• Before we tackle today's inevitable layoffs, liquidations and bankruptcies, look at David Beckham. Look at semi-naked David Beckham. In his very important new Emporio Armani ad. Why, good morning to you, Dave. [People]

• Unfortunately for Heidi Montag, clothing lines whose main qualification as same is the attachment of a famous name are not faring well in the downturn. (Please, let someone therefore piece it together that continuing to announce B-List Star for Major Middle Market Retailer arrangements isn't a recession-proof move.) [AdAge]
• Unfortunately, the news came too late to stop Hilary Duff for DKNY Jeans... [WWD]
• ...and to stop Jessica Alba from dipping her toe into the designer waters. [Fashionista]
• And Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen menswear. (OK, so The Row technically should get a pass for being, actually, kinda good, but it's the principle of the thing.) [Elle]
• But getting a celebrity to wear your dress on a red carpet is still worth a starlet's weight in gold. [WSJ]
• The recession will not, however, kill Spanx, which had sales volume of over $350 million last year. Because while the shitty economy is temporary, hating your body enough to want to squeeze and yank and pull it into a girdle is forever. [Reuters]
• The economic situation is making it tougher perhaps than ever for young designers who were in the midst of expanding in line with pre-recession demand and fanfare. [NY Times]
• Esprit has reported its first interim drop in profits in ten years. Sales are slow worldwide, and particularly so in Europe. [Financial Times]
• Estee Lauder's second-quarter profits are also down by 30%. The company will restructure 2,000 workers out of working existence. [The Street]
• Elizabeth Arden, however, beat analysts' expectations for the second quarter by 2 cents a share. Sales still fell 12.7% and net profit was down from $33.8 million one year ago to $17.4 million now. [Reuters]
• A handful more details about the Mathew Williamson line for Target: it launches on April 23, it will be colorful (which, frankly, if anything at all comes to mind when you think "Mathew Williamson" you already knew), and in addition to the regular frocks and tops, there'll be jumpsuits. Controversial move! [Blackbook]
• Kim Gordon discusses her line for Urban Outfitters, Mirror/Dash, with the New York Times, but although they hit stores on February 16, there's only one picture of the actual clothes. She's surprisingly realistic about Mirror/Dash's design process — she admits she doesn't actually sketch so much as talk about fabric and "ideas" with her partner before sending away to Urban Outfitters' sample houses. [The Moment]
• Never to be outdone by Vogue and its eyebrow-raising Sean Avery internship, Elle now has for an intern the fashlete (did I just make that up? I think I did. Let's go with it!) Stew Bradley, an actual Philadelphia Eagle. May he cherish the coffee-schlepping, xeroxing, and sexual harassment that are the hallmarks of any true New York media internship. [The Cut]
• Except, on his first day, Bradley went to lunch with Diana Ross, Diane von Furstenberg, Jessica Alba, Jason Wu, Anil Kapoor Veronica Webb, Eva Amurri, John Frey, Roberta Myers, Joe Zee, Anne Slowey, Whitney Port, and Olivia Palermo. At Diane von Furstenberg's studio. [WWD]
• Now, if she'd only worn her favorite label, Carhartt, on the campaign trail, Sarah Palin might have had a shot at the Brooklyn hipster vote! [US News]
• Janie Bryant, the costume designer for Mad Men, is crafting a contemporary, not vintage, clothing line. And that's about all she's willing to say just now. [WSJ]
• High-end Baltimore fabric store Michael's Fabrics says it has the lemongrass embroidered wool Isabel Toledo used to create Michelle Obama's inauguration day outfit. It's 33" wide and yours for a mere $500 a yard. Just in case you want to whip a dress up at home. [Unbeige]
• Isabel Toledo is still reeling from the media attention following dressing Michelle Obama. (Her husband, the fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, calls it "Obamathon.") An exhibition of her dresses is going up at the museum at FIT in June. [WWD]
• Monique Lhuillier is introducing a new, more moderately priced line for fall. Given her regular dresses retail for $3,000-$7,000, "moderately priced" in this sentence means around $2,500. [WSJ]
• The Washington Post saw Jill Biden and her security detail nip into Bloomingdale's to buy some Tory Burch shoes. [Washington Post]
• UK Elle has Vivienne Westwood's handwritten "manifesto," and it includes such worthwhile tips as "DIY Suggestions: Necklace of safety pins" and the reminder "We need an estimated $30 billion per year to save the rainforest. $30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000etc-->" Also, she believes Leonard Peltier is innocent. [Elle]
• PETA Photoshopped a Pinocchio nose on to Giorgio Armani's face for a full-page ad in Variety after the scrappy perma-tanned Italian allegedly went back on his word after pledging to no longer use fur in his collections. Armani's people say they use only rabbit fur from animals raised for meat. [New York Daily News]
• Now, this should be fun: Lynda Carter, Valerie Bertinelli, Katie Couric, Natya Liukin, Jennie Garth, and Tori Spelling are among those modeling for a fashion week show dedicated to heart health. Designers include Christian Siriano, Carolina Herrera, and those guys at Badgley Mischka. [WWD]

• Europeans are always more progressive than Americans. Rumor is, Italian Vogue may be producing a cover featuring only black models. [Fashionista]
  
• Oh. My. God. High School Musical and Hannah Montana-inspired Crocs, soon available at a store near you. [Yahoo]
  
• Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola will be the next faces of Louis Vuitton's "core values" campaign (the very same campaign in which Keith Richards agreed to participate in exchange for a LV monogrammed guitar case.) What do you think the Coppolas get out of this? An LV director's chair? An LV vinyard? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "Boyfriend" jackets are big for spring. But Peter Som says the ones he designed for Bill Blass are inspired by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. [WSJ]

• Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers has decided not to assume the role of president of the American Society of Magazine Editors, most likely because she is too hell-bent on becoming a reality TV star. [WWD, 1st item]
• Rumer Willis, Kristin Cavallari, Christina Milian, Josie Maran, Pete Wentz, Corbin Bleu and Wilmer Valderrama have all apparently gotten desperate and all collectively facing Wal-Mart's Op line's latest ad campaign. [Just Jared]
• If you are dying to know what's in Kimora Lee Simmons' makeup bag, well, here's an itemized list. [Marie Claire]
• The rumors are true: Linda Evangelista will be the face of Prada's Fall 2008 ad campaign. [FabSugar]
• Tory Burch refers to her employees as her "family". [WWD, sub req'd]
• Kanye West-endorsed, Damien Hirst-designed t-shirts to benefit Bono's Product (RED)? Oh my. [Chic Report]
• Uber fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone likes chopping vegetables and washing dishes. [WSJ]
• Moby: Wants you to design a t-shirt for him. [USA Today]

• "Of course I am a Spice Girls fan. I love everything that teenage girls love. I am the oldest teenage girl." That's Michael Kors, who went to see the Spice Girls when they performed in the New York area this week. Other fashion world luminaries who showed up the concert to hear such sonic gems as "Two become One": ELLE editor-in-chief Roberta Myers and fashion director Nina Garcia, Harper's Bazaar EIC Glenda Bailey, and Vogue European editor-at-large Hamish Bowles. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• "They're the most exciting thing since Warhol," says Vogue's Andre Leon Talley of English rockers/designers Rodnik. So enamored is he that he was willing to give up his front-row seat at Proenza Schouler last week so that he could join the Rodnik designers in the standing room area. [Vogue UK]
  
• Marc Jacobs: Fond of male escorts! [NY Daily News]
  
• The Times of India asks: Is fashion industry caste and gender biased? We're gonna go out on a limb and say "yeah." [TOI]

• Lilly Pulitzer is launching its very first fragrance. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Beauty product name or adult film title? [BellaSugar]
• Cynthia Rowley is now entering the wild world of mother-daughter fragrances, the very thought of which makes us throw up a little in our mouths. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Oh God: Hannah Montana shampoo??? [WWD, sub req'd]
• Luella Bartley: Now designing tees to fund kids going to the dentist in Colombia. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Who needs YouTube when there's ShoeTube? [UPI]

• It's all about who you know. Wanna get a job working for your local elected official? Wanna get a job working for the editor-in-chief of a major fashion magazine? Good luck with having your resume finding your way to anyone's door unless you've got an 'in'. Having hired interns in both industries, the very few slots there are to fill are more often than not get taken by the daughter of the cousin of a high-ranking person in that establishment's college roommate.
• It's all about what you wear. Think fashion's the only industry in which people judge you based on your appearance? LOL. When I was a Clintern, memos were circulated about the presence of flip-flops in the office... And not in a good way. My poor GOP gal pal was told she must wear pantyhose in the office of the Senator she works for. As for the ladymags, even peons in the fashion department are expected to chip in for a major seasonal "It" item — the better to show the higher-ups that they're willing to stay on top (or ahead) of the trends.
• There are only 10 jobs in the entire industry. When I left Elle, editor in chief Robbie Myers assured me we would cross paths again as there "are only five jobs in the industry." Likewise with politics: In fact, fashion and politics are both small communities populated by a handful of people who bounce around the few available jobs, working their way up the ladder. By the time you've been in the business for five years, you'll feel like you're back in high school.
• There is no new news. With fashion seasons scheduled every six months and elections scheduled every 2 years, both industries have both set calendars and news cycles... meaning, easy-to-anticipate headlines. And because there are so few players, there are just as few storylines: Grunge is back! Grunge is dead! Compassionate conservatism is the New America! Compassionate conservatism killed America! The media outlets try to convince us that these are new stories, but let me assure you: they are not. Sure, every once in a while a wunderkind (Chris Benz, Barack Obama) springs up, seemingly from nowhere and dazzles the masses with his or her brilliance, but the rest of the time we're simply watching the regulars (Ted Kennedy, Donna Karan) up to their same old tricks.

• Everyone just wants to sell something. Magazines aren't really about scouting, directing, and cultivating new aesthetics: They're about selling lipstick and bringing in advertising dollars. Politics, as cynical as it sounds, is just as mercenary and although there are some with good intentions and a desire to save the world and help the common man, most people are simply jostling for power by selling messages (and themselves) to the public. Money makes the world go round, and neither a candidate nor a magazine can get anywhere without it.

The top dogs among fashion magazine editors, however, are a little more tight-lipped about their political leanings, though they seem determined to let the world know that Fashion Week hasn't distracted them from their civic duties. Says Alexis Bryan, executive fashion editor for Vanity Fair: "Yes, of course I am going to vote — 8 a.m. before the Tse presentation. And I'll be voting for Obama — though if Hillary wins, I would be absolutely fine with that." Lesley Jane Seymour of More will be making her way to the polls today as well: "My biggest fashion accessory is going to be my Obama pin." But Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers would only proffer a "Yes, [I'm] voting, after I drop off my son at school" and Elizabeth Saltzman, international society editor for Vanity Fair, wouldn't name a candidate (though she does admit that she's going Democratic). And though fashion may have a reputation for being frivolous, no one in the industry would deny that fall trends aren't nearly as exciting as the fact that we'll elect a new president come November. Won't it be a lot more fun to think about clothes when the country isn't going down the drain?

Industry's Democratic Face-Off [WWD]
Three's Company [WWD]

Earlier: Sarah Jessica Parker In 'Elle': The Impact Is, Well, Twofold

The only losers this year were teen titles, which almost universally lost ad revenue. The number of pages in Cosmogirl declined by 6.8%, while an Alpha Kitty-less Seventeen lost over 4%. Teen Vogue barely gained, posting a 0.9% increase from last year. Come on, Lauren and Heidi of The Hills, one of you clearly needs to get a D.U.I to give Teen Vogue a boost. Take one for the team!

Bigger And Bigger [WWD, sub. required]

• The inevitable happened and TopShop gave model Agyness Deyn her own clothing line, because she dresses totally '80s and that is so edgy! [Vogue UK]
  
• Designer Yves Saint Laurent is very sick. Pray for him. [NY Post]
  
• No one can pronounce Badgley Mischka correctly, which would give us pause about the future of American civilization if half the country wasn't still saying "nuclear" wrong. [NY Post]
  
• Former Jane editor-in-chief Brandon Holley is spending her unemployment mentoring underprivileged girls and teaching them photography, which, if you'll excuse us, is just "So Brandon!" [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Oh Hova: House of Dereon does prom-wear. This would be a clothing line affiliated with Beyonce's family. [WWD, sub req'd]

• Our favorite least-favorite fashion blogger Lauren Goldstein Crowe - gasp! - agrees with us. The new Louis Vuitton bags are dumb. And she points out that she only saw 3 people the whole time she was in Paris sporting their freebies: Elle editor-in-chief Roberta Myers, The Guardian's Jess-Carter Morley (who 'dat?), and Vuitton stylist Katie Grand, which we're pretty sure doesn't count. Draw your own conclusions. [Portfolio]
• Levi's profits jumped by 23.6% in the second quarter. They say it's because of low interest rates. OMG, you mean it wasn't that groundbreaking collaboration with Damien Hirst? [WWD, sub req'd]
• So our pals across the pond are doing this crazy gala performance thingy for the Prince's Trust which is matching different musicians with different fashion houses, yielding the following pairings: Lily Allen - Chanel, Alicia Keys - Armani, Joss Stone - Calvin Klein, Timbaland - Dolce & Gabbana, Shirley Bassey - Marchesa, and Iggy Pop - Versace. [Vogue UK]
• Owns Gucci, knocked up Salma Hayek, and now owns a big ol' apartment in a former "women's hotel": Francois Pinault has it all! [NY Mag]
• Preview the David Lynch-shot Gucci fragrance commercial! [Sassybella]
• The interim president of Banana Republic is going to be named as the full-time president of the company. Making him, uh, the Dick Cheney of fashion? [WSJ]

• Rachel Zoe: prepare to die. The celebrity stylist has announced herself mightier than Anna Wintour! Uh, didn't Zoe ever study Greek mythology in school? Don't taunt the gods. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane is BFFs with French president Nicolas Sarkozy?! (Might they be interested in a threesome?) [WWD, final item]
  
• Benetton profits up by 6.5%. Which we think is pretty impressive considering the last time we remember buying or knowing anyone who bought anything from the brand was the late 90's. [Uh, try eighties. Oh right, you were wearing diapers. -Moe] [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Doing even better than Benetton is Tod's, whose profits are up by 18.5% thanks to those pebble-soled shoes that are less ubiquitous but just as profitable as Tory Burch flats. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Dita von Teese: The new face of Cointreau. It's about time someone thought to make the direct connection between taking your clothes off and drinking. [Sassybella]

• Victoria Beckham had a spot of tea with ELLE's creative director Joe Zee and editor-in-chief Roberta Myers, eh? Do they want to help us get tickets for the Spice Girls reunion tour? Please? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Vogue UK calls the New York S/S 2008 collections "quietly competent." Which we think is the critical equivalent of saying that a potential suitor "has a real nice personality." [Vogue UK]
• Ralph Lauren is selling new polo shirts to fund breast cancer research. [Vogue UK]
• More fashion-oncology collabo! Marc Jacobs is the NYC Cancer Institute's honoree this year for having raised $400,000 for melanoma research. Oh and some oncologist is also being honored. [Fashion Week Daily]
• So People magazine thinks that Beyonce is one of the best-dressed celebs of 2007? Please god no one tell Tina Knowles. We just know this is going to make her even more unbearable. [People via FabSugar]

You have to look out for FANCY... Fashion in general is really pretty.

Young Francesca also shares that she spent the summer at a musical theatre camp where she "played a puppy in a production of 101 Dalmatians and an elephant in the Lion King. I did a crazy dance and ran across the stage." Whoah — she talks fashion and can sing and dance? And she hasn't been banned from like a good 30% of New York shows?! Yeah, Cathy Horyn might as well start packing her desk, like, 10 minutes ago.

Meet Our New Mini Fashion Critic, Francesca [The Daily]

The cover: Where once a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sensibility used to dominate, the new (scandalous, Lindsay Lohan!) cover has been pared down: The gold lettering of the title is replicated in some of the coverlines, offset by other ones in always-fashionable black and set against the traditional solid white Elle background, making for a strong statement of sophistication. Hell, it practically makes Lohan look classy.

The FOB (front-of-the-book): Once opened, the first thing that jumps out is the change in typeface given to the magazine's page numbers at the bottom of each page, as well as accompanying text repeating the name of the magazine and where to find it on the web. (Is there anything that exists without accompanying URL anymore?) It's a small detail, yes, but one with a great impact. As for the FOB fashion pages themselves, where they were once muddled collages, they are now sleek and Euro-minded, making for much easier reading and causing me, at least, to occasionally confuse the magazine with one of my favorite fashion rags, French Vogue.

The fashion spreads: Here is where one sees the biggest change in the new and improved Elle, and everything — the styling, the photography, the concepts, the narratives — is exceptional. In fact, the opening fashion spread, "Bright Young Things", is so effective it compelled me to do something I have never ever not ever done before: Haul my ass to a store to buy something the day I saw it in a magazine. (Prada shoes. The price? Yeah, don't ask.) The story on Charlotte Gainsbourg, "Charlotte, je 'taime", is equally awe-inspiring. And the "Made in America" feature was styled by Mr. Zee himself, encompassing the same cool, sporty, all-American style seen in his advertising work. (An honorable mention goes to Mr. Zee's work in Lohan's photospread: Damn! Sistah looks hot!) All of it is hilarious and fresh and young and smart and contemporary: The things that editor in chief Roberta Myers' says the new Elle has set out to be.

The verdict: Exceptional. Gone are the redundant and increasingly banal images of the Gilles Bensimon years, swiftly replaced with the crispest, most relevant-looking American fashion magazine currently on the market. Yeah, yeah - I know my fellow Jezebels will continue to hate it for touting all sorts of "expensive shit" and the inclusion of a column featuring the fashion musings of Nina Garcia (Pregnancy! No fun 'cause you get fat!) but even they, I predict, will have to admit that this is the only book on the market worth resting their eyes on. Because in the end, if you threw all that silly "editorial" stuff in fashion magazines out the window, there's no way Elle wouldn't win the beauty pageant.

[Elle]

This is a hard one. The signature is snarled like a fishing line.

What shows is good imagination (nice loop in the "y"). There are open "e" formations that signal a mind that accepts new ideas with interference from preconceptions or preset limitations. There is a caution stroke at the end of her name to indicate a person who carefully monitors her decisions and the consequences of those decisions. There is also a "tie-stroke" like a typical shoelace knot at the end of what appears to be her first name. It indicates this writer will try, try, try and try again and again and again.

[Image of Roberta Myers via ELLE.com; image of Angelina Jolie via Splash]

Related: 'Elle' Magazine: And Then There Were None

Couture Drought [FWD]
Earlier: 'Elle' Magazine's Fashion News Department: Now With Fewer People Than Olives

"She'd let herself go, this girlfriend. She truly had. By our six-month anniversary, she cast a perfectly oval shadow and was aware enough of her condition to choose theater seats beside the aisle. This allowed our fellow moviegoers not to have to climb onto their seats when she went to refill her jumbo Cokes and empty what was, by then, her jumbo bladder."

Page 46: Editor Roberta Myers labels cover girl Jessica Biel "unwaiflike"
Page 227: To which Biel basically replies: "What do you mean? This is the thinnest and least muscular I've been in a long time! I'm so lean and feminine!"
Page 152: Even the ravishingly-thin Susan Cernek (left) can find things about which to unconvincingly and/or half-heartedly claim she is insecure while on a Victoria's Secret shoot. Haha! She got locked out of her cabin! Oh wait, maybe her knees aren't cute?
Page 156: The best way to feel better in a swimsuit, finds Megan Deem, is to lose weight. Also: Highlights! And something about surfing that doesn't actually require, you know, surfing. Plus: she's kept the weight off! Now she actually buys swimsuits!! The triumph!
Page 170: Elna Baker begins her story: "Let me tell you how I survived the Great Depression." The last sentence: "In a world plagued by so many inconvenient truths, who am I not to recycle?" The story is about liposuction.
Page 206: "Now that I've been clued into stretch marks, I see them everywhere, even places they don't probably exist." Same with droopy boobs. Kinda makes you want to hook up the article's writer, Walter Kirn, right? (Yeah, he's the one responsible for "jumbo bladder", too!)
Page 176: Writer Gina Kolata, the New York Times' resident fat-apologist (and, btw, 100-mile bike racer!): "I've never really had to worry [about my weight.] If I did, the book would look like special pleading."
Page 187: Writer Rachel Coombe: "Maybe I need to start thinking of those five pounds as ballast, to keep me steady in my destabilized life."

Oh Jesus Christ! And yes, that is about the sanest sentiment in the entire issue. And that is all we have to say about it. (Fuck kickers. Also: Fuck kick-boxing. By the way, we ate a Snickers bar today: 290 calories!).

A recap: Last fall, Elle founding creative director Gilles Bensimon underwent a demotion in title and was moved to the bottom of the masthead. Zee came on soon after, and, in the space of the next three months, no fewer than five edit-side staffers departed the magazine (art director Guillaume Bruneau, articles editor Danielle Nussbaum, fashion news editor Susan Cernek, market editor Silvia Sitar, associate editor Meaghan Schwarting, and editorial assistant Lindsay Talbot). Now Schonborn goes. So who's next? Word on the street is that the girls in the Elle fashion department are worried for Fashion Director and Project Runway bad-cop Nina Garcia, who is said to dislike Zee and, more ominously, is currently out on maternity leave.

Under Zee Influence [Fashion Week Daily]