• Whitney Port isn't in Kell On Earth. And on Lauren Conrad: "We still keep in touch on a friendship level. But in terms of fashion we don't really talk about it anymore because we're not in the same arena." [PopEater]

• AIDS prevention is a cause dear to Carla Bruni's heart. Her brother, Virginio, died of the disease in 2006, and she told French television yesterday that working in fashion in the 1980s, the disease was omnipresent. "The fashion world was hit head-on by the AIDS pandemic," she said. "It really did lose members of its family." Bruni is now an ambassador with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria, and yesterday the Elysée Palace was festooned for the first time with red ribbons. [AFP]
• A fan named Diane called in to P. Diddy's Home Shopping Network show Monday night. "I'm so nervous!" she squealed. "Don't be nervous," replied the suave object of her affections. "I wish I could just jump through the screen and give you a hug, girl." [The Cut]
• Alber Elbaz designed some sweet heart-shaped Lanvin stamps, covered with his doodles, for the French postal service. [WWD]
• Maria Sharapova would like a fashion line, just as soon as she's finished kicking everyone's asses on the court. [Reuters]
• Liberty of London is taking its gorgeous William Morris aesthetic to the masses: it's partnering up with Target. [WWD]
• John Galliano not only designed a gorgeous Christmas tree that looks right out of a Hokusai print: it will be installed at the Claridge's hotel in a constellation of 20 of his haute-couture dresses. Swoon. [Telegraph]
• If Simon Doonan wanted a crowd, he should have gone the way of XOXO's flagship, which features a rotating cast of two female models paid to dress and undress in front of a glass window on 5th Avenue. The creative director who came up with the concept, in case you're wondering, is a woman. [CNN]
• Mango inked a deal with J.C. Penney. The Spanish brand has 1,200 stores worldwide, but only 12 in the U.S., so their distribution in this country has just officially mushroomed. [Crains]
• Carmen Dell'Orefice is working on a coffee table book of photography, scheduled for release on her 80th birthday. This story is funny mainly for how the Post mangles her name. Carmen De L'Orifice, indeed. [P6]
• Jil Sander's latest jewelry collection, made with Damiani, is out. "Jil Sander, even being considered as the brand of pureness, can create a product category such as jewelry," sniffed creative director Raf Simons. Prices start at around €890 for the baubles; Jil Sander watches are coming in the spring. [Independent]
• Seamstresses and designers who were employed in Christian Lacroix's workshop were yesterday told they had lost their jobs, following the court ruling that the bankrupt house could be transformed into a licensing operation. Dressmaker Nadia Schoope said, "I didn't think it would finish like that. I can't understand how a house like Lacroix cannot draw buyers." Monika Soszynska, who worked in couture accessories, said, "It's surreal, we can't believe that it's stopping, it's not possible. I can't believe we won't be doing the next haute couture collection." [ToL]
• H&M wants to open home stores. The Swedish retailer, which has been plagued by declining sales, opened 240 stores this year. [WWD]
• Dockers thinks the tag line "Behold the second dawn of man" will move some khaki pants. Global marketing vice president Jennifer Sey tells BrandWeek about the genesis of the campaign: "We started to do some research. In today's world, men have lost a bit of footing, in part because women have come so far, but we also found a few surprising facts: Eighty-percent of those who suffered unemployment in the last year were men. Women outnumber men in the workforce now. But the most surprising fact of all was that men's testosterone levels have been dropping by a percentage point a year for the last 20 years. All these factors add to up say, 'Wow, men are struggling in today's world.'" She's not trying to sell pants with pathetic anti-feminist rhetoric, she's just trying to "inspire today's men to be men," ladies. [BW]
• Roland Mouret has a capsule collection for Net-A-Porter on sale now. The seven lovely silk dresses come in seven bright colors, and cost $1,495-$3,070. [WWD]
• The fate of all Victoria's Secret diamond-encrusted bras is to be dismantled for parts. Because nobody ever buys them. [WSJ]
• Christian Louboutin, on Jennifer Lopez's single, "Louboutins" — which name-checks his brand 45 times, yes, he counted: "Jennifer told me about the song back in January, and I was extremely flattered. But of course, in America the public pronounces my name in like a million different ways. So Jennifer called me, and she was like, 'Listen, I want to make sure that I get it right.' And she did...from the very first time! I know the song by heart now. Because the brilliant part of the single is that it's not about me. It's about a girl and her shoe. When something is so in mass culture and you have almost nothing to do with it, it's kind of cool. It's weird but not disagreeable." [FWD]

• Kate Moss says her motto is, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." [WWD]

• In December Harper's Bazaar, Victoria Beckham reveals that she is itching to dress Emma Watson. [People]
• Alexander Wang is now 100,000 Euros richer, thanks to the Swiss Textiles Award. [WWD]
• Bridget Moynahan is becoming a face of Garnier Nutritioniste skincare. [WWD]
• It took a while, but someone finally got around to identifying what Sasha and Malia wore in the official White House family portrait, and putting together a press release. (Turns out it was French children's label Dino e Lucia.) [WWD]
• Miss J, on fun times with André Leon Talley: "I was working for Lars Nilsson at Bill Blass and André Leon Talley came over to the studio with Elizabeth Taylor's epic movie Boom!, which Karl Lagerfeld did the costuming for. We got down on some fried chicken, corn bread and popcorn shrimp and were in fits of hysterics well into the night. We went from working with models who don't eat all day to watching all of us get down on some soul food!" Says Miss J, "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but fabulous gets you most places." [The Moment]
• Naomi Campbell held a Fashion For Relief runway show to raise money for maternal health in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. (Previous stops have included Mumbai and New York, and have raised $1 million in aid for Hurricane Katrina and the Mumbai terrorist attacks.) Campbell walked the runway for the first time in the continent of Africa, and talked about the importance of diversity in fashion. "There's definitely space [for more black models] but has there been enough effort? It was getting better but it's slipped back this year," said the model. "The world is not made up of blonde hair and blue eyes. We need to share ourselves." [Reuters]
• Claudia Schiffer wouldn't rule out starting a clothing line. "I would consider it but it would have to be the right thing. They would need to be clothes that I would want to wear." [Telegraph]
• Liu Wen will be the first Asian model to walk in the Victoria's Secret fashion show. [Modelinia]
• Marc Jacobs' fiancé, Lorenzo Martone, and Ryan Brown, formerly of Elite, are starting a talent PR agency for models together called ARC NY. Lydia Hearst has signed on. [P6]
• Mango might ink a distribution deal with a U.S. department store, like JC Penney, Macy's, Bloomingdales or Saks, to help its retail expansion. [WWD]
• What other fashion house has ever inspired poetry upon its demise?
  "Luella, we will miss
  The frills
  The spills
  But know this

  Your work will live on
  In a sample sale shirt
  I once purchased
  Cheap as chips." [Guardian]

• As one exits, another enters: Biba is being revived. Again. [Catwalk Queen]
• Jimmy Choo has opened a Chinese restaurant in London. [Elle UK]
• For $8,500, you could own a sofa in the shape of the Chanel logo. [FWD]
• Bamboo fabric, though made from a plant that can be grown without pesticides and fertilizers, is processed with toxic solvents, just like rayon and viscose are made from wood. Eco-friendly it is not. [WSJ]
• Nordstrom's revenues for the third quarter jumped 17% on last year's results, but the company missed its earnings forecast by one cent, which sent the share price tumbling. [TS]
• Abercrombie & Fitch's quarterly profit fell to $38.8 million, from $63.9 million a year ago. [Reuters]
• Sales of department store fragrances fell by 11% on last year during the first three quarters, to $1.38 billion. [WWD]
• That hasn't stopped Gwen Stefani and her perfume partners, Coty, from putting out five new Harajuku Lovers fragrances. [WWD]

• Alicia Keys has a jewelry line; her bangles and rings come engraved with the words of the Japanese pseudoscientist Masaru Emoto. You can't make this up. [WWD]
• Marie Claire has published some clear pictures of Rodarte's line for Target. [Nitrolicious]

• John Galliano's Christmas tree design for Claridge's is extraordinary and very weird. [Vogue UK]
• Madonna has rebounded from Louis Vuitton's decision not to re-hire her for a third season of ad campaigns rather well: she shot the spring Dolce & Gabbana campaign with Steven Klein in a Brooklyn studio on Friday. [WWD]
• Zac Posen has eliminated his public relations officer because of budget constraints. [WWD]
• Jamba Juice is getting into the rag trade. The maker of delicious smoothies thinks it can whip up "Jamba-inspired" t-shirts, sweatshirts, and headwear that everyone will want. No delivery date for the first collection was given. [BrandWeek]
• Express is suing Forever 21 for copyright violations concerning several plaid patterns, in what has to be the endgame for fashion originality. [WWD]
• Scarlett Johanson is apparently still doing ad campaigns for Mango. [FWD]
• Diane Von Furstenberg dropped a few dresses off with Ikram Goldman during a recent trip to Chicago. We all know what that means! [WWD]
• Thakoon Panichgul is now the creative director of the Japanese jewelry brand Tasaki. [Style.com]
• Tom Ford's profile in the Advocate is alternately touching, perhaps too revealing, and kind of crass — kind of like the man's designs. He opens up about his depression, his struggles with alcohol dependency, admits to chasing youth with Botox and Restylane, and how he once shaved his eyebrow off when he was on mescaline, but most fascinatingly of all, to our ears, is the revelation that in his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man, he gave the main character a last name after his first boyfriend, Ian Falconer. Oh! Also there's this: "Yves and his partner, Pierre Bergé, were so difficult and so evil and made my life such misery. I'd lived in France off and on and had always loved it. I went to college in France. It wasn't until I started working in France that I began to dislike it. They would call the fiscal police, and they would show up at our offices…They'd come marching in, and you had to let them in and they'd interview my secretary. And they can fine you and shut you down. Pierre was the one calling them. I've never talked about this on the record before, but it was an awful time for me. Pierre and Yves were just evil. So Yves Saint Laurent doesn't exist for me…I have letters from Yves Saint Laurent that are so mean you cannot even believe such vitriol is possible." [Advocate]
• Says Vogue/CDFA Fashion Fund finalist Flora Gill, of Ohne Titel: "My parents were always very supportive. They actually bought me books about Comme des Garçons when I was 8 years old, which I think is not…usual." Meet the other nine finalists in this video. [Style.com]
• Simon Fuller, who already holds a 51% stake in London's Storm Models, is rumored to be investigating setting up a New York agency. Posh is supposedly involved. This sounds awfully similar to the Simon-Fuller-and-Kate-Moss-are-going-to-found-an-agency rumor of a few months back. [Daily Mail]
• The woman who runs British lingerie brand Ultimo (current face: Peaches Geldof) noticed her 10-year-old daughter talking about going on a diet. So she has decided to ban excessive Photoshopping in Ultimo's advertising images. (Whether she'll ban the company from employing women like Peaches Geldof as role models is unanswered.) [Sun]
• Friday, Lady Gaga tweeted that she was visiting Nick Knight's Showstudio. The singer is apparently working with the fashion photographer/videographer on a video for her upcoming tour. The concept apparently involves "a veritable menagerie of animals." [Showstudio]
• Style.com ranked 2009's top fashion partiers; all the usual suspects — Olivier Zahm, Alex Wang, Lauren Santo-Domingo, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Leigh Lezark, Derek Blasberg, and Karl Lagerfeld — make the cut. But more importantly: can we never, ever refer to the Meatpacking District as "MePa" again? [Style.com]
• Cacharel, relaunched this October under Belgian designer Cedric Charlier, is returning to worldwide distribution in the spring. [WWD]
• And, just like that, it's over: Versace face, British Vogue cover model, Rimmel campaign-nabber Georgia May Jagger says she's quitting the biz. At least for the rest of the year: she's 17, so she has school, you know. [Vogue UK]
• Luella is closing. [Vogue UK]
• Former Gucci creative director Dawn Mello was allegedly run down by a bicycle messenger outside Bergdorf's. She has a shattered femur. [P6]

• 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]

Roitfeld, the editor of Paris Vogue, is the subject of a fawning profile by Lisa Arnold in today's Times of London. "The Ultimate Style-Setter" traces Roitfeld's immense influence over the look of the coming season, from the high street to fashion's top lights. Not only are designers Roitfeld champions personally — like Christophe Decarnin at Balmain, and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy — experiencing success, writes Arnold, but chain stores like Marks & Spencer are imitating Roitfeld's signature style.

It almost goes without saying that they are all pushing big shoulders and a whole lot of black.

Then there is the British high street. From Oasis's fitted dresses and Mango's outlandish furry coats to Topshop's leather jackets and Miss Selfridge's strong-shouldered blazer, white shirts and leather leggings, they are all referencing her. Even M&S is at it, juxtaposing sequins, leather and Roitfeld's trademark smoky eyes.

Roitfeld, who was rumored briefly late last year to be in the running to take Wintour's job, once compared Wintour to "a puppet" in the pages of New York magazine.

Anna Wintour is known not to love the press, and will likely retreat happily into her fortress of solitude on the 12th floor of the Condé Nast building as soon as the ink is dry on her contract. (Should, of course, the negotiations be successful.) What we've seen in recent months, with the public events and the film promotions and the television appearances, is the charm offensive of someone who is neither naturally very charming, nor easily charmed. Roitfeld could have merely looked on while her rumored rival twisted in discomfort; but instead, she made sure the Times of London just happened to have all these lovely things to say about her.

Because the thing is, this whole people-imitate-Carine thing is not news. We've read this very story before. So why did Roitfeld make sure this piece ran right now, the week of The September Issue's release?

Carine Roitfeld: The Ultimate Style Setter [ToL]
The Anti-Anna

Earlier: Anna Wintour: "I Reckon That Makes Me A Lukewarm Royalty From Outer Space With A Whip"
Being Anna: "Sometimes You Don't Love The Press"
3 Reasons We Hope The Wintour/Roitfeld Rumor Is True

What becomes clear in the film is just how far Wintour's influence ranges within the domain of fashion. In addition to interceding with designers in order to appease retailers concerned with their collections' saleability, Wintour acts as a kind of kingmaker in other ways that far exceed the presumed ambit of her magazine. Thakoon, a young designer, was a runner-up in the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, and in this clip, he's getting part of his prize: the chance to design a line of three white shirts for the Gap.

But it isn't the Gap creative director who's okaying Thakoon's designs. It's Anna Wintour. When, later in the movie, a journalist for the National Post asks him how it was to get that call from the Gap, Thakoon corrects her: He didn't get any call from the Gap. He got a call from Anna Wintour at Vogue. When the Spanish fast-fashion retailer Mango approaches Wintour about hiring a New York designer as a consultant, Wintour also pushes Thakoon. "Thakoon?" says a clearly jealous Oscar de la Renta, who notes that the Mango position pays extremely well. Wintour replies, "Thakoon."

André Leon Talley, is a man who must live by his own "aesthetics of style." In this scene, he's decked out in designer goods, emerging from his chauffeured car holding a Louis Vuitton racket case, a small Louis Vuitton trunk, wearing Damon Dash trousers, and a vintage 1960s Piaget diamond-encrusted tennis watch. A Louis Vuitton towel is draped over his Ralph Lauren polo shirt. "Miss Wintour inaugurated me into health," he explains, "She saved my life. I guess." Then he plays what could almost be mistaken for tennis.

But the woman who steals this quiet, ploddingly paced movie is stylist Grace Coddington. Although it's a little hard to pick a winner among the Wintour and Coddington duo — in truth neither has the kind of aesthetic sense that commands much awe, as any Vogue reader has seen from Coddington's borderline cheesy styling and conceptualization (especially in her frequent "fairytale" shoots), and from Wintour's predilection for running stonkingly unimaginative spreads with models jumping in head-to-toe runway looks in front of gray backdrops. But Coddington doesn't have to be remade as, as one source calls her in a nice bit of hyperbole, "the greatest living stylist" in order for the movie to work.

To be Wintour's foil, she just has to be her reflective, sensitive, eyes-open self. Standing there on the steps of Versailles, with the wind in her hair and her boss far away, Coddington is likable and one feels that she has earned the viewer's respect.

Earlier: The September Issue: A Portrait Of The Quaint Old Consumer Economy

• Katie Holmes can add another feather to her designing cap: creative-directing new uniforms for the Church of Scientology. Holmes and Tom Cruise apparently had creative oversight of the religion's new threads, offering direction to designer Richard Tyler. [Daily Mail]

• For some reason, we literally had no idea that Daphne Guinness — Steven Klein's sometime subject, and a woman who brings exquisite creativity to dress — was Bernard-Henri Lévy's girlfriend. Lévy told her once, "You are no longer a person, you have become a concept." (Too bad he's married to the actress Arielle Dombasle.) [Telegraph]
• Market research company the NPD Group estimates that fully 12% of fashion industry vendors will not survive this recession. An additional 20% will abandon their expansion strategies, and retrench to focus on core markets and products. Sobering news for anyone who loves fashion. [WWD]
• Kate Moss and Scarlett Johansson, shilling for the supermodel's Topshop line and for Mango, respectively, ended up posing in awkward, sprawling positions, wearing grey sweaters and ripped black tights. Irrefutable evidence that when high street stores pick from a season's grab-bag of trends, their choices will inevitably sometimes coincide. [Stylefile]
• YLB, Yasmin Le Bon's line for the British fast-fashion chain Wallis, which targets middle-aged women, is apparently relatively demure — but still, she hopes, fashionable. As for her family, by the end of next month, Le Bon's eldest daughters, Amber and Saffron, will be 20 and 18, respectively. "I'll have two adults. In legal terms only! They can vote, but they can't do a lot else," says the supermodel. "No, they're great girls, they completely entertain us. But if I'd known how much heartache was in store... wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. It never stops. There's no cut-off point for your children, no matter how grown-up they are. It's a big deal." [ToL]
• Christie Brinkley, on an average Sunday morning: "If it's not raining, I'll go outside with my coffee with my parrot on my shoulder and wander around pinching the petunias. Then I read the newspaper." [NYTimes]
• Tory Burch did a Gossip Girl cameo because "It's a show that's very important in our culture right now." [FWD]
• Dunja Knezevic and Victoria Keon-Cohen, who in 2007 founded the world's first successful models' union in London, are about to set up the industry's first-ever code of conduct to protect models from exploitation. The kinds of behavior they want the code to regulate includes the usual list of complaints about sexual harassment, abuse by hair and makeup artists — the union received one complaint from a male model whose scalp bled because of peroxide — and dangerous practices like models being asked to risk their ankles by jumping on trampolines in high heels. Keon-Cohen and Knezevic both grew up in Australia, but make no mistake the duo's home country has no plans to take up their initiative and institute a similar code: "We are lucky in Australia that we have a small but very professional group of agencies providing a world-class service," said a snippy spokesperson for the Sydney agency Chic. [SMH]
• Meanwhile, in other model-activist news, Gloria Mika, a face of L'Oréal, is campaigning for free and fair elections in her native Gabon. Mika aims to recruit volunteer poll watchers online, and says the response to her website has been extraordinary. The 23-strong field of candidates for president is led by Ali Ben Bongo, the son of the recently deceased Omar Bongo, who ran the nation for 42 years and enriched himself dramatically in the process. [BBC]
• Apparently, three male celebrities wearing mostly gender-neutral items marketed towards women, like scarves, pouch bags, and "boyfriend" jackets, constitutes a trend toward "girlfriend" dressing. We're suspicious of this "trend," but we agree Jamie Hince should probably not wear Kate Moss's denim cutoffs again. [Telegraph]
• Elettra Weidemann, on Anna Wintour: "She's been doing this for so long, surrounded by men. There's absolutely a feminist aspect to her. I think a lot of the attacks against her are misogynist. Men in business are totally cutthroat and nobody says bad things about them for it." [The Cut]
• "A couple of years ago I thought to myself that I wanted to build a whole lifestyle brand and really educate people that anyone can have style. You don't need a lot of money." Rachel Zoe says one thing and means another. [USAToday]
• Europe's largest distributor of band t-shirts, Completely Independent Distribution, may soon have to drop the "independent" from its name: the music label giant EMI is considering a $500,000 bid for the company, as it seeks to diversify its revenue streams now that nobody buys CDs but concerts become increasingly profitable. [FT]
• One person who apparently isn't thrilled about Marc Jacobs' and Lorenzo Martone's rumored secret elopement to Provincetown, Massachussetts, this past weekend: Jacobs' ex, Jason Preston. The party promoter, who was once so devoted to his designer beau that he has his logo tattooed on his forearm, Twittered to Courtney Love on Friday, "I miss u love!!! I feel this is gunna b a VERY bad weekend 4me rumor around town is he's getting married this weekend. : (" [CityFile]
• One way of reaching consumers in emerging markets? Offering purchase by installment plan, as Levi's is doing in India. [FT]
• Sales at Ann Taylor fell 21% in the second quarter, and the company swung to a loss. The company, which this spring admitted its product lines had been dowdy, is hoping that new fall offerings — and a new ad campaign with Cameron Russell — will reel consumers back in. [WSJ]
• Marc Dreier's ponzi scheme defrauded $400 million, mainly from large investment funds, and Dreier was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month. But a number of fashion companies, including Nike, Adidas, Seven For All Mankind, Tommy Hilfiger, Rock & Republic, and Nautica, were also investors, who are now seeking to be repaid some of what Dreier took. [WWD]
• Charlotte Russe, which put itself up for sale in March, will be bought for $380 million by the private-equity firm Advent International Corp. [WSJ]

• For the September issue of Harper's Bazaar, the magazine interviewed Karl Lagerfeld, speaking as Coco Chanel. In character, the Grand Teuton shared such idiotic reflections as: "I was never a feminist because I was never ugly enough for that." [FWD]

• A very painterly, Frenchified image of 90s supe Linda Evangelista made the grade as John Galliano's fall campaign. [SassyBella]
• On Sunday, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., hosted an exhibition of the Indonesian batik textiles collected by President Obama's mother, Anne Dunham, during her years in the country. There were traditional Indonesian dance and music performances, and fashion shows from two Indonesian designers. [WWD]
• Victoria Beckham has decided not to renew her contract with Emporio Armani, apparently because she wants to concentrate on her dress line. [UK Vogue]
• Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller has acquired a 51% stake in Storm, the London model agency that represents such top names as Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn, Eva Herzigova, and Lily Cole. [Telegraph]
• This fall is going to be an exciting time for designer fast-fashion lines. Unrolling next season at a chain near you: Jimmy Choo for H&M, Stella McCartney for Gap Kids, Anna Sui for Target, Christopher Kane for TopShop, Adam Lippes for Mango, and, uh, Lauren Conrad for Kohl's. [TS]
• Add to that list Jil Sander's hotly anticipated +J line for Uniqlo, which will begin hitting stores in October. The 140-piece collection is believed to start at around $25. [Fashionologie]
• Stars like Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Emeril Lagasse, and Martha Stewart are promoting Macy's "Come Together" program, a special night of dinner parties intended to inspire charitable giving. Americans are asked to host a special dinner in their homes, and solicit donations to Feeding America, in lieu of any gifts for the host. Macy's will match those donations until enough money has been raised to serve 10 million meals to poor families this fall and winter. You can register a dinner party or get new information at Come Together. [People]
• Are you a man? Are you really, really ridiculously good-looking? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Calvin Klein underwear model? Do you live in one of nine European countries? In that case, you might be in luck: to launch a new underwear line, Calvin Klein is holding a model search. Jamie Dornan will be one of the judges. [WWD]
• "She's like, 'What about Maximilian? Bruno? Sebastian? Hector? Guido?' I always tell her I'll put it on my list." Karolina Kurkova's Slovak mother sure does have interesting taste in baby boy names. [USAToday]
• Donald Fisher, the Gap founder, and his wife Doris spent the last 50 years collecting art by such eminent figures as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alexander Calder. But San Francisco preservationists have nixed the Fishers' plans to build a museum in the Presidio, a historic military base inside the city. The Fishers would prefer to keep the priceless collection in San Francisco, perhaps at the De Young or at the SFMOMA, but after the rejection of their standalone museum idea, other art museums are actively wooing the couple. [LATimes]
• Australian Merino lambs are routinely mulesed — that is, they have the skin around their buttocks cut off, often without anaesthetic, to prevent a disease called flystrike, which occurs when flies lay maggots in the folds of the lambs' skin, and those maggots then commence eating the animals' flesh. Although flystrike is horrifying, many animal rights activists are even more aghast at the mulesing, and with Australian farmers now announcing that they will fail to meet an agreed-upon 2010 deadline for ending the practice, some top fashion chains are discussing a ban on Australian merino wool. In which case, might I suggest New Zealand merino as an alternative? New Zealand is already phasing out mulesing. [Guardian]
• Heidi Klum had to close her five-year-old jewelry line because of a trademark infringement lawsuit from Van Cleef & Arpels, who objected to her use of its signature clover design. "We stopped because we had a lawsuit with Van Cleef & Arpels — they wanted to have the clover, even though our designs had never matched," said the supermodel. "I think when you're a small company, which we are, we're not a Van Cleef — they have a thousand lawyers. I'm a small fry next to that." [LATimes]
• Imagine the delicate hell of being a parts model: "Most people can walk away from work when they're done with a job, but parts models can't, because [our parts] have to be flawless. I moisturize 20 to 30 times a day, and wear gloves 90 percent of the time," says hand model Ashley Covington. [CNN]
• Coach C.E.O. Lew Frankfort, who has been with the company for 30 years, extended his contract until 2013. [Crain's]
• Paula Dorf cosmetics is bankrupt. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing more than 50 creditors a total of $3.9 million. [Crain's]
• K Swiss lost $11.5 million in the second quarter of this year. Last year, they made a $26.4 million profit in the same period. [WWD]
• Astoundingly, high-end children's clothing is also suffering in this economy. A Connecticut store that sold $995 Peter Som girls' dresses close its doors this summer, and companies are dialing back their kids lines. [WSJ]
• A new strategy in the open question of how, and whom, to sue over the online trade in counterfeit luxury goods: after the failure to get auction sites like eBay held accountable — L'Oréal lost its multi-million-dollar suit, and Steve Madden had to drop its lawsuit just last week — Gucci has hit upon suing the credit card processing companies. The lawsuit accuses the companies of facilitating the sale of fake purses, and names the companies "full partners in those counterfeiting activities." Gucci has already wrangled a $5.2 million settlement from the Laurette Company, which runs the website TheBagAddiction.com, where counterfeit bags were often sold, and the credit card processing companies are those companies which worked closely with Laurette. [Reuters]

• Eva Mendes got all verklempt at a Cartier press conference talking about a charity that matches actors and musicians with sick kids. "Thank God for waterproof mascara," said the star of such films as Ghost Rider and 2 Fast 2 Furious. [WWD]

• Marc Jacobs, man of 31 tattoos, on his latest: "Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf with 3-D sunglasses on." [Style.com]
• Add Jacobs-helmed Louis Vuitton to the list of brands that are sticking with what works: Australian model Catherine McNeil, face of last year's resort campaign, will shoot this year's campaign tomorrow in St. Tropez. [Karen Kooper's Twitter]
• The First Lady's deputy press secretary, Semonit Mustaphi: "Mrs. Obama does not wear fur." [Washington Times]
• Reese Witherspoon is releasing a fragrance with Avon. It's gonna be called "In Bloom". [WWD]
• And Claudia Schiffer is to be the face of Alberta Ferretti's as yet untitled first scent. [Elle UK]
• The Sun is reprinting Karl Lagerfeld's four-month-old dis of Heidi Klum as news. (Either that or the Kaiser still doesn't know who she is, German Vogue or no.) [Sun]
• Kanye West, on life fashion: "I've made some mistakes, some good moves, some bad moves, and I've just grown every day. I think just learning from my mistakes, and the amount of exposure that I've had, has made me become a very influential person." [NYObs]
• Kanye text-buddy and model Chanel Iman gave a more or less brain-dead interview to The Cut, in which she asked, "What's the day today?" [The Cut]
• Diane von Furstenberg settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum with the owners of Mercy, the Canadian label whose floral jacket her fashion house copied. As CFDA president, von Furstenberg has been an advocate of greater protection for fashion designers' intellectual property, including lobbying for the passage of the Design Piracy Act, which would extend copyright protection to fashion designs. "While this is an isolated incident for DVF, it is unfortunate that way too many others intentionally build businesses by stealing the work of other designers," said von Furstenberg. "I greatly appreciate DVF coming forward to resolve this issue in such a forthright manner and for acknowledging our ownership of the jacket design," said Jennifer Halchuk, of Mercy. [WWD]
• When André Leon Talley is over something, boy is he upfront about it: "Designers with an obsession for towering torture chambers, often poorly designed for the well-being of the foot, must get a reality check. I, for one, am over the mania for the high, high heel. Too many career women look like a herd of fashion beasts, aping one another in impractical shoes." [Vogue]
• In a strange conflagration of fashion nepotism, the son of Jeremy Irons became the face of Mango's menswear line. He replaced the son of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. The photographer who shot the campaign? None other than the son of Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani. [WWD]
• The Gap's CFDA Design Editions collaboration — wherein designers nominated for a Council of Fashion Designers of America Award redesign something ubiquitous to the chain, generally a white shirt, which tends to be boring — launches in stores today. This year is different: Vena Cava, Alexander Wang, and Albertus Swanepoel all took yards of Gap's typical khaki fabric and turned it into hats, printed dresses, shorts, and a bitchin' motorcycle jacket. [Fashionista]
• Ecko has sold its Avirex brand to Kids Headquarters to raise some cash. How much was not disclosed. [WWD]
• The bankruptcy of men's clothier Hartmarx takes another odd turn with the announcement that Hickey Freeman, one of the labels owned by the company, plans to open a "pop-up" store at 545 Madison Ave. in Manhattan. Hickey Freeman had to vacate its 666 Fifth Ave. flagship last month when it couldn't pay the rent. [WWD]
• Prada has been approached by private-equity funds wishing to buy a minority stake in the brand, but the family-owned label has rebuffed the interest. Prada apparently owes around €600 million in total debt, €350 million is set to expire in mid-2010 — a sum it would struggle to repay. The family holding company has begun talks with banks to renegotiate terms. [WSJ]
• Joseph Abboud has won back the legal right to use his own name in relation to his men's wear line, Jaz. [WWD]
• A kind of chenille robe made by Blair and sold through its catalog is being recalled after six deaths. The robes, made in Pakistan, can easily catch flame. Five of the six victims died while cooking. The recall affects 162,000 robes. [CBS]

• 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]

• Gisele Bundchen garnered an estimated $25 million in the past year, notching up campaigns for everything from Dior to True Religion jeans. Rounding out Forbes' 10 top-earning models list are posers like Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Kate Moss and — the sole biracial model represented — Emanuela de Paula. [Forbes]

• A behind-the-scenes shot of Scarlett Johansson and Mario Sorrenti working on the fall Mango ads show the Tom Waits-loving actress is giving her best sexyface. [Style.com]
• Vogue Nippon and Comme des Garçons launched a pop-up store called "Magazine Alive" in Tokyo. The contents will change each month, with every new issue of Vogue NIppon — but right now features t-shirts with manga likenesses of Hedi Slimane and Donatella Versace, as well as dresses from labels like Undercover. Who else but Takashi Murakami decorated the second floor, and Karl Lagerfeld did the window-dressing. Are we brainwashed for saying that, for a pop-up store — the hackiest of all the hacky, hackneyed retail concepts out there — this actually sounds pretty cool? [WWD]
• Barneys creative director Simon Doonan's life is the subject of a new television show, Beautiful People, produced by Absolutely Fabulous' Jon Plowman, on the Logo network. Doonan's impoverished formative years in 1950s England have been shifted in time to the 1990s, a move which he says "distilled the fun-ness of childhood and left the grimness behind." The series opens with Doonan installing a window display at Barneys based on old men who look like lesbians, and even though everyone knows that's a website, we would still totally watch this. Doonan says he is proud that the show tells the story of how a gay teenager was accepted by his family. [NY Times]
• Fashion designer Nicole Farhi was among the victims of two brothers who allegedly strangled and robbed 17 women and one man in wealthy neighborhoods of London. All the people targeted survived. [Telegraph]
• The nominees for Scottish Designer of the Year are a high-fashion pack: superstar designers Christopher Kane, Graeme Black, Jonathan Saunders, and Laura Lees are represented. Annie Lennox, Sharleen Spiteri, Jenni Falconer and Lulu are all in the running for the Scottish Style Icon of 2009 award. Other awards given at the annual event at Stirling castle on June 21 will reward Scottish photographers, makeup artists, models, and one recent fashion school graduate. [Telegraph]
• The jury in the Trovata/Forever 21 copyright case was unable to reach a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial late yesterday. [WWD]
• U.S. Customs seized a shipment of counterfeit sunglasses from China with a retail value of $1.8 million. [WWD]
• This post manages to work in mention of both the debunked "lipstick" and "hemline" economic indicators, before adding a new one, courtesy of Alan Greenspan. The men's underwear index! Greenspan reasons that since few people see men's underwear, it's the first item men stop buying during a recession, preferring instead to wear out their current pairs. Sales of boxers and briefs should spike, according to this logic, when a recovery is underway, and men suddenly start replacing their threadbare underthings. Problems with this: Alan Greenspan often speaks in the language pure koan. And men, in my experience, always wear their underwear until it falls to shreds. I've known dudes who had four or five stained, holey pairs still in regular rotation among the newer, more hale offerings. It's just another way in which dudes are gross, not an economic indicator. [Economist.com]
• Revlon's share price rose 55 cents, or 10.4%, yesterday, on the back of encouraging earnings results for the first quarter of 2009. But it's not as simple as 'women are buying lipstick': Revlon has replaced its CEO in a management shake-up, and says it profited because it introduced new product lines. [Crain's]
• DSW, after a loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, made a modest profit of $7.1 million in the first quarter of 2009. [WWD]
• Polo Ralph Lauren reported its profits for the quarter ended March 28 declined by 57% on last year's results, because of falling consumer spending and the company's own restructuring and impairment costs. Same-store sales fell by over 15% during the quarter, but the report still exceeded analysts' expectations. [Crain's]
• Shapewear for men is still a thing which people are trying to make happen. (Again? I was reading an early 20th century novel the other day that referred matter-of-factly to a male character's girdle.) [WWD]
• Oh, the old Anna Wintour ambassadorship rumor again. Contract renewal one-upmanship is such a drag. [P6]

• Mango has replaced Penelope Cruz with Scarlett Johansson for its fall campaign. [WWD]
• A gigantic, 16'x24' nude photo of a 26-year-old Carla Bruni reclining in bed is up for auction in Berlin. Just the thing to brighten up any living room. [Daily Mail (NSFW)]

• When they first met, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana didn't take to each other's looks at all. Says Gabbana: "I thought he was a monster. Seriously, he was such a fashion victim. He looked like a priest, all dressed in black with that white skin and a shaved head. It wasn't very impressive." Says Dolce: "Stefano was very Milanese, with his long hair and Lacoste T-shirt." Then they spent 20 years together as professional and intimate partners, and though each now has a boyfriend, they say they'll be best friends until they die. [Telegraph]
• You can vote for one of 100 American fashion designers, or nominate one not already on the list, in the Council of Fashion Designers of America's newly introduced Popular Vote award. Cast as many votes online as you like, and register to win two tickets to a Spring/Summer fashion show in New York yourself, until June 9. [WWD]
• Roberto Cavalli just can't decide whether or not to sell a stake in his company. Lately, he thinks not. Translation: In the current market, nobody could offer him a price he'd accept? [WWD]
• Critical Shopper Mike Albo does the Tommy Hilfiger store in the West Village: "The male form was dressed in flower printed pants, a green polo and dark blue blazer. 'See? Jonathan would so wear that!' said one woman to another. Minutes later, a young man in white sunglasses stopped suddenly, clutched his faux-hawked friend and motioned to the window as if it were a large landscape painting. 'This. Is the moment. I am wanting,' he said." Funny. I walked by that display with a guy friend, elbowed him once the window had revealed its full grandma-wallpaper horror, and hissed Those pants! We both laughed. [NY Times]
• Forever 21 has made an offer of $17.7 million for 17 stores from the bankrupt Gottschalks chain. [WWD]
• Meanwhile, the jury in the Forever 21/Trovata copyright case — Trovata alleges that the fast fashion chain copied six of its shirts — told the judge it was deadlocked, with one juror suspected of misconduct by the others. The jury will begin deliberating again on Friday. [WWD]
• Lily Cole's first major film — The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam — débuted at Cannes and has been roundly panned by critics. They say that the effort, which was also Heath Ledger's last movie, and features Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell as replacement actors, is a basically a mess. But Cole's performance, as 16-year-old Valentina, is being hailed by critics from such publications as Variety and the Times of London, which gave the movie only two stars but said the Cole "is mesmerizing as the teenage siren, Valentina. It's her tangos with the various [men] that keep us focused on the romance." [Fashionologie]
• Christian Audigier will show at the Las Vegas fashion trade mega-show Magic this season. [WWD]
• Levi Strauss & Company supports gay marriage. Not only did company lawyers file an amicus curiae brief with the California Supreme Court against upholding Proposition 8 last year, but the company sponsors programming on the Logo network, and now 20 of the company's stores in four major cities — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco — will incorporate white knots into its window displays. White knots are a symbol of marriage equality. Which only leads one to wonder: why just 20 stores in a handful of urban centers? Wouldn't it be something if the Levi's shop at, say, First Colony mall in Houston, was decked out with white knots? [NY Times]
• Hong Kong-based YGM Trading Ltd. confirmed yesterday that it is in negotiations to buy Aquascutum, the British fashion house. Renown, the label's Japanese owners, last week rejected an 11th-hour buyout bid from CEO Kim Winser, who subsequently resigned. [WWD]
• Burberry throws open its doors in Manhattan, and switches on its new neon sign, on Thursday. Or, if you're Mike Bloomberg, "Burberry Day." [WWD]

• 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]

• This seems like a heavenly match: Britney Spears asked DSquared to create the costumes for her comeback tour. Dan and Dean Caten's fetishistic, high-energy sense of style should be a perfect foil for Brit. [WWD]

• Let slip the knock-offs! The Oscar gowns worn by Kate Winslet, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Angelina Jolie will be among those replicated by the notorious inspiration-takers on the design team at prom label Faviana. (This is the utterly shameless company who called its collection re-creating things Michelle Obama wore the "First Lady Collection.") Interestingly enough, last year Faviana knocked off Miley Cyrus's Oscar dress — but not this season. Perhaps being copied is the ultimate test of taste. [NY Post]
• Amber Le Bon, daughter of Simon and Yasmin, just signed with Models 1 in London — her mom's agency — and says she might make her catwalk debut next season. For now, she's sticking to watching shows in Milan and "guest-editing" the Moschino online boutique, whatever that means. [WWD]
• That "announcement" that Roberto Cavalli said he'd make about the future of his Just Cavalli line? At the showroom presentation he held in lieu of his normal splashy runway show, the chain-smoking designer launched into a 45-minute rant in a variety of languages about the bankruptcy of Just Cavalli's production licensee, Ittierre, the just-announced bankruptcy of Ittierre's parent company, IT Holdings SpA, and the state of the fashion industry and the shrinking consumer dollar it chases. I never thought I could feel bad for a man who believes in leopard print sequined everything, but my heart actually goes out to him. I mean, he cried. [Guardian]
• In case you missed that: the bankruptcy a few weeks ago of Ittierre, licensee to John Galliano, Just Cavalli and Versace Sport, among others, has been followed by the bankruptcy of parent company IT Holdings SpA. IT Holdings owns the brands Gianfranco Ferré and Malo, both of which still plan to show and present, respectively, at Milan fashion week. IT Holding's debts total $376 million. [WWD]
• Mango, the Spanish fast fashion chain, is continuing its pattern of rapid expansion into the US market, even despite the recession. Earlier this month, the company announced what passes for healthy sales figures in the retail sector these days — revenue growth for '08 of 8%. [WWD]
• Eddie Bauer, on the other hand, sees a meager future in women's fashion apparel. It's retreating to its neglected core concern — outfitting the rugged menz for adventuresome outdoor pursuits. [WSJ]
• Fourth quarter profits at the Gap shrank 8.3%, which beat analysts' expectations because sales for the same quarter fell 13%. The retailer has been focusing on cutting costs and reducing inventory. [AP]
• Some of the many women who work at LVMH, the luxury conglomerate, posed for black-and-white portraits for a photo project concentrating on women in fashion. An exhibit of the photos opens on March 8, International Women's Day, at LVMH's Avenue Montaigne HQ in Paris. [WWD]
• Newlyweds Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo confirmed they are expecting their first child together. [People]
• Seeking to diversify his portfolio of irritations, Pete Wentz has designed some t-shirts. [FWD]
• And Pamela Anderson has garnered a spot in the runway lineup for Vivienne Westwood's Red label, showing next week in Paris. [Vogue.co.uk]
• The perks of being a celebrity's parent: you get to go randomly to fashion week and hang out backstage. Hello, Gerard Hathaway, nice to meet you! [Times]
• The re-launched Versace diffusion line, Versus, is designed by Christopher Kane. It includes bags and shoes. [Telegraph]
• Model Erin Wasson left her issues with the homeless to go to London to launch her RVCA collaboration line. Which promptly sold out. [UK Elle]
• Cecille Villacorta was either a spectacular jewelry sales associate at Saks, earning over $400,000 in salary and commission in her final year with the company, or an inveterate thief who kept customers coming back by giving them unauthorized refunds and credits that were only discovered when the company updated its computer system. A criminal case and a countersuit in New York City aim to determine which it was. [NY Times]

• People love Posh's dresses. Net-a-porter.com sold out in one day, and Posh herself stopped by Neiman Marcus to instruct sales associates and top customers in the ways of the frock. Thirty pieces were sold. [WWD]

• Roberto Cavalli yesterday said that he will show Just Cavalli in Milan — albeit not on the runway. Following the bankruptcy of the diffusion line's primary licensee, Itierre, Just Cavalli's future was in doubt, despite the fact that the expanding chain has stores scheduled to open this year. But the designer says that he will show Just Cavalli to a select group of editors at showroom appointments tomorrow, before making an announcement about the future of the brand. Surely there must be a manufacturer somewhere willing to produce the brand. [FWD]
• The gist of this story is: Michelle Obama. Still wearing clothes. There, I saved you three minutes. [WWD]
• Saks is troubled. After holding 75% off sales all last November and December — a situation the company CEO says "you'll probably never see again" — it still had to lay off workers in the new year. And in leading the deep-discounting department store pack last winter, Saks achieved the triple whammy of pissing off its vendors — who didn't appreciate their wares getting the TJ Maxx treatment from a trusted name — losing $98.75 million of company money in three months, and spawning endless trend stories about whether consumers will ever be duped into paying $700 for a pair of pumps again (the magic eight ball says: not any time soon). Well, the CEO held an investor conference call and said some reassuring things that made the share price jump almost 13%; then the CFO happened to mention that, worst case scenario, the company does own some very nice real estate. Which it could sell. Presumably not at 75% off. [NY Times]
• Halle Berry and Jenna Jameson launched namesake perfumes in the same week. Weird. [Beauty Counter]
• In other news of celebrities who want a piece of the retail maelstrom, there's a certain pink-haired Canadian pop-punk sprite who would like to sell you her pajamas. They're black and neon all over, and have some weird-looking lace insertion-looking parts to the top. Not that anyone would dare call her complicated. [The Life Files]
• Scarlett Johanson, the face of D&G makeup, is a safe bet at the Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan on Monday. [WWD]
• Adam Lippes' Mango diffusion line goes on sale March 1. The women's clothes seem to exhibit a nice sense of proportion, and there are some potentially cool black strappy not-too-gladiator-looking sandals. But there are men's wear looks styled with notched-lapel jackets and — wait for it — dress shorts. I just don't know how to feel about that. [Racked]
• Not battening down the hatches are the Olsen twins, whose contemporary Elizabeth and James line is moving into men's wear. Their other label, The Row, has a men's wear division that has proved very popular very quickly. [WWD]
• Speaking of the Olsens, their Elizabeth and James shoes are about to launch, and will go on sale through Steve Madden stores. Although there is no pricing information as of yet, they'll be significantly more expensive than Steve Madden's other wares. [FabSugar]
• Moise de la Renta, who I am pretty sure does not have a degree in communications, does have a fashion line. MDLR, announced last summer, is finally here. [Style.com]
• Should you ever want to imitate the shiny corpse lip some of the models wore at Marc Jacobs, key makeup artist for the show François Nars explains how. It involves putting eyeshadow on your lips. [NY Times]
• True Religion posted double-digit sales and earnings increases for all of 08 — and the fourth quarter. [WWD]
• Old Navy is chasing the "quirky" 25-35-year-old customer. Its new campaign features a flier that looks like a mock celebrity magazine, and they would like to remind everyone they sell clothes for $5 and $10. [AP]
• Fourth quarter profit for the Limited brands fell 96% on last year. At least they still had a fourth quarter profit! [AP]
• The sound of Karl Lagerfeld's taste dying is a low, battery-powered hum. Which reaches a top speed of 12 mph! The Chanel Segway, a thing you can buy, is here. [The Cut]

• There's the usual gloom, sex, scandal and, ahem, 50 Cent's makeup line - today, but first, brace yourselves: Michelle Obama has not RSVP'd to Fashion Week. This woman's priorities are way out of whack! [WWD]

• About Fitty: he's starting a men's grooming line, containing both moisturizers and supplements. Quoth "someone," "his range will be for the guy who likes to be pampered, but the supplements will make it more butch." [Yahoo via New York]
• Katie Holmes' latest batch of Miu Miu photos is "softer" than the last: Read, she's lying around dreamily in firelight. [Popsugar]
• A bunch of children's Harajuku Lovers Hooded Jackets by Gwen Stefani are being recalled in California because their defective ties are a "strangulation risk." [CPSC]
• Kelly Cutrone, who's cut an awesomely bitchy swath across the reality show landscape, may now be getting her own. Fashion PR doyenne Cutrone, who's stirred pots on The City and The Hills, has inked an eight-episode deal with Bravo for a show that follows her, presumably, insulting people at her company People's Revolution. [New York Post]
• Alexander McQueen brings a touch of punk to a Target near you: "The heart of McQ is rebellious youth culture, a certain spirit that embodies the regular line as well as the Target collection. It's an ‘eighties punk aesthetic that evokes the anarchy and social change of the time. Youth culture now really looks back and embraces the past, but keeps it contemporary but not sticking to one particular style." [New York]
• Victoria's Secret is introducing a new, green fragrance line to the bordello, plus a perfume that "smells like lace." [Racked]
• It would seem that the president of Theory was one of Madoff's manifold victims, along wit a score of other fashion insiders. Bernie, meanwhile, is still sitting pretty under house arrest - one hopes not in a Theory suit! [WWD]
• It's not much, but they'll take it: LVMH reported a "slim annual increase" and flat profits for the year. [WSJ]
• In case no one was sure that Lorenzo Martone was Marc Jacobs' boy toy, the Brazilian looker sported, to the premiere of He's Just Not That Into You, a shirt bearing the immortal words: "Do me in the park. Marc." [New York Post]
• Sometimes there's just no point in paraphrasing the perfection of the British press:
  "Alice Hawkins looks like Dolly Parton and likes to hang out with gangsters, showgirls and topless models. She also happens to be one of the fashion world's hottest photographers." [Telegraph]
• Oh noes! Teri Agins, the respected Wall Street Journal fashion writer, is a recession casualty. [Forbes]
• Hey, remember that cute "I die. Bananas" tee? Yeah, cease and desist. Zoe has them trademarked. [New York]
• DVF just threw an odd luncheon, the guest list of which included Diana Ross, James Frey, The City + cameras, and a bunch of designers. Stars: they're nothing like us! [WWD]
• Ugh: The UGG index is up, which is bad news for real shoes, the economy. [MSNBC]
• UGGS, at least, are total depression-wear: dreary, warm, stolid. The continuing popularity of Crocs? Totally baffling! [Telegraph]
• Zara, one of the other indestructibles, expands its sorta-fast fashion to India. [FT]
• We can add nothing to this: Lilly Pulitzer-print Jeep. [Fashion Week Daily]
• What can we say? Digging on Julia Roitfeld's ads for Mango! [Fashionista]

• Scarlett Johanson is the new face of D&G cosmetics. A face that looks mightily like Marilyn Monroe. [Popcrunch]

• In other news from the infinite space that is the overlap of the "celebrity" and "fashion" Venn diagram, Penelope and Monica Cruz's fourth collection for Mango is out, and they star in the campaign. Looking hot as per usual. [Thelifefiles]
• Portia de Rossi — who "tries to wear leather as little as possible" — is going to do a vegan shoe line, although it's not known which brand she will collaborate with. Let's hope it goes over a little better than Natalie Portman for Te Casan. [FabSugar]
• Oh, consider my heart warmed. Fashion people took a break from menswear week to watch David Beckham's AC Milan game on Saturday evening. The gaggle of designers and editors watched from a private box — of course — but were refreshingly not too cool to cheer "Beckham! Beckham! Amore! Amore!" [WWD]
• Sunday night in Milan, Miuccia Prada addressed the recession just prior to her menswear show. The political science Ph.D. said: "I’m really pleased that we’ve always worked much more on the product than on the brand and I think this pays back. Crisis always pushes you to do better." [WWD]
• In a video, The Street rates Victoria's Secret, and fellow Limited Brand company Bath & Body Works, a stock not to invest in. December sales didn't hit the mark, and analysts are cutting their return estimates for the chain. "When I don't have a lot of money, I like to go and make a small purchase to cheer me up," says one presenter. "But when that small purchase is a bra for $50, a lot of women aren't doing that anymore," replies the other. I will say I rejoiced at the savings when I finally stopped wearing bras altogether. [The Street]
• Roberto Cavalli has admitted the rumors are true: he is in talks to sell a 15-20% stake in his company to a private equity group. [WWD]
• For his part, John Varvatos has no cause for concern — yet. His same-store sales are up across the board, led by footwear (that lucrative deal with Converse must keep his spirits up) and diffusion line Star USA, which is up almost 40%. He's showing in Milan for the first time since 2003, and intends to make the move permanent. [Portfolio]
• Sephora is experimenting with a pilot program that allows shoppers to access reviews of products via their mobile phones. [AdAge]
• In more news of the unstoppable 90s supes, Helena Christensen — Nylon co-founder, photographer, and all-round sexy-ass Dane — is to be the "ambassador" for a limited-edition Tommy Hilfiger bag, to benefit breast cancer. It's unclear what her ambassadorial duties will entail. [Hindustan Times]
• Guess who else is back: Romeo Gigli. Despite having lost the rights to his own name, the designer will show his new label, Ipse Idem, at Paris menswear week. [IHT]
• A British model named David Gandy — that's this guy, possibly NSFW, thank me in the comments — is going to start writing for a yet-to-be-named politics and fashion magazine. He'll be sticking to covering style and "motoring" while political contributors will include London mayor Boris Johnson. [WWD]
• Are Dov Charney and his PR team spending hours online posting to newsgroups, buying Google Ads, and sock-puppeting domain names to smear the L.A. lawyer involved in most of the company's current lawsuits? Unauthenticated company e-mails point to yes. And the top search result for Kieth Fink, the J.D. in question, is now a site called "The Keith Fink Files: Keith Fink: The Worst Lawyer in Los Angeles," which points to definitely. [NY Post]
• When Harvey Weinstein gives Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman the gift she picks out, she has the good sense to "act surprised." Oh, love. [Telegraph]

• Following his stint as guest editor of Vanity Fair, jack of all trades Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with an adaptation of Isherwood's 1964 novel A Single Man, which will apparently star Colin Firth as said man. Julianne Moore and Jamie Bell are somehow involved. [E]
• Speaking of auteurs, Kate Moss sells a "painting" at auction. "Painted in 2005-2006, it is a self-portrait in lipstick marked with her own lip prints and stains of her former boyfriend Pete Doherty's blood." [Telegraph]
• She used to be a "short, flat-chested, bandy-legged schoolgirl." Weren't they all? [Daily Mail]
• Unlike other awkward schoolgirls, a museum in Paris is doing a retrospective on her life and style.[WWD]

• Andre Benjamin is a huge anglophile, vegetarian. [Guardian]
• J. Crew rips off Gossip Girl aesthetic. They wish they were a parent's worst nightmare. [Deep Glamour]
• For those who enjoy smelling like the dead, House of Creed premieres a new Jackie O. scent, "Love in Black," described as a "violet-Oriental." [Style.com]
• Yay! Everybody loves Issac's line for Liz Claiborne! [Reuters]
• Elton John is finally auctioning that really expensive brooch. "It is designed in the form of the letter J and includes multiple old brilliant cut and baguette cut diamonds. It also features five oval cut sapphires and a bombe cluster of circular-cut sapphires." [Telegraph]
• Calvin Klein names new CEO. [WSJ]
• Madrid Fashion Week KO'd by Milan. [WWD]
• Marc Jacobs' boyfriend shows up somewhere without Marc Jacobs. [Observer]
• Like everyone else in fashion, Burberry inexplicably "optimistic." [Reuters]
• After a stab at going high-end, Nike leaves the elite swimwear market. [AP]
• The Gap acquired women's sporswear brand Athleta. [FT]
• Spanish chain Mango hits Iraq. No, not in the violent sense! [W]
• Suits you can clean in the shower! Hey, that's already how we "iron..." [Reuters]
• Another fashion week, another delightful Andre Leon Tally blooper! Having lost his luggage en route to Milan, the Vogue editor at XXL "had to wear the same Juicy Couture shorts and gray Ralph Lauren polo shirt to D&G this morning that he wore on the plane." [Fashionologie]

• Diane Von Furstenberg: writer. The wrap doyenne's gonna "pen" a column for Departures, the high-falutin American Express travel magazine. "The designer and Council of Fashion Designers of America president will start writing about her jet-set life starting with the magazine's November/December issue." Let's hope she doesn't make yet another investigation of "how to pack" her inaugural column. [WWD]
• Penelope Cruz for Mango. Yes, she looks stunning. [FabSugar]
• Ew. Harper's Bazaar has shot the Ronsons (DJs, LiLo lovers, designers and socialites) as Wes Anderson's eccentric Tenenbaum clan. They wish! [Harpers Bazaar]
• Outspoken ass Roberto Cavalli describes models thus: "For me, models are just pieces of wood that I carve to make clothes look beautiful," goes on to trash Kate, Naomi. Bad enemies, Cavalli. [NY Mag]

• Justin Timberlake to show/perform at Fashion Week. [NY Mag]
• Jimmy Choo director, Christian Slater-squeeze and legally embattled Tamara Mellon has joined the board of directors at Revlon. Quoth she, "I am thrilled to become a director of Revlon, an iconic brand in beauty and one that represents the image of a confident, glamorous woman." [ElleUK]
• Spanish chain Zara takes 'world's largest retailer' title from Gap. [Guardian]
• Sneak "peek" (okay, description) of the Commes des Garcons for H&M line, W via Fashionista. It's "mostly black and with Japanese tomboy airs, the H&M collection includes a range of tailored jackets, many deconstructed, along with cropped pants, baggy shorts and a variety of skirts in stretch wool. On the perkier side are polkadot knits in jersey or merino wool, colorful shirts - some with dots - and a "showpiece" coat-dress decorated here and there with dense Victorian ruffles." [Fashionista]
• Weirdly, the recession isn't curbing men's spending on clothes. "Over the past year, men have been on a clothes-buying spree, while women have pulled back even more." [Los Angeles Times]
• Depressingly, the Olympics aren't helping Beijing retailers at all. [WWD]
• Steve Madden names new CEO. [Crains]
• That open call for real women to model in that British Wonderbra campaign has resulted in a creepy-sounding mosaic of boobs, plus the tagline, "D to G, because we're more than a handful." [Salon]
• Style.com is finally adding the long-awaited beauty blog. [WWD]
• Celia Birtwell's rad new Top Shop line will just whet your appetite for the new AMERICAN TOP SHOP opening in October!!! [VogueUK]
• Back away slowly. IToo Faced Fuze Slenderize Guilt Free lip gloss may be the Antichrist. "Inspired by fruity flavors like Blueberry Raspberry and Dragon Fruit Lime, these lip shiners are made with Fuze ingredients that supposedly suppress appetite and boost energy levels — all from glossing up your puckers." [Nylon]

• Whom to believe?! Page Six? "Marc Jacobs is a newlywed. The designer and his hot Brazilian love, Lorenzo Martone, were married in a civil solidarity pact Sunday in France. "He's totally excited," said an insider. "He said he's head-over-heels in love with Lorenzo. His life is coming together now." Civil solidarity pacts were instituted in France in 1999, but they are not legally binding. Jacobs isn't taking his honeymoon yet - he's busy with his show for New York Fashion Week in September." [Page Six]
• ...or Perez Hilton?! "Despite erroneous reports to the contrary…Sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com that design god Marc Jacobs and his hot new Brazilian boyfriend did not get married in Paris on Sunday. However, insiders close to the couple tell us that M.J. and Lorenzo Martone (pictured above) are "very happy" together." They're both such infallible sources! [Perez Hilton]
• Model Jodie Kidd on being busted for drugs by the tabloids: "I was just someone minding their own business, plodding on in life. They had no need to do it because I'm not a bad person. I was very shocked. It was totally out of the blue," [Telegraph]

• Legendary model Lauren Hutton for Brit chain Mango. [ElleUK]
• Nelly is the new face — body? — of Sean John undies. Says Diddy, "To me, Nelly is the quintessential definition of the Sean John man. He has the attitude, the swagger, and most of all the physique that our customers can both aspire and relate to. And let’s be honest, all of the ladies out there are going to be thanking us for this campaign. The images are so strong; they speak for themselves. We are truly excited to welcome Nelly into the Sean John family.” [Concrete Loop]
• Apparently eager to break into the hideous shoe/sneaker hybrid market, Nine West and New Balance are teaming up. [Wall Street Journal]
• Ralph Lauren's Olympics uniforms? Exactly how you'd imagine 'em done by the king of fake-prep: "The opening-ceremony look consists of classy navy blazers with white driving hats and canvas walking shoes; for the closing ceremonies, it's classic polos and sleeveless sweaters." [The Cut]
• And they're apparently a good co to invest in. You know, if you have spare money. [The Street]
• Perfumers Society honors Bath and Body Works pres as "a living legend." [WWD]
• Stila knows what young women care about: lipstick! Voting? Not so much. But if you buy this Rock the Vote Red lipstick! a portion of your purchase goes to Rock the Vote, which got exactly no one to vote last time around. [Allure]
• Roberto Cavalli is waffling on whether to sell shares of his company. [Portfolio]
• Architect Zaha Hadid is collaborating with green Brazilian footwear brand Melissa. "The curvature of the limited-edition shoe is familiar from many recent projects by Zaha Hadid Architects, including the new London Aquatic Centre. "The fluidity of our design combined perfectly with the technology of Melissa's plastic, injecting pieces without closures or seals," says Hadid. " [Dazed Digital]
• Coach profits climb, defying recession. [WWD]
• Calvin Klein and Donna Karan are in Africa. The end. [Fashion Week Daily]
• So, because we're in a recession, we should be dressing like 1930s newsies. My finance friend says that this is actually far more like the recession of the 1970s, economically speaking, so I'm sticking with my maxis. [Newsbusters]
• Retailers struggling with "toughest selling season." [WWD]
• Artist Damien Hirst buys 80,000 pounds' worth of fake punk clothing online. Caveat emptor! [VogueUK]