Peter Lindbergh shot an entire editorial without recourse to that particular computer program, except for minor color-correction. Kristen McMenamy, Tatjana Patitz, Nadja Auermann, Claudia Schiffer, et. al., also posed without any hair products or makeup.

And they predictably look fantastic. Does this spread in any way address the constant barrage of unrealistically altered images of women in the fashion media? Only obliquely, at best. And the skincare peg — all the models are shilling their supposed favorite spas and products — is a little annoying. I worry sometimes that these non-Photoshopped editorials are becoming more of a stunt than a corrective; French Elle had one, also shot by Lindbergh, and even Life & Style ran a Photoshop-free cover, of Kim Kardashian. How awesome would it be for a fashion magazine to state, as a matter of editorial policy, that excessive and unrealistic retouching will never find a home in its pages? That adjusting the white balance in post-production is fine, but that rhinoplasty-by-liquify-tool and 80 gazillion layers of changes are not? That would be a magazine worth buying.

Which is not to say that it isn't still wonderful to see images of real women at a variety of ages, images that haven't been "fixed" beyond recognition, even if these spreads are annoyingly presented as the fashion equivalent of Very Special Episodes. Shalom Harlow, pictured here, has always been one of my favorite models, and shots like this prove she of all people doesn't need post-production smoothing and sculpting to look bewitchingly beautiful.

Karl Lagerfeld shot this editorial, notionally inspired by Peggy Guggenheim, in Venice with Lara Stone and his latest boytoy, Baptiste Giabiconi. (Baptiste gets to wear boy clothes in this one, amazingly: Lagerfeld has a habit of styling his favorite hot young thing in women's wear and heels.)

Lara often looks kind of severe and disapproving — Cathy Horyn once compared her to Lurch — but the Gugg-inspired blonde clown hair in this spread sure isn't helping her.

These sunglasses, which if you look closely you can see are the shape of a bat spreading its wings, belonged to La Dogaressa (real, and awesome, nickname) herself.

It wouldn't be fall without some kind of a generalist "New Shapes" spread. This one, shot by Camilla Akrans, stars Kendra Spears and Katie Fogarty, who are aged 20 and 17, respectively, and accompanies text by Suzy Menkes. Representative quote: "THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It could be time to go green. Rethink jade."

Of course, Madonna's bunny ears get a shot.

It also wouldn't be fall without a long, studio-shot editorial of a model — Karmen Pedaru — jumping dazedly.

There is, however, a beautifully shot Glen Luchford editorial, starring the spooky Eniko Mihalik.

And Siri Tollerod turns up with Richard Burbridge to do one of those perennial accessories editorials where the fashion magazines try and convince their readers that even when it's fall and the mind turns to tweed, we will still somehow feel like wearing acid brights and neon and "pops of color."

Oh, look: Our old friend Jean-Paul "I have jungle fever" Goude. Styling Naomi Campbell in leopard print, racing a cheetah across the serengeti, really is daring and original.

Naomi rides an elephant. Like a real African Queen.

She jumps rope. With monkeys. Monkeys.

We all know that black models have been lamentably absent from mainstream fashion magazines and runways. But all that shoots like these do is draw offensive similarities between black women and wild animals, and reiterate, in pictures, the old colonialist assumption that black people are savage and uncivilizable. Naomi Campbell isn't from Tanzania, she's from Streatham; at what point does having a British woman wander around the African wilderness, performing truly awful received ideas of how African women behave, for a publication with a majority white audience, verge on minstrelsy? Having no black models represented in magazines is a problem. But is this kind of representation actually worse than being totally ignored?

Then, Naomi perched on the back of a crocodile — this shoot was obviously not Photoshop-free — while wearing a Dior haute couture crocodile jacket and pants.

Interestingly, the Jean-Paul Goude shoot is followed in the magazine by a 14-page Peter Lindbergh editorial starring Chanel Iman and Arlenis Sosa. The theme? The Harlem Renaissance. This shot of Chanel was taken just outside the iconic Lenox Lounge, on Lenox just south of 125th Street.

Chanel and Arlenis, who are photographed carrying trumpet cases and singing into old-fashioned microphones, make pretty great foxy jazz musician dames. And while the Harlem Renaissance is kind of a cliché — and the period doesn't really have much discernible connection with life in the Harlem of today — it's nice to see a period with a black cast mined for interest in a fashion magazine, rather than just another all-white editorial about the Summer of Love or Studio 54.

Besides, the setting is the perfect way to set off the 1940s looks so many designers have turned out for this coming fall.

Can anyone identify this block? I want to say it's one of those gorgeous brownstone streets south of Marcus Garvey Park, but it also could be Strivers' Row. Either way, it's gorgeous.

The commitment to period realism does falter slightly in places: Sylvia's restaurant was founded in 1962.

And if you look really closely in the magazine, you can see the Fairway supermarket, just under the elevated rail line. In all, though, it's a beautiful shoot.

I don't think I even want to investigate the subtext of Harper's Bazaar using a milk-pale blonde British model as a stand-in for a black American pop megastar; let's just reiterate that this spread, which was obviously thrown together at the last minute, unfolds like an uninspired afterthought. And also the clothes suck.

Jessica Stam and Benjamin Alexander Huseby pop in for an editorial all about gardening, and fall tweeds of the sort that Little Edie would have loved.

Nobody does sublime eccentricity like Stam.

And Magdalena Frackowiak has an editorial all about shopping, photographed by Terry Richardson. Seeing her play a ditzy society lady with more credit than sense would be funny, if the photos weren't desperately captioned things like "SHOP: SAVE JOBS!"

In an accompanying article, by Derek Blasberg, about the macroeconomic imperative of increasing consumer spending, Margherita Missoni says: "It was cool to talk about the recession — which I found extremely annoying. But it seems not that people are no longer embarrassed to have good things." Thank god that recession thing is so over! God, that was such a drag!

I will leave you with images from Harper's Bazaar's Sesame Street-themed shoot, which features models Sessilee Lopez and Tao Okamoto. It's Sesame Street's 40th anniversary this year, so the magazine sent designers down to where the air is sweet.

This shot of Oscar de la Renta with Oscar the Grouch might actually top Harper's Bazaar's awesome The Simpsons fashion spread. Maybe.

The Good:
Say what you will about La Campbell, the woman's a pro. No matter what legal snafus she's gotten herself into from week to week, she always brings it on the Red.

Nicolo Cardi's unidentified guest (obvi a model judging by gazelle-like physique, that gent's look of self-satisfaction) looks lovely in her metallic column.

I don't know that just everyone could pull this off. But Gucci creative director Frida Giannini absolutely rocks it. (And just N.B., I love the unapologetic red carpet stance everyone adopts in the old world.)

Time was, I had some unreasonable beef with Natalia Vodianova and her English peer hubby. (I think it was based on some Vogue profile that totally glossed over the fact that she was super-young when they met and he was obviously a creepy modelizer. They called it a storybook romance or something. But Vogue profiles make anyone sound insufferable.) I'm pleased to report that they seem unfazed by my disapprobation and look blissfully happy. I like her dress, much.

The Bad:

Tilda Swinton is one of those unabashed "glamorous eccentrics" who, I used to think, could kinda get away with anything. This has changed my mind.

Last week I ran a pic of Nicole Richie in a caftan which many of you felt overwhelmed her. I stand by Nicole, but will say, apply those criticisms to: Margherita Missoni.

Lapo Elkann is an international playboy, industrialist and Fiat heir. None of which explains this suit.

In case you can't tell, the skirt (pants?) of actress Jo Champa's getup is totally sheer.

We really like what Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani is doing with the July issue. With her shoes? Not so much. (Malkovich also a mystery.)

The Ugly:

Classic scroll-down situation. This applies only to Giorgio Armani's lower half. Although perhaps the utter normalcy of his top half throw the parachute pants/sneakers into more stark and horrible relief?

[Images by Getty.]

• God bless Vivienne Westwood for being so undeniably herself. Says the fashion designer-cum-philosopher: "I'd like to do less, but there are people dependent on me now. My thing has always been, just let me finish this pair of trousers and then I can read my book. We've all got to wear something, I suppose. So my advice would be to buy quality. Choose well. I think there's a certain status in seeing someone wearing the same thing over and over again." [Vogue UK]
  
• God bless Heidi Klum. She's just so wise: "[Take] time out for yourself so you can engage in an activity that you really enjoy. [Also, don't] neglect the romance in your life. [And] wear pretty lingerie if you don't want to feel schlumpy." [Vogue UK]
  
• God bless Donatella Versace for saying at the Times Talks on Sunday that her fashion motto is "Don't let the rappers wear more bling than you do!" and that she hopes to be reincarnated as Maya Rudolph. [Fashion Week Daily]

• God bless Agent Provocateur co-founder Joe Corre (who is, incidentally, also the son of Vivienne Westwood) for making his brand's latest advertising campaign, fronted by Kate Moss, actually about his feelings of disdain regarding the Vatican and Catholicism. The apple clearly does not fall far from the tree. [NYMag]
• God bless the Project Runway producers for sticking to their guns and maintaining contracts with NBC rather than following their bastardized show to Lifetime. [Yahoo]
• God bless Burberry for not using Agyness Deyn in its next advertising campaign. [Fashionista]
• God bless Jack White and Karen Elson for seemingly non-stop sex. [Globe and Mail]
• God bless model/tsunami survivor Petra Nemacova for making big money in real estate. [Page Six]
• God bless Margerita Missoni for deigning to look at apartments in Alphabet City, NYC. [Fashionista]
• God bless Giorgio Armani for sorta slighting the Met when talking about last night's Costume Institute Gala: "The superheroes theme is both topical and modern and will, I believe, attract a wider audience than usual to the Costume Institute. I am looking forward to welcoming everyone." (Let us not forget in his first press conference regarding the exhibit, he managed to insult Anna Wintour.) [Vogue UK]
• God bless alice+olivia designer Stacey Bendet, who is reportedly pregnant with baby number one. [Page Six]

The Good:
Christy Turlington glows in a red dress in an unexpected silhouette.
Emily Mortimer went a little gladiator for the superhero theme.
Stella McCartney and Kate Moss shine perfectly.
Camilla Belle looks wrapped in clouds.
If I were Christina Ricci, I would never ever ever take this dress off. Ever. It is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Love. Speechless. Sigh.
Diane Kruger looks a little bit like the Tin Man, but I love that she went for a short dress. Also, love love the shoes.
Iman. Always perfect. What else is new?
Kate Mara! Yellow! Yes! Yes!
Tom Cruise looks weirder than normal, but Katie Holmes looks fantastic, which of course I hate to say. But there's no denying all that red.
Dear Mischa Barton: Strip and give me that dress right now. Kthanxbai.
Please God let my face age like Natasha Richardson's.
Rachel Bilson looks like a total freak and I love. Clearly, she mistook "superheroes" to mean "Morticia Addams."
ScarJo is simultaneously old school and somewhat infantalized in her D&G but she looks hot, so good for her.
I still am not entirely sure who Taylor Swift is, but I like her chainmail-esque dress.
Sorry, you just can't hate on Victoria Beckham.
Emmy Rossum is a head-turner in this black-and-white floral frock.
Claudia Schiffer's dress is downright ethereal. Valentino is downright orange.
Ellen Barkin manages to always play it classy.
Jessica Stam is sorta a bad ass!
Michelle Trachtenberg? Or Liza at Studio 54?
Molly Sims must know my weakness for the color yellow.
Call me a crazy motherfucker, but Wendi Deng looks incredible.
Almost-goth Amanda Peet is fabulous.
Um, I love that Amber Valetta's dress has wings.
I totally heart you and your kick-ass black dress Ashley Olsen.
Can we discuss how awesome it is that Barbara Walters is there with Charlie Rose?
Claire Danes is sorta channeling Angela here, no?
This is seriously the best I have ever seen Fergie look.
Yeah, same for Hilary Duff.
Lake Bell went for it.
Lauren Bush is one class act in royal purple.
Margherita Missoni: Crazy-awesome.
Michelle Monahagan should only ever wear copper. Wow.
Paula Patton: Pretty.
Sofia's shiny drop-waisted number is delightful.
Tilda Swinton? Or Mr. Roboto?
Vera Wang and Karolina Kurkova play their metallics en suite.
Be my flamenco dancer, Ingrid van der Bosch.
Maggie Gyllenhaal knows you gotta go big or go home.
Venus Williams is a beacon of light.
Be still my heart, Zoe Kravitz-as-a-Clara Bow.
Bee Shaffer's dress is phenomenal. But why is Andre Leon Talley relegated to straightening her train?!

[Images via Getty.]

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

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

The Good: They call Emmy Rossum mellow yellow? Maybe this could be the new alternate color for bridal: I'm newly inspired. Kim Raver also wears something that would be a prettier wedding dress than anything I've seen in this week's bridal shows. Sometimes I wonder if Georgina Chapman is the only fashion designer who actually knows how to dress herself. I'm all about the Morticia Addams look on Hana Soukupova. Hell has frozen over: I like what Tinsley Mortimer is wearing. Yay for pretty Virginia Madsen and her pretty dress.

The Bad: Eva Amurri, why must you hide what God gave you? Jennifer Missoni shows how young women Miley Cyrus' age should dress. (Of course, Missoni's 23, not 15.) Joy Bryant channels Miss Scarlett and wears the drapes. Kate Lee Joel dresses like Miss Haversham would've before she entered her later years. I like that she tried out something different, but something about Leighton Meester's look just isn't working. Also, does anyone else think Meester looks totally different in her real life (or, er, at least on the red carpet) than she does on Gossip Girl? Marghertia Missoni's whole look is 10% overdesigned.

The Ugly: Most of the time, I hang my head in shame for loving Mary-Kate Olsen's look. Today is not one of those days. It's Medusa! Oh sorry: It's just Rachel Zoe.

[Images via Getty.]

• Takashi Murakami: would you just look at that fucking face? That is a face that will almost melt your cynicism away. You'll forget most people know who he is because he designed a line of handbags for Louis Vuitton...
  
• And that handbag line got knocked off to the point that he's arguably America's most famous contemporary artist. You forget the museum is packed with models and Marc Jacobs, Tinsley Mortimer, and Louis Vuitton executives saying things like "Vuitton has a long tradition of these collaborations, of relationships with artists, going back to the Impressionists," and "If I work with Takashi, and we do something colorful, I think it will help make New York strong again," (italics mine) and you might actually find yourself thinking, "Well, the financial sector ain't gonna make New York strong again," and enjoying the Kanye performance. This item, btw, refers to the Murakami exhibit, which was the most important thing that happened all weekend. [NY Times]
  
• Celebrity stylist Estee Stanley had a wedding and the Olsens came wearing masks, in silent remembrance of Heath Ledger. [PopSugar]
  
• Straight from the set of the new ELLE reality show "Fashionista": "[The contestants] are smart, most of them, but their style is really poor, at least so far. They dress like what they see magazine editors in movies wear, not what you guys actually wear. The producers are calling them 'Twenty percents,' like, they have 20% of the skills necessary to work at a magazine right now..." You gotta love how immediately "skills" reveal themselves to consist of "outfits" in magazine publishing. It's such an honest industry that way. [Fashionista]

• The recession may compel socialites to walk their own dogs, but the first thing they'll probably give up is all those charities they spend so much time helping. [NY Mag]
• A new Facebook application allows you to "gift" your Facebook friends limited edition Louis Vuitton Murakami wallets, bracelets, pendants, etc. How long before we get to witness the first virtual raid on some Coco Canal hustler's stockpile of pirated Facebook Louis Vuitton gifts? [Fashionista]
• You know what gets me really excited? When an ailing mall retailer decides it is going to reinvent its brand by starting a higher-end sub-brand priced 40% higher than the usual brand — which was priced 50% higher before they opened 2,000 stores and let quality standards drop 75% — and opens a special store dedicated to the new "limited edition" sub brand in which the brand's new "philosophy" is etched on a wall in the store: "Step out of the everyday and into the extraordinary. A limited edition collection defined by exquisite fabrics, distinctive details and modern silhouettes, Monogram is the most eloquent expression of style." Barf. [WWD]
• How sweet! Another designer opens up her brand to target fashion-conscious kiddies. [WWD]
• So Margherita Missoni designs a thousand-dollar bracelet with some profits to benefit that continent where all the diamonds come from, and to read the way they convey this news on Fashion Week Daily you would seriously think she cured fibromyalgia or something. No, I swear: every time you think you get how far up its own ass this industry's head is, you click on something like this. [FWD]
• Good news! You can now buy overpriced beauty products by such brands as Kiehl's and Bumble & Bumble at Target, secure in the knowledge that Kiehl's and Bumble & Bumble are not happy about it. [Bellasugar]

The Good:
Funky yet refined: 100% Vanessa Carlton.
Why can't Zac Posen be my boyfriend?
Olivia Chantecaille is all about the class and sophistication.
Natalie Portman looks like a dream.

The Bad:
Margherita Missoni came dressed as a hippie dippy grandma. Those shoes! Eek!
There is something seriously disturbing about the proportions being sported by Tory Burch.
Did a shooting star crash on Nicole Trunfio and split her dress down the middle?
Jennifer Creel missed the memo: Do not match your dress to your skin tone.

The Ugly:
David Lauren and Lauren Bush. Maybe Lauren needs to tell David that pedophiles and professors with petting problems are the type of men who usually wear turtlenecks.

[Images via Getty.]

• Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein and Marchesa co-designer Georgina Chapman got hitched on Saturday night at Weinstein's home in Westport, CT. The bride wore Marchesa, the groom Tom Ford, the Gypsy Kings gave a private concert and even Vogue's Anna Wintour attended. Also there: Model Natalia Vodianova, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Anne Hathaway and Cameron Diaz (all of whom, sadly, need no further introduction). [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Chapman designed not one but two gowns for her wedding: One for the ceremony and one for the reception. Modest! [GlamChic]
  
• This year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fun big winner Rogan Gregory is rumored to be the next designer to do a collection for Target, thus confirming Moe's theory that designers go straight from Vogue to the red bullseye, lovingly guided by Anna Wintour herself. [WWD, 2nd item]

• God bless Valentino. The man denied his retirement for an eternity, then announced he was retiring, then threw himself a giant party for the anniversary of his label, and now — just for good measure — he is being honored by the mayor of Paris with an honorary citizenship to the city. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Victoria Beckham's "V-Sculpt' make-up line scares us even more than Victoria Beckham's sculpted boobs. [BellaSugar]
• Oh Lord: Who would want Tara Reid to be the face of anything? Yet alone "sleepwear." [Sassybella]
• High Grant ex/English socialite Jemima Khan has designed a charm bracelet to benefit some charitable cause. The charms on the bracelet represent the five major world religions. Says Khan of her design, "I have been personally connected to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism through my paternal grandfather, Christianity through my mother, and Islam through my marriage and my children." Well doesn't that make her special! [Fashion Week Daily]
• All that talk about Vivienne Westwood moving her show back to London from Paris? Sorta bullshit. Westwood will only be showing her secondary line, Red Label, in Mother England. The eponymous shit will still show en Paris. [Vogue UK]
• YSL designer Stefano Pilati has decided that runway shows and scary and impersonal so he will be showing the YSL menswear collection in a presentation and a private dinner this season instead. Touching is permitted. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Oh no! Another cryptic e-mail from ELLE's Gilles Bensimon! Really, someone please stage an intervention and soon. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Another reason to love/loathe Topshop: Launching collections ''collaborated" on by English designers Jonathan Saunders, Louise Goldin, Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab, Todd Lynn and Richard Nicoll starting in mid-January. [WWD, 5th item]
• Herve Leger is back! And now designed under the Max Azria label. Um, ok? [WWD, 4th item]

• Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre, the "architect of fashion" (and favorite designer of Oprah Winfrey) died yesterday at the age of 62 from a brain hemorrhage. In addition to designing his own eponymous label, he created scandal by being [gasp!] an Italian overseeing Dior, from 1989-1996. Nonsensical statement from John Galliano surely TK. [IHT]
  
• Who will be Ferre's successor? You know the Italians: They're always soooo clear cut and undramatic about these fashion house leadership questions.. [WSJ]
  
• Oscar de la Renta is creating a line of baubles for his beloved ladies who lunch. The jewelry line will run under the kinda-gross name "O Oscar." [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Gisele Bundchen: The highest paid-model of the year! Which proves, dears, that you don't have to be a flagrant cokehead and/or a 14-year old Slovenian girl to make a buck in this industry. [Vogue UK]
  
• Wal-Mart continues its ill-fated foray into fashion by ditching its employees' signature blue vest for a more "preppy" uniform. Memo to Wal-Mart: Maybe whenever you have an "instinct" about fashion, you should go ahead and do the opposite. [ABC News]

• Oh Posh, stop it with the lying: You don't eat. It's ok. We know. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Apparently if you are a WASP, it is offensive to be called one. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Pregnant women need not apply for modeling gigs at Calvin Klein. [WWD, 1st item]
• And yet according to Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, Cladia Schiffer is more beautiful today than she was during her supermodel heydey because she got married and had babies. [Vogue UK]
• If we didn't love Al Gore and, y'know, the environment or whatever, we would actually have hurled all over ourselves reading this: Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow, Carine Roitfeld, Marghertia Missoni, and other vaguely conscience-y fashion types are designing limited edition t-shirts to benefit Gore's The Climate Project. [Vogue UK]

• Model Twiggy says she now has two personas and will start tracking down and fining anyone who subjects either one of them to "overexposure" by publishing unauthorized photos of them. [Vogue UK]
  
• Once-iconic label Bill Blass [Remember the Bill Blass Barbie? Uh, we didn't either. -Ed.] has lost head Michael Volbracht. Details are still emerging, though it could have to do with the fact that Volbracht was a total bitch whose designs critics sorta found unspectacular. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• New Missoni CEO Massimo Gasparini is refocusing the brand by — REVOLUTIONARY BUSINESS MODEL ALERT! — discontinuing the crappy sportswear line that was diluting the brand and opening company stores to better control distribution. Meanwhile, actual Missoni heirs serve mostly as [Term we love alert! -Ed.] "brand ambassadors." [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• No one is buying clothes at Wal-Mart, which is bad news for the people of Zibo, China. [WSJ, sub req'd]

• Burberry starts selling really, really expensive bags to see where its customers' feelings about the brand fall on the "I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backback" spectrum. [Fashion Inc.]
• The Bennetton family is not as cool as they were when Dirty Dancing was in theaters: Brand vice-chairman Alessandri Bennetton was rejected from tony Milan good ol' boys club Clubino Dadi. [Telegraph]