• Diane Kruger nabbed a L'Oréal contract. [Elle UK]
• And yes, Siriano provides the contractually-obligated fierceness. [Racked]

• Asked to nominated a 21st Century "heroine" by Harper's Bazaar magazine, Sarah Brown chose Naomi Campbell, for her work with women's charities. Brown calls the supermodel "impatient in a good way." [Guardian]
• Iman says David Bowie loves SoHo. "It's a perfect place for my husband," says the cosmetics company owner/legendary model. "Everyone's dressed better than he is, and they all think they're stars — so no one bothers him!" [TheMoment]
• The Stockholm department store that was set to carry NoKo jeans — the only jeans made in North Korea, by a trio of Swedish entrepreneurs who convinced the communist regime to allow production of its $215 jeans — decided at the last minute to back out. [AP]
• "Chanel in Shanghai: China goes from Mao to wow." No, that's the headline, really. [Telegraph]
• "Within East Africa, Kenyans are renowned for being the worst dressed." And, sadly, the photos accompanying this story are not helping. [BBC]
• Christopher Bailey, the Burberry creative director, went to Buckingham Palace to pick up his MBE for services to the fashion industry. [Elle UK]
• Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons — the label White House social secretary Desiree Rogers wore to the state dinner — has designed a limited edition Barbie dress. Comme des Garçons Barbie looks surprisingly normal, and costs £225. [DazedDigital]
• Christian Louboutin's Barbie, and her four not-sold-separately plastic Louboutin shoes, goes for a mere $150. That would be the Barbie Louboutin redesigned to eliminate her cankles. [People]
• Oh, look: Someone from the Daily Mail went to cover the Elite Model Look competition and forgot to Google Gérald Marie. [Daily Mail]
• Gucci is opening its third Indian store, in New Delhi, through a company the brand owns in partnership with two local entrepreneurs. Previous stores in India were franchises. [WWD]
• Vans and Robert Crumb are doing a collaboration. Two of Crumb's legendarily skeevy cartoon characters will adorn Vans sneakers, for $52-$60. [Independent]
• The Australian wool industry was supposed to end the practice of mulesing — amputating excess skin from lambs' hindquarters to prevent painful and life-threatening maggot infestations — by 2010. Having failed to do so, the Gap has bowed to PETA's pressure and announced it will stop sourcing wool from Australia. [PETA]
• Lord & Taylor has agreed to ban raccoon dog fur from its stores after the Humane Society filed a lawsuit against the company for mislabeling some fur garments. [WWD]
• Ksubi is in trouble over allegations of animal cruelty at one of its events in Sydney. Forty white homing pigeons were hired by the brand as live party props, and at least one died. [DailyTelegraph]
• What what what? Zappos is launching a printed catalog. Isn't that like going back in time? [NYTimes]
• Macy's will roughly triple the number of Sunglass Hut outposts in its department stores over the next year. [Crains]

• Dana Thomas — author of Deluxe — wrote an excellent feature on the quagmire of the house of Versace. Thomas takes aim at Donatella and Santo Versace's resistance to change and ham-handed business decisions. It's a thrilling read. [Newsweek]

• "My kids are my best style advisors because they are so honest," says Victoria Beckham. "I remember one time I was wearing a Chanel cape and skinny jeans and I walked down the stairs to see my sons and they said, 'Oh my God, Mummy, you're Batman!'" [Grazia]
• We know this is hard to imagine, but the new Calvin Klein billboard in SoHo is quite sexual. Some say it "goes too far"! For more details of the development of this shocking and unexpected outrage, you can count on the Daily News. [NYDN]
• Moises de la Renta, son of Oscar, is rumored to be "inking a deal" with Mango, presumably as a designer. [WWD]
• Pamela Anderson has not one, but two perfumes: Malibu Blue and Malibu Pink. They start at $39 and are available at drug stores. [People]
• Custom, one-of-a-kind Uggs really are a level of ugliness impressive to behold. [WWD]
• Tamara Mellon says the clothes she has produced for the Jimmy Choo for H&M collaboration were hard to conceptualize, because she doesn't sketch. Then, like so many designers, she had a brainwave, and picked apart some much-loved vintage pieces, cut patterns, and slapped labels on them. [LATimes]
• Although Mellon holds the copyright to the label Jimmy Choo, the real Jimmy Choo still designs bespoke shoes for an ultra-rich clientele under the name Jimmy Choo Couture. "I design like an architect," says the Malaysian-born Choo. "It's a beautiful, distinctive art, and shoes are like the foundations. If the foundations aren't right, the building won't stand upright, and if a woman's balance isn't right, nothing else is." Are you listening, Christian Louboutin? [Telegraph]
• Kate Moss is notoriously resistant to being interviewed, so when longtime hairdresser James Brown included more of her than she anticipated in the final cut of a TV doc about his shop, she cut him loose. "She maintains her hair herself nowadays," says Brown, we imagine a tad wistfully. [Daily Mail]
• Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons has a collection of handbags about the Beatles. [IHT]
• Heard of Roksanda Ilincic? Mareunrols? Bogomir Doronger? Baltic and Eastern European designers must be a trend! [FT]
• Hey, look: someone's applying the Netflix mail-order rental model to designer clothes. Drycleaning included in the fee. [NYTimes]
• Burberry's social-networking site, artofthetrench.com, has launched. [Artofthetrench]
• Cynthia Rowley is going to design new uniforms for United Airlines flight crews. [ChicagoTrib]
• Henry Holland says he and Agyness Deyn, who both grew up in a town called Ramsbottom, rarely ponder the nuances of their unlikely fashion greatness. "We'd be complete wankers if we did that, wouldn't we? Pause the TV! 'Hang on, you're the hottest model and I'm one of the hottest young designers, let's talk about that while I make a brew.'" [Guardian]
• While textile exports are worth around $12 billion to Pakistan's economy every year, the country's garment industry is relatively under-developed. "We are still doing the 30 dollar a dozen T-shirt business. There is no value added," said Ayesha Tammy Haq. "We should be employing millions of people, not hundreds of thousands of them." Hence Fashion Pakistan Week, of which Haq is the CEO. And don't expect the clothes to be dull: "This does not represent what we are as a people," designer Ayesha Tahir Masood said. "Only 0.001 percent of Pakistani women would wear these clothes, and then only in a controlled environment when drunk out of their minds." [AP]
• Carmen Colle is a French designer who runs a company, World Tricot, that hand-makes unique knitwear to the specifications of top houses like Christian Dior, Givenchy and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Colle is suing Chanel for allegedly taking one of her crochet patterns without paying for it. The four-year-old suit is finally being heard in Paris, along with a countersuit that asks the judge to consider Colle's level of fault for daring blacken the Chanel name with such an allegation. Since filing her lawsuit, World Tricot has been largely abandoned by its other clients, and Colle has been forced to lay off all but 12 of her staff. [Guardian]
• Lord & Taylor's same-store sales have risen 6% and 12%, respectively, on last September and October. Last September and October was pretty much the middle of the giant red Down arrow of the retail market, however, so even a double-digit improvement on those results is to be taken with a grain of salt. [WWD]
• The company that makes Crocs enjoyed a $22.1 million third-quarter profit, but the stock is still losing value. The surplus largely came from a one-time tax benefit, and investors are dubious about the company's long-term prospects. [TS]

• One of Annie Leibovitz's Louis Vuitton ads with astronauts Sally Ride, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell is out. (Gorby was busy that weekend.) [WWD]
• Karl Lagerfeld: "Ballet is an extraordinary art: this torture of the body to make something so graceful. All this hard work, to look effortless."

• "Swans, they are the meanest animals in the world, you know. I had problems with them as a child. They hate children. I was caught by one, so I know. The idea of swans is lovely, and they have a beautiful shape, but they seem more romantic than they in fact are. I don't think really they die like this. They just drop dead, hmm? But who wants to see that?"[Guardian]
• Christian Lacroix has vowed to keep his 22-year-old label alive even as it has declared bankruptcy, but its July couture presentation is in doubt. [WWD]
• Miranda Kerr is nude on the cover of the June Rolling Stone — in Australia. Because she cares about the environment. [News.com.au]
• Whichever "fellow student" told the Daily Mail "The end of year exams are a big deal at Cambridge University and we've all spent weeks revising. I don't know how she has managed to fit any revision into her busy social life," is certainly no "friend" to model/student Lily Cole. But then, if Lily Cole didn't want tabloid attention, she might not walk around London with her boyfriend wearing a gold ring on the ring finger of her left hand. [Daily Mail]
• Everybody you might care slightly about is getting a new fragrance this year. Kate Moss is naming hers "Vintage." [WWD]
• Kind of like the departed Mr. Blackwell — or Republican trickster Roger Stone — but only for hats, Luton, England milliner Philip Wright releases an annual list of the best celebrity hat-wearers. This year, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy topped it, for her "neat, chic, pill box hat" which "was a supreme example of classic simplicity at its best - a stylish understatement which captured the attention of the world's media." She beat the Queen. [Times of London]
• I've always thought that custom-made clothing, at the right price point, could and should be a bigger part of the apparel market than it is. Because all of us have issues with the fit of standardized sizes — who doesn't have a wardrobe half full of shirts that are tight in the shoulders but loose at the waist, pants with the wrong crotch depth, and skirts that don't move quite right when you walk. But all I want to know about this Ryan Taylor, aka "Taylor the Tailor", of Los Angeles, who supposedly takes his clients' measurements and turns out custom-fitted clothing in a couple days at prices "competitive with brand name department stores" is: where does he manufacture? (A question which, funnily enough, CNN seems to have no interest in.) Because everything I know about fashion leads me to suspect that level of service is only possible if you're e-mailing those customer measurements to a guy in Malaysia. Or Hong Kong. [CNN]
• A lone man pulled off an $8.5 million jewelry heist at Chopard in the Place Vendôme in Paris. [CBS]
• A study in the U.K. found that while women make up 52% of the fashion industry's workforce, they are paid 15% less than their male counterparts, and have only 37% of the top jobs. In New York, anecdotally, I've heard from many a design assistant toiling in the trenches of a major brand that, even though here as there the industry is largely female, things like on-site daycare are nonexistent. [Independent]
• Gilt Groupe, the members-only sample sale site, sponsored Zac Posen's resort show, which is happening tonight. Interesting. [WWD]
• Shares in the national mall chain Wet Seal fell 17% in Friday's trading, following the announcement of poor first quarterly results. Same-store sales fell by 7.3%, and even though it beat analysts' expectations by turning a $5 million profit during the quarter, news that the company does not expect to meet profit forecasts in the next quarter was enough to set the stock price sliding. [The Street]
• Lord & Taylor is closing one of its 47 stores nationwide. The Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia, will no longer boast a Lord & Taylor as an anchor tenant after July 12. Both Landmark Mall and its parent company, General Growth Properties, have filed for bankruptcy protection. [WSJ]
• The U.S. division of Dutch brand Oilily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed its Madison Avenue store. This follows the bankruptcy of its parent company in Hollard nearly two months ago. [Crain's]
• A statement from Wells Fargo, the principal creditor of the bankrupt Hartmarx company, which owns the menswear brands Hickey Freeman and Hart Schaffner Marx, has put Hartmarx's potential deal with private equity firm Emerisque in doubt. Emerisque's bid of $119 million for the business had been accepted by Hartmarx last week, but Wells Fargo, which is owed $114 million, said that with only $70 million of the bid being cash it "fails to provide adequate value to Hartmarx lenders." Wells Fargo also objects to the bid on the grounds that the offer "does not even ensure that Emerisque will continue running Hartmarx's business operations after the acquisition," something which Emerisque had pledged to do. The bankruptcy court is scheduled to hear objections to the bid today. [Chicago Tribune]
• Mango might do most of its business in Spain, but that won't prevent it from opening a store this September in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq and the country's third-largest city. [Times of London]
• Benetton's seven stores in Georgia closed in protest and Georgian politicians voiced thunderous objections to the chain's decision to open an outpost in Sukhumi, the capital of the disputed Black Sea region of Abkhazia. Tbilisi regards Abkhazia as a breakaway province; the EU and NATO concur; Russia recognizes its independence; 1.5 million Russian tourists visit Sukhumi every year. No doubt lured as much by the thought of all those rubles as by the international goodwill it advertises, Benetton has nonetheless been forced to abandon its plans to open the store. [WSJ]

• 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]

The department store was offering $15 gift cards, apparently to all comers, at 10 a.m. sharp. There didn't appear to be any catch or minimum purchase — the format was turn up, pass go, and collect your $15. The giveaway seems not to have been announced on Lord & Taylor's website ahead of time, although if you do cursor over to those parts, you will notice a prominent banner advertising 20% off all online purchases, including already-reduced sale items.

The retail landscape has been changed in some more and some less obvious ways by the floundering economy and the contraction in consumer spending. High-end department stores, with their vast inventories, high overheads, extensive and expensive real estate holdings, large workforces, and, always, the pressure of shareholders eager for returns on investment, have seen the toll already. Lord & Taylor laid off 120 workers last October, let go an addition 170 in January, and made headlines again this week when news leaked that the department store chain had to institute a company-wide salary freeze for 2009. Fashion is kind of like the canary in the coal mine of consumer spending: impulse purchases of "unnecessary" new clothes and accessories are some of the easiest things to forgo in uncertain times. But $15 gift cards, just in the hope of luring someone in to shop? This is an unusual tactic, even in our scorched-earth retail environment.

Lord & Taylor Freezes All Salaries [WSJ]
Lord & Taylor Receives Money From Parent Company, Cuts Jobs [DDI]
Layoffs Seen At Lord & Taylor [WWD]

• Packing for tedious summits as a political wife must be that much harder knowing that Michelle Obama will be there, ready to rock some gorgeous outfit at the drop of a discussion paper. [Telegraph]

• Pamela Anderson is going to do an eco-friendly vegan line with Heatherette co-creator Richie Rich. Something tells me Pamela Anderson and Richie Rich will find a way to extract the air of dull virtuousness that still clings to eco-conscious clothing, and replace it with a little sex appeal. And a lot of sparkly gold lamé. [Hollyscoop]
• "The spot is a subtle tribute to the genius of Serge Gainsbourg and to the sensuality of Brigitte Bardot." Says. The. Director. Of the. Lindsay. Lohan. Fornarina. Ad. Well. He. Would. Say that. Wouldn't. He. Question mark. [WWD]
• Topshop is really truly absolutely finally opening its doors in New York's SoHo. As rumored, Kate Moss will do the ribbon-cutting on Thursday morning, before a huddled mass of 3,356,890,765 fashionistas yearning to be free/awaiting the slightest provocation to stampede. [WWD]
• Guardian writer Emily Rotberg has crucial suggestions for anyone planning to brave the Topshop melee on opening morning. Bring disinterested friends, Rotberg writes, to act as your runners and placeholders in various in-store queues, like the line for the fitting rooms, and don't bother asking the sales staff for help. "They are present to demonstrate how to wear a £10 shoelace as a headband," says Rotberg. Not to offer anyone assistance. Happy (Top)shopping! [Guardian]
• Valentino dropped into terrible Meatpacking district club 1OAK (which stands for "1 Of A Kind," a factoid I can't seem to scrub from my brain because of the very absurdity of a preposterous club in a neighborhood filled with identical preposterous clubs claiming some kind of singularity) for its gay-themed night. Then the designer left. Which might mean he was unimpressed with the level of talent available, or or that his 76-year-old ears were unwilling to weather 1OAK's musical onslaught. [P6]
• Marks & Spencer, the biggest British department store chain, reported a smaller-than-expected drop in same-store sales for the fourth quarter. After experiencing sales declines of 7.1% over the holiday quarter, analysts expected a similar slump in the numbers for the three months ended March 28 — but the company's comps only fell by 4.2%. [WSJ]
• Seven For All Mankind is going to do a 30-style footwear range for fall. Price range: $235-$550. [WWD]
• Pierre Cardin told Fantastic Man magazine that he's ready to sell his empire of licenses. For about $1.3 billion dollars. [P6]
• Lord & Taylor is instituting a company-wide salary freeze this year. [WSJ]
• In news that may shock and surprise you, the Italian luxury industry trade group, Altagamma, says it expects the $230 billion global fashion and luxury goods market to decline this year. I know. [WWD]
• A girl interned at Teen Vogue for a week, and spent a lot of time eating cupcakes, organizing accessories, and looking at pictures of models on the internet. You can tell from the accompanying pictures that she chose her outfits very carefully. Wise move. [Teen Vogue]

• "Think of the brightest shades of neon you've ever seen. Sparkles galore. Sequinned aerobics pants with scrunchy socks. Lions and tigers wearing vintage early '90s Cross Colors ensembles." In other words, exactly what you hoped MIA's clothing would look like. [NY Observer]
• Sex addict David Duchovny dropped as the sullen face of Johnston & Murphy. [PDNPulse]
• Model Maggie Rizer is "penning" a memoir, Model Behavior, which apparently hasn't already been used as the title for like ten model memoirs. [Fashionista]
• In the grand tradition of hubristic villains, alleged designer/raper Anand Jon apparently kept a prosecutor-friendly journal "in which he noted some of his encounters with the girls and women, abbreviating the explicit sexual acts." [Breitbart]
• Model Lynn Kohlmann dies at 62. [WWD]

• "Emily" sends the following query to the Ford models message board: "Hi Im Emily I weight 112 pounds and i wanna get to about 90 pounds for my personal benifits" Thank god, there are a ton of girls ready to support her in achieving this goal; their thinspiration follows. [Ford Models]
• Speaking of which! Following New York's example, London Fashion Week abandons the idea of health checks for models. [News.co.au]
• Also following our lead, British dress sizes rise with the obesity rates. Not the models'. [Telegraph]
• Fashion designer Gregory Poe dies at 51. [UPI]
• In addition to having one of the hottest small labels at Fashion Week, Rodarte brains Kate and Laura Mulleavy seem to also have an amazing sibling relationship. Trying to decide whether our liking can overcome our jealousy. [Independent]
• The new Lord&Taylor owners pour in a ton of money and cross their fingers. [Portfolio]
• Bullied down to only four days by New York, the smaller, traditionally more experimental London Fashion Week fights for a foothold. [Breitbart]
• Levi's teams with MTV. Le sigh. [NY Times]
• In case you were wondering, 70s model Marie Helvin is at her sexual peak. [Mirror]
• If you shopped at the Fast Fashion succubus that is Forever21 recently, you may be at risk: they just issued a warning about a security breach. [Breitbart]
• In addition to allegedly striking out with women at various parties, swimmer Ryan Lochte was a major presence at Fashion Week's tents. Quoth the aspiring designer: "I’m really into fashion, and I’m trying to slowly get out of swimming." [Oh No They Didn't]
• As if Sephora wasn't already overwhelming enough, denim co Rock & Republic is debuting a cosmetics line. [LA Times]
• "The traditional apparel for men in Saudi Arabia is a long white garment called a thobe. Recently a number of designers have been transforming the look of the thobe by adding colour — even designing an iPod-friendly iThobe." [Global Voices]
• Yes we're just making it worse: the Agyness Deyn cheat sheet. [Radar]
• Model Erin O'Connor sells her wardrobe for charity. Which would be great if anyone could ft into her clothes. [Guardian]
• Weirdly, luxury goods sell better in English. [NY Times]
• We really think she should rep a PR designer, but Heidi Klum will be wearing Armani to the Emmys. [NY Post]
• In a match made in obscurity heaven, Aeropostale teams up with the band Plain White Tees. [Business Week]
• It just wouldn't be fashion week without an absurd Vigue editor at XXL Andre Leon Talley yarn! "Talley was early for the Stephen Burroughs fashion show on Friday and sitting in the vestibule of the designer's West 38th Street showroom when a man opened a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne and it sprayed all over Talley. The drenched fashionista screamed, "Look what you've done! I've got to wear these clothes all day!" And when the clumsy sprayer tried to towel him off, Talley yelled, "Get your hands off me!"" [P6]

• More rumored changes for The Greatest Show On Earth, Project Runway: Season 6 of the show, the first to be broadcast on Lifetime, may feature "More Than A Pretty Face" magazine Marie Claire in lieu of Elle as the affiliated fashion magazine sponsor. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Whoah: Are New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn and Skeletor/stylist Rachel Zoe more similar than we could have ever imagined? Possibly, if it's true that Cathy Horyn was also mysteriously not invited to the dinner and dancing portion of tonight's Costume Institute festivities. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• And what does legendary costume designer Bob Mackie not like about the fashion industry? "Doing a fashion show that's on for 20 minutes and then it's over and everybody runs to the next one. Nobody sings, nobody dances, nobody tells jokes. I found it quite unsatisfying." I second that emotion. [WWD, sub req'd]

• It's so hard to be Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley: "I wear a lot of Burberry at events and the brand's been really supportive of me since the beginning. On the show, we wear H&M suits." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Sex and the City costume designer/fun drunk lesbian Pat Field: Now designing Diet Coke bottles. [FabSugar]
• More pearls of wisdom from Tim Gunn: "Always keep your tux jacket closed in photos." [Page Six]
• Starring in the latest Gap ads are actors Ginnifer Goodwin, Liv Tyler, Hugh Dancy, Fabcon Clemence Poesy, Catalina Moreno, Edgar Ramirez, photographers Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) and Ryan McGinley, and also Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, model Chanel Iman, Visioniare's Cecilia Dean, and Princess Coldstare herself, Leigh Lezark. [FabSugar]
• Leona Lewis: The latest celeb to believe she can be a fashion designer. A vegan fashion designer, that is. Watch your back, Portman and McCartney. [Fashionista]
• Lord & Taylor is launching a new "reality" advertising campaign, with TV and radio spots featuring real customers "ambushed' in their stores by "celebrity stylist" Robert Verdi and quizzed on their shopping experiences. Oh Lord. [WWD, sub req'd]
• WWD asks: "Tax Rebate Checks: Will They Spend Or Will They Save?" [WWD, sub req'd]
• More stars coming to tonight's Vogue and Armani-sponsored Costume Institute gala: Kate Bosworth, Thandie Newton, Audrey Tatou, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jourdan Dunn, Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann, and Roberto Bolle will all be there. In other words: Lots of good photos for us to dish on tomorrow. [WWD, 1st item]
• Also: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, Scarlett Johansson, Iman and David Bowie, Sofia Coppola, Karen Elson and Helena Christensen. [Vogue UK]
• Mary Alice Stephenson (formerly the fashion director at Harper's Bazaar and the co-host of America's Most Smartest Model on Vh1) is shooting a special for E! on tonight's festivities, set to air May 8th for the viewing pleasure of us plebs. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Elle editors might have put Kelly Clarkson on the cover of the mag, but that doesn't mean they think she's very fashionable. [Page Six]
• Marc Jacobs: Now in Moscow. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Former model Josie Maran may have fake breasts tits. [Awful Plastic Surgery]
• The fashion on Gossip Girl? Kinda crazy. But that's why we love it so. [EW]
• The rock stars today? The just don't dress like they used to. [LATimes]

• It's official: Nina Garcia is officially a has-been. The recently-fired Elle fashion director is now partnering with Bayer and Yaz to judge a contest in which people submit designs for a new little case to hold birth control pills. I don't know about you, but I like the purple faux-suede "wallet" that my Yasmin comes in just the way it is. [Fashionista]
  
• OMG sneak peek of Nina and Christian Siriano's performance on this week's Ugly Betty. [Sassybella]
  
• Radiohead: Fighting sweatshops. [Yahoo]
  
• Fergie is so P.C.: "I really love people who wear fashions of their own culture; they really touch me and inspire me. I'd like to call myself cultured and not just because I travel a lot and see various hotel rooms. I love driving around, seeing what people on the street are wearing, I would even ask my driver to take me to a cool, young part of town for inspiration. If I went to Africa I would come back with tons of different things, because I truly wouldn't find those things anywhere else." [Chic Report]

• Victoria's Secret is getting a taste of its own medicine: The retailer is being sued by Juicy Couture, which claims that the lingerie chain stole designs and marketing ideas. [WWD, sub req'd]
• A tentative agreement appears to have been reached between Bloomingdale's and the retail employees union. [WWD, sub req'd]
• It's hard to be Zoe Kravitz: "I commute on the Metro North from SUNY Purchase through Grand Central, so that takes most of my time. But I still get to wear Chanel tonight, which is always an upside." [Fashion Week Daily]
• The Versace vacation home in Italy has been sold to a Russian gajillionaire. [WWD, 1st item]
• Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz is designing a denim line for Acne Jeans. He promises it will offer silhouettes other than ubiquitous 'skinny jean.' Does that mean women over a size 10 can wear them? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Crotchity folks are claiming that the Ralph Lauren Ricky bag bears an uncanny resemblance to the Hermes Birkin bag. [Fashion Week Daily]
• At last: Service journalism you can actually use. Here's how to fix a broken nail. [BellaSugar]
• Wanna invest in Cavalli? Quick! Act now! [Reuters]
• Lord & Taylor is thinking about opening a store outside of the U.S, preferably in Canada or Mexico. Way to live dangerously, L&T. [NYT]
• How to dress like Madonna on the cheap. (Yes, go ahead and insert joke here.) [USA Today]
• Guys have body image issues; feel insecure shopping at Casual Male store. [WSJ]
• Since the economy sucks, outlets might be the only way for luxury retailers to make money. [WSJ]
• Bruce Willis' girlfriend Emma Harding: Now the face of La Senza lingerie. Glad things are working out for the girl based on her hard work and merit alone. [Daily Mail]

• "We'll get her," says Harvey Weinstein of ELLE's Nina Garcia (Weinstein) is being sued for breach of contract for taking Project Runway from Bravo to Lifetime. While Weinstein is probably the first person to say anything about wanting to continue to work with Garcia, we find his statement more creepy than encouraging. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• "I am fine alone now, but not when I'll be 90," says Giorgio Armani of having a private equity firm get involved in his business. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• "Buying vintage or revamping clothes and making things myself is my take on helping the environment." Oh bite me, Zooey Deschanel. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• "I used to consider myself Italian, but now I feel very European." —Margherita Missoni. [Fashion Week Daily]

• PETA is trying to make nice with Beyonce and has issued a statement congratulating the pop star on her marriage to Jay-Z. They even sent her a faux fur stole as a wedding gift. Aw. [Sassybella]
• Wanna be on top? Says Sarah Doukas, who discovered Kate Moss: "You need the cheekbones, you need the jaw-line. You can look at someone who is gorgeous but perhaps has quite a round face, without the definition that you need for a camera and light to turn it into this fantastic canvas." How not encouraging. [Vogue UK]
• Tommy Hilfiger has his own TV channel. On the internet, that is. The just-launched Tommy TV will not be about fashion, however, but music. Says Hilfiger: "I became a fashion designer because of music and music has remained at the heart of Tommy Hilfiger." [WWD]
• Today is not Talbot's happiest day: Bank of America and HSBC are both pulling their lines of credit from the company. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Liz Claiborne Inc. wants someone to buy its fragrance holdings. Good luck with that, friends. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Marc by Marc Jacobs design director Fred Tremblay is leaving the label, or so the rumors go, to head to Coach. [WWD, 1st item]
• The latest expansion of the Vera Wang Bridal brand? Bed linens. Perfect for losing your virginity on top of on your wedding night, naturally! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Fendi: Busy busting counterfeiters. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Jim Belushi's wife, Jenny: Has a children's clothing store. [WWD, sub req'd]
• The Lord & Taylor logo: Indecipherable. [BusinessWeek]
• Nike and Adidas: Fighting over soccer star Zhang Zhi. [Guardian]
• Recession. No one's buying. Prices dropping. The end. [MSNBC]
• Accessory designer Jessie Randall says a "pootie" is a cross between a pump and a bootie. I say it's a vagina. You? [WSJ]

• Kate Moss's fifth collection for Topshop launches today. It's inspired by "travel." Oh, bite me. [Vogue UK]
  
• Spanx bras — to flatten your back fat, of course — in stores now! [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• You will be so proud of Eva Mendes! She overcame that whole nasty rehab debacle to be chosen as the face of Calvin Klein underwear. Yay Eva! And yay Calvin Klein for taking a chance on a star who is trying to overcome adversity. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin has extended her evil empire to include a lingerie line (entitled, sickeningly, "Pussycat Dolls...shhh") and a costume jewelry line. [WWD, 3rd item]
  
• Nicole Richie doing a maternity line? Why, God, why? [LATimes]

• Marc Jacobs and his histrionic boyfriend Jason Preston are fighting again. [Page Six]
• "I feel like Beyoncé is a very good image for what I do. She's the woman that I present. I adore women with curves," says designer Elie Saab. We remain skeptical. [Fashion Week Daily]
• I know I'll sleep better tonight knowing that Lord & Taylor has achieved its life-long dream of stocking Juicy Couture. [IHT]
• Also, knowing Victoria Beckham owns ten different Hermes Birkin bags, all in different colors. [Sunday Mirror]
• Evangeline Lilly is the face of Davidoff Cool Water Women. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Bindi Irwin's children's clothing line on sale everywhere... well, in Australia. [News.com.au]
• Paris Hilton: Inspiration to Indian fashion designers. [Reuters]
• Gap has once again commissioned supercool designers to design limited-edition white shirts for the chain. 3.1 Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Michael Bastian, Philip Crangi and Threeasfour have all signed on for the project, sponsored by Vogue and the CFDA. It seems like only yesterday they were doing this for the very first time! I have only written approximately 3.1 x 10²⁹ words on this site since then. [WWD, sub req'd]
• No, light-up packaging scares me. [BellaSugar]
• Our favorite model-blogger Erin O'Connor is now preparing to make a documentary about the fashion industry. $10 says everyone comes off looking ethical and well-groomed. [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Valentino In Vogue: Models With Ennui Playing Invisible Croquet
Why Don't I Love Shoes? An Exploration In Photos

• It is with just a twinge of resignation that we give to you....[sigh] images from Lauren Conrad's clothing collection. [FabSugar]
  
• Designer Philip Lim says that he frequently finds inspiration from "[p]rivate moments in the restroom. It's all about that intimacy that allows you to reflect." Uh, we thought the restroom was for tapping your feet three times and cruising for anonymous sodomy but, okay. [The Fashion Informer]
  
• Portfolio fashion blogger/Jezebel obsession Lauren Goldstein Crowe finally got the budget to have a real photo taken of her for Portfolio.com. [Portfolio.com]

• Wal-Mart and Ocean Pacific inked a really confusing deal we think means Ocean Pacific has no soul. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Tommy Hilfiger's new book, coming out in November, chronicles images that represent "Iconic America." Because he's an icon of pitiful American Ralph Lauren envy. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Oh this one is going to be good: Burberry is suing megabrand holder Iconix, saying that their London Fog has usurped Burberry's signature check. Love. It. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Fuck Kate Moss: We want Preen for Topshop. Baaaaad. [Vogue UK]
• Lulu Guinness is making limited edition rubber duckies to benefit cancer research. Natch! [Vogue UK]
• Lord & Taylor's parent company, NRDC Equity Partners, might be doing the money tango with designer Peter Som. If this happens, this would make for a strange and rare situation wherein a retailer would be investing directly in a label. And what makes this even more intriguing? Lord & Taylor doesn't even carry Peter Som. Hmmm. [WSJ]
• Tweezers, with lights in them! Whoah. [People]

• Those Sisley cocaine-snorting ads? Not exactly real. Which makes us sad because we really wanted to see something realistic in a fashion magazine. [Sassybella]
  
• You know how sometimes we read too quickly and make up, like, an alternate news story? Um, we didn't with this. You actually can turn peanuts into diamonds. [The Budget Fashionista]
  
• Two-thirds of English consumers are happy with their collection of fake bags. And the other 33% would have rather coughed up a few grand on the real thing? [BBC]

• Lord & Taylor is spending $10 million on a "brand makeover" that will attempt to make you see it as more like Nordstrom. [WWD]
• Sayeth the lawyer representing Anna Sui in her case, one of many about the stealing of designs, against Forever 21: "I believe that Forever 21's business model is to copy the designs of other well-known designers." Um, ya think? [WWD, sub req'd]
• American Eagle is giving potential shoppers a free movie ticket for trying on a pair of jeans? That is really convenient, since, um, we were trying to figure out a way to see I Now Pronounce You Chick And Larry without actually, you know, funding the evildoers. [Reuters]

Over at the NY Post, the fashionistas are raving about new kid on the style block, Chris Benz. And we agree, his clothes are hot, and he's almost hot except maybe just a bit too serial killer with the sideburns thing.

But, as he showed with his Fall 2007/8 collection, he's certainly one to watch. Just not by us:

"The Chris Benz girl is an ageless sophisticate, a reckless preppy who desires nothing more than to 'keep dancing'. Her style projects the collection's sense of imperfect perfection: the elegant tomboy with a feminine touch, equally at home in the Cafe Flore as she is in the Bowery, she is playfully impudent and always precise."

Oh dear. We think that Chris Benz would find us playfully ugly and fat, and while we'd love to 'keep dancing', our arthritic knees just won't play ball. Plus, we're more at home in a Starbucks than the Cafe Flore.

Oh well. We'll console ourselves with a nice little twinset from Lord & Taylor.

[dumb headline, though]