamptons: "I wonder if that means we can wear flats to the office now?" [The Cut]
• Fashion blind item: "Which fantastical designer has a new man? She's ditched her long term fiance for an artist with prime real estate." We're with the commenters on this: signs point to Erin Fetherston, who hasn't been photographed in public with her longtime fiancé, Hedi Ferjani, since late April. [Fashionista]
• Ali Wise, the Dolce & Gabbana publicist who was arrested for hacking into the voicemail of a woman who was dating Wise's ex boyfriend, is no longer a Dolce & Gabbana employee. Which must seem like the least of her problems: Wise is facing felony charges of computer trespass and eavesdropping. [WWD]
• A well-written parsing of W magazine's cover story on model Lara Stone: "The fashion industry — and, in turn, the fashion media — have such a warped concept of slimness that a model like Lara Stone is so much larger than her contemporaries that they feel the need to explain her presence. If Stone's body is such an outlier, what does that say about the rest of us? Worse, the magazine saw fit to issue the disclaimer that Stone 'is, it should be noted, a very lithe five foot ten.' Why, yes, do note that! As if there's the slightest chance someone is going to look at these photos and think Stone needs to, like, slow down on the Cheetos." [GlossedOver]
• Lagardère, the French publishing company that owns Hachette Filipacchi Media, which owns the U.S. edition of Elle magazine, has denied that it is in talks to sell the title to rival Hearst, as had been reported in yesterday's New York Post. [WWD]
• Scott Nylund, Beyoncé's design director, comes from Owatonna, Minnesota. Which is where you can see an exhibit that spans his earliest childhood sketches of women in dresses, to his college fashion collection, to his creations for Beyoncé. [StarTrib]
• Freja Beha Erichsen says Karl Lagerfeld's house in Vermont — which recently served as the setting for the fall Chanel campaign she starred in with Heidi Mount — is a serious farm. With horses and chickens and — spitting llamas. Erichsen also praised Chanel for providing food backstage at its runway shows, which a lot of brands don't manage to do. [W]
• Fashion Meets Finance, the terrible event for douchebags and gold-diggers, is back. It's happening August 6th in — where else? — Murray Hill. [FMF]
• Will Ferrell has a Nike sneaker coming out in Japan. It's inspired by Anchorman's Ron Burgundy, that lovable asshole we met, uh, five years ago. [HighSnobiety]
• Timberland lost $19.2 million in the last quarter, a worse-than-expected result that came off the back of a 14% drop in sales, to $179.7 million. [WWD]
• Shiseido was even worse off — its profits declined 57.8%. [WWD]
• Likewise Hugo Boss, which lost $21.17 million in the last quarter. [WWD]
• Bare Escentuals profits also slid 20% in the same period. [WWD]
• Competitor Avon's profits fell 64.3% on revenues that shrank by 9.7%. Revlon's sales fell 12.2%, and its total profits declined to just $200,000, from $19.9 million one year earlier. [WWD]
• Bucking this downward trend is Tod's — the Italian leather brand reported a 3.4% increase in sales for this first six months of this year. [WWD]
• Ann Taylor wants to cut $30 to $40 million in costs by "right-sizing" its organization. No word yet on the number of people who will be laid off. [WWD]
• Three members of a multi-million-dollar New York counterfeiting ring received prison sentences, and a fourth was sentenced to probation by a federal judge. Michael Chu, the group's leader, was in 2005 ordered to pay $7 million in damages stemming from an unrelated counterfeiting case involving North Face jackets. This time, Chu, who imported fake Nike, Chanel and Burberry products, was sentenced to prison for just over 8 years. [WWD]

• Says totally important designer Alaïa, whose designs Nuclear Wintour snubbed in the Met exhibit, "she behaves like a dictator and everyone is terrified of her...but I'm not scared of her or anyone." BURN! [WWD]

• The Costume Institute curator, Harold Koda, says it's just a misunderstanding: "We would have loved to have had his pieces in the show, but there was a lot of miscommunication...Maybe it was oversensitivity on my part in broaching it informally rather than with a formal letter. Nobody is to blame. My understanding was that he didn't want his work in the show, so I honored it." [WWD]
• Speaking of Alaïa: Michelle Obama was not wearing him at Tuesday's Time 100 Gala. Contrary to what the White House reported, it was Michael Kors. Quoth the perma-bronzed Mikey's spoeksguy, "I've been digging out of the Alaïa hole all day." [WWD]
• And if you covet the square-necked stunner, it can be yours - for a price. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Speaking of the First Lady, Jason Wu still hasn't met her. But he'd like to! []
• Anna Wintour is also angry with Jack Bauer. For that whole head-butting unpleasantness. "Anna is furious that the Met Gala got upstaged by Kiefer doing something stupid at an after-party that wasn't even part of her event. Now that's all anyone is talking about, not her party. And she is so genuinely fond of Jack, she has supported him and Lazaro for years, she really feels they are part of the future of American fashion. So she's doubly annoyed." [StyleList via New York]
• Marc Jacobs is introducing another scent, Lola. And we're really hoping "Whatever Lola Wants" is integrated into the campaign. [WWD]
• Rival agencies Ford Models and Next Management are fighting over model Kendra Spears. In the meantime, Spears is walkin' for Next. Poached model on toast! [NY Post]
• Quoth the cuckolded Ford, "Kendra Spears is one of the shining stars of the Ford development system. Signed as a prospect while still a teenager in braces, for more than a year, Ford has painstakingly cultivated Spears - literally, taught her how to be an international fashion model." Literally, people! [New York Daily News]
• Oh, in case you were feeling good about yourself? Yeah, when moddles have babies, it makes them really, really skinny. Says Natalia Vodianova, "My agency thought that I might never do shows, because I was a bit shorter and not skinny enough, but what happened was; when I gave birth to my first son I was 19, so I lost a lot of weight. I guess the stress on the body was extreme and I suddenly just turned into this stick - just the way designers love models - and after Lucas was born that's when my career took off. I opened a lot of shows on the runway and that's where stars are made in my industry." [VogueUK]
• Thank God. Karl Lagerfeld has addressed the severe shortage of tweed motorcycle helmets with embedded iPod. [FashionWeekDaily]
• Says C.H.I.P.S. honoree Alberta Ferretti, in L.A., "It's wonderful to see both actresses and real women in my clothes." Real women, fake women - that's democracy in action, people. [WWD]
• The ugly family battle over the L'Oreal fortune escalates, as 86-year-old Liliane Bettencourt's children demand their mother get a psychiatric evaluation; they claim she's senile and in the clutches of a shameless gigolo. As one does. [Guardian]
• Stella McCartney's controversial Met Ball lace onesie was an improvisation. Quoth fellow rock-scion Liv Tyler, "Stella and Kate [Hudson] and I all got ready in Stella's suite at the Carlyle, which was like a four-hour process, and when I arrived at two o'clock they were literally cutting a piece of lace fabric with scissors, which later became Stella's outfit. They made it in two or three hours...It was coming apart at the seams at times and they were literally making it till the last second we left, but we had a ball." Her ladies-in-waiting also had to help her use the bathroom. Il faut souffrir, etc. [New York]
• The Crocs bubble has officially burst. [The Street]
• Dolce and Gabbana take the responsibility of designing a Tour de France jersey seriously! Quoth the pair,"An institutional symbol such as the Pink Jersey shall be respected. It cannot and shall not be distorted. And this is the reason why we customized it with certain historical details of the Dolce & Gabbana style, such as the tricolor bands and the effect of the superimposed jerseys, leaving untouched the base which is well-known all around the world." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Green is still the new black: YSL, Sergio Rossi and Banana Republic are all rolling out eco-chic. Only select pieces, of course. [ElleUK]
• More good news: Armani's up. [WWD]
• Talking about their Really!-It's-nothing-like-Project-Runway-we-swear! Bravo offeringThe Fashion Show, co-host Kelly Rowland says, "I think what makes The Fashion Show so unique is that it's the people's decision, and not only that but it's a real show for real people. This is coming from the consumer's point of view - what they like, how it fits, how creative it is." [TV Watch]
• Cupcake Alert! Rebecca Taylor is teaming up with New York's Billy's Bakery to do a line of Mother's Day sweets. "The Vanilla Twinkle cupcake - made of yellow cake with blue vanilla butter cream and a sprinkle of white crystal sugar and silver candy dots - is inspired by a blue dot chiffon dress from the designer's spring 2009 runway. The Mocha Meow cupcake - a chocolate cupcake with mocha-flavored butter cream topped with chocolate sprinkles - resembles the leopard-print pieces in the collection." [WWD]
• Here's some video of Victoria Beckham filming her nearly-nude Armani ad. Quoth Posh, "Creatively I have a lot of input into the shoot. I like the hair. it's really different for me, but I like to change it up, try different looks, a radical new image." [Grazia Daily]
• Ailing designer Pierre Cardin is on the mend, and heading home to the chateau after a stint in hospital. [WWD]
• Model Liya Kebede has a timely essay on global maternal health in the HuffPo. Sing it! [Huffington Post]
• FYI: a Jason Evans Associates hooded jacket has been recalled due to a strangulation hazard. But...aren't all drawstring hoods kind of strangulation hazards? [UPI]

• Kohl's seems to think a Lauren Conrad fashion line will be a winner. And we had been so joyful when it seemed the Lauren Conrad Collection was taking a permanent vacation! [NY Times]

• Marc Jacobs: "If Naomi [Campbell] were very well behaved and always on time, and didn't have her little tantrums, I don't know that she'd still be around and traveling like Elizabeth Taylor with an entourage." I suppose you just have to find what works for you, and do it. [Style.com]
• Interesting tidbit from the set of the Prada fall campaign shoot: Steven Meisel worked for four days at Pier 59 studios in New York City — last season, the campaign was shot by Meisel in Los Angeles, but then a studio's a studio, more or less. And this season's undertaking involved an actual live horse. Can't wait to see how that turns out. [FWD]
• The New York Times finally got its Critical Shopper, Cintra Wilson, into Topshop (which, weeks after opening, still has a line outside and "bouncers" at the door — whether or not the shop is close to capacity). Wilson's take? "Everything looks so sarcastic and right-this-second trendy as to be planning for a near-immediate obsolescence." [NY Times]
• As had long been expected, Peter Copping was officially named Olivier Theyskens' successor at Nina Ricci in Paris. [WWD]
• New York asked Liya "Kibede" — May American Vogue cover girl, and the third black woman on the cover in as many months — to talk about fashion's cautiously increasing diversity, which the Ethiopian supermodel attributes in main to Barack and Michelle Obama. "I think there's a lot more black models working and I think that's because of having Michelle and Barack out there," says Kebede. "I mean there's been this issue, raised last year — how there wasn't enough black models on the runways — but I think Barack and Michelle have really helped us, hopefully forever, to get over this hurdle for black models." Three covers with black women in a row for Vogue is better than the one cover every 2-3 years that had been the norm for the twenty years of Anna Wintour's tenure at the magazine — but Vogue's 117-year history still counts only a mere 16 covers with black women featured solo, and 5 covers where a black woman was pictured as part of a group. We hate to say it, but Kebede's optimism may be premature. [The Cut]
• Tyra Banks announced that this season she was taking contestants on her watch-pretty-girls-cry TV show to Brazil by having a male model come on the set and offer her Brazil nuts in Portuguese. Unfortunately, that model's name was Hugo Vieira. Vieira is from Portugal. Not Brazil. [MadeInBrazil]
• Meanwhile, in the upcoming season of Australia's Next Top Model, a 16-year-old contestant, who took the preparatory step of dropping out of high school to jump-start her modeling career, is ordered into anger management counseling after threatening to assault another contestant. Seriously, where do they find these people? [News.com.au]
• Polymath (ADD?) designer Isaac Mizrahi was happy to be a judge on Bravo's Project Runway replacement, The Fashion Show (which premieres May 7). But not because it would lift his personal brand: "I respect people for doing that," Mizrahi said, tactfully, "but I'm doing it because it's really fun." [Variety]
• Jason Wu, despite his quick rise to household name status after it became known that he designed Michelle Obama's inaugural ball dress, is nevertheless still doing his quirky bread-and-butter sideline project: designing dolls. His latest is inspired by Lana Turner. It's for sale at FAO Schwartz, for $180. [FWD]
• Model-slash Daisy Lowe: "When I think of 'It Girl,' I think of someone who is privileged, someone who has everything given to them. My parents don't have loads of money. I've been looking after myself, paying my own way since I was 17." [Daily Beast]
• Patrick Robinson's quest to make the Gap cool (again? for the first time? can anyone remember? or is the Gap's alleged hip is beyond a sartorial event horizon: no information about it can reach the wider world?) takes on the jeans. Robinson and his design team have spent two years rethinking the chain's denim offerings, and come August there'll be new offerings like boyfriend jeans, well-fitted drainpipes, and bell bottoms in a variety of lengths. All for $69. [Style.com]
• Penelope Cruz's Mango line's summer collection looks pretty damn cute. As does Ms. Cruz herself. [Fabsugar]
• Yesterday, If we were to have ranked designers by their relative likelihood to launch homewares lines, Martin Margiela's name would have been near the bottom. Shows how much we know! [WWD]
• Quoth the artistic director of Shu Uemura: "I have so many ideas that it can be overwhelming." [The Cut]
• Four images from Shipley & Halmos' Uniqlo line, launching May 7, have leaked. The clothes look a little...boring. [Nylon]
• Matthew Williamson for H&M launches tomorrow in select stores. [Times of London]
• Could a Missoni for H&M line be on the horizon? Angela Missoni, creative director of the venerable Italian knitwear house, says in a recent profile, "I would like to do something with H&M because I think it is a very powerful way to reach younger girls now." Missoni is also frustrated by the format of modern runway shows, which she finds "cold and distant" and a distraction from the clothes. And she hates that more established models can command high runway fees: "I prefer to show my collections on fresh, young girls to capture that spirit. Having Naomi or Gisele in your show is really just about saying that you were able to get her." But girls like Nimue Smit — who is in the spring Prada campaign — and Sara Blomqvist — who was launched to fame by a Prada exclusive in 2007 — both of whom walked in Missoni's last show, aren't exactly "unknowns". [Telegraph]
• M by Missoni, the company's diffusion line, experienced 25% annual growth last year — so it's launching new accessories and denim collections. [WWD]
• H&M says it's strongly positioned, despite the troubled economy and its recent lackluster sales figures. The company plans to open 225 more stores than it will have to close this year. [WSJ]
• Here is your fashion inanity of the day: "Designers always say, 'Gray is the new black,' and the next season say, 'I can't do one more gray piece.' Where does it go? How come the loyalty vanishes? Why don't you love gray every season?" Stephanie Seymour — never afraid to ask the tough questions. [Fashionista]

Featured are the nine models everyone pretty much assumed — and no, Lara Stone didn't get spiked, as had been rumored. On the front cover are Liya Kebede - the third black woman on Vogue's cover in as many months - Natalia Vodianova, and Anna Maria Jagodzinska. Isabeli Fontana, Stone, Jourdan Dunn, Raquel Zimmerman, Caroline Trentini, and Natasha Poly share the fold-out. I can't tell for certain what the nine are wearing, but if I'm not mistaken, Dunn, Stone, and possibly Vodianova have on dresses by Rodarte.

An honest-to-goodness surprise? Anna Wintour allowed Steven Meisel to put Jagodzinska, a relative newcomer and the current focus of the photographer's frequently-shifting attentions, right up front next to the established supermodels, Kebede and Vodianova. Jagodzinska is no overnight success, like Dunn — she's been working since 2004, although she quit in 2006 before coming back in a major way last year — but her most significant cover prior to this was Vogue Australia. That's like going from drinking out of a handsome silver julep cup (and feeling pretty good about it), to supping from the holy grail itself. A hell of a step up for the blonde Pole, and, on the part of Wintour, an unusual nod to the fashion-forward audience that would most easily recognize her.

The cover bears American Vogue's signature apparent use of Photoshop. Something's off around Isabeli Fontana's jaw line, and there's an unreal look to all the overlapping heads. At least the retouching team left Wintour's favorite Brazilian her much-vaunted freckles.

The biggest laugh? "The Man Who Made Them Stars" is a cover line that teases to a story about Meisel, who shot the main inside editorial, which is a 21-model extravaganza titled, not so humbly, "The Godfather," and which includes two group shots with the man himself. Meisel, though an extraordinarily influential (and deservingly admired) photographer, did not "make" all nine girls on his cover "stars." Jourdan Dunn was chosen by casting superagent Russell Marsh to walk for the Prada fall/winter 08 show, which launched the Londonite into the industry's good books. Lara Stone, after working all over the world in relative obscurity for over five years, switched agencies and attracted the attention of Givenchy designer Ricardo Tisci before Meisel ever started using her for Italian Vogue. Liya Kebede made it big when Tom Ford cast her in his shows back when he designed for Gucci. Natasha Poly doesn't really owe her career to Meisel, either. Let's be honest and call "The Man Who Made Them Stars" this issue's first Cover Lie.

[Image via user Luxx at The Fashion Spot]

Earlier: Handicapping The May Vogue Cover Models: Our Best Bets

Vogue's May issue is in honor of the Met's annual Costume Institute Gala, a to-do that editor in chief Anna Wintour always supports. This year, the Costume Institute's exhibit is all about the model as muse — and for months now, rumors have been flying about a multi-model Vogue cover exploring the model/muse theme. It is said to celebrate Wintour's picks of the current top girls, and be shot by Steven Meisel.

Kind of like the November, 1999, cover, which featured Kate Moss, Lauren Hutton, Iman, Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Christy Turlington, Patti Hansen, Lisa Taylor, Paulina Porizkova, and Carolyn Murphy. The photographer was Annie Leibovitz, and I have to say, the image has aged rather well.

The last time Vogue did a models cover, for the May, 2007, issue, an image of it leaked in early April, which rather dulled the suspense, if not the excitement of seeing Hilary Rhoda, Doutzen Kroes, Lily Donaldson, Sasha Pivovarova, Coco Rocha, Chanel Iman, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmerman, Agnyess Deyn, and Jessica Stam together under the tagline "The World's Next Top Models."

It's safe to say that this time, Condé Nast won't mistakenly upload the cover early to Style.com, or do anything else to let its secret out of the bag. And so American Vogue, the commercial monthly that perceives boundless reader enthusiasm for what Cathy Horyn called "the 'villa in Tuscany' story," natural home of the humiliating beauty writer first-person piece, originator of the suggestion that we prick our body fat with needles, overall the safest and plainest of the world's fashion tomes, finds itself the object of a fever pitch of fashionistas' speculation. Anna Wintour, this is not the Twilight Zone. This is merely what happens when you pick good models and good photographers, and trust them to do good work.

What we think we know about this issue

Word is, the key to understanding May Vogue and its casting is: Steven Meisel. In addition to the cover girls and their inside editorial, there is said to be an editorial spread dedicated to the kingmaker photographer's all-time favorite muses — models like Karen Elson, Naomi Campbell (who mentioned shooting something "top secret" with Meisel earlier this year), Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Jessica Stam, Gisele Bundchen, Daria Werbowy, and Coco Rocha are all tipped to be involved. There is also rumored to be a third editorial all about Meisel's current crop of favorites, which would basically be a consolation prize for the models who didn't make the cover.

What would be a nice surprise? Seeing some new work from Irving Penn. Although he's now 95, the great photographer does still shoot — and Vogue under Anna Wintour has always made itself an eager venue for his work.

Kate Moss is co-chairing this year's Costume Institute gala, so it's hard to imagine the issue could roll out with no content relating to her — and her name has not been mentioned as one of the cast for the cover. If she doesn't have a standalone editorial, or a spot among Meisel's all-time favorites, she'll almost certainly be pictured in association with an article about the gala and/or the exhibit.

As Far As We Know, The Cover Is Likely To Feature

Caroline Trentini, Brazilian. Chances: Shoo-in

Trentini confirmed her position on the cover in an interview she gave at Sao Paulo fashion week earlier this month. Trentini is a longtime favorite of Wintour's, and she can be seen jumping in head-to-toe runway looks against a variety of studio backgrounds in basically any issue of American Vogue from the past four years. She went on a long holiday this winter, and only interrupted it for two very special jobs — walking in the fall/winter Yves Saint Laurent show for Stefano Pilati in Paris, and shooting the May cover of American Vogue in New York. Trentini said there were a total of nine models at the shoot, and called the photo "historic." She also confirmed Isabeli Fontana and Raquel Zimmerman were shot for the cover. Trentini was on the last Vogue cover that featured models, and by this point, Anna Wintour's patronage of her makes Trentini's supermodelhood a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Isabeli Fontana, Brazilian. Chances: Shoo-in

Why would Trentini lie to us? Isabeli Fontana is well known as a Victoria's Secret girl and all-round sex bomb. She's stalked the runway for years, and did time as Donatella Versace's muse, which fits the issue's theme.

Raquel Zimmerman, Brazilian. Chances: Shoo-in

Besides being confirmed during Trentini's little sit-down with the hometown press, Zimmerman is a Wintour favorite in her own right. Like her freckled compatriot, Zimmerman was on the last multi-model cover, and the Vogue editor's attitude towards her has not appreciably changed since.

Natalia Vodianova, Russian. Chances: Strong

Brazil's RG Vogue named the Russian model — a longtime face of Calvin Klein, who has been extensively featured in American Vogue — among the cover stars. (The same source confirmed Zimmerman, Fontana, Natasha Poly, and Liya Kebede.) Potential problem? RG Vogue said in its story, dated February 13, that the cover would feature eight models, and all subsequent intelligence, including the Trentini interview linked above, points to it having nine. (This would be logical, as there were actually nine muses: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. But you knew that.) How much that crucial counting difference actually casts RG Vogue's source in doubt is up to you.

Liya Kebede, Ethiopian. Chances: Strong

Liya Kebede, in case you haven't noticed, is black. Anna Wintour has borne the brunt of (well-deserved) criticism as of late for featuring black models so rarely (not to mention that atrocious LeBron James/Gisele Bundchen cover). This year, Vogue has made sure to up its game: the ladymag has run editorials depicting Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman, and the past two covers have featured black women, Michelle Obama and then Beyoncé. How much you wanna bet Wintour would be the type to bolster her publication's some-of-our-best-friends-are-black defense by putting Kebede on her cover and calling it three in a row? To point it out as a cynical maneuver on the part of Wintour is not to impugn Kebede's worth as a cover choice: in fact, she has gotten the cover of American Voguesolo once before, and her work dates back to the 90s, when she was a favorite of Tom Ford. Just this past season, as if to prove she's still got it, she opened Balenciaga and took the Paris shows by storm. She's earned this cover, as a model and a muse, many times over already.

Natasha Poly, Russian. Chances: Strong

If you believe RG Vogue's source, she's in. Poly opens and/or closes every runway show, everywhere, always. She's walked for more designers for more seasons than any other model can shake a stiletto at, and frankly, being the reigning catwalk queen should count for something.

Jourdan Dunn, British. Chances: High

Dunn became the first black model to walk for Prada in over ten years when she was cast in its fall/winter 2008 show. (Then Prada, having done its bit for diversity, promptly went back to never using non-white models.) Dunn has been in American Vogue before, so she wouldn't be entirely unexpected, even though she is a newer model. Besides, Trentini says she's in.

Anna Maria Jagodzinska, Polish. Chances: Fair

Jagodzinska is definitely one of Meisel's current favorite models, and she's been featured in the pages of Vogue before. (What, you didn't remember this story?) Jagodzinska's bagged 12 campaigns this season. But I couldn't find a source exactly confirming her presence on the cover — although her name keeps coming up in online discussions, and ONTD thinks she's in.

Lara Stone, Dutch. Chances: Dicey

Back when speculation about this cover was only just beginning to brew, The Imagist claimed it had on good authority that the eight-model cover would feature "one very unexpected choice sure to send the fashionspot nation buzzing. It must be nice for a girl to make her US Vogue debut on a cover, no?" Stone, a fashion favorite who has never been in American Vogue, fits that description perfectly. But if the 25-year-old Dutch beauty is known for being anyone's muse, aside from the designer Ricardo Tisci, it's definitely Caroline Roitfeld, the Vogue Paris editor and Wintour's ultimate frenemy. (Roitfeld dedicated an entire issue of her magazine to Lara's beauteous form only this February.) Would Wintour really want to implicitly nod to her rival's good judgment? Also, a more recent rumor has surfaced that one of the original girls was cut from the cover photo following her appearance in an editorial that Wintour thought distasteful. That could well be this one.

Karlie Kloss, American. Chances: Slim

Kloss would be the only American national on the cover, if she were to be featured. When the Lara-spiking rumors started to swirl, Kloss's was one of the first names to surface as a potential replacement. The lithe St. Louis teen is a confirmed favorite of Meisel's, and Wintour loves to be able to say she's down with the next big thing — plus, Kloss fills Stone's same niche in the lineup as the industry insiders' choice, not the mainstream girl. Kloss walked over 60 runways in a single season before even turning 16, and she's been in American Vogue several times this year already.

Arlenis Sosa, Dominican. Chances: Slim

Sosa is another model whose name has been bandied about as a possible new Stone. (Replacing girls on covers is not unusual — normally magazines shoot several cover options, and there may have been several different configurations of models shot for this one. Sometimes, airbrushing is used to just re-arrange people — rumor has it, Amber Valletta was shot separately and added later to that November '99 cover.) Why this might be unlikely? Sosa is, in case you haven't noticed, also black. And while Wintour seems increasingly keen to prove her magazine's diversity cred, she'd probably think two black cover models — Kebede and Dunn — were just plenty. Moderation in all things, that's Vogue to a T, after all.

The velvet curtain will be gently tugged back as soon as the issue hits newsstands, which should be April 21, but generally happens earlier in the major US cities. The cover will be released online a few days beforehand. For once in my life, I actually can't wait to get my hands on an American Vogue. You win this round, Anna.

SCOOP DU JOUR: US VOGUE MULTI-GIRL COVER BREWING [The Imagist]
Naomi Campbell, Vogue, Caroline Trentini [Fashionologie]
Super 8, Vogue America [RG Vogue]
SPFW Entrevista: Carol Trentini [Sao Paulo Fashion Week]
Cover Girls for May 2009 American Vogue [ONTD]

Earlier: New York Times Bets Against Anna Wintour & American Vogue
Vogue's Not Racist, Three Black Models Prove It
Is Vogue's Lebron/Kong Cover Offensive?
Self Reflection: A Bizarre & Macabre Short Story, Brought To You By Vogue

• Audrey Tautou reunited with Amélie director Jean Pierre Jeunet to star in an Orient Express-themed Chanel No. 5 ad, which took three weeks to shoot. The reel's not up till May 5. [WWD]

• In some perfect fashion synergy, Liya Kebede and J. Crew are at work on a creative partnership. Liya will become the first model to lend her services to an entire catalog, front-to-back, and the company's children's line, Crewcuts, will stock pieces from the model's kids' line, Lemlem. Liya launched Lemlem in 2007; it's handmade in her native Ethiopia from cotton. [FWD]
• W, Glamour, T The New York Times Style Magazine and Vogue are among the fashion magazines nominated for prizes at this year's National Magazine Awards. Whoever thinks Vogue is generally excellent — or that Glamour's essays are praiseworthy — is smoking something epic. [ASME]
• More from Jil Sander, on her new role with the Japanese streetwear brand Uniqlo: "We are living in a small world today. People are in easy contact with each other. There is a new collective feeling of democracy. You can sense it everywhere. It is a wonderful challenge to dress this new world as attractively as possible. I am thinking of clothes that are comfortable for everyone, beautiful and not expensive. I am convinced that there can be luxury in simplicity. One glass of water doesn't equal another. One may just appease the thirst, the other you may enjoy thoroughly. In Japan, people know about this difference. Details are everything here. The challenge for me is to establish premium quality in a democratically priced brand: Quality for everyone." [On The Runway]
• Prada's favorite architect, Rem Koolhaas produced the brand's spring look book. (Which, in further proof that falling on the runway doesn't have to hurt a model's career, features Katie Fogarty, one of the girls who fell so spectacularly during the brand's spring show last September.) Koolhaas' offering fits with the trend of ever more bizarre look books — there's a classical theme, with models Photoshopped to look like crumbling statuary and other weird and wonderful effects. [OMA]
• This is what L.A. fashion week has been reduced to: "model-actress Molly Sims donned a bright cranberry colored one-shouldered dress custom-designed by [Kevan] Hall for the event and decorated with real, freeze-dried cranberries to promote a new cranberry body wash by Dial." [Yahoo! News]
• André Leon Talley still bothered to show up. Or was his trip just in honor of the fact that he can only freely indulge in fast food when Anna's safely in another time zone? Someone spotted the Vogue editor-at-large eating at the airport Chili's. [P6]
• L.A. kid Chanel Iman's new gig as a special correspondent on the revived House of Style might be a bridge to other slashy things. [Fashionologie]
• But is Chanel prepared? She admitted to only YouTubing a few minutes of old host Cindy Crawford's footage since getting the job. "There's Cindy, and ... I forgot the other girls' names! But I know there's more. Cindy was the only one I found on YouTube when I did my research," said the model, unpromisingly. She also gave a false birth year in the same interview. Alas, I know very well why even a girl born in 1989 might start shaving a tad off her age in this industry. [The Cut]
• Matt Tyrnauer, the Vanity Fair writer who directed the new documentary on Valentino, The Last Emperor, says that when the designer and his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, first saw his film, they "freaked out." And tried to have scenes removed, despite having the fact that Tyrnauer held full creative control. But now, having seen audiences react positively to the portrait, they have come to appreciate Tyrnauer's efforts. [On The Runway]
• That much hoped-for bail-out of the Italian garment industry looks like it will indeed come to pass: industry minister Claudio Scajola resumed his talks with industry heads last night. Italy exported $35 billion worth of fashion goods in 2008, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter, and the center of manufacture for nearly all high-end handbags and shoes. The Italian fashion industry employs some 800,000 people. [Forbes]
• Perry Ellis failed to meet even lowered expectations for the quarter, announcing a loss of $22.3 million, mainly due to write-downs. [WSJ]
• Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, paid $933.6 million in bonuses to about 1 million of its hourly staff yesterday, or about two-thirds of its total workforce. The bonus pool was increased by 46% on last year's. Occasionally a man does bite a dog, I guess. [WSJ]

• Agyness Deyn might try hypnotism to quit smoking. She "obviously" wants to stop so she can "settle down and have babies," says a friend of her boyfriend's. Obviously that's any woman's only consideration. [Daily Mail]

• Zac Posen will see your economic negativity and raise you an ounce of creativity. "I started my business in another trying time, right after 9/11. Everyone was saying ‘don't go into business, there's no place, there's no retail world out there.' Nobody wanted to hear about a new brand. But you create your own excitement, and you create the industry, and you create the customer, and that's what is going to get this country out of this difficult time." Yes we can wear beautiful dresses! [The Cut]
• Meanwhile a rag-tag group of former i-bankers has a crazy dream to make ugly shoes from recycled trash. Which is a kind of creativity that, environment aside, I'm not sure we need. [The Street]
• Lynn Yaeger goes to fashion week on the subway. Just. Like. I. Do. [The Cut]
• "Vivica Fox came out in this full sequined gown and she had the longest hair weave of her life. It was a shock, it was inspiring to women." If you've ever wanted to enter the mind of Christian Siriano, one good way of doing so would be to read an entire column by him. Fashion week is literally amazing, guys! [Time]
• Coco Rocha, in between attending fashion shows and walking in them, is also hosting an hour-long documentary about the lives of models during the week of weeks for E! Busy girl. [Elle]
• Kelly Cutrone had a hand in getting Ashley Alexandra Dupré to Yigal Azrouël on Friday. Yigal fired her. [NYDN]
• But Cutrone still wins for sheer audacity of media tricksterhood: she introduced Dupré to an editor at an avant-garde fashion magazine who wants to shoot the ex-callgirl, like, yesterday already. So this is how you get into Dazed and Confused. [The Cut]
• Are runways this season more diverse than last? It's looking like yes. The New York Times talks to some models from Harlem and the Bronx who are glad to see the "No ethnic models" signs retired. (The story also reminded me of how I know three models who all went to the same high school somewhere in deepest Queens. Once I told one of them I was thinking of moving to Queens and she gave me this withering look and said, "By 'Queens', you probably mean, like, Astoria, or Long Island City, don't you?" I did. But at least I know where Queens is, unlike a nameless designer in Eric Wilson's piece.) [NY Times]
• Model Sessilee Lopez eats egg McMuffins and asks to take home clothes from fashion shows. [NYDN]
• Peter Som has a fall collection, even if he didn't have a show. [Fashionista]
• An angel investor in Patrick Cox's struggling handmade shoe house was caught trying to license the Patrick Cox name and trademark for profit. [Telegraph]
• Somewhere, someone built an algorithm to analyze all the acres of type churned out in fashion week coverage, and that someone is here to tell us that this season's buzz words are "chiconomics" and "Michelle Obama." And "recessionista." [UPI]
• Anna Wintour is still talking about that sequined mini-dress The Recession made her not put in Vogue. Only now, in her mind it only cost $25,000, not $50,000. Times are hard. Anybody got any idea whose dress this might be? [WSJ]
• The May cover of Wintour's magazine might actually feature some models on it, in honor of the costume institute gala at the Met, which is model-themed this year. Online speculation points to Raquel Zimmerman, Natasha Poly, Liya Kebede, Isabeli Fontana, and Natalia Vodianova as among the final choices. [Fashionologie]
• British retailers are going to change their sizing for children's clothes because of the obesity epidemic. [Telegraph]
• Which will play right into noted obesity educator Karl "No Fat Chicks" Lagerfeld's talking points. The Kaiser also has reservations about online shopping, although this one time his assistant showed him how to order books and music on Amazon.com and it wasn't so bad, he supposes. [Portfolio]
• Nastia Liukin's line of denim isn't faring well. But her leotards, sold to other gymnasts, should keep her from the poor house. [The Cut]
• Wal-Mart isn't concerned about the souring fortunes of celeb-backed labels; it's launching a new Russell Simmons line. [WWD]
• Zooey Deschanel is also getting in on the action, with a limited-edition pair of $415 Oliver Peoples sunglasses she personally designed. My snark for this project is lessened in direct proportion to the share of the profits that will go towards victims of domestic violence. [LA Times]
• Posh's dress line has slightly lowered its prices from last season. But she's not sure if it's inspired by Mad Max or Mad Men. Either way there's a gray one with a butt ruffle. [Daily Mail]
• H&M's same-store sales beat analysts' expectations by only declining 1% on last January. This is good news. [WSJ]
• Whoa. A man in Osaka threatened 11 Uniqlo employees with a knife, tied them up with packing tape, and stole 2.5 million Yen. He was arrested as he tried to escape. [Breitbart]

The Good::
Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise might be psycho, but always look sleek.

Liya Kebede, can I be you when I grow up?
Words I never thought I would say: I love how Ellen Pompeo is dressed.
The color of Becki Newton's dress got me hot.

The Bad:
Lucy Liu's dress was probably a dazzling sketch...but the execution seems a little off.
Drew Barrymore's skirt and belt combo is a little much.
That shapeless black gown isn't doing Cynthia Nixon any favors.
J. Lo: Stay home! You look so uncomfortable!

The Ugly:
Rachel Zoe: Then, now, always.
Molly Sims should refrain from wearing floral sculptures.

[CFDA Fashion Awards, New York, NY; June 4. Image via FilmMagic]