• Laura Ingraham is auctioning Sarah Palin's fleece from her Going Rogue cover. Let's take up a collection and shoot a real Going Vogue. [Facebook]
• Givenchy was the winning bidder for Audrey Hepburn's How To Steal A Million LBD. [WWD]

• Sir Elton John is selling — completely fabulous, no doubt — designer clothes from his wardrobe for the benefit of his AIDS foundation. Prices start at £10. [Vogue UK]
• Michelle Obama wore Calvin Klein collection in Oslo. [WWD]
• Antonio Berardi is too cool to collaborate with Lady Gaga. "I was approached to design a clothing range with Lady Gaga but I knocked it back because I wasn't interested in someone whose music is meaningless," says the Italian-born designer. This, from a man who designed heel-less heels? [SN]
• "Women have many lives in a day, and I try to do the best I can to accommodate that. If I have a meeting at my son's school, I don't want to look like a total fashion freak. I think, ‘Could I wear this to Trader Joe's?'" Ever sensible, that Maria Cornejo. [WWD]
• Isaac Mizrahi is returning as the Narrator in the Guggenheim's holiday production of Peter and the Wolf. [NYP]
• Could Taylor Lautner be the latest face of Armani? [InTouch]
• Roberto Cavalli, when not lending his name to opulent Dubai nightclubs with black crystal floors, apparently likes to jet off to Africa and take pictures. Now he wants nothing more than to exhibit them, he told Martha Stewart, and the Daily, yesterday. "I love shooting primitive and simple things," explained Cavalli. You know. Primitive. Like Africa. [Vogue UK]
• P. Diddy visited the New York Stock Exchange for a party celebrating AOL's re-listing as a separate company from TimeWarner, and was apparently inundated with requests for fashion advice from finance chaps. [NYDN]
• A The Sartorialist clothing line and a The Sartorialist television show are just two of the many projects Scott Schuman is discussing presently. [Pedestrian]
• Versace's spring shoes are insane. Normally the shoes that actually enter production are watered-down versions of the sky-high runway clodhoppers; these look like they're one and the same. [TheLifeFiles]
• Jil Sander's second +J collection for Uniqlo will hit stores January 14. In the meantime, here are a few pictures. [Nitrolicious]
• Alexa Chung's MTV show, It's On With Alexa Chung, will end after its season finale on December 17. The network plans to "revamp" the show's format for next January; MTV has already shortened it from one hour to 30 minutes, and experimented with the timeslot. Chung's contract with the company runs through early next year. [Variety]
• At worst, Chung can console herself with the knowledge that she has inspired a Mulberry bag of her very own. The Alexa is a twist on the company's popular Bayswater, and starts at £695. [Elle UK]
• Yesterday, we linked to a Daily Mail story that stated Mulberry's sales had jumped 16% in the six months to September 30. Well, we ought to have known better than to trust that rag for financial news: although profits at the company rose 16%, sales rose a whopping 39%. [Vogue UK]
• Mango opened its first store in Iraq. [FWD]
• "I get my best ideas when I'm in the bath in the morning or when I'm driving," says accessories designer Lulu Guinness. [WWD]
• Lily Cole, on modeling versus acting: "I look at myself differently. I think in magazines I don't have very much control. If a picture of me is great, then great. If it's not so good, it's not my fault. I have less control in that situation. That is one of the things that I like about acting: I do have a lot more control over what I'm doing and more responsibility." [Interview]
• As part of her Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund award, Sophie Théallet will be mentored by none other than Oscar de la Renta. [WWD]

• Filling Lily Donaldson's shoes, Emma Watson, 19, will be the face of Burberry. Said designer Christopher Bailey: "Her charm and intellect and brilliant sense of fun made the whole shoot feel like a picnic on the Thames." [Telegraph]

• Celebrities: They're Better Than Us! Their World Environment Day parties may be sponsored by Lexus and hosted by Stella McCartney's West Hollywood store, but when it gets down to it, their commitment to the greening of the planet is breathtaking: "I grow my own food and I'm trying to figure out how to make my own fuel," remarked Darryl Hannah. Emily Deschanel said she celebrated the day as follows: "I ate vegan meals. I drove my hybrid. I used environmentally efficient lightbulbs. The list is endless." Endless. (What's on your list, huh?) Rosario Dawson, for her part, "didn't use plastic bags at the farmers' market." There are levels of virtue to which we, mere mortals, cannot aspire. [Style.com]
• British accessories designer Lulu Guinness wore a purple dress with googly eyes on it to the 20th anniversary party of her label. We're still waiting to see her make the Hamburgler look hot. [The Cut]
• Elle MacPherson, whose Notting Hill home has been on the market for more than a year without attracting a buyer, has slashed its price by £2 million. The seven-story house is now available at the bargain price of £7.5 million. [Daily Mail]
• Peaches Geldof was apparently having a sleepover with Courtney Love, and decided to Twitter their little tête-à-tête. Including a reference to Love's rumored new clothing line, which, and we repeat the source here is Peaches Geldof's Twitter, supposedly includes such touches as "cotton ribbed body suits," "cashmere harem pants" and "stitching a ruby into every outfit." [Grazia]
• Naming your label "Comme des Garçons" ("Like boys") is one thing, but we never thought that actually meant Rei Kawakubo had anything against women per se. And yet: "I never felt my work had anything to do with being a woman," said the designer. "I am not a feminist. I was never interested in any movement as such. I just decided to make a company built around creation, and with creation as my sword, I could fight the battles I wanted to fight." [IHT]
• Christian Lacroix, who has been designing for the bankrupt fashion house that bears his name without pay for months now, has made the sad announcement that when the company leaves bankruptcy court, all that may remain is a licensing operation. With no couture. (This despite the fact that the lower-priced lines Christian Lacroix Jeans and Bazar were hemorrhaging money, and have already been shut down.) Couture is so much the essence of the Lacroix fashion identity that we shudder to think of the name existing only to brand sunglasses and perfumes, like a revenant. One of his couture clients offered to buy the company and its debts, but Lacroix turned her down. [WWD]
• In a step towards vertical integration, Hermès C.E.O. Patrick Thomas announced the company is now breeding its own crocodiles. Not to release upon its enemies — one chomp and you're dead meat, Prada It-bag — but to speed up their production of exotic skin bags, which fetch up to $48,000, or some of the highest prices of any of their accessories. How are crocodiles farmed, you ask? Very carefully! In separate crates, to stop them biting each other and damaging their hides. "It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia," said Thomas. Hermès' leather goods division has continued to see robust demand for its products during the downturn. The company even added another 50-100 leather workers to its staff of 2,000 France-based craftspeople so far this year. [Reuters]
• Also chasing the tippety-top of the market: Saks Fifth Avenue. The troubled retailer is set to open its $30 million designer showcase floor, which will be filled with the likes of Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, and Armani. No doubt the pieces will be chosen very carefully, to avoid a repeat of last Fall's debacle. [WWD]
• What does an American Apparel store in China look like, you wonder? Just like one in SoHo, only empty. [Racked]
• Starting July 5, Neiman Marcus will shorten the opening hours of half of its 40 stores. [WWD]
• Even after offloading J. Jill to a private equity fund for a quick $75 mill, all is far from well at Talbots. The retailer just announced its quarterly results, and it lost $23.6 million, on the back of same-store sales that fell by 26.9%, during the period ended May 2. It plans to eliminate a full 20% of its workforce. Three hundred and seventy corporate-level workers were already laid off in February. [Forbes]

The Charming: Camilla Rutherford's is the sort of frock that inspires intense envy, and not the fun kind. The festering, malicious, Jacob Have I Loved kind.


The Reshuffle: Katy Perry's twist on basics - okay, more twist than basic - is actually a good idea for her! (Look, personally? I hate. But for her? I get it. And I feel like after exhorting her to less exhibitionism, positive enforcement is the right idea.)


The Lifer: I'm on record in my love of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who always works with one or two 50's silhouettes to good effect, plus wrote "Murder on the Dancefloor."


View From the Top: Daisy De Villeneuve reimagines High Society via a creepy chateau - always a good idea.


Woman of the Hour: Can we guess who here has made a career of being whimsical? Anyone?


Modern Love: Lucky claims "modern florals" - vaguely 90's-style photographically-based prints in harsh colors - are a NBT. Victoria Hesketh is ahead of this curve, to the extent feathers outrank flowers.


What Say You about Jo Wood's punk Bardot? My hatred of garbage bag leggings warring with my love of sailor ties! It's like a tiny, petty civil war in my heart! And a house divided cannot stand!


Jade Parfitt is reminding me that if you can't say anything nice, you ask, "What Say You?"

[Images via Getty]

• Oh great: Valentino finally breaks down and retires, and now we have to deal with the lady-doth-protest-too-muches of Giorgio Armani who, out of the blue, has made a big announcement that he is not retiring. Now we give him one year, tops. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Best. Fashion Week quote. EVER: "She don't want nothing to do with this!," security guard at Miss Sixty show, regarding Demi Moore and Hilary Swank, to aggressive photographers. Yes. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Donatella Versace is one hard-working bitch: Our favorite bleached-blonde, tanorexic cokehead Italian says she left the hospital immediately after delivering one of her two children (via Cesarean) to complete the designs on the Versace men's line. All we can think about is 1) the painkillers and 2) the hygiene? [NY Post]
  
• The kids? Still buying denim. And lots of it. [MediaPost]

• Alexander McQueen is teaming up with MAC to create a makeup line inspired by his Spring 2008 collection's makeup. Which was done by MAC. And which was apparently inspired by images of Cleopatra. So we're thinking they don't have to actually make anything new if they've already done this? Head. Hurting. Now. [Vogue UK]
• Ew: Why would accessories designer Lulu Guinness want Arden Wohl to be modeling her bags? [Vogue UK]
• A reality show about Elie and Rory Tahari??? But why??? [Fashion Week Daily]

• 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]

It's a very difficult illness to understand when it's happening to you, and not a pleasant thing, but the silver lining is that you spend a lot of time with other people who are depressed, you appreciate things a bit more and, through doing therapy and group sessions, you become a much wiser person. I think you learn to empathise. I'm not judgmental any more. I'm not as critical.

Wait, wait — Guinness is thankful for her depression because it made her nice? Ew, that doesn't sound like fun at all. Sorry, Lulu, we're going to have to go back to hating on you. Because that's the kind of depressives we are.

Pure Guinness [Telegraph]