Manhattan was covered in a fresh layer of snow yesterday, and the protesters chanted and marched in a circle on East 72nd Street and Madison Avenue, a corner where the foot traffic was otherwise comprised of holiday shoppers and parents towing kids through the drifts on sleds. Sonia Ossorio, of the National Organization for Women's New York chapter, which organized the protest, said that the date was chosen with the holiday shopping season in mind. And although Ralph Lauren was targeted because of its recent spate of disgustingly over-Photoshopped advertisements, not to mention the revelation that the company terminated model Filippa Hamilton's multi-year contract because, at 5'9" and 120 lbs, she had become "too fat" for its tastes, the message is really for all fashion companies. "We'd like retailers to realize that their customer base is women," Ossorio told me. "It's like, who do they think they are? Making women feel less sexy and less beautiful than we are. Why do they think they have the right to do that? And it's so unfortunate. Look at how it impacts the entire world, and how we feel about ourselves." Then Ossorio jumped over a snowbank to talk to two policemen who'd pulled up in a cruiser. "I'm the organizer if you have any questions!" she shouted. The cops stayed parked on the corner for the rest of the hour-long protest, and flipped through Sunday's Post.

The protesters chanted slogans like "Ralph Lauren, make no mistake/Your advertisements are a fake," and the somewhat less rhythmic "Healthy women and girls instead/Of sticks who can't support their heads." Popular signs included Filippa Hamilton's much-maligned and terribly Photoshopped ad:

As well as this disturbing image of Magdalena Frackowiak and a model whom we think is Charlotte di Calypso Valentina Zelyaeva, from spring of this year:

One protester, an older woman in a pair of pretty awesome black leather motorcycle boots, waggled her placard at a woman in a fur coat carrying a silver Givenchy bag as she was exiting the Ralph Lauren store. When Anna Holmes, who took this picture of the protest, started to take out a cigarette, the woman in the boots came charging over. "That's worse than being anorexic!" she said. (There is no moral authority like that of the former smoker; Anna put the pack back in her purse.) Turns out that Hilda, who didn't give her last name, has been active in protesting various causes — against the Vietnam war; for the civil rights movement; against the invasion of Iraq — since the '60s. "I have seen girls suffering from anorexia," said Hilda. "It is not a pleasant thing to see." Her gold earrings swung a little as she shook her head.

Carol Bloom, who works at the Women's Therapy Centre Institute, said she has counseled women with eating disorders. Bloom said she is particularly dismayed at the ways in which even as women have made great advances in claiming our rights over the last 40 years, the wider culture has pushed us to scrutinize — and find fault with — our bodies to an unprecedented degree. (Every month, it seems like Vogue has some new body part — the armpit, the neck, the lower abdomen — to obsess over, and a range of costly new cosmetic products and procedures to "fix" the offending bit of anatomy.) "More and more, you hear these horrible statistics about little girls dieting at earlier and earlier ages," said Bloom. "If you ask a young girl, 'What's the single most important thing in life?' a lot of them say 'Being attractive.'" Dieting to size down to a female ideal (not to mention an ideal which has been manipulated extensively with programs like Photoshop) requires women to "interfere with the most basic, natural form of good health, which is feeding yourself...And body dissatisfaction is the single most relevant cause, or predictor, for an eating disorder. And for a shitty life, frankly."

Filmmaker Darryl Roberts had been slated to speak at the protest, but his plane was delayed because of the winter storm. Roberts, you may remember, made the documentary America The Beautiful, which touched on the story of the model Gerren Taylor. Taylor was just 13 when she walked for Marc by Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, and Catherine Malandrino, among more than a dozen other top designers. She was also the first black model to be in a Marc by Marc Jacobs campaign. Nonetheless, by the time she was 15 — and had grown to her full 6' height — she was called "obese" by her Paris agency because she had a hip size of 38".

The only man protesting, NOW New York's Arthur Lundquist, said he was there because he's sick of seeing the women in his life affected by the barrage of media imagery of "perfect" (and artificially perfected) bodies. "Real women have curves," he said.

I had noticed a woman who'd been standing around outside the Ralph Lauren store, watching the protest since it started. When I asked her what she thought of the whole production, as a bystander, she backed away from me and went down the street, which I thought was kinda weird. Turns out she worked for the Ralph Lauren store: she came back waving a Blackberry and telling me to call Ralph Lauren's corporate communications number. Then she went back down the block to watch the protest from a doorway.

A man walked by with two very young daughters, carrying a sled and coming from the direction of Central Park. "They're right, see," he said to his kids, who were pointing at the protesters. "The pictures of the women make them look too thin. And that's not pretty."

Ossorio said that NOW New York is trying to spearhead efforts to get legislation passed in the United States that would require all images that have been manipulated in post-production to carry disclaimers, which she likened to the disclaimers on tobacco that point out that the advertised product is harmful. Such laws are reportedly under consideration in France, and have been discussed in the U.K. "When I saw that, I thought, 'That's what we've gotta try here,'" said Ossorio. "And I don't see why it can't be done."

The only problem, of course, is that literally every picture on every page of every magazine has been altered in post-production — sometimes extensively, sometimes only a little, to correct lighting errors or even out shading. Products, people, landscapes: they all get changed. To give you an idea of how pervasive retouching is, take this example, furnished by one of Ralph Lauren's photographers. Brian Dilg has both the raw and the final, retouched images of a Polo Ralph Lauren children's ad posted on his personal site. The number of alterations to the little girl's body — and she looks like she must be, what, 8? — and the background is astonishing. Not only did Dilg clone and extend the French doors in the background of the shot, but he visibly slimmed the child model's waist and hips, and made her long-sleeved shirt short-sleeved by grafting on a re-sized shot of an adult woman's arms. "I was very proud of how I made the lean, muscular adult's arms plump to to match the girl's body type," writes Dilg, "but Polo asked to have them made skinny, just as anorexic as adult models."

If every page of every magazine had to carry a disclaimer, would women pay these images any less heed, or would the standard-issue reminder of the photograph's unreality become like so much white noise? The manipulation of photographs is as old as photography — what used to be achieved with darkroom techniques, airbrushing, dodging and burning, or negative-splicing, is now achieved, in much less time, with Photoshop tools. The prevalence of these images, and the attendant rise in our media consumption, might be wreaking havoc on our mental and physical health. (Studies show that womens' self-esteem drops after reading women's magazines.) But what can we do about it? Protesting is one answer. (And so is calling out the companies behind the worst kinds of images.) Is changing the law another?

Related:
Ralph Lauren's Ridiculous Photoshop, More Ridiculous Rage
Yet Another Ralph Lauren Photoshop Of Horrors
More Experts Call For Disclaimers On Photoshopped Ads
America The Beautiful Reveals Ugly Truths

15. Russian Glamour, June 2009
Beyoncé's skin looked digitally darkened on the cover of Russian Glamour — and the editors had a guide! A magazine called Joy used the same shot in December 2007. Was something lost in translation? Save your "black Russian" jokes until the end.

14. L'Oreal, August 2008
Beyoncé's skin seemed very light in ads for Feria haircolor. One theory: she was washed out by the strong lighting usually used in shooting hair.

13. Vogue, November 2009
The cast of Nine is chock-full of gorgeous women, but this shot is a mindscramble of random rays of sunlight in hair and dresses with edges so sharp they look like they're for paper dolls. As I wrote in October: "I'm guessing [Annie] Leibovitz shot them each separately and then did a composite, but when you have a person who doesn't cast a shadow on the lady next to her, then that person is a vampire." Poor Kate Hudson looks like she was slapped on as an afterthought.

12. Complex, April/May 2009
Kim Kardashian's waist was cinched, her thighs were slimmed, her skin skin smoothed out and her hairline was cleaned up. Plus, her head appears to be a different shape in the "after" image. Who would have thought a skull could be made "sexier"?

11. Self, September 2009
Kelly Clarkson's "Total Body Confidence" came from digitally slimming her waist and behind. Two Self editors explained that the cover: "is not, as in a news photograph, journalism. It is, however, meant to inspire women to want to be their best."

10. King Arthur poster, 2004
Movie marketers felt they must, they must, they must increase the bust. Ironically, Keira Knightley told the Guardian that she lost her chest, doing archery and preparing for the role:

To fight, convincingly, shoulder to shoulder, she had to do that thing that is so de rigueur, which is totally to change your body shape. "I was about three times the size I am now. It worried me, but it was cool, it was a body that was doing what it should do. I haven't got a clue because I don't weigh myself, but it was all muscle and I was big. My neck disappeared. My chest flattened even more. It wasn't the most feminine thing in the world, but it worked for the part, because there was strength there, and it was needed."

Of course, Hollywood can't imagine a world in which people would see a movie starring an athletic, flat-chested woman. So a digital boob job followed.

9. Redbook, July 2007
The crazy thing about the Faith Hill Redbook cover is not that it was Photoshopped — it's that this is the standard amount of digital altering that goes into a cover. Unlike some true Photoshop disasters, there are no alarming mistakes here to tip you off. That makes it easy to accept the retouched image without even blinking. Faith Hill is a beautiful woman. But she needed 11 different kinds of alterations before she could be on the cover of Redbook. What a world.

8. Campari calendar, 2008
Jessica Alba: Just another woman whose real body wasn't good enough. In this case, her waist needed to be nipped in so she could shill liquor.

7. Vogue, May 2008
RoboGwyneth looks like a robot, or an alien, depending on whom you ask. One thing is for sure: Her head and neck are not in the same space-time continuum.

6. Redbook, June 2003
Jennifer Aniston's head was placed on to Jennifer Aniston's body — from another photo shoot. At the time, her publicist, Steven Huvane, said: "It's a combination of three pictures. If you're going to do it, then at least match her head up to her body, and make the neck look like it belongs to her. I still can't figure out which exact picture the face came from." A Redbook spokeswoman downplayed the changes: "The only things that were altered in the cover photo were the color of her shirt and the length of her hair, very slightly, in order to reflect her current length."

The neck does look alarmingly unreal, and her head and waist are out of sync somehow. Angelina is surely to blame.

5.Redbook, July 2003
The month after the Aniston debacle, Redbook was at it again: According to USA Today, "[Julia's] head comes from a paparazzi shot taken at the 2002 People's Choice awards. Her body, meanwhile, is from the Notting Hill movie premiere [in 1999]." Julia's publicist, Marcy Engelman, said, at the time: "It's a shame they didn't use the body that went with the head, because it was a great Giorgio Armani pantsuit (that she wore to the People's Choice awards)."

4. Newsweek, March 2005
The editors used Martha's head and a model's body, because Ms. Stewart was still in jail when the issue was being put together. It wasn't supposed to be a photograph, anyway, it was art: "The piece that we commissioned was intended to show Martha as she would be, not necessarily as she is,'' Lynn Staley, assistant managing editor at Newsweek, told The New York Times. Staley acknowledged that the cover carried a disclaimer: ''In this case, we identified this piece as a photo illustration." As Martha would say, it's a "good thing" you did.

3. Seventeen, May 2003
Think about all the Buffy plots which could have been orchestrated around Sarah Michelle Gellar's weird wrist appendage over there on the left, if her arm actually looked like that.

2. GQ, February 2003.
Some people saw Titanic over and over again — but they never saw those legs, on the left. Kate Winslet was pissed about being trimmed down on this cover, saying:

"The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly I don't desire to look like that. I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot… I can tell you they've reduced the size of my legs by about a third. For my money it looks pretty good the way it was taken."

1. Ralph Lauren Blue Label ad, October 2009
In which model Filippa Hamilton was turned into a string of spaghetti.

Miller, famous for her work for Victoria's Secret, apes classic cheesecake poses in the campaign. The ads — or, excuse me, the "Salute From the Home Front to Those Who Defend Freedom" — are slated to run all month. (In fact, in a neat bit of corporate-branded patriotism, Harley-Davidson has re-named November "Military Appreciation Month." Traditional festivities apparently include ogling half-naked models in uncomfortable poses.) But is it just us, or is there something a little bit off about the appearance Miller's waist in the picture of her in profile, on the far right of the YouTube homepage banner?

As a tipster put it, maybe Photoshop is supposed to be patriotic now? Perhaps we should be thankful the retoucher at least left her whole hip intact.

In still images from the campaign, Miller's waist looks to have been similarly whittled. In fact, her head looks as wide as her rib cage.

Which is funny, because in the attached campaign video, we see footage of Miller posing for what seems to be the very same picture — she is saluting, wearing the same shoes, hairstyle and cap, and a similar outfit. (Clothes can easily be changed in post-production programs like Photoshop; it wouldn't surprise me if the belted beige leotard Miller wears in the final version of the picture was drawn on.)

And, again in the video, the camera even zooms in for a second on that unretouched image on the monitor at the shoot.

Funny, Miller really looks much better in these than she does in the over-processed end result.

Images like these, or Annie Leibovitz's photomontages, or the recent Ralph Lauren ads that have caused so much consternation, immediately jump out at the viewer because they ring false. We've seen bodies before: we all know nobody is built like that. The people responsible for the images know they're unreal. We know they're unreal. So why do marketers continue to assume we will buy products associated with pictures we fully recognize to be false?

We imagine female members of the armed services would be among the many upon whom the charm of such a campaign is lost.

YouTube [Official Site]
Harley-Davidson Military Appreciation [Official Site]
Marisa Miller & H-D Salute Those Who Defend Freedom [YouTube]

Earlier:
Ralph Lauren's Ridiculous Photoshop, More Ridiculous Rage
Ralph Lauren Fires Photoshopped Model For Being Too "Fat"
Ralph Lauren Fires
Yet Another Ralph Lauren Photoshop Of Horrors
Vogue's November Cover: Photoshop Of Horrors
ANTM: The Importance Of "Barbie Toe"
The Curious Case Of Demi Moore's Left Hip

Earlier: Ralph Lauren Takes Responsiblity For Photoshop Of Horrors
Ralph Lauren's Ridiculous Photoshop; More Ridiculous Rage

• Victoria Beckham is out at Armani, and Megan Fox is in. The actress has just been photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for next January's Emporio Armani underwear and Armani Jeans campaigns. [WWD]

• Amber Valletta has a clothing line, and Saks Fifth Avenue will donate $250,000 to breast cancer research from goods it sells from this Thursday through Sunday, whether you shop there or not. [USAToday]
• Betsey Johnson — who has talked openly of wanting a diffusion line, perhaps with Target or H&M, in the past — might get her wish. She told the National Arts Club last night that she was in talks to do a line with QVC or HSN. [The Cut]
• Women's Wear Daily tries cheekily to make the point, through historic quotes and photos, that Emanuel Ungaro, the couturier, and Lindsay Lohan, the fake tan executive who now runs his label, share an aesthetic. But, seriously, he's the guy who said "Shock for its own sake doesn't interest me," and, "A maison de couture is not a circus." [WWD]
• Former Calvin Klein underwear model and Guess? campaign star Jason Lewis — also known as that hot guy Samantha starts banging on Sex And The City — is now shilling for something called Charisma Linens. [NYDN]
• Tory Burch is getting into microfinance for women entrepreneurs — domestic microfinance for women entrepreneurs. [TDB]
• A New York University-affiliated group has ranked Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, and Clinique as the top three luxury fashion brands, by "digital IQ." Strange that a company with so much apparent investment in its e-commerce division could show such an utter lack of understanding of the online media; Ralph Lauren's Filippa Hamilton Photoshop debacle, with its manifold examples of the company's digital stupidity, could be hurting the brand for years to come. [WWD]
• M.I.A. wore a $10 suit from Goodwill to meet Anna Wintour. [Twitter]
• Someone get 19-year-old French model Constance Jablonski a beer: she walked in 72 fashion shows in four cities in less than a month. [Models.com]
• Joe Corre, the famous loose cannon behind the Agent Provocateur label, has quit the brand abruptly. He will maintain his ownership share of the company, but no longer work for it. Instead, he'll concentrate on his men's wear line, called Child of the Jago. [WWD]
• Jennifer Connelly isn't returning as the face of Balenciaga. The brand's spring campaign is understood to feature Kasia Struss, and three other models. [Fashionista]
• Lacoste has collaborated with Brazilian industrial designers Fernando and Humberto Campana, and the results include a $7,000 polo shirt made entirely of the label's alligator appliqués, hand-sewn together in a lacey pattern. [WWD]
• Tommy Bahama is doing a line of shirts for Major League Baseball. The first one is for the next World Series. [Crain's]
• Patrick Robinson showed this season's Gap collection in Tokyo, after showing previous seasons in London and New York, to show that "We're all so super-connected. A lot of our stores are in big urban cities, and all of my friends now are all around the world." The designer continued, "But they're texting me and e-mailing me, and we're all connected. But we're also all trying to get back to nature. We're all starting to care about what we drink, and the food we eat, and where that food comes from. There's something about us that's longing to be back in nature. Those two things are sort of at odds with one another, and what I like about this collection is it sort of brings them together." Whatever. The guy makes incredible pants. [WWD]
• Marc Jacobs is bringing back its popular nude celebrity "Protect The Skin You're In" skin cancer awareness t-shirts. They cost $35, and all the proceeds go to the NYU Cancer Institute. [Hypebeast]
• L.L. Bean is trying to update its image with a new collection, designed by Rogues Gallery's Alex Carleton. [WWD]
• Some snooty society magazine editor named Rachel Johnson — Oxford-educated sister of London mayor Boris — decided it was proper to make fun of Twiggy's accent in her editor's letter. "I bumped into Twiggy at a Burberry event at London Fashion Week. I thanked her for being our cover girl. She went a bit blank but when I mentioned this publication her Bambi-eyes lit up and she said, 'Oi love The Lie-dee,' which made me feel very happy." [Daily Express]
• Abercrombie is planning on lowering its prices slowly and strategically, in the hopes of luring customers back without hurting its brand image. [NYPost]
• Burberry's sales in the most recent quarter rose 5%, to $545 million, ahead of analysts' forecasts. Same-store sales also rose 5%. [WSJ]

Hamilton had counted Ralph Lauren among her clients since she started modeling at the age of 15 and she says that she considered the people who worked there her second family — at least until April of this year, when Ralph Lauren summarily fired her. The stated reason was that the label dumped Hamilton "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." What Ralph Lauren allegedly told Hamilton's agency, Next, is that the 5'10" 5'8", 120 lb model had become too fat to fit into its clothing.

Ralph Lauren's behavior since these images came to light, on the blog Photoshop Disasters, has single-handedly turned a small PR crisis into a full-fledged disaster. First, the company had its lawyers try to sue Photoshop Disasters and BoingBoing, the second blog to pick up the story, for copyright infringement for reporting on the ad. The threats — and the fact that Ralph Lauren managed to get Photoshop Disasters' ISP, Google-owned Blogspot, to remove the image — not only came across as ridiculous and bullying, but only served to draw hundreds of thousands of eyes to the story. (The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Telegraph, Current TV, and Mother Jones, among other outlets, jumped on the story with more or less alacrity.)

The company's apology, when it came, seemed sincere — but today, Ralph Lauren sought to distance itself from its decision to create and run the ad: "The image in question was mistakenly released and used in a department store in Japan and was not the approved image which ran in the U.S."

And for it to emerge that the model in question is a justifiably pissed-off employee that the brand threw under the bus six months ago for being "fat" — that's just the cherry on the Ralph Lauren public relations shit pie. The company's admission of "responsibility" for the ad, coming after its attempt to minimize the ad's significance, rings as hollow as its protestation that Hamilton is a "beautiful and healthy" woman, and that the Photoshop incident had "absolutely no connection" to the company's decision to fire her. Which is it? Is the ad a one-time "error" that was "unapproved," or is it something Ralph Lauren is prepared to take true responsibility for? Is Hamilton "beautiful and healthy," or is she unable to meet the obligations of her contract because of her weight?

Models get fired, or simply passed over for work, all the time for being overweight, but it's a practice that rarely gets addressed publicly. (Not least because anyone outside the industry might struggle to grasp by what measure a size 4 twenty-something who's represented a brand for nearly a decade could be considered "overweight.") There have even been cases where models who have had eating disorders, having entered treatment, have lost work or agency contracts because of their choice to try and get better. As much as it sucks that Hamilton was fired so coldly, it's kind of thrilling that she's willing to talk about it.

Did it never occur to Ralph Lauren to fire the photographer? Or the retoucher who created the image of the near-death Bratz doll Hamilton? Why didn't it consider firing the person who was responsible for releasing the image, if indeed that was a "mistake"? Why did Ralph Lauren's sights immediately fall to rest on the person involved who bore the least responsibility for the drastically altered image in question: the model?

What else isn't so great? Hearing some of Cosmopolitan editor Kate White's statements in the full segment. It seems to be the rule that any model, when doing television appearances, needs to be chaperoned by a fashion magazine editor, à la Ali Michael and Teen Vogue's Amy Astley. At least, that's the only explanation I could come up with for White's presence. After grabbing Hamilton's spotlight and hitching her wagon to the attendant publicity by offering her an 8-page spread in her magazine — a favor that Hamilton, having graced the covers of numerous international editions of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue, including one of my all-time favorite issues of Vogue Paris, hardly need lower herself to accept — White, much like Ralph Lauren, set about walking the delicate line of admitting that there might be a "problem" in fashion without doing anything so creative as taking responsibility for it.

"It really starts with the sample clothes, because they've down-sized, they're now like a size 2 or 4," says White. "To some degree, it relates to the Kate Moss era. Before then, supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Christy Brinkley, they were really curvy. But they got skinnier and skinnier, and the clothes got smaller, and so it creates this cycle where you have to fit in the clothes to get the job, and then the models get smaller and that's who we have to use in fashion stories."

Notice the absence of subjects in that sentence: "it" creates a cycle. (A cycle! Those can be really hard to stop.) "It" relates to Kate Moss, or at least her "era." "The clothes" got smaller. (All by themselves?) The underweight ideal body that the fashion industry promulgates to women all around the world — and the underweight bodies that real fashion models are required to maintain, and which some cannot but maintain through unhealthy means — are problems that everyone is prepared to "acknowledge" in the fashion industry. People write letters about it. They institute meaningless, unenforced laws. What nobody has yet done is actually make a serious, thoughtful attempt to confront these problems of the industry's function — and this is an industry which is structured to punish the sufferer of an eating disorder who decides to enter treatment — and to solve them.

White's perspective on the basic problem is troubling: "The models" got smaller — seemingly of our own volition — and that's who she "has" to use in fashion stories.

The Cosmopolitan editor goes on to say, "I think women have to protest — and back it up. Because sometimes women say they want real girls in stories, but often those stories don't rate as well. Or if you put a heavy celebrity on the cover it might not sell as well. So women have to complain, and then back it up with their actions. Their pocketbooks." If we don't have the magazines we deserve, it's really our own fault.

This snap of the ad was posted to the mock site Photoshop Disasters last Tuesday — the writer crowed, "Make her head bigger than her pelvis! Do it!" Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing noticed, and made the comment, "Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis." But that relatively mild criticism of the unbelievable ad garnered the blog's ISP a cease-and-desist letter for reposting the picture.

Note to Ralph Lauren: it's not an infringement of your copyright if content you own is reproduced for purposes such as criticism, comment, or news reporting. No, really. Look it up. The company more than earned Cory Doctorow's indignant response.

Photoshop Disasters apparently received a similar threatening letter, since its post — though cached, for now, by Google — has been taken down.

Who is this woman 'shopped down to a spindly creature by Lauren's minions? She's 23-year-old French-Swedish model Filippa Hamilton — Countess Filippa Hamilton, to be precise. She's a Ralph Lauren favorite — in fact, she's on the brand's website right now. Check out the terrible job the retoucher did when he or she cut a path around Hamilton's hair to change the color of the shirt:

Hamilton has been featured in various ads for Ralph Lauren since her teens; up until now, the brand has never Photoshopped her into the likeness of a Bratz doll.

And in this July, 2009, editorial for Russian Elle magazine, shot by Fabio Chizzola, she doesn't look half bad, either.

Ralph Lauren should put a little less effort into crafting cease-and-desist letters guaranteed to harness the Streisand Effect, and a lot more into the quality of its post-production.

Ralph Lauren Opens New Outlet In The Uncanny Valley [BoingBoing]
The Criticism That Ralph Lauren Doesn't Want You To See [BoingBoing]

• Marc Jacobs is rumored to have signed on to appear on Kept, Logo's gay version of The Real Housewives. An open casting call will be held soon in New York to find other "high-powered (openly gay) playboys." [N.Y. Daily News]

• The Italian fashion world wasn't pleased with foreign reviews of Milan fashion shows linking the prevalence of short and sexy dresses to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's recent sex scandals. Reviews in the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune used terms such as "Blame it on Berlusconi" and "Viva la Bimbo." "I don't think Berlusconi influences us," said Donatella Versace. "I didn't see anything vulgar on the catwalks in the last few days." [Reuters]
• British women working in engineering, science, technology and construction are calling for clothing manufacturers to make better and safer clothing for women. Jan Peters, president of the Women's Engineering Society explains: "We need the makers of safety wear – work boots, high visibility jackets, protective gloves and the like - to cater for our needs. We don't necessarily want fashion – although we want to look smart and professional – we just want clothes that fit!" [Science Daily]
• Yesterday, Michelle Obama fave Maria Pinto unveiled the looks she created for the delegates lobbying for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid this week in Copenhagen. At least these outfits are less ridiculous than Ralph Lauren's 2008 U.S. Olympic ensemble. [WWD]
• The new issue of GQ has an article on Christian Audigier that dubs him the "Emperor du Fromage" and contains many musings on the unfortunate popularity of his Ed Hardy and Von Dutch brands such as, "He almost never wears the clothes he designs, which leads some people to wonder whether he actually likes them." [Racked]
• Jil Sander's minimalist collection for Uniqlo will go on sale when its Paris flagship store opens on Thursday. The 100 women's items and 40 men's pieces won't include the designer's name but will bear a white label reading "+J". [WWD]
• Scientists are developing new hi-tech textiles including fabrics that spray on, respond to temperature changes, and release hormones to attract the opposite sex. [The Telegraph]
• The Obama commercial boom may be over. You can still find Obama merchandise - like tees - in D.C. tourist areas, but there's less demand across the country now that he's started actually leading rather than just talking about it. [AP]
• Miuccia Prada likes to have "intellectuals" at her shows and in her clothes. A staffer explains, "She only dresses people who interest her." Warning: Don't click the link unless you're prepared to see Paul Krugman's face Photoshopped on a runway model. [N.Y. Magazine]
• Shares of Liz Claiborne Inc. and Jones Apparel Group Inc. fell yesterday, after a Goldman Sachs analyst said their stock is fairly valued and downgraded the companies to "neutral." [Crains New York]
• Designer Nanette Lepore and other fashion advocates met at the office of California Representative Diane Watson to discuss their support for the creation of a Fashion Caucas in Congress. They say the government needs to be more involved in securing intellectual property rights for designers, creating enterprise zones to promote local talent, and preserving New York's garment district. [N.Y. Magazine]
• Anna Dello Russo wore Peter Dundas' green and white cut-out sequined long sleeve mini dress "better than a model ever could," according to Fashionista. [Fashionista]
• The European Commission is considering extending duties and tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese shoes to protect Italian and Spanish footwear manufacturers. Most retailers and EU member states oppose the measure. [Times of London]
• Sources say contrary to earlier report, Tommy Hilfiger is not planning to work with Sarah Ferguson. [WWD]
• Tommy Hilfiger's daughter Ally is going to work on her aunt's Ginny H line, fueling speculation that she's being groomed to take over her dad's brand. When asked if she may some day replace him she said vaguely, "It's such a big company that it's not only one person that can run the company. There are just so many people. I don't know how much control I'd have or help I would be." [Stylist]

When you think Ralph Lauren, you think of classic American elegance, like this...


...or this sweet, simple tea dress.


Or even this 40's-inflected lamé.


Not so much Steinbeck.


Or 1920s schoolboy.


Or "King of New York."


Or even "liked-'Little House'-a-little-too-much 7th Grader."


I love how Janet showed up in classic RL, and was presented with this parade of overalls. That said, she can rock a newsboy cap.

[Images via Getty]

• Katie Holmes made the cover of AnOther Magazine — along with Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moss, and Natalie Portman. [DesignScene]
• Apparently, we're supposed to support Gwyneth Paltrow's absurdly high-priced clothing line for Zoetee's because the profits are for charity. [People]

• Those pictures starring a Victoria Beckham lookalike, wearing Beckham's dresses, which the Daily Mail mistook for a lookbook from the line yesterday, are actually from an online-only editorial in V, and therefore not associated with Posh at all. Model Heidi Mount was cast by the magazine to impersonate La Beckham, and she does a mighty good job. [V]
• But the leaked images of Scarlett Johanson from earlier this week are indeed campaign shots for Dolce & Gabbana's new scent, Rose The One. [People]
• Marc Jacobs will have an after-party following his fashion show this season! And not just any party: He's doing it with Lady Gaga. [The Cut]
• Marc Jacobs said Anna Wintour is "Very maternal and caring," and then added the all-important follow-up, "to the people she cares about." [People]
• Because of Wintour's famed dislike of tardiness, all the bold-faced names at the September Issue premiere were remarkably prompt to arrive. Except for P. Diddy, who got to the red carpet, realized he was the only one there, and sprinted for the doors. Anna Wintour can make P. Diddy run. [NYObs]
• Maggie Gyllenhaal may be presenting Dries Van Noten with his award at the Couture Council of the Museum at FIT luncheon, which kicks off New York Fashion Week. Gyllenhaal has worn the Dutch designer several times in the past. [Stylefile]
• Michael Bay, the director the New Yorker called "stunningly, almost viciously untalented," is doing the Victoria's Secret holiday commercial again this year (he last got the credit in 2002.) And he just uploaded some behind-the-scenes shots of Doutzen, Adriana, et. al., to his website. [MichaelBay]
• Meanwhile, Hayden Christensen is shilling for Lacoste's scent, Challenge. [ONTD]
• We do not look forward to the day when celebrities, after developing exhaustive arrays of perfumes, launch into home fragrances, as Ferragamo is doing. [WWD]
• Christian Audigier says Jon Gosselin and Hailey Glassman, who flew to St. Tropez to holiday with the designer as reality TV star and reality TV star stylist, respectively, were not an item at first. But, "by the time two weeks passed it was a completely new story." Audigier also says that Gosselin "is not the same as he was. He has a more complicated life now." [People]
• Ralph Lauren went to a bar in Williamsburg, the ticking heart of New York hipsterdom, walked around, and left. This is news. [The Cut]
• Kellie Pickler is going to do an event next month for the charity Soles4Soles. [WWD]
• Could Haider Ackerman be in the running to take over Maison Martin Margiela? Margiela himself has been rumored to have stepped back from his namesake label for several seasons now — before the Fall 2009 show, there was a rumor that Margiela had taken on a consulting role, and just a couple months ago he was rumored to have left completely. Ackerman, when asked about the rumors that he might take over the house, said only, "When you meet the person you have admired for so many years, how can you possibly replace him? Sometimes it's better never to meet your heroes." [T via Fashionologie]
• And Jean Paul Gaultier is said to be resigning from Hermès, effective after his Spring/Summer show this October. [FWD]
• Perhaps we should be happy Rachel Zoe is a stylist, because if she hadn't ended up dressing small women in psychedelic tent dresses, she would have been "A psychiatrist. I am endlessly fascinated by people's minds and what makes them tick." [W]
• Electronic Arts is producing a line of video games targeted at 8-12-year-old girls, all of which will feature heavy product placement courtesy of Claire's, the costume jewelry chain. To wit: "My Fashion Mall, available for Nintendo DS, allows players to manage their own mall, taking it 'from drab to fab.' Girls can compete in mini-challenges at Claire's, which is featured in the game, as well as add Claire's charms to their virtual jewelry box." [BrandWeek]
• Christian Siriano is launching a line of makeup with Victoria's Secret, a collaboration that actually makes some sense because Siriano worked as a makeup artist when he first moved to New York. The products all reflect Siriano's Egyptian influence for his Fall 2009 collection, and include lots of bronzers and gold-flecked eye colors, named things like Oasis and, naturally, Gilded Fierce. And there's a kohl eye pencil that Siriano says is "really dirty and downtown — like, I dunno, you're going to go home with someone after you put it on." Or, as Edward Gorey put it, "The Wanton, though she knows its danger / must needs smear Kohl about her eyes / and catch the attention of a stranger / with drawn-out, hoarse, erotic sighs." [The Cut]
• Victoria's Secret just suffered a 27% decline in its second quarterly profit, so the chain is moving its focus to lower-priced items. Perhaps this means no more $80 tee shirt bra? [WSJ]
• Henry Holland loves "Walking. I just spent loads of money on a pair of studded Prada brogues and my justification was that my shoes are my car." We, car-less and broke and shoe-loving, wish we had never heard this justification. [W]
• Gap is apparently launching a pop-up store with the French concept shop Merci. All profits will be donated to charity, and the store will open on September 10 — just in time for fashion week — on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street. [WWD]
• A tipster claiming to work at Gen Art, the group that gives seed money to fashion designers and film-makers — Zac Posen is among the young talents to have received funds in the past — says the company, which has long been struggling financially, is the victim of its own leaders' mismanagement, and that while the staff experienced multiple rounds of pay cuts and layoffs, the brothers who run the show never even docked their own pay. [Gawker]
• Despite declining sales, cost-cutting at the Gap has meant the retailer saw a slight increase in its earnings for the second quarter, beating analysts' expectations. Sales fell by 7% across all the chains the Gap owns, but profits held virtually steady at $228 million, versus $229 million during the same period last year. [AP]
• Gap is also opening its first Israeli store in the city of Jerusalem on Monday. [UPI]
• Ann Taylor experienced a quarterly loss of $18 million. [TS]
• There is going to be a Twilight range of beauty products. By this point, we're only surprised there isn't one already! [WWD]

• A rare, left-handed Michael Jackson glove — the one the star wore when he unveiled his moonwalk at Motown's 25th anniversary in 1983 — is to be auctioned in November at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. [CTV]

• Pictures of the +J women's collection are starting to trickle out. Isabeli Fontana stars in the campaign, and my god are we excited for Jil Sander's return to form. Not least because the godmother of minimalism is re-materializing after her long absence at Uniqlo's sensible price point; the full range will cost between $21 and $155. [WWD]
• Diane Kruger, on Karl Lagerfeld: "Karl is like a dad. I've known him since I was 16 – I would do a lot for Karl. I was once on his plane flying to China. He wouldn't stop talking. After a while, I said to him, ‘I have to sleep now Karl.' When I woke up 10 hours later he was still talking to some poor assistant!" [SassyBella]
• Designer Tory Burch and Marchesa co-founder Georgina Chapman are both making cameos on Gossip Girl's next season. [WWD]
• Mad Men's Alison Brie, on the wardrobe: "You wear girdles and tight clothes you can't really breathe in that make you sit up straight. That alone is kind of oppressive and really makes you feel how these women were feeling at the time." [TVGuide]
• From the horse's mouth: Kanye West isn't interning at the Gap. Quoth designer Patrick Robinson, on the occasion of the launch of the Gap's new 1969 Premium Jeans Collection, "He's a friend of mine, and he just likes to see what we do. I tell him, if he wants people to take him seriously in fashion, they have to see blood first! They have to see the blood and the sweat, to see that he really wants it — but he definitely has the capability." [FWD]
• Harlem resident Sessilee Lopez cooks to unwind. "I just made a pepper steak, rice and beans for Wendell the other night. I grew up watching my grandmother cook and she can make anything taste good. So I try to apply what she does. I'm also getting into baking, but I think that might be dangerous for my career." On role models: "Definitely Tyra [Banks]; I would love to benchmark myself after her. She went from being a pretty face to a mogul. It would be great to follow in her footsteps." [W]
• Justin Timberlake's Givenchy perfume ad has a behind-the-scenes video — the behind-the-scenes video now being de rigueur — so you can double up on your Justin pleasure. [People]
• Oscar de la Renta, on not dressing women with double-digit dress sizes: "Well, you cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. You must do what you do best." [VF]
• Robert Geller has a men's capsule collection with Levi's that hits stores next month. [WWD]
• The body of a man was found on the roof of Opening Ceremony, the downtown Manhattan boutique. Signs indicate the death may have been accidental, and the man a vagrant, but police investigated the scene for seven hours yesterday. [Gawker]
• London police have made one arrest in connection with the Graff jewelry heist that netted $65 million worth of jewels last week. A 50-year-old man, who is not believed to have been one of the two robbers who held up the store, was arrested and bailed. [WWD]
• Jewelry designers Arielle de Pinto and Pamela Love are each doing standalone presentations at New York Fashion Week this September, and Bliss Lau — whose original necklace was shamelessly re-cast and copied by Erin Wasson for the supermodel's jewelry line — Philip Crangi, and Eddie Borg are all working on collaborations with unnamed designers for September. [Style.com]
• Anna Wintour has confirmed she will be attending London Fashion Week in September. Although Wintour normally skips the London shows, this year, a special effort by British designers to show on their home turf has resulted in a glut of bold-faced names on the schedule — Burberry, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Gareth Pugh, Matthew Williamson — that Wintour simply can't ignore. [Grazia]
• Helena Christensen is naked and gorgeous on the cover of Citizen K. [Sun]
• Ralph Lauren is being sued over shirts he made that say "Lifeguard" on them. The Lifeguard Licensing Corp. says it registered that trademark in 1937. [NYPost]
• Artist Hugh Hayden: "I do dinner parties. The most famous one, in college, was called "Smooth." I wanted people to focus on the taste of food but make everything else a constant. We puréed all the food, had the guests wear all white and arranged them in chairs, facing the wall, around the perimeter of the room. We tied their hands behind their back and fed them through this device, which looked like a snorkel with a funnel attached. So you focus on the taste of what you're eating." Label Hayden-Harnett hired this guy to give their NoLiTa boutique a sporty temporary makeover, and to work with them on the Spring 2010 presentation next month. We're kind of scared, because that dinner party sounds like it would have a long and troubling afterlife in one's subconscious. [W]
• One thing we actually do not want to wear or even see is a "sneaker/boat shoe hybrid," but thanks anyway, Lacoste. [WWD]
• JC Penney's has a line called Twelfth of Eleven that comprises mainly t-shirts, and they won't reveal who designs it. Racked.com thinks it might be Rachel Roy, who designs a line of similar t-shirts (at higher prices) for Macy's. [Racked]
• Wal-Mart's second-quarter results were positive; the world's biggest retailer's profits rose 1.4%, to $3.45 billion. Urban Outfitters' income declined by 14%, to $49 million, but sales rose 1%. [WWD]
• Kohl's second-quarter profit fell just 3%, to $229 million, and sales actually rose slightly, by 2%. [AP]
• Same-store sales at Macy's this quarter fell by 9.5%, but the retailer clung to profitability by cutting costs, and turned in a better-than-expected result of a $7 million profit. [Reuters]

• The return of Mad Men is a mere 37 days away, and the AMC show has struck a deal with Banana Republic:

The retailer will be selling a line inspired by the suits worn by the gentlemen of Sterling Cooper. (The show has also partnered with Clorox, so look for cheeky collar-bleaching spots.) [Vulture, NY Times]

• It's riveting to watch one of Chanel's couture looks being made. Whatever one thinks of the design, the craft of couture is magic. The concentration in the atelier flou's eyes as she makes the toile is an inspiration. [The Cut]
• David Lauren thinks now is as good a time as any for Ralph Lauren to launch a watch division selling $10,000-$80,000 timepieces. Marie Claire will probably still advertise them. [WWD]
• That gorgeous nude-and-black dress Emma Watson wore on David Letterman's show on Tuesday night to promote her movie was by Christopher Kane. [Grazia]
• Come this September, you'll be seeing Justin Timberlake starring in ads for two simultaneously developed and released Givenchy scents, called Play and Play Intense. [WWD]
• Accessories designer Tarina Tarantino marked the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz with an Oz-themed collection — and by shooting Kelly Osborne and Debi Mazar as Glenda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, respectively. [CBS]
• Couture week closed yesterday, which motivated the Daily to reflect on those comrades who were missing. Anna Wintour, who has never missed the couture collections before, wasn't there. Nor was her counterpart at British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, or T magazine's Stefano Tonchi. Celebs down for the count included frequent couture customer Dita von Teese. [FWD]
• Another fashion mystery: Why has Peter Copping's first collection for Nina Ricci, Resort 2010, been delayed by one month and counting? Time's Kate Betts hasn't seen the collection, but says "an extremely reliable Parisian source" says it's "great." Copping, formerly Marc Jacobs' right-hand-man at Louis Vuitton, replaced Olivier Theyskens in the middle of his contract earlier this year. [Fashionologie]
• Fendi is "taking a break" from producing a men's wear collection. The 84-year-old Italian company is hoping to be back in the men's game by next season. [WWD]
• Do you ever question the entire nature of fashion week? The tug-and-pull of the trade/consumer focus? The fact that retailers have come to expect new deliveries monthly, not semi-annually? Do you ponder the impact of nonetheless timing the ready-to-wear collections twice per year, and the effects of having pictures of next season's clothing available instantly online months out from production? If so, you're probably a designer, and the CFDA wants to hear from you this July 28, at a townhall meeting that promises to put up for discussion everything about fashion week. What with MAC looking to produce competing shows at Milk Studios, and the coming change in venue from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, the talk — moderated by Diane von Furstenberg — is timely. [WWD]
• Alexander Wang is debuting his first menswear collection later this month in the pages of T. And according to rumor, for his women's wear show this September, Wang will be eschewing the styling help of his friend, model Erin Wasson. In Wasson's place will be Karl Templer, who styles Calvin Klein (and worked for Interview magazine last year — or maybe he's been hired back, we can't keep track of that revolving door anymore). [Sassybella]
• Meet 20-year-old Rochelle Owen, whose job it is to help customers with Beth Ditto's clothing line at the Evans store in the Meadowhall shopping center in the UK. Her pic is fierce! And the "voluptuous size 20" says: "Beth's style is very much my look, I dress to be noticed and love girly clothes, bright colours and funky dresses with leggings and loads of accessories." [The Star]
• A day at the office with Aussie brand Ksubi: "Shit fucking happens." [BlackBook]
• Uh-oh: "The Consumer Product Safety Council recalled 3,200 pairs of Charles David of California women's shoes sold at Nordstrom." One report of a heel breaking off, resulting in bruising. [WWD</a.]
• Juicy Couture is closing its 3,300 sq. ft. store at Madison Avenue and 70th St. The rent ran $2 million a year, and the company simply cannot afford to continue paying it. [WWD]
• This June, retailers saw on average a 4.7% decline in comparable sales, supposedly because it was such a rainy, miserably month, nobody felt like shopping — and certainly not for summer clothes. But if that's the case, why were sales in the largely sunnier month of May down 4.2%? We think it's the economy, stupid. [Crain's]
• Abercrombie alone saw sales tumble 32% on last year. And a lot of companies' spin-off brands — like Abercrombie's now-closed Ruehl — are suffering even worse. American Eagle's Martin + Osa isn't faring well, and Aeropostale's Jimmy'z has already closed. J. Crew now thinks it priced offerings at its Madewell spinoff too high. [WaPo]
• And the apparel crowd doesn't expect the back-to-school season to be much better. [WSJ]
• One sector that still has the luxury of 35% margins: online, members-only designer sale e-tailers, like Gilt Groupe, RueLaLa, and HauteLook. They have virtually nil marketing costs, and their small inventories actually enhance demand by creating scarcity. [WSJ]
• New York-based fashion chain Scoop, which is being sued for employment violations by 17 ex-staffers, is allegedly behind in its payments to numerous of its creditors, too. "They're unresponsive in their accounts payable department," said Gary Wassner, president of Hildun Corp. "They're not cooperative. They're not providing any financial information to make any kind of analysis of how they're doing. In today's market, it's important to be transparent...Clients are shipping at their own risk." Rosenthal & Rosenthal's Michael Stanley said, "We're very concerned about the status of the account." Robert J. Wichser, a representative of Scoop's owners, says the company is "financially sound" and currently looking for a new CEO. The last one left in February, which is when Hildun Corp. says the company stopped paying its bills. [WWD]

• 42-year-old Kristen McMenamy, whose deeply unconventional beauty shone in many of the most memorable fashion photographs of the early '90s, was chosen by Steven Meisel for the new cover of Italian Vogue. [FWD]

• Yves Saint Laurent's Stefano Pilati, whose recent ads have starred Naomi Campbell, continues his run with the '90s supes in his Fall 2009 campaign. Christy Turlington, wearing pleated pants that do no women any favors, poses against a white background, inside a black picture frame that floats in space. [Telegraph]
• Speaking of Naomi Campbell, she'll be the face of Dennis Basso this fall. Basso is a well-known fur designer, and Campbell once famously declared that she'd rather go naked than wear fur, but obviously her naked avarice got in the way. [WWD]
• Madonna wore jet-beaded Givenchy couture on stage in London. Says designer Riccardo Tisci, "She's wearing an outfit that will make history." [People]
• The couture shows get underway in Paris today, and in this economy, selling $70,000 dresses seems like a difficult task. But at Christian Lacroix, whose house recently declared bankruptcy, there is an order backlog for more than 20 outfits. [WWD]
• That still might not save Lacroix. Employees were told Friday of a restructuring plan that would cut the 124-strong workforce to 12, and reduce the Lacroix label to a licensing operation. The only hope is for a buyer to step in. [WWD]
• Prodigious design talent — and rumored Madonna collaborator — Christian Audigier has some sharp words for Victoria Beckham and her celebrity dress line. "I like her, she is a nice girl, but she is not completely my style. I have seen some of her designs — they are very simple. It's difficult for an artist or a singer to enter into the world of fashion," quoth the popularizer of such classics as the trucker hat and the tattoo t-shirt. "You can't just rely on your name to help you sell. The way to sell and who to sell to and what you want to accomplish, these are all things you will need help with if you're entering into the world." [HindustanTimes]
• "I can't analyse my appeal. If I did I'd be in a straitjacket," reports supermodel Daria Werbowy. "I am very lucid in relation to the reality of this industry, the ephemeral nature of beauty and fame,' she says, 'and that gives me a certain distance and quite a bit of humour." [Telegraph]
• Stylist Patricia Field took the opportunity of an interview with the Mirror to settle an old disagreement with Kristin Davis. And with A-line skirts, which we always have found extremely flattering. "I hate the A-line skirt. It's like a lampshade. Ugly. Kristin Davis always wanted to wear A-line skirts as she thought it hid her big behind. She has a fabulous figure – she is completely hour glass, and I would say: ‘Kristin, you have a small waist – show off your round ass!' She would never show it. I wanted to make her into a Bettie Page in Sex And The City, but all she wanted were A-line skirts and Ralph Lauren clothes." [Mirror]
• Meanwhile, Roberto Cavalli has deep thoughts on our economy. "I never pay attention to costs — it's not attractive to speak about numbers. Why can't we just focus on the beauty of an object? I don't know anything about the financial crisis." [ToL]
• Times of London writer Shane Watson asks whether Abercrombie & Fitch's decision to tell an employee with a prosthetic arm to stay in the stockroom was really all that surprising, given the chain's refusal to hire anyone who isn't "regulation cute." Because discriminating against disabled people is exactly the same as dictating your employees hair length and nail polish colors! [ToL]
• Seeing the Wall Street Journal's perspectival dry-point etching of a man wearing skinny jeans totally makes up for this pedestrian story about how the trend caught on. [WSJ]
• Foot wear maestro Manolo Blahnik: "Are shoes so important? Really? If I was a woman, I would be dressed in the same thing for a month and just change my hat and gloves. Maybe my shoes too; yes, I see what you mean but, really, it's jewels that change an outfit. And I do love gloves. And I adddore hats. There are toooo many shoes now. I always tell the children, 'Don't do shoes! Do hats!' And the shoes are so strange, so vulgar. I hate these platforms that are all over the place today; they are all about grabbing attention. They are suburban! I never do a platform. Well, I did, in the 1970s, but that was a bad experience." [FT]
• Ben Westwood, Vivienne Westwood's fetish photographer son, whose latest exhibit featured bound models with the heads of celebrities' children inexpertly Photoshopped onto their bodies, is launching a men's wear line. London Fashion Week must be holding its breath. [Harper's Bazaar]
• Children's apparel is more resilient than other sectors of the clothing market during economic downturns. Why? Kids grow. [WWD]
• The Guardian reviewed R.J. Cutler's The September Issue, and called it "utterly riveting." The paper also said, of the relationship between stylist Grace Coddington and editor Anna Wintour, "to watch them do battle over whether or not to shoot a rubber dress is to see the great fashion battle of creativity versus commerciality acted out in an urbane New York office: a Punch and Judy show scripted by Woody Allen." [Guardian]
• If this is news to anyone here: online ads in the form of fake quizzes, à la Coach's new "Are you a Poppy girl?", are rigged. We are all Poppy girls, in the eyes of Reed Krakoff. Buy a $198 tote bag now! [TBM]
• Apparently, while New York has been drowning in a consistent downpour since mid-April, London has been having a heat wave. Unsurprisingly, sales of bikinis — and beer — have spiked. [FT]
• Because he is paid primarily in stock and options, Ralph Lauren's compensation slipped by more than 40% in value this year. He still made $20.3 million. [WWD]
• Despite cashflow concerns, Prada is still opening stores at a fast clip. Two new boutiques will open this month in Paris and Prague, and the company plans to keep up its 2008 pace, which saw 34 new stores open, for the next three years. [WWD]
• For those nights when you can't seem to remember your underwear, behold: the anti-paparazzi handbag! Activated by camera flashes, the bag emits a beam of light (clue: it's like a slave flash) powerful enough to ruin anyone's shot. [BoingBoing]

• Like many 66-year-olds we know, Betsey Johnson is eyeing retirement. "I should be retired. I'm basically screwing up because I'm not retired. I'd like to go in four days a month, something like that," says the designer.

• Johnson is planning to hand over the reins to her second-in-command, Eric Sartori, after her show this September. But she'll stay involved. "I'll be a mega-consultant. I'll go in. I want to be like Ralph [Lauren]. Like, I always imagined the perfect life is like Ralph, where he goes in, and his wonderful expert crews show him work, and he goes, 'Love it, love it, love it, um, we'll just put that aside for the moment, love it, love it, hmmm.' You know what I mean? And be that — be the inspiration, the light at the end of the tunnel, the fairy godmother that comes down." [The Cut]
• Two images from Karl Lagerfeld's Fall 2009 Chanel campaign, which he shot himself on his Vermont farm, have hit the Internet. The ads star Freja Beha Erichsen and Heidi Mount, and have a nice, old-fashioned, rural feel. Mount and Erichsen sort of look like stylish, Stepford Mennonites. [Fashionologie]
• There's more solarized Madonna psychedelia at the other end of this link, if you are curious to just what extent the pop star has been airbrushed into doll-like plasticity by Pascal Dangin for the Fall 2009 Louis Vuitton campaign. [Design Scene]
• Artist Marilyn Minter contributed a video of models sucking on multi-colored sparkly goo, titled "Green Pink Caviar," to Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour. (You can watch part of it here if you're not actually going to see Madonna.) "She actually paid me a bunch of money," says Minter. [WWD]
• Sasha Fierce for Deréon Back-To-School collection: It's happening. In any color you want, so long as it's black. [WWD]
• A battery-powered, bugle-beaded light-up glove worn by Michael Jackson on tour in 1984 will go under the hammer on October 1. [Reuters]
• On July 17, clothes from Giles Deacon's back catalog will be presented in four free catwalk shows at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. [Telegraph]
• As J.Lo begat Glow, so Glow begat Glow After Dark, which begat Sunkissed Glow, which begat Miami Glow, which begat Still. Still begat in its turn Love At First Glow By J.Lo. Love At First Glow begat Deseo, which begat Live By Jennifer Lopez. Live begat Live Luxe. And this fall, Live Luxe shall beget My Glow By Jennifer Lopez. So there are ten generations of Jennifer Lopez Perfume, ten generations of perfume in her decade of Fame. The People saw and said it was Good. [People]
• Naturally, pictures have emerged from Chanel Iman's "internship" at Teen Vogue. Turns out the model poked her head into the styling closet, like any fashion magpie, after a mid-afternoon go-see. And then she stayed and helped the other interns organize it for the whole rest of the day. She must have spent 1.5-2 hours there, stacking shoes! And she didn't even share any decent gossip. [TeenVogue]
• Far more successful is Coco Rocha's E! Canada special on fashion week. The model buttonholed Heidi Klum for some television hosting advice. Heidi says: Eye contact, don't prepare or rehearse too much, and wear something short. [FWD]
• Juergen Teller: "Everything is how you dress. Everything. I would never do some sort of stupid picture where everything is dark and you can't see the fabric or whatever, or crop something badly so you don't get the right impression of a garment. I did have my problems with fashion before, maybe. As a heterosexual man, I was always a bit embarrassed of being a fashion photographer and didn't have the confidence to describe myself that way. Now I do have the confidence. It's a weird thing to do, I know, but I just kind of got into it and I think I do it very well." [Independent]
• Racked has photos of Leanne Marshall's Bluefly line. The tops and dresses were snapped right off the rack during the e-tailer's photo shoot, so it's a little hard to see exactly how boring they are. [Racked]
• Not content with extending her jewelry line into an "equestrian"-inspired clothing range and a line of shoes and bags, Nicole Richie is also tackling maternity wear, for A Pea In The Pod. "It's her Bohemian style," said a spokesperson for the retailer's parent company. [WWD]
• British fashion icon Zandra Rhodes has crashed her station wagon through the window of a hardware store in Texas. One person inside the store was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries; it's unclear whether any charges will be filed. [Telegraph]
• Justin Timberlake and Trace Ayala unveiled the William Rast label they co-founded at Selfridges in London — and gave interviews that made no mention of the extremely talented designers, Johan and Marcella Lindeberg, who have made the line such a success. [UK Vogue]
• American Apparel has been cited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly employing an estimated 1,600 illegal workers. ICE believes that up to one third of the California-based clothier's workforce is in the country illegally. [WSJ]
• H&M, Louis Vuitton, and Wal-Mart topped a survey of consumer brand valuation. Which means we love cheap stuff that looks expensive, expensive stuff that looks cheap, and cheap stuff that looks cheap? [WWD]
• Crabtree & Evelyn has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. The company has 126 stores, and around 950 employees. Its stated hope is to close some of its stores and renegotiate its leases, but any business that loses $13.3 million in fiscal 2009 can't have a great outlook. [ToL]

This spread, shot on a ranch and featuring models decked in denim and cowboy boots, manages to go a whole ten pages without using so much as a stitch of clothing by a designer not born Ralph Lifschitz. The story is not marked as advertising, advertorial, a "special collaboration," it doesn't exist to celebrate a retrospective Ralph Lauren exhibition or some kind of brand anniversary. It's as if the stylist just forgot any other American fashion designer ever existed! Look at the credits: the shirt, $325, is Ralph Lauren Black Label. The necklace is $750 from Ralph Lauren Vintage, and the scarf and belt are price on application from the Ralph Lauren Archives, which is apparently a different thing.


It is pretty damn exciting to see a black model — Ariel Meredith is from Shreveport, Louisiana, and has modeled for everything from H&M to Vera Wang to D&G to Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition — cast in an "All-American" story, the kind of U.S. seasonal set piece that usually requires A Blonde With Boobs. But, again, it's impossible to ignore the unusual over-representation of Ralph Lauren items: dress, $180, Lauren by Ralph Lauren Dress Collection. Jacket, $795, Polo Ralph Lauren. Shoes, POA, Ralph Lauren Collection, Belt, $2,795, Ralph Lauren Collection. Watch, POA, Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry. Cuff, $900, bracelet, $2,750, Ralph Lauren Vintage. Cameron Diaz is also sporting Ralph Lauren on the front of the magazine, wearing a $198 denim shirt by Ralph Lauren Blue Label.


This cape costs $698 and, like Cammie's shirt, it's by Ralph Lauren Blue Label. The boots are POA from the Ralph Lauren Archives; the ring is also POA, and it's Lauren by Ralph Lauren. The socks ($24) are Ralph Lauren. They even credited the damn socks.


Did Marie Claire think nobody would notice this freelance Ralph Lauren campaign masquerading as a fashion story? The POA dress and $425 belt in this picture are both by Ralph Lauren Collection; the earrings are POA from the Ralph Lauren Archives. The gloves are vintage, but the designer isn't mentioned, perhaps to avoid cluttering up the page with non-Ralph Lauren references.


This $2,998 coat is by Ralph Lauren Black Label. The jeans, from Ralph Lauren Blue Label, are $298, and the hat is vintage. Questions: Just how many lines does Ralph Lauren now have? Does anyone know for certain? Does Ralph Lauren know? Was it Marie Claire's objective to catalog them all? If so, why did they elide all the various Polos? (To be fair, like Marc Jacobs stores in the West Village, there are probably too many of those too count.)


The top and pants from this shot cost $1,298 each. The $395 scarf and the POA belt are by, you guessed it, Ralph Lauren Collection. Ralph Lauren Archives provided the POA boots.


This dress, at $139, ("Lauren Jeans Co. by Ralph Lauren"), is almost affordable when seen in the light of this spread. (It also looks strangely like my favorite dress when I was 12. Made of denim, it also had snaps and a swirly skirt, but I think mine cost $30.) After the wallet's reprieve of the dress, that Ralph Lauren Archives belt is POA, the Ralph Lauren Vintage necklace is $2,650, and the Ralph Lauren Collection purse is $1,495.


Counting this suede top, $498, the $325 shirt, and $298 jeans (all Ralph Lauren Blue Label), the POA boots and gloves from the Ralph Lauren Archives, and the $1,450 Ralph Lauren Vintage bracelet, plus all the other clothing in the spread, and the $5,596 worth of clothing in another shot which didn't make it onto the Marie Claire website but is in the magazine, the total cost for your summer of Laurenian love is a cool $28,230, not counting all items marked POA.

Quite unnecessarily, on the last page of the spread comes the following note:

All men's clothing, Ralph Lauren.

Women's Western Fashion [Marie Claire]

• Vogue subscribers are lured with a free-gift gimmick that looks...different when it comes in the mail. Of course, subscribing to Vogue is basically scheduling disappointment monthly, but the bait-and-switch is not normally so overt. [NYPost]

• Natalie Portman would very much like to tell you about some t-shirt brand she likes. Band tees are a great way of learning about music, see! [Daily Beast]
• Lauren Hutton might miss the Met ball, which is themed around models this year, because a young surfer accidentally rammed his board into her knee in Hawaii, causing ligament damage. "The only thing that's holding our foreleg bones attached to our thigh bones are these little ligaments around the knee," said Hutton. "And once they go, the bones fall sideways inside the bag of skin. It was like one of those Halloween skeletons." The supermodel, currently in LA, cannot walk without crutches. Her date, Michael Kors, will probably understand if she stays home. [Daily Intel]
• Fellow famously made-up face Isabella Rossellini is pretty sure Lancôme regrets dumping her back in 1995 for being soooooo old. But she made her money and now does videos about the sex lives of animals. Lancôme contents itself with Rossellini's daughter, Elettra Wiedemann. [WWD]
• "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" designer Anya Hindmarch says, "Accessories are how women accent their character; they are a form of self-expression. If you see someone carrying a tatty, beaten-up handbag, full of crumbs, doesn't it kind of make you wonder if their house is just like that, too?" She would say that, wouldn't she? [Telegraph]
• Adriana Lima, the Brazilian model best known for wearing giant wings and Bedazzled bras for Victoria's Secret and looking hot on the covers of men's magazines, stunned when she walked for Givenchy in Paris. (Normally, the fashion industry likes to draw as bright a line as possible between camp and the "real" stuff.) Could she be working herself out from under the taint of commercial lingerie to take on a Givenchy campaign for fall? And does that mean Lima is transforming into a Gisele-style double threat, who magically gets bookings for Dior and drugstore makeup at the same time? [Fashionologie]
• Hudson St. in New York's West Village has 15 empty storefronts on one six-block stretch — and, like, 14 Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Ralph Lauren shops. Some see a connection: one retailer, who did not want to be named, said that when businesses' leases turn over, landlords are asking for steep increases in rent, because the high-end retailers are able to pay up to $60,000/month. "They are killing the Village," the man said. "Ten years ago — mom-and-pop stores gone, restaurants gone, they're all gone." [The Villager]
• Tao Okamoto, the hot "new" Japanese model with the interesting haircut, bagged the Fall Ralph Lauren campaign — and, according to rumor, the Fall ads for the Polo Ralph Lauren line, too. [Style.com]
• Nadja Swarovski, scion of the Austrian crystal concern, is a pretty brilliant businesswoman who's taken her family's product from an icon of kitsch to the raw material of fashion's avant garde. But that's not what makes this profile writer like her: the fact that she feels she doesn't see her kids often enough ("much as one rushes to reassure, she is probably right," notes the Times) is the chink in the armor that lets her feel comfortably pitying. The profile is sprinkled with German words, but unfortunately Schadenfreude is not one of them, so let me insert it here. [Times of London]
• Robin Givhan writes this week about the Museum at FIT's announcement of its upcoming Isabel Toledo exhibit, and the question of fashion exhibits in general. The most popular clothing shows are inevitably those organized around a celebrity name, like Jackie O's at the Met; "It's an ongoing battle," Givhan writes, "in fashion exhibitions: the scholarly preference for the clothes to stand on their own and the public fascination with the back story." [WaPo]
• Stila, the makeup brand recently rumored to be facing bankruptcy, has been saved at the 11th hour by a New York private-equity firm. Patriarch Partners will acquire the brand from Wachovia and CIT Group, the banks that took Stila over after it defaulted on debt obligations. [WSJ]
• Filene's Basement is in a similarly dire position — facing bankruptcy and courting buyers. The discount chain closed 11 stores in January, but its parent company said Friday that the cost-cutting moves are "not likely to lead to sustainable operations for Filene's Basement." How is it possible that "it's like a department store, but everything's on sale" is a failing business model at this juncture? [Crain's]
• Valentino's operating profits fell 7% in 2008, the year its founder and namesake retired. [WWD]
• J. Crew opened a beach-themed store in Malibu. [LA Times]
• Headstrong model Elle MacPherson popped home to Sydney for Easter, and made a supermarket deli worker come out from behind the counter to load her cart. Then she snapped at a gossip columnist and micro-managed a television appearance. [News.com.au]

A reader sent us an email, complaining about this ad, noting that the USDA stamp on the model's ass is "as though she were a piece of fruit on sale." Correction! A piece of fruit with great skin.

This Escada ad is educational. It teaches you that Escada makes the stunningly beautiful Christy Turlington look like crap.

At Jil Sander, you can never be too thin. Camera and lighting tricks are used to whittle the body down to a single leg! Even the designer refuses to have her name weighed down by an extra L.

Sorry, but Gisele's crotch is not selling me these short-shorts. Also, in case you hadn't noticed, the crotch is the new hot spot.

Gold spangled drop-crotch, for the elite.

Remember when Sheena on America's Next Top Model tried to "sell" a handbag at a photo shoot by posing with it in front of her crotch? And the judges were like, "No." And then Madonna posed almost the same way? Kate Moss is the late to the game.

People! Stop trying to make jumpsuits happen! I know Sadie likes them, I know some of you own them, but it looks like Beyoncé is wearing a full diaper. House Of Diarrhea.

Ouch.

I've been watching too much RuPaul's Drag Race, because I can't even say what I thought when I saw this. Hint: Not "sexy."

Zombies: So hot right now.

Forget the misleading language when it comes to the "microscopic" calories and "tiny" grams of fat. That freakin' cow is using a measuring tape.

So imagine the Oscar Mayer people sitting around a table, saying: Hmm, how can we make our ad more "now"? We need some "hip" lingo to throw in there. How about "blog"? That's what the young people are doing now, right? Blog? Maybe our sandwiches are bloggable? Or, uh, bloggish? Or blogworthy? Yeah, blogworthy! They're saying this, knowing full well that the sandwiches are not, in fact, blogworthy, and yet, here is the ad, ON A BLOG. What have I done?

Earlier: Androgynous Robots, Root Beer Vodka & A Fellow In A Frock: Fall's Worst Ads