• Today in pointless clothing lines of the stars: Miley Cyrus and Max Azria's Wal-Mart collection! The digs look well worth every penny of their sub-$20 price point. [Lucky]
• Now, even the Kings of Leon has one. [Blackbook]

• Lady Gaga wants in on the action. On starting a clothing line, she told Flare magazine, "At some point, I will. Right now, I'm more concerned with using my fame to promote young designers such as Gary Card, an artist who designed a piece I used on stage." Why would she do such a thing? "There hasn't been a commercial artist lately that has embodied avant-garde and couture so insistently as myself." [ONTD]
• Gaga has one new position to console herself with: M.A.C. Viva Glam AIDS fund face. Cyndi Lauper will co-star in the campaign to sell lipstick and raise money for research. [WWD]
• The British Fashion Council and British Vogue are launching a fashion prize to encourage young talent, somewhat along the lines of the American Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund awards, which kicked off in 2003. £200,000 will be awarded to one UK designer who can demonstrate he or she has international stockists, a media profile, and demonstrated need of the money. [Telegraph]
• Angelina Jolie and Shiloh are apparently fans of Stella McCartney's line for GapKids. [Radaronline]
• That Christian Louboutin made his first public appearance in Washington, D.C., under Obama's watch is no coincidence. "For eight years I was invited, but I never wanted to come before. I never wanted to come with Bush," says the shoe designer. "I'm looking forward to coming back — at least for four years." We really want to make a crack about voting with your feet here. [WaPo]
• Roberto Cavalli: "All over the world people don't treat me like a fashion designer; they treat me like a rock star… I can't walk down 5th Avenue without being treated like a rock star. In fact, maybe it's more… Many times I've walked down 5th Avenue with rock stars and nobody pays attention to them. It's very strange." [FWD]
• Gisele Bundchen passed the written exam portion of her pilot's license. Although heavily pregnant, and "Almost too big to fly," according to her instructor, she's still making supervised practice flights up to three days a week. [People]
• Karolina Kurkova has given birth to a baby boy. [People]
• Kelly Osborne: Fan of Spanx. [People]
• Christian Siriano says his new reality TV show will reflect the best of several recent high-profile fashion documentaries. "It's very like The September Issue, very Valentino [The Last Emperor]. We want it to be as cool and as real as possible." Apparently, September Issue director R.J. Cutler wouldn't touch the project, but he did advise Siriano "just to be real." [The Cut]
• Sadie Frost's clothing line with Jemima French, FrostFrench, is opening its second store in London's Soho. [WWD]
• A real ad man of the 1960s has some bones to pick with Mad Men's treatment of the brand London Fog. So an employee of an industry that manufactures fictions objects to a fictional show's fictionalizing history? We shake our heads at the irony. [AdAge]
• JC Penney is being sued for trademark infringement by the retailer New York & Company. New York & Company says Penney's new "NYC Style" slogan is too close to its "NY Style" advertising tag line. [WWD]
• Can Sir Philip Green conquer America? [Bloomberg]
• Polo Ralph Lauren reported a 10% rise in second-quarter profits. [TS]
• Bata shoes was, before Communism, an international brand headquartered in Slovakia. The company town isn't doing so hot right now, with the economic transition and the competition from Asia. [BussinessWeek]
• Liz Claiborne may have had seven consecutive quarterly losses, with the announcement of an eight expected next week, but C.E.O. Bill McCombs doesn't have to worry about one thing: his job security. McCombs recently had his contract renewed for another three years. It's not an unusual strategy: only 38 companies in the S&P 500 have replaced their C.E.O.'s in the year to September 30, down 10 on the same period last year, despite the trying economic times. [WSJ]
• Not so lucky is Missoni's general manager, Massimo Gasparini. He has been let go and his position will not be filled. [WWD]

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• "I've thought about clothing and jewelry lines," says Usher. "But fragrance stays on when everything else comes off." [People]
• Bottom of the barrel? For $8, American Apparel will sell you a bag of fabric scraps. [BF]

• Elle Creative Director Joe Zee dined with R.J. Cutler, the director of The September Issue. Which obviously means that he's going to spend two more years making a movie about Elle now! [FWD]
• Says lost soul Ashley Olsen, in fashion, "everyone is just really looking out for themselves. I don't know if I'll be designing this collection forever. A couple of years from now, I'm sure I'll want to do something else, and I'm not going to shy away from that. What if I just want to be an artist, or if I want to go back to acting? Which is not in the cards, but what if I wanted to do that?" [Daily Express]
• An Hermès representative says the rumors that creative director Jean Paul Gaultier is going to leave the company are false. Gaultier has been in his position for six years, and Hermès has experienced continued strong sales from its luxury categories since the start of the recession. [FashionMag]
• Christian Blanckaert, Hermès' director of international affairs, is leaving the company in early September. Blanckaert will become the non-executive chairman of the French children's clothing line Petit Bateau, and is expected to pursue a more international strategy for the brand. [WWD]
• Meanwhile, some anonymous sources in the finance industry are saying that Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy may spin off DKNY, the Donna Karan diffusion label it has owned since 2001. Or that it may sell Moët Hennessy itself, where revenues fell 17% in the first half of 2009. The reason the luxury conglomerate supposedly wants to free up some cash? To make a bid for Hermès, which is trading well below its usual share price. [Fashionista]
  
• Conservative party supporter Anya Hindmarch: "I started my business when I was 18, and I realized the difference it made having Thatcher in power. It was the start of privatization-there was a feeling of ‘Get out there, get going, be an entrepreneur.' I've seen what politics can do to make a difference. It really inspires me and that's why I've been passionate about it." [VF]
• Lara Stone is set to curate the choices available at Not Just A Label's online shop, a home for avant-garde and emerging designers. Lara's choices go on sale on September 2. [UK Elle]
• Uniqlo has a licensing deal with Disney that'll allow it to roll out Disney-themed apparel starting next month. Which should mean the mouse products will hit stores around the same time as Jil Sander's long-awaited first collection for the retailer. [WWD]
• Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is launching a diffusion line called JC/DC. The line will be presented in London and again in Paris at the upcoming shows, and the company wants real-life hepcats to model its wares — anyone who wants to apply for a spot in the runway lineup can do so via the websites of Dazed & Confused or Jalouse magazine, respectively. [WWD]
• Someone named Bronson van Wyck is obsessed with "The Penguin Sparkling Water Maker from Williams-Sonoma. The penguin makes the water fizzy. You can adjust from superfizzy like Perrier to moderate like S. Pellegrino to milder like Hendon." Socials! They're not like us at all. [WWD]
• Vogue Brasil mis-spelled photographer Guy Bourdin's name as "Guy Bourdain" in huge font on its cover. [MadeinBrazil]
• Rosemary Port, the writer behind the infamous "Skanks In NYC" hate-blog against model Liskula Cohen, says that she will continue her $15 million lawsuit against Google for disclosing her e-mail address and IP to Cohen. Even though Google only disclosed those details after losing its long legal battle and being ordered to so by a Manhattan supreme court judge! Port feels her right to privacy has been violated, and alleges of Cohen, "By going to the press, she defamed herself." Her lawyer had this to say: "I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Our Founding Fathers wrote 'The Federalist Papers' under pseudonyms. Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?" Which, if you think about it, is an airtight argument. Doesn't anyone else remember reading that long footnote in the Federalist Papers where James Madison goes on and on about how Brutus is, like, such a ho? And then of course next month Robert Yates was all like, Nuh uh, you're a big fat skank, Publius, and everyone knows it! Whatever, Rosemary Port. Defamation isn't traditionally considered protected speech. [NYDN]
• Louis Vuitton has won a $400,000 judgment against Bonini Handbags for trademark infringement. [WWD]
• Derek Blasberg watched The Rachel Zoe Project in Los Angeles, with Rachel Zoe. "Watching the actual show and having an alternate show happening in front of me was surreal. And kind of confusing. There was Brad on TV wearing a Missoni sequined shift dress impersonating his boss, and then there, in the flesh, was Brad trying on a Louis Vuitton tennis skirt and booties impersonating his boss. Taylor was on TV moaning, and there she was in person moaning." [StyleFile]
• Casual Male, a U.S. maker of men's plus-size clothing, has seen its quarterly profits increase by 92.1% on last year, even as sales fell 13.4%. [WWD]

• Stella McCartney's fall ad campaign makes a Bambijoke out of all that nature imagery that suddenly became hip over the past few years. For everyone who's ever considered an ironic taxidermy at a bar and concluded, "Why?" [WWD]

• Joshua Walter, the 20-year-old male model whose clients included Hugo Boss, has confessed to a series of armed robberies in Queens, and is currently being held in a prison barge moored off the Bronx. Walter, who pistol-whipped one victim during a heist, last came to police attention in May, when he pleaded guilty to punching and choking his girlfriend, 37-year-old former teacher Gina Salamino. (Salamino, who taught second grade, was fired after her relationship with Walter, by whom she has a child, was discovered.) Walter insisted to a New York Post reporter that he is still modeling — how he's doing that from behind bars, after failing to make $550,000 in bail, is unclear. [Gothamist]
• Naomi Campbell is one of the celebrities donating a Birkin for charity to Hermès' annual vintage auction. Campbell's green alligator Birkin will be sold to raise money for the White Ribbon Alliance, which works to reduce the number of women who suffer preventable pregnancy complications every year worldwide. Also for sale on November 10 will be one of Grace Kelly's handbags, donated by her daughter, Princess Stephanie of Monaco. [UK Elle]
• WWD is already referring to the Beatrice Inn as "the former hipster hotspot." Ouch. Also, Lissy Trullie is going to be the fall face of Hervé Leger by Max Azria. [WWD]
• Prada's Seoul building, the Rem Koolhaas-designed Transformer, is changing its appearance once again. The elements of the structure, which are covered in a membrane, are designed to be shifted around to accommodate entirely different uses for the interior space. Opening in April to house a fashion exhibition before becoming a temporary movie theater, the Transformer is now becoming a contemporary art museum. "I want fashion for fashion and art for art," says Miuccia Prada. "So the Transformer concept was not for a generic space, but to be very specific, with all things separate in one building." [NYTimes]
• Meanwhile in Paris, Prada opened a more traditional kind of temporary structure: a pop-up store. Naturally, among the items sold will be an "exclusive," "limited-edition" gray handbag. Uniqlo also just opened a pop-up in Paris, intended to operate until its flagship in the city opens this fall, and Comme des Garçons' Black line currently has a pop-up in the Marais. [WWD]
• Perhaps not realizing that the coal mining scene in Zoolander was a parody, cult Paris shop Colette is releasing a limited edition collaboration with Timberland boots. Forty pairs of pre-distressed Timbs with blue trim will go on sale at the boutique this September, for 235 Euros. [Refinery 29]
• Some designers support the proposed Design Piracy Protection Act, which would offer limited copyright protection to fashion designers, while others either don't mind the knock-offs, or think the DPPA's proposed solution unwieldy. Maria Cornejo, who designs Zero +Maria Cornejo and has had her work ripped off, thinks the proposed law is a sound one. Makers of knock offs are "basically putting their hand in my head, which is my bank, and stealing ideas. It's basically robbery." Isabel and Ruben Toledo, fashion designer and illustrator, respectively, disagree strongly. "The American fashion system is all levels of value," says Ruben. "A woman knows when she's buying champagne and when she's buying soda-pop. It's two different markets. But why shouldn't a woman have the right to drink Coca-Cola when she feels like it and champagne when she wants to? That's the American way." Europe and Japan already extend copyright protection to clothing designs, but in the U.S., only a graphic of print used for a piece of clothing can be copyrighted, not the garment as a whole. [Reuters]
• Jason Wu covers some familiar territory — Michelle Obama, the loveliness of having pet cats — and some that's out of left field — sleeping pills! — in this sweet diary for the Times of London. The designer complimented a woman he saw wearing his clothes on the street, and, like a sartorial Secret Santa, didn't even tell her he had made it. [ToL]
• Some designers had standard-issue summer jobs for the fashionably-inclined, like working at a fabric store or a vintage shop, or being a doorman at a hip Manhattan club. (Wu, for his part, was a waiter at a BBQ restaurant in Taiwan during the summers when he was growing up.) Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil of Threeasfour worked for Buena Vista, touring Germany dressed as characters from the Lion King. [Style.com]
• Diane von Furstenberg hangs upside down from a swing in her Meatpacking District office. Diane von Furstenberg runs a business with 155 employees, 97% of whom are women. Diane von Furstenberg is 62, and she looks like a minx, like a dangerous, business-minded, fashionable minx, when photographed curled up elegantly on her desk. Diane von Furstenberg compares staying solvent in this economy to being "on a surfing board in the middle of a tsunami," and, if there were one woman who could pull off that totally sick stand up barrel, by God, after reading this profile, we believe it to be her. [NYTimes]
• Italian Vogue is re-releasing last July's iconic issue, which featured only black models. Because it's Barbie's 50th birthday year, the re-released magazine will come with a supplement dedicated to black Barbie. [British Vogue]
• Karl Lagerfeld shot press images for his pre-spring collection on the Rue Royale with Lara Stone and Baptiste Giabiconi — and a customized low rider motorcycle, which Chanel will, remarkably, not sell. [WWD]
• London's Estorick Gallery is holding an exhibition that pairs Italian Futurist paintings with the clothes designed by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni in the 1960s and 70s. Looks like a perfect match. [NYTimes]
• Celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson is replacing Nick Arrojo, the hair makeover consultant on What Not To Wear. Arrojo, said network executives, was not "fresh" anymore, after six seasons. [WWD]
• There have been numerous stories about the possibility that the company that makes Crocs might go bankrupt — including one in the Washington Post last week. Even the company's auditor has raised doubts about its ability to meet its debt obligations. Unsurprisingly, the C.E.O. says everything's fine and dandy. [WWD]
• The new owners of the bankrupt Eddie Bauer brand say that most of its 370 stores will remain open. San Francisco investment firm Golden Gate Capital Management bought Eddie Bauer at auction for some $286 million. [UPI]

[New York, July 16. Image via INF]

• 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]

• American Apparel is launching a "plus-size" sister label. Called "Colossal Clothing." It's only for the menfolk. [Kempt]
• The company is also busy harassing Woody Allen. The director called the clothier "sleazy" and "adolescent." [Page Six]

• Sienna Miller, by her own admission, doesn't actually do much for her fashion line, Twenty8Twelve. "My sister's the sketcher. I can barely draw a stick man, let alone a frock," the actress admitted. "I'll say, you know, can we get a top and make it that crinkly material? And she's like, 'Organza.' I don't speak the jargon." That sister — Savannah — went to fashion school, if you recall. "But I have an aesthetic that she understands," Sienna clarified. [Style.com]
• Georges Marciano, a co-founder of Guess?, is running as an independent candidate for the governorship of California. Platform: something about taxes (and, this is just a wild guess, fabulousness). [WWD]
• Model Jenny Shimizu named the late Richard Avedon as her favorite artist. "He would bring out stuff in you that you would never think was in you. He and I used to play together like apes in his studio. He was an incredible man, a genius." [Daily Beast]
• Sarah Brown, wife of the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, gave up paid work in PR as her husband advanced his political career, to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. For glitzy state occasions, she can't buy a new designer dress every time — so she rents them. Smart lady. [Telegraph]
• Daul Kim, the South Korean supe who made hilarious videos for New York once upon a time, dyed her hair ash blonde in Paris. And blogged funny pictures. [I Like To Fork Myself]
• Maria Sharapova, in addition to being the face of Cole Haan, will design for the brand. "Somebody needed to make a shoe that you can stand around for hours in," the tennis star said of her design inspiration. The stilettos for her line have Nike Air cushioning. [WWD]
• Miranda Kerr, the Australian Victoria's Secret model who dates Orlando Bloom, totally wants his sweet, widdle, scrumptious behbehs. At least, that's what the Daily Fail reckons. What Kerr actually said was "Yeah, one day down the line, of course I'd love to be a mum." Then the Fail calls her 23, then 25. Then 23. [Daily Mail]
• Naomi's on the cover of Giant, and she looks good. [The Life Files]
• News of Barbie's interminable semicentennial is kind of getting stale, but if you care, Henry Holland "curated" a Barbie stand at Dover St. Market. Interestingly, Holland's mum didn't allow her children to play much with the toy as a child, "because she gave lectures on the welfare state and sharing the wealth." When Holland and his siblings finally did get their hands on a Barbie, they took turns shooting at it with a bow and arrow. "My mum was well happy!" Now you know. [Dazed Digital]
• The owners of Christian Lacroix are looking to sell a stake in the brand. That puts them in the same boat as Brioni and Roberto Cavalli. For Lacroix, sales have been slow, and retailers are scaling back their orders, meaning the label will be further squeezed for cash over the coming seasons. [WSJ]
• Alessandro Dell'Acqua left Malo, the Italian knitwear label he had designed for less than a year, because of pressure from its owners over cost. The label is owned by IT Holdings SpA, an Italian apparel company that went into bankruptcy in February. No new creative director will be appointed — IT Holdings prefers to maintain the current design team, without a banner name heading it. Surely it is cheaper that way. [UK Vogue]
• Your Target or Macy's faux-leather handbag: another thing that could be killing you. No further details are available. Thanks, evening news. [KPBS]
• Missoni is going ahead with the opening of a luxury hotel bearing its name in Edinburgh, Scotland. Because the thing was already mostly built before the recession bit. The second Missoni hotel will open this summer in Dubai. [FT]
• Four words: Yves Saint Laurent Musical. Are these tears of joy or despair? I can't even tell anymore. Pierre Bergé, what have you wrought? [WWD]

• Wanna see Posh's designs, complete with lampshades and elephant-trunk headpieces? Check out the new commercial for her fashion line. [Fashionista]
• "The video sees various models taking inspiration from Posh’s own ads for Marc Jacobs last season by hiding themselves all over a large mansion – behind drawers, in carrier bags, hanging behind doors, turning themselves into lamp shades and transforming themselves into an elephant." [Sassybella]
• Says Posh: “Being in the Spice Girls, fashion-wise probably didn't open any doors. If anything it shut doors and I've had to bang them down.” [Times Online]
• A New York bridal shop is knocking off the Vivienne Westwood wedding gown in which Carrie Bradshaw was jilted. [New York Post]

• Notify jeans classifies butts into three categories. [Guanabee]
• Apparently Katie Holmes is surrounded by a whole gaggle of other moddles for her ballyhooed Miu Miu campaign. [New York]
• Uniqlo beats the odds, is up 32%. [WWD]
• This, we like: Kate Moss is teaming up with Liberty to use their classic floral prints in her next Top Shop collection. [WWD]
• "Liberty are already working with Topshop on a lingerie collaboration, which launched in stores yesterday, though exactly how Moss will use the London store's iconic prints is still under wraps." [ElleUK]
• Michelle Obama's Vogue cover's not a sure thing. Neither, apparently is Anna Wintour's job! [New York]
• Meanwhile, Michelle continues to boost young designers: the latest beneficiary is Jason Wu. [WSJ]
• Oh noes! J. Crew and Bloomies knocked out on a prime shopping day by website malfunctions. [Crains]
• So why is the entire payroll of NBC in this batch of holiday Gap ads? [Jossip]
• Luxury luggage gets extra-ridiculous to woo reluctant jet-setters. [IHT]
• Zara's founder is funding alternative energy solutions in Spain. [Business Week]
• Pre-fall collection peeks for Versace, DKNY, Alexander Wang, Armani, Missoni! [WWD]
• Supermodel Miranda Kerr has been replaced as the face of Australia's oldest department store. [AdAge]
• The “2009 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide" is a cheat-sheet to apparel made under ethical conditions. [WWD]
• Helena Christensen's line for Pilgrim jewelry is "typically, ethnically-inspired and feminine, in both delicate orchid-pastels and strong, spicy colours, priced between £10 and £100." [Telegraph]
• Victoria's Secret tries to go higher-end with a new flagship, "a level of elegance that casts the flirty and frilly lingerie and romantic beauty products in a softer, luxurious light." [WWD]

• Is the search for Tim Russert's successor over?! Not-going-to-jail Naomi Campbell was recently heard holding forth on Dubya to "a rapt table of Italian men." Quoth she, "What's with all the traveling Bush has been doing? He never even had a passport before." [Style.com]
• She can hone her common touch with her next round of community service! [WWD]
• Victoria Beckham replaced in Marc Jacobs ads by man in drag. No, really. [Sassybella]
• Posh, for her part, is busy with a maybe-fashion show for her new line of gowns. "'It will be something completely different from what I've ever done. I'm just putting it together at the moment, they will be very up scale dresses and likely to start at around $1,200 retail. I'm going to be using very expensive fabrics and finishes, lots of embroideries.'" [ElleUK]
• Chloe Sevigny's $65 flip book hits shelves. [FabSugar]
• And in other breaking news: just in time for summer humidity, big hair is back! [Los Angeles Times]

• I always wonder who still has the temerity to tan when the rest of us go around swathed in SPF70 and layers of fake bake. Apparently, these people do! [NY Mag]
• No experimental fashion for you recessionistas: credit crunch means brands play it safe for fall. [WWD]
• Movie stars probably aren't, though. Vintage jewelry boutique opens in Beverly Hills. [Los Angeles Times]
• Don't you love how much Italian fashionistas love their soccer? First Dolce & Gabanna, now Prada. Hard to imagine, say, Andre Leon Talley evincing the same enthusiasm for the NY Jets. [Style.com]
• Purely decorative summer scarves the "leitmotif of the summer." [IHT]
• Following last week's bizarre "quality" crackdown, Louis Vuitton repoens in Hangzhou. [WWD]
• Tommy Hilfiger, oddly recession-proof. [WWD]
• Aesthetician who popularized the American facial hangs up her pore extractor. [Los Angeles Times]
• Apparently "the economic mood" translates to lots and lots of silk pajamas. [IHT]
• Nordstrom adds video to online shopping. "The idea is to test the impact of video content on selling by having the designer discuss in short videos the style and inspiration of different items, for what occasions they're best suited and ways to accessorize them." [WWD]
• In a quest to make spa treatments ever creepier, a Manhattan spa introduces the breast massage! "In an $100, 80-minute session, the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor are massaged, excess lymph fluid is drained, and a cream and mask are applied. “It even makes the nipples turn up again,” promises the spa’s owner." [NY Mag]
• No wonder everyone would rather just shell out for a good bra. [WWD]
• Missoni opens first Los Angeles boutique. [style.com]

I mean, isn't avant-garde knitwear all the rage? Isn't the new M Missoni line the biggest thing on the fashion grapevine? And they pale before the kaleidoscopic wonder of the Classic Cos.

You could argue that, as I write, I am wearing an electric-blue turban from the Wig Factory in San Francisco. And you wouldn't be wrong. But those sweaters are friggin' avant-garde, awesomely inventive garments, and I for one am not going to let my snobbery blind me to their potential. Of course, the price tag's a little steep; I'm obviously going to, as usual, spring for a knockoff. (SalVa here I come.) And I envy the lucky fashionista who wises up and wins the real thing. Oh, and if you think I am joking: before this week is out I will acquire just such a Cosby-inspired look and post a picture for you!

Does No One Want Bill Cosby's Sweaters? [New York Magazine]

• Sean Combs wants to work on a fashion line with David Beckham. But he can't. Because Becks is already working on a sneaker line with Snoop Dogg! [Fashionista]
• Diddy also harasses mom-and-pop cufflink site "Cuff Daddy" for name infringement. Busy man! [TMZ]
• Memories of fashion icon YSL. [NY Times]
• Console yourself by reading about Christian Lacroix who, as a creepy drunk at a bar recently put it, " is not half-stepping either." [WWD]
• CFDA Awards! Francisco Costa of Calvin Klein takes top honors.[WWD]

• In a radical departure from its usual policy of democratic inclusiveness, Chanel excises B-listers from store opening pics. [TMZ]
• Jaime Pressly's fashion line (?!), J'aime, shafts wholesaler, is sued. [TMZ]
• "Graffiti Legend Shepard Fairey" launches morally problematic, hipster jewelry line. [Fashionista]
• Nicole Miller is apparently Cyndi Lauper's "Personal Couturier." [W Magazine]
• Carrie Bradshaw shills for Brazil, nets $600,000. [Fashionista]
• Well, thank God: Tory Burch is launching a perfume. [NY Mag]
• Zac Posen channels "retro country club!" [WWD]
• In an especially rad symbiosis, Steven Alan signs on to design a line for Urban Outfitters. [NY Mag]
• Pantene hangs a huge Rapunzel braid from a third-story window to publicize anti-breakage shampoo. [Fashion Week Daily]
• And in obligatory possibly-balding Naomi Campbell news: she may or may not get pregnant. Some day. [NY Mag]
• Also, pays tribute to YSL, self. [Vogue UK]

• Designer Miuccia Prada has broken her longstanding ban on black models in fashion shows! At the label's Milan show last night, British model Jourdan Dunn walked the runway and showed those white girls a thing or two. [Oh No They Didn't]
  
• At the Missoni party in Milan on Sunday night, model Irina Lazareanu reported that she was wearing, "Zac Posen pants and my boyfriend Pete's jacket; it's his old school jacket from cricket and I took it because I think it suits me better." Yes, that's Pete Doherty she's talking about. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• London's Telegraph's fashion critic Hilary Alexander on PETA protesters outside the Burberry show on Monday: "I I have no use for that kind of nonsense!" [Chic Report]
  
• Just what your toddler needs: A T-shirt with Agyness Deyn's face on it! [Nylon]
  
• Agyness has also been molded into a mannequin. [Telegraph]

• Though Marc Jacobs has finally gotten back into fashion critic Suzy Menkes' good graces, he's since managed to piss off the entire country of Sweden: officials claim he ripped off an iconographic, historic design of the country's in a new scarf design. [UPI]
• Start petitioning Denton to send us all to Dubai so we can partake in the first-ever Cavalli Club. Yes, as in Roberto Cavalli. [WWD, sub req'd]
• No shit: Skinny models still dominate the runways. [Times of London]
• Versace sales are up by 7.7%: Brava, Donatella. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Sales of Italian shoes: also up, which is pretty impressive considering the exchange rate isn't helping them here. Russians and trade legislation are to thank. [IHT]
• Or, um, well... things made in Italy? Often made in China. [LATimes]
• Black lipstick is turning up everywhere on the runways. Maybe because it is such a pleasing and flattering look! [BellaSugar]
• Shakira, the beauty line. [Sassybella]
• Unintentionally salient quote from a fashion person of the day: "Women inspire me and I inspire them to be independent and free which is how I feel when I use my American Express Card." —Diane von Furstenberg. [Vogue UK]

Just Cavalli:

Missoni:

Burberry:

Jil Sander:

Gianfranco Ferre:

Giorgio Armani:

[All images via AP.]

Listen, I'm not hating on these women for using their considerable connections to accomplish their creative goals, but why is it that of all the "chick lit" books that hit the shelves every month, those written by or about socialites and urging conspicuous consumption the only ones that get any press?

Earlier this year, NYC society doyenne Holly Peterson, daughter of the chairman of the Blackstone group wrote an aggressively mediocre book called The Manny, made a YouTube video with her rich friends to accompany it, all followed by mentions in the New York Times Sunday Styles, and the New Yorker.

What's curious also is that in the Bazaar profile, Goldberg and Harper choose a Jenni Kayne dress as one of their fashion picks. Kayne, a rising designer, was the subject of the Bazaar "Personal Style" feature just two months ago. She is also the daughter of the wealthy LA elite, and counts Rachel Zoe and the Olsen twins as members of her inner circle. Kayne told the L.A. Times last year, "My dad happens to be really good at what he does, and he has been successful (her father is a high profile investment banker). But my parents are not socialites, and I'm not a socialite. I've found articles online where they compare me to Nikki Hilton. I think she's a really nice girl, but that's not me." Tell it to Tory Burch, sister.

There are so many excellent books written and clothes by women who don't happen to have access to multi-million dollar fortunes, Phillip Lim dresses, or media reporters. Can't book publicists and magazine editors give those women some love, too? Though maybe Ruthanna Hopper deserves all the breaks she can get, because when she was a kid, her batshit papa tried to stab Rip Torn, drank thirty beers and did three grams of coke a day, and subsequently has given large sums of money to the Republican party. It's hard out there for a celebutante!

Cinema Verite [WWD]
Jenni Kayne's Big Picture [Los Angeles Times]

Earlier: The Problem With Chick Lit

• The new Marc Jacobs ads featuring Victoria Beckham have finally been made public. And they're awesome. Also: We seem to remember a certain Glamour magazine beauty editor who took to doing this with a Gucci bag. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Madonna swears that the Fox News reports aren't true and that she didn't screw Gucci over and trick them into hosting a fundraiser for the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Giles Mendel's thoughts on Project Runway after serving as a guest judge on Wednesday night's episode: "OK...The authority of a TV show might not be good enough at the end to make a successful fashion house. That's a different ball game." Whoah — he didn't just question The Greatest Show on Earth, did he? [WWD, 5th item]

• Donna Karan on her experiences as a fashion student at Parsons: "Failed typing, failed draping, you know. I had a little ADD problem. Sewing? Oh, forget it. I burnt my dress. They told me I would never make it as a fashion designer at all." Oh, kooky Auntie Donna! It all worked out now, didn't it! [Page Six]
• Abercrombie & Fitch is launching a lingerie brand under a separate label, Gilly Hitch, and separate stand-alone stores. Given as A&F catalogs are supposed to be selling clothes and in reality, show models in their underwear, we can only assume that Gilly Hitch catalogs will feature models fucking each other naked. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Is it wrong that we're pulling for the success of the Joan Rivers makeup line? [BellaSugar]
• (Faux) rocker Bryan Adams is everywhere nowadays: He shot Tia Cibani's Ports 1961 presentation at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Betsey Johnson is starting up a separate line of outerwear. Lots of tulle and a corset on a raincoat, please.
• Narcisco Rodriguez's line is turning 10, and to celebrate ,the designer is doing a limited edition collection featuring 20 pieces celebrating the best of the line's history. [Chic Report]
• Fashion designer Bella Freud will be showing her upcoming collection via a short film. We're sure that great grandpappy Sigmund would have made some joke about screen memory. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Sign that Daria Werbowy is actually a good model: Even looks good in ad campaign for Pepe Jeans! [Vogue UK]
• Phillip Lim: now designing kiddie clothes. Which, to our dismay, makes us like Phillip Lim a tiny bit less. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The Missoni Spring 2008 ads: Scary. [Sassybella]
• Katherine Hamnett's "Clean Up Or Die" bags: Sure to be the next "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bags. Sadly. [Vogue UK]
• Though it declared bankruptcy in 1999, Fruit of the Loom's insurance company had to cough up $42.5 million after the company got slammed with charges from the Environmental Protection Agency in regards to four of its factories. [UPI]
• Fruit of the Loom may be bankrupt, but the luxury underwear market's never been bigger! [Telegraph]
• St. Ives, they of the dorm-fave Apricot Scrub, has decided that maybe it needs to expand its brand and reach the oldies. Hence it's new line for "aging" women, named "Elements". Aging = women age 29 and up. Ouch. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Armani: now doing a skincare line for men! We wonder if the brand will find a way to tie the face of David Beckham into this one, too. [WWD, sub req'd]
• It saddens our hearts that there's already a waiting list for the Burberry Warrior Bag. Also, if you don't feel like shelling out $23,000 for it in it's croc skin glory, you can get a plain leather one for a mere $3,150. [WWD, 3rd item]

As Milan winds down, some of our favorite fashion critics [Ou est tu, Robin Givhan?] waxed not-so-poetic on what they've seen over the past few days. Gucci was universally slammed. Marni, Ferragamo, Dsquared, and Missoni got words good, bad, and ugly all thrown at them. The poison pens are out, there, and we're looking forward to the start of Paris Fashion Week on Monday - who shall be Cathy Horyn's next victim? In the meantime, we mourn those slain by Horyn this week.

"[A]nother Gucci glam slam for after dark" "energetic attempt to turn rock chick into rock chic just didn't happen" "pert party dresses and 1960s graphics...just seem so passé" "for people who party harder than they work" "many of her instincts are good" "parade of cute, commercial outfits" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] difficult thing to categorize" "boyish checked shirts, and the odd little cropped biker jacket, including a noticeably good one in black snakeskin" "unrelenting combination of black, white, and a particularly harsh sunflower yellow" "the show was bumpy" "an off moment" —Sarah Mower, Style.com


Marni:
"A dungeon might be more fun than some of Consuelo Castiglioni's sad sacks" "cruelly linear shapes" "take some expensive cotton, print it with a streaky esoteric pattern and then make a shift that's gathered in random places" "If this weren't such a cool label, you'd wonder how much design or thought was involved." "just seemed boring" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"[T]he story of the season" "the colors were a modern art riff" "intriguing example of the Marni duality" "plasticized finishes have lost their shock value" "powerful collection" "interpretation of the new fashion volumes" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[A] staple formula" "one of the brands upon which Italy's pride as a style leader rests" "Castiglioni took the don't-mess-with-success approach" "easy-on-the-body loose-waisted shifts" "wonky-but-right abstract gathers and tucks" "seen before" "cute petaled cone hats" "didn't seem overly concerned with breaking too much new ground" —Sarah Mower, Style.com


Missoni:
"[F]resh" "sensuous lightness" "terrific tunics and smock dresses" "[o]ccasionally it worked" "hard to see what connected a baby-doll dress of beige silk knit and stone-embroidered chiffon with a mustard tunic of lace-cut cotton" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"[A] friendly-scale line of highly identifiable knits and prints" "a bit of this and a bit of that" "has a place in a sunny holiday setting" "any piece would make a girl stand out at a relaxed party" "Missoni would do better to devise a more intimate way of showing them" —Sarah Mower, Style.com




D-Squared:
"[G]leaning the top notes of a supermarket tabloid and spitting them back to us" "a knucklehead version of Dolce & Gabbana" "popular fashion fantasy of an auto-repair garage" "you might wear at Cannes if your film career was tanking" "Rihanna looked fabulous and the gross guys in the front row grinned their heads off" —Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

"Rihanna...took to the runway for a very believable turn as a top model" "a lot of skin for a 9 a.m. show" "pretty standard stuff" "theme, loosely, was party girls and the grease monkeys who love them" "wasn't all trash and vaudeville" "cheap yet satisfying thrills" —Nicole Phelps, Style.com


Ferragamo:
"[O]n the wild side" "just a whiff of Africa" "sophisticated clothes" "accessories are king" —Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"[S]eized on the seventies" "hopscotching back through the decades...probably wasn't the best tack" "not without its better moments" "[t]he clothes could stand to be more distinctive" —Nicole Phelps, Style.com

• Gwen Stefani: "Someone like Marc Jacobs, I wonder how many people are working there, just feeding him ideas, feeding feeding feeding ... I have, like, maybe five people in my entire team." And then suddenly, voila, a nine figure apparel business! [Guardian]
  
• Joseph Abboud is striking out on his own, in hopes of carving a lucrative niche competing with ... Joseph Abboud. Ah, copyright law, how we love thee. [WSJ]
  
• Will fashion be more forgiving to Lindsay Lohan than all those movie execs? Hint: Yes. [Portfolio]
  
• If we're going to spend close to $1000 on a pair of Prada pumps, we do not want the Neiman Marcus logo emblazoned on the heel, though we bet there are thousands of Needless Markup fanladies who would, which is why Neiman Marcus has been minting money for a hundred years and we are broke. [WWD, 1st item]

• First they gave us Gisele, then they poured hot wax all over our vadges, and now they want us to wear their clothes? Enough is enough, Brazilian people. [WWD, sub req'd]
• And in other somehow-as-depressing-as-it-is-inevitable news, shopping tourism has been a huge success for New York City. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Missoni just established a new corporate position devoted to wooing and dressing celebs. See you in DUI court, Missoni! [Vogue UK]

[from L to R, an additional look by Chloe, and 2 by Missoni]

• 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]