• Handbag model Lily Allen performed live at the farming-themed, hay-strewn Chanel show this morning. [Fashionista]
• Claudia Schiffer has formally announced she will no longer do any runway modeling. She plans to fill her downtime with a trip to Iraq. [Sun]

• Marc Jacobs' and Viacom's flacks have denied the reports that Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone are to appear on a gay version of the Real Housewives for the Logo network. [CityFile]
• Vera Wang, however, says bring on the cameras. "I'm doing a TV show. It's coming. I don't know when, or how, but it's coming," said the designer at the National Arts Awards. Wang, seated at the table of collector Julie Minskoff, said she doesn't buy art because she can't afford it. But if money were no object, "I would buy Tom Sachs, because I like Hello Kitty. And the guy who does all the pills, because I take them all." Should make for some interesting viewing, then. [StyleFile]
• A Puma branded mobile phone: It's happening sometime next spring. [WWD]
• Ever phlegmatic Vogue editor Grace Coddington, on fans now recognizing her in the street: "It's probably a short-lived thing. There will be another fashion movie and another person who comes out from that." [Grazia]
• During the Givenchy show, someone stole Coddington's purse from her chauffeured car while the driver apparently napped. [NYDN]
• Prince turned up at the Yves Saint Laurent show in a gold sequined suit he designed himself. [WWD]
• The only odd thing about this sweet article on the art show Rodarte is curating in Paris: who is this documentary crew that's mentioned in passing, and why have they been following the Mulleavy sisters for four years? [NYTimes]
• Actress Ashley Judd is releasing a perfume, of which she says, "Beloved Red Rose captures the essence of love." Not that she'd be an objective source on that or anything. [People]
• Meanwhile, Tamara Mellon's Jimmy Choo has signed a 12-year fragrance licensing contract. So expect a Jimmy Choo scent soon. [WWD]
• The reason Celine had a lag of 13 months between confirming Phoebe Philo as its new creative director and actually giving her a catwalk show is apparently not because the LVMH overlords' were given pause by anything Philo did — it's simply that 2009 was marked off as "Transition Year" in Marco Gobbetti's calendar, and spring 2010, well, that's a whole ball game. [Reuters]
• French Connection is closing it s21 stores in Japan. The retailer lost $16.8 million in the first six months of this year. [WWD]
• Cher and Bob Mackie are at it again, creating costumes out of rhinestones, nude tricot, and feathers for the star's Caesar's Palace show in Vegas. What else would you expect? [People]
• Juergen Teller is working on a book of nude photographs of Raquel Zimmerman and Charlotte Rampling at the Louvre. [WWD]
• Ellen Tracy is taking its sportswear slightly downmarket. From this spring onwards, its wares will cost $50-$149. The brand has signed an exclusive distributorship deal with Macy's. [Crain's]
• For those who wish they could be Don Draper: A limited run of 250 suits inspired by Mad Men will be sold at Brooks Brothers starting October 19th. [WWD]
• Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's life and business partner, says he received death threats and was accompanied by bodyguards following his decision to auction two Qing dynasty bronzes from his and Saint Laurent's art collection that China wanted repatriated. [Reuters]
• Chef Marcus Samuelsson, television chef Giada de Laurentiis, and Zac Posen are cooking this weekend for a $325-a-head event at the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival. Samuelsson muses on the similarities between professional cooking and fashion design: "I've been backstage at a fashion show, and it's like a kitchen. It's a very similar energy." Posen, a home cook, says Martha Stewart and Jacques Pépin saved his life. "I was a very depressed middle-school student and I watched [those shows] avidly, and then Martha Stewart changed my life. Her first cookbook [Entertaining] was given to my mom, but I took it." WWD even re-prints Samuelsson's maple-glazed salmon and couscous recipe. [WWD]
• Renzo Rosso, the Diesel founder who owns Maison Martin Margiela, has confirmed that the rarely seen Belgian designer, rumored to have departed his namesake house, has been gone for "a long time." Instead, Margiela is "here but not here. We have a new fresh design team on board." This season's collection, just shown in Paris, was rated a disappointment by the fashion press, who would like to see a successor named. Haider Ackerman and Raf Simons are rumored to be under consideration, but anyone named would have to design the label anonymously. [Vogue UK]
• Roland Mouret: Just another designer broadcasting his show live on the Internet. [WWD]
• Some Very Important Designer forgot his ticket to Viktor & Rolf and nearly had to stand with the hoi polloi! [Fashionista]
• The Clean Clothes Campaign is pressuring Europe's biggest retailers, like Tesco, Aldi, and Carrefour, to institute a common guaranteed minimum wage for garment workers across Asia. Its lofty goal? Assuring that the people who make the clothes we wear are paid $475 a month and get a 48-hour workweek. You can e-mail retailers via the Campaign's website. [WWD]

The show, for the uninitiated, focuses on the Simmons sisters and their close friends and family as they move to Los Angeles and prepare to launch their clothing and shoe line, Pastry.

Now, the show is kind of entrepreneurship light - after all, the Simmons' girls have a substantial financial cushion in their father, Reverend Run of Run-DMC fame. And their famous uncle, Russell Simmons is also around to help with advice, financing, and promotion. I believe the parents put a cap on their initial investment, but having those kind of resources to tap must be nice.

In addition to that, Vanessa and Angela don't seem to be suffering for their business. I'm not sure how many entrepreneurs I know who are able, in the first year of launching their business, to afford to move to a much larger and much nicer house (with what seems to be an unlimited decorating budget). But I'm not hating - that's all part of the reality TV magic.

To be honest, though, I can lay aside the larger stretches and enjoy the show. I'm quite cheered at the fact there is a large group of young women - young black women, at that - who spend a significant chunk of televised time discussing their business, requirements, and plans for the future. And the fact that they share in their plans and struggles with their friends (as they did in the clip above) makes for a refreshing break from the drunken fights and ridiculous spontaneous-but-really-rehearsed disses and betrayals that comprise so much of what is broadcast on reality tv.

I hope that Daddy's Girls can avoid the pitfalls of another show I used to enjoy, Gimme Sugar. Broadcast on LOGO, Gimme Sugar followed club promoter Charlene as she and her friends focused on throwing a popular club night for lesbians (called Truck Stop) and the ensuing issues when Charlene's friends hatched a plan to throw a competing club night. The first season was full of drama, but also lots of practical discussions about what it takes to promote a night. I really enjoyed watching the women try to work out their problems, and even though the girls ultimately failed in their mission to have a competing night (not enough organization or capital), that allowed Charlene to bring them into her employer's fold.

Unfortunately, the second season of Gimme Sugar (taking place in Miami) focuses solely on the hotness of the girls and their personal drama, with the business element fading away to an annoying footnote.

So far, the Simmons seem to be committed to their business and making it grow. I must admit, it was kind of a rush to see Angela close a sale on the spur of the moment, even as their show room was unprepared and they were not prepared for clients.

Hopefully, if Daddy's Girls is successful, perhaps we will have even more representations of women on reality television that focus on their competence and business savvy, and not their breakdowns.

Official Site [Pastry]
Daddy's Girls [MTV]
Gimme Sugar [Logo]
Gimme Sugar: Miami [Logo]