[London, December 8. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 08: A small girl holds her mother's hand as she looks at Selfridges store Christmas windows on December 8, 2009 in London. Retail sales are showing a slight increase during November and the first few days of December compared with the recession hit Christmas of 2008. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

[London, November 2. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 02: A girl takes a picture of a window display at Selfridges department store on Oxford Street on November 2, 2009 in London, England. Figures released today by consumer research firm Mintel, suggest that shoppers expect to spend around the same this Christmas as last with consumer confidence rising to it's highest levels in 18 months according to research by the British Retail Consortium. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

• Bill Blass Couture closed Friday, laying off 60-plus employees without severance. [WWD]
• At least someone is doing well: Stuart Weitzman opens three new stores in Mexico, Greece, and St. Barths. Rich people still need fabulous shoes, y'know. [WWD]
• In an attempt to lure in more last-minute buyers, Macy's and H&M have announced that they will be staying open round-the-clock on the days leading up to Christmas. [WSJ]
• British department store Selfridges is reportedly guilty of “unbelievable” safety errors following an asbestos scare. Gives new meaning to the phrase "shop 'til you drop."[Independent]
• Charity organization Souls4Souls filed a federal lawsuit after finding moccasins intended for needy Africans for sale on ebay. [WWD]
• Is American Apparel in trouble? Dov Charney’s hipster empire received a three-month extension on a debt due to mature next month. [WWD]
• Retailers are edgy about the decreased shopper turnout over the last holiday shopping weekend. [ABC]
• And maybe they should be, given the “whiteout” storms that hit the Midwest and Northeast. [WSJ]
• Ailing stores continue to play the how-low-can-we-go game. [WSJ]
• And in other, totally not surprising news, sales are up for off-price footwear brands like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and DSW. [WWD]
• Fewer shoppers are buying on credit. [WWD]
• Agent Provocateur launches new, fantastical-sounding ad campaign, titled “Pan and the Vestry of Virgins.” [WWD]
• Another casualty of the recession: catwalk shows. Wonder what this means for the moddles! [Guardian]

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• Sofia Coppola debuts her line of "sure, why not?" accessories for Louis Vuitton in Tokyo. The luxe line is made up of "slouchy duffle bags, discreet clutches and retro wedge sandals." [WWD]
• Speaking of qualified designers, Posh's dress line is a hit in London! "The presence of her name on the shop floor alongside such greats as Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano was quite an achievement for a designer who unveiled her first collection of dresses just three months ago. More impressive still was the fact that by 3pm on its first day on sale only three dresses were left unsold." [Guardian]
• Tim Gunn is not sanguine! Quoth the silver fox, "We have this horrible, nasty court case. We have an angry Bravo/NBC. We have an angry Lifetime. We have, I'm sure, an angry Weinstein Company. We have Heidi and I despondent about the whole thing. We worry that season six will never be seen by anyone." [Washington Blade]
• Addressing the severe shortage of celebrity perfumes, Faith Hill is in talks with Coty. [WWD]

• Ivanka Trump confirms our suspicions that she's rich, by premiering a jewelry line that ranges from $4,000 to $45,000. [WSJ]
• Whether the Wintour rumors are founded or not, "Save Anna" gear is big for Christmas! [Racked]
• Courteney Love's "shopping secrets" are disappointingly obvious. [ElleUK]
• Liz Claiborne takes steps to retain executives. [WSJ]
• Women keep clothes longer than their husbands - and sometimes longer than their marriages! [Telegraph]
• Eileen Ford can't sell her mansion. [WSJ]
• Courteney Cox is Avon's latest celeb spokesperson. [WWD]
• Versace expands its glitzy empire to Vietnam. [New York]
• The economy's loss is TJ Maxx's gain! “With department stores canceling orders, we’re getting additional brands. They have excess product. They know we pay our bills on time and we can’t return the product.” Have I mentioned how smart I find that 'how we get our cheap stuff' ad campaign is? [Fashionista]
• Wait, Whitney Port doesn't really work in fashion? “Well, she just goes into the office to shoot scenes like she works there, like what they did on The Hills. Actually, it’s kind of sad. When they film her spots, they make the girls that actually work there move from their desks and into some cubicles in another part of the floor, because they’re actually working, but the camera people want Whitney and her on-screen work friend to look like they have real desks.” [Fashionista]

• The facts speak for themselves: Heidi Klum is designing a capsule collection for Jordache, for which she has been modeling over the past year. Think she'll offer hair extensions to cover nipples as well? [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Kathy Hilton just released her own perfume. It's called "My Secret." We don't really want to think about what Kathy Hilton's secret might smell like. [BellaSugar]
  
• Gloria Steinem would not approve: Georgina Chapman, Marchesa designer and wife of Halston co-owner Harvey Weinstein, was named "Georgina Weinstein" on her front row seat at Halston yesterday. Only, as Chapman herself put it, "I didn't change my name, they did it for me." [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Jimmy Choo's CEO Tamara Mellon thinks that boyfriend Christian Slater should take a more active, or acting, role in fashion. Mellon says Slater would be "perfect" to play Halston in any upcoming biopic on the designer. [WWD, 1st item]

• One last Halston item! Rachel Zoe, who sits on the label's creative advisory team, wasn't at yesterday's debut show. A rep for the label was quick to issue a statement that Zoe has not been fired. Um, the lady doth protest too much? [WWD, 2nd item]
• Does the fashion industry hate the Bush Administration? Laura Bush is having a luncheon next week for all the designers who participated in this year's The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection but Nicole Miler, Donna Karan, Carmen Marc Valvo, Tracy Reese, and Marchesa designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig have all said that they won't be able to attend. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Is anyone else depressed that Naomi Campbell and Andre Leon Talley collaborated to star and style in a SoBe "Thrillicious" commercial? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Burberry faux-fur parkas actually use dog fur. Fun! [UPI]
• Charges have been dropped against the manager of the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Virginia Beach, who was scapegoated by a cop whose delicate sensibilities were offended by A&F ads. [MSNBC]
• The latest item up for sale under Bono's (Product) RED line: The Mulberry Roxanne bag, done in sweatshirt material (red, naturally), for the Gap. [Sassybella]
• Count Fergie in as the latest face of MAC Viva Glam lipstick. [WWD, 2nd item]
• Brittany Murphy on Mr. and Mrs. Max Azria: "They're a very nice family, with great morals, very grounded. Plus, they'll even invite you over for Shabbat dinner. Who would turn that down?" [WWD, 4th item]
• Model Caroline Trentini has declared that she will be donating a percentage of her earnings from New York fashion shows to the Center of Support of Underprivileged Children with Cancer in her native Brazil. [WWD, 5th item]
• Is model/First Lady of France Carla Bruni pregnant with a son? [Vogue UK]
• Just what the world needed: Chocolate Armani Easter eggs. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Avon profits have dropped by 30%. There is no time for beauty in a recession. [Breitbart]

[London,December 28. Image via INF]

• No joke, we actually snorted when reading this: Levi's is doing a line (see what we did there?) with artist Damien Hirst for a brand called Warhol Factory X Levi's X Damien Hirst, which will debut during New York Fashion Week. Um, they do know this is the same guy who likes to, you know, encrust human skulls with diamonds, right? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• "What Is Wrong With The World?" asks Lauren Goldstein Crowe in the headline of her daily Portfolio blog entry. Her answer: The Proenza Schouler boys got cheated in their deal with Valentino. Man's inhumanity to man: It's a bitch sometimes! [Portfolio.com]
  
• For all you people screaming that "Preppy is back!" — We just spent a weekend in Tuxedo Park, NY: Preppy never died. [WSJ]

• The Christmas shopping season (and its accompanying merchandising schemes) have already begun at English department store Selfridge's. We might throw ourselves out a window. [Vogue UK]
• Phillip Lim (of yesterday's new opened SoHo flagship store) is designing a line for Birkenstock. We cannot wait to see this minimalist go all earthy crunchy granola. [FabSugar]
• Those douchey Anya Hindmarch "I Am Not A Plastic Bag" bags? Banned in China. Because they were causing riots. Yeah, meet the people who are rendering us economically irrelevant. [Times of London]