• Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga's M.A.C. Viva Glam ad is out. Gaga looks...surprisingly normal. [FWD]

• Helena Christensen protested in Copenhagen this weekend. In quieter times, she reads the dictionary to expand her English vocabulary. And she's one of those people about text messages: "I get obsessed with spelling. I make every text message I send correct in punctuation," explains the Danish supermodel. "I am super-fastidious about certain things." [Daily Express]
• Phil Knight is standing by Tiger Woods. The scandal-plagued golfer's endorsement deal with Nike is worth a reported $30 million annually; Knight admitted doing a background check on Woods before signing him. "He came out clean," the company founder said. [Reuters]
• It has been confirmed that André Leon Talley is a new judge for the whole next cycle of America's Next Top Model. Kimora Lee Simmons is only a guest judge. It's puzzling that Vogue would want to touch anything in Tyra Banks' smizing empire with a bargepole, but it'll be great to see André's judicial robes on nighttime television. (Also: I would leave New Zealand only for Tyra et al. to set off there. They are shooting the CoverGirl challenge today in Half Moon Bay, apparently.) [TVNZ]
• Christian Lacroix has designed new uniforms for 20,000 French railway employees. They are grey and purple. Few more of these gigs and he'll have his couture business back in no time. [WWD]
• "I've struggled with it! I've struggled with that. I've struggled with that," says Tom Ford, on the luxury culture of insatiable accretion, and charging $75 for socks."Just because one is spiritual doesn't mean one doesn't like crocodile, cashmere. We live in a material world." [TDB]
• To produce its fashion show, Victoria's Secret allegedly filled half a city block with noisy generators that ran 24 hours a day for over a week. This disturbed the sleep of nearby residents, including those at a home for people with HIV. Michael Musto's anonymous source claims that the company, which coincidentally finally broadcast its show on World AIDS Day, had to offer the residents a cash settlement. [Village Voice]
• Serena Williams returns to the Home Shopping Network to sell her line of clothing today. Last time the tennis star did the HSN rounds, her goods sold out in under three hours. How? "Everything in the collection is under $100," Williams explains. "And everything you get from me [is] great quality. I think for those prices and [this] quality, it is a no-brainer." Do you hear that? A no-brainer. It's not buying her clothes that really defies explanation. [People]
• The family that owns Salvatore Ferragamo bought a decrepit estate with a vineyard in Tuscany in 1993. The restoration process now complete, Ferragamo is now introducing four wines into the U.S. market, ranging in price from $15-$80 per bottle. They do not carry the family name trademark, because that would be so vulgar. [BW]
• Project Runway alumnus Rami Kashou has been dressing Queen Rania of Jordan. His spring collection is partly inspired by Frank Gehry. [LATimes]
• Knitwear designer Carmen Colle's lawsuit against Chanel has been thrown out by a Paris court. Colle's company, World Tricot, which designs new knitting and crochet patterns for various designer clients to incorporate into their runway looks, sued Chanel in 2004 when she spied a Chanel coat made from what she alleged was a World Tricot crochet pattern that Chanel had rejected, and never paid for. But it wasn't all bad news for Colle. World Tricot also sued for breach of contract, after Chanel abruptly stopped patronizing the house. Chanel countersued for besmirching its good name by bringing the suit at all. The court found World Tricot was owed €400,000 for the breach of contract, and it also found that Chanel was owed €200,000 for "commercial prejudice." World Tricot may appeal the forgery ruling. [WSJ]
• Jason Wu was asked if he was for or against brunch. "Pro, but only if it's after 1:30," the designer responded. Who the hell is against brunch? [TFI]
• Christopher Kane clarifies his earlier statements about not liking fashion blogs because designers have little to no control over what they publish. Now he says blogs can be fine, so long as they're not "critical" or "negative": "You're allowed to say what you want but sometimes the blogs that you read are really negative and that's what I meant to say really. Sometimes it's too negative for my liking and I think maybe they could give someone a compliment or say something nice. But bloggers nowadays seem to be a bit negative...but when it gets to someone's work and they're being critical, it's like ‘Give them a break'." [Grazia]
• Unilever has suspended its relationship with a palm oil supplier after Greenpeace alleged that the supplier was not harvesting its oil sustainably. Palm oil is a key ingredient in many cosmetics, but deforestation and environmental destruction can result when farmers slash and burn forests to plant palms. [WWD]

• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have designed a fine jewelry collection for Asprey, which goes on sale this week. The line, themed around snakes and called "The Protector," starts at $525; all proceeds go to support Jolie's children's charity. [WWD]

• After decades of marketing skin-lightening creams, like Unilever's Fair & Lovely, to Indian women, cosmetics companies are beginning to target Indian men. Brands like Fair & Handsome, Fair & Lovely Menz Active, and Nivea for Men Whitening, are selling well. Says a male model who does commercial work, "Anyone who's fair gets on Indian television." The cultural preference for lighter skin can be traced back to the Hindu cast system. [NPR]
• Lindsay Lohan claims she's doing a jewelry line with Pascal Mouawad, and working on a clothing collection for Bebe. Mouawad says the line isn't finalized. [AccessHollywood]
• Four words: Paris Hilton Bridal Footwear. [Style Section LA]
• Speaking of shoes, don't go overpaying for Jimmy Choo's H&M collection on eBay. A spokeswoman for the chain says new stock will be available today. [Daily Mail]
• H&M's sales fell 3% in the month of October. The fast-fashion retailer has now had six straight months of declining sales. [WWD]
• Victoria Beckham, who already spent £250,000 on a lot of Audrey Hepburn's letters, is expected to bid for some of the actress's dresses in London early next month. [Independent]
• Beckham is rumored to have enlisted Blake Lively to model her spring dress collection. [SB]
• Iceland may no longer have a financial services industry to speak of, but the fashion industry has apparently been picking up there since the crisis of last fall. Emerging designers are more than happy to snaffle up spaces with cheap rents, and as one put it, "No one is traveling abroad, so you have to shop locally. We have actually doubled our sales." [Time]
• Iman, on how her life changed with retirement: "Where everything was about what you do and about how you look, it changed to more security about me. It was not about 'how will I look ten years from now?' It all became about what kind of person would I be ten years from now." [CNN]
• Hotelier André Balazs gets top billing alongside Angela Lindvall in the new Brioni campaign. Balazs donated the money he earned to charity. [P6]
  
• This week, 800 pairs of the late Adam Goldstein's sneakers are being auctioned off on eBay. All of the proceeds will go to the DJ AM Memorial Fund, which gives money to groups fighting addiction. [eBay]
• On Wednesday, eBay is launching its own online magazine, The Inside Source. [The Moment]
• Barneys is getting a blog. The department store has announced a 7% rise in same-store sales for the month of October, following September's 9% decline. No word on whether or not the company plans to hire a CEO anytime soon, but it is launching a blog for its fashion directors this week. [WWD]
• Not to be outdone, Forever 21 and Karl Lagerfeld are also founding their own magazines. [Blackbook]
• Perhaps Lagerfeld can use this new platform to declaim elasticized waistbands. "I never wear jogging pants. Those things are dangerous," says the designer. "Because they have an elastic band. It stretches and then you don't know when you put on weight. Also, I hate it when you let yourself go! I'm always looking the way you see me now." Also, even though he is now 76, don't say that "R" word around him: "Retirement is not one of the topics with which I deal. Why should I? I still have so many projects that I sometimes don't know where to begin. Chanel will still need some clothes when I'm 89. The world can count on me for a long time." [TV3]
• "Financially successful fashion companies have duped our industry into sacrificing a model's traditional earnings from both fashion shows and fashion advertisements in the name of positive exposure," says Chris Gay, president of Marilyn Model Agency. "If campaigns and shows are now considered just another form of positive exposure, then where's the recompense for a model's time and effort?" Good questions. [TDB]
• Lee Daniels, director of Precious, is modeling in the November J. Crew catalog. [StyleList]
• A dress designed with more than 24,000 ultra-flat LEDs is going on display at the Museum of Science of Industry in Chicago. [Wired]
• In other technofabrics news, a Swiss company has developed a fabric treatment that can make wearers of processed garments up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit cooler, reducing the black-suit-hot-day problem. [NYTimes]
• The New York Foundation for the Arts is under fire for allegedly withholding $175,000 raised for designer Tara Subkoff's struggle with a brain tumor. Subkoff, who was uninsured when the non-cancerous tumor was discovered, according to a source, apparently took a few acting jobs in order to qualify for Screen Actors Guild insurance to cover surgery. The NYFA, meanwhile, was sponsoring a fund-raising event for Subkoff's supporters, intended to raise money for the designer's medical and living expenses during her recovery. But now, $175,000 in hand, the NYFA allegedly won't give the money to Subkoff for anything but medical costs, leaving Subkoff to live in a borrowed apartment and necessitating her to skip required post-operative therapies. [P6]
• Rue21 and Dollar General each debuted as public companies on Friday, Rue21 on the NASDAQ and Dollar General on the NYSE. Rue21 closed at $19, above the hoped-for range, while Dollar General rose by just over a dollar during the day's trading. [WWD]
• Australian big-box retailer Big W has a clothing line inspired by Gossip Girl. It's designed by Kai Aiyub, who does makeovers and styling for a morning television show Down Under, and it includes dresses, shoes, tops, jewelry, bags, and an aquamarine "playsuit." [Big W]
• Saks' longest-serving employee, Nena Ivon, is retiring after 53 years at the Chicago flagship. Ivon began her career as a sales assistant while still in high school; she rose to fashion director and manager of special events. "Retail is retail," says Ivons, who plans to write a book. "It hasn't changed. We still sell clothes, but how we do it is different." [WWD]

The New York Times reports that Axe will sponsor a club called Dune in Southampton, New York, for the entire summer season, temporarily changing the name to "Axe Lounge." Though there have been brand-sponsored party locales before, like the Esquire Apartment or the Polaroid Beach House in Malibu, this will be one of the first times a brand has taken over a nightclub for an entire season.

"Axe is all about the mating game, and the best place for a mating game is at a nightclub," said Michael Heller, the founder and chief executive of Talent Resources, which is working with Axe. The club will feature the Axe logo on the D.J. booth, menu, and valet tickets. There will also be an Axe products in the bathrooms and an Axe-themed drink (because who wouldn't want a deodorant-themed alcoholic beverage?) Axe is paying Dune's owners, but will not share any of the club's profits.

Susan Linn, the director of The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said of the project:

An Axe nightclub is emblematic of the troubling phenomenon of the current 360-degree marketing strategy to immerse us in brands and branding every waking moment and to blur the lines between marketing and every other aspect of our lives.

The consumer advocacy group has complained about Axe's sexist advertising in the past, which as Linn reminds us, exposes the hypocrisy of their parent company Unilever. The company also owns Dove, and released ads promoting healthy body image for girls as they were degrading women in Axe's advertising.

Mike Dwyer, the marketing director for Axe, said that the purpose of the nightclub is to "drive relevancy and image credentials, and really get the brand right, squarely in front of where the guys are." But, most guys go where the ladies are when clubbing, and unfortunately we can get the Axe experience at pretty much every club in the country.

Axe Body Products Puts Its Brand on the Hamptons Club Scene [The New York Times]

Earlier: Can We Just Stop This Craptacular Body Wash Madness Please?
Women Criticize Ads Directed At Women
Dove Vs. Axe: Is Unilever Hipocritical

• Noooooo! Grazia reports Olivier Theyskens is leaving Nina Ricci. [The Cut]
• Or not: the mag attributes the scoop to "buzz currently sweeping through the front rows of the Couture shows in Paris." [Fashionista]

• Los Angeles jeweler and creator of the worst ad ever Loree Rodkin is enjoying a bump in sales following Michelle Obama's decision to wear a number of Rodkin's pieces. Like Jason Wu, she won't recreate the exact jewelery, since it was all custom-designed, but she will make similar items available for public sale. For $20,000-$50,000. [WSJ]
• ONTD has what they claim are leaked David Alexander sketches of costumes for Britney Spears' upcoming tour; if these are legit, expect our girl to look a little like Barbarella when she takes the stage. [ONTD]
• One thing that hasn't changed in the recession: the purpose of the couture shows is still not to much to actually sell a large number of $80,000 hand-made dresses but to maintain a brand identity fantasmagorical enough to shift gallons of perfume, acres of accessories, and counters of cosmetics. Attendance at the Paris shows hasn't dropped, and Chanel and Dior's couture divisions are expecting modest growth. (Further proof those wealthy enough to buy couture are very far removed from current economic realities.) [Portfolio]
• That seems to be the customer Tom Ford is seeking as he releases a $990 jean. The button is gold-plated. [The Cut]
• There for us at the other end of the denim market is Stacey London, of What Not To Wear fame. She's going to shill for Lee, because Riders "fit great and make you look slimmer." We'll take 'em 'cause they cost less than $20. [Brandweek]
• Never to be outdone, Hermès is releasing a $24,000 folding chair. It's made of black crocodile and nickel. [Racked]
• Beth Ditto is going to design an 80s-inspired fashion line with the British plus sized brand Evans. They're only in Britain and Northern Ireland, and there's no word on potential US distribution. Maybe Barney's will pick it up, like Kate Moss for Topshop? [Blackbook]
• Amanda Seyfried has become a face of Movado. [WWD]
• Eddie Bauer is being sued by outdoor clothier Woolrich. They say Eddie Bauer's slogan "The Original Outdoor Outfitter," is too much like Woolrich's, "The Original Outdoor Clothing Company." No argument there, but hasn't that been Eddie Bauer's slogan for eons? Did Woolrich just notice? [AP]
• Multinational giant Unilever, owner of the brands Dove, Axe, as well as skin-bleaching cream Fair & Lovely, is buying the TIGI hair product line and its hair-care schools from Toni & Guy. I just learned Unilever also owns Ben & Jerry's, so next time before I get high and mighty about an Axe ad, I'll try and remember how much I love Cherry Garcia. The world being nuanced and all. (But, ugh, Fair & Lovely?!) [WSJ]
• Time "investigates" the Anna Wintour retirement/replacement story, talks down to Page Six and the online sources that initially broke the rumors, and then rehashes everything you read here and elsewhere six weeks ago. MSM FTW! [Time]
• Glenn Close must have read that article in February's Glamour about "shopping your closet": She went to the Armani couture show in the same outfit she wore to the 101 Dalmatians premiere. In 1996. [WWD]
• Freida Pinto, the female star of Slumdog Millionaire, has been criticized for the mustard-yellow strapless Christian Lacroix gown she wore to the Golden Globes. She says, "It seemed like the right choice at the time." So many things do. [Times of India]
• PETA defaced Aretha Franklin's star on the Hollywood walk of fame. They called her a "Fur hag." [Daily Express]
• At the other end of this link lies proof positive that anybody can be made to look like Marilyn Monroe for a fashion ad. You'd never know Daria Werbowy to be a brunette. [Sassybella]

The video, which was funded by Dove and directed by Pinny Grylls, uses a split screen to juxtapose the women offering their imagined conclusions about these individuals' lives, and the reaction shots of those being commented on. It makes for uneasy viewing, at times — one woman looks at another and says simply "Divorced" and when the roles are reversed, the second woman says back " 'I'd like to do what you would like me to do,' that's what that face says" — but there are sweet moments, too. When a middle-aged woman with close-cropped hair says a twenty-something blonde "Loves her mum," the younger woman actually tears up. "She's got very nice moles," says one woman, "I like moles on faces, and freckles." When an older white woman says a young black woman with dreadlocks is "the face of a very modern youth," I almost cringed, expecting some sort of borderline patronizing 'Gosh society has gotten SO multicultural!' remark. But all she meant was that women in their twenties no longer have to go out with pancake foundation to face the world. It's all very cute and meaningful, and the point is clearly to remind us that we are all individuals, since at the end the various women tell us who they are, really, and it's sometimes surprising (and wonderful) in the way that it's surprising (and wonderful) to find out the dowdy downstairs neighbor is actually a slam poet, or whatever, and when was the last time you could say an ad by a beauty company was 'meaningful', anyway? This feels kind of like consciousness-raising, or affirmation, only without the taint of granola earnestness, and it will make you smile.

Of course, we all know Dove is owned by Unilever, a corporation whose sheaf of brands includes a fleet of skin-lightening creams marketed in India and Africa, and the execrable Axe body spray. It is in a certain measure hypocritical to promote women's self-esteem and "real beauty" in advertising for one brand, while feeding women's insecurities and underlining the offensive idea that only white skin can be beautiful for another. (Not to mention that it also requires a somewhat elastic understanding of women's natures to simultaneously put together a fake girl band that dances in lingerie while singing about the aphrodisiac properties of men's deodorant.) But it is still nice to see women talking about each other and themselves in surprising ways. Even if it is only an ad.

It also serves as a reminder of the effect that our comments to and about each other have on our self-esteem. Seeing the looks on the women's faces, sometimes anxious, sometimes stoic, as they awaited evaluation by a perfect stranger, made me wince at times. Dove's research — necessary caveats here for "research" completed by a cosmetics company, grain of salt, etc — shows that 15% of women report never being complimented, and 19% say they are complimented only rarely. With that in mind, why not try complimenting three people today? It'll make you and them feel good. (Dove's research did not investigate the self-esteem effects of being complimented and then not knowing how or whether to respond and feeling awkward about it. Next time, I guess.)

Related: Dove Surveys Reveal Why Women Thrive On Compliments [The Sun]
Dove Video "Intuition" [YouTube]
Axe Video "Bomchickawahwah" [YouTube]

Earlier: Hello, My Name Is Awkward And I Cannot Return Your Compliment
The Inconvenient Truth Behind Dove, The Love-Your-Body Beauty Company

Eh, we've previously discussed Unilever's hypocrisy. Meanwhile, it is important to reiterate that this ad is incensing for the same reason that the lack of black models in magazines and on catwalks ought to fill you with rage. As long as human beings believe that "fair" means "beautiful" — that dark is ugly and unfashionable — magazines and beauty companies are going to appeal to us with images of white skin. The more we see white skin in magazines and on catwalks, the more we'll believe that it is the ideal. I've posted about this before, but please: Watch this video by Kiri Davis, (fast forward to 3:40 if you have to) in which young children point to identical black and white dolls and proclaim the white doll "good" and the black doll "bad." It's a 2006 recreation of a 1950s test, with similar results.

Skin-Whitening Adverts Ignite Race Row In India [Independent]

Related: A Girl Like Me [Google Video]
Earlier: In India, Fair Is Handsome & Dark Is Doomed
Indian Women Whiten Their Skin, Fight The Patriarchy
Skin Deep

Here's the White Beauty commercial being aired in India:

Yeah, so, Unilever is inconsistent. It's probably to be expected: The company owns about 400 brands, which, in addition to the United States, reach into South America, Europe, Africa and Australia, and with any big business, and it does whatever it needs to to sell its products. And if that means making sensitive, wide-eyed, victim-child advertising for women while simultaneously endorsing misogynist, sex-obsessed commercials for men, so be it. It is fair to assume that each tentacle of this many-headed, multinational monster even know what the 399 other tentacles are doing? (Unilever employs more than 223,000.) And if there is a centralized brain — perhaps that of CEO Patrick J. Cescau, who was quoted in a BusinessWeek article about companies going green saying, "You can't ignore the impact your company has on the community and environment" — should we hold it responsible? Cescau, who makes about 4 million dollars a year, lives in London and has two children. We wonder if they're female.

Onslaught [Feministe]
Just Say No To The Beauty Industry, Girls [Feministing]
Unilever [Wikipedia]
Earlier: Beauty Company Attacks Little Girl (And Other Beauty Companies) With Image Blitz
Indian Women Whiten Their Skin, Fight The Patriarchy
This Is The Future Of Reality Television. On The Plus Side, The War On Teenage Boy B.O. Continues!
Related:Patrick Cescau [Forbes]
Patrick Cescau [Fortune]

Fair and Lovely, with packaging that shows a dark-skinned unhappy woman morphing into a light-skinned smiling one, once focused its advertising on the problems a dark-skinned woman might face finding romance. In a sign of the times, the company's ads now show lighter skin conferring a different advantage: helping a woman land a job normally held by men, like announcer at cricket matches. "Fair and Lovely: The Power of Beauty," is the tagline on the company's newest ad.

The paper also reports that Unilever, the parent company of Fair & Lovely, "has drawn particular scrutiny because of its market dominance its ads and the parent company's image. Unilever also makes Dove products, whose "Real Beauty" campaign encourages women in the United States and Europe to embrace the way they look." (And Unilever would never be send mixed messages to its consumers!) But don't think that Western ideals of beauty have anything to do with the sixty to sixty five percent of Indian women who use such creams daily, says Didier Villanueva, a manager for L'Oreal India, who claims that the quest for fair skin among Indian women has nothing to do with cultural imperialism or the after-effects of colonialism. "It's as old as India," he says, and "deeply rooted in the culture." Kinda like being burned at the stake for adultery!
Telling India's Modern Women They Have Power, Even Over Their Skin Tone [NYTimes]
Related: Dove Tales

Needless to say, we are stunned. Is it even possible to sell ice cream and self-tanner without the help of an emaciated Estonian? Perhaps, but we are selling our shares in Unilever right after we finish this pint of Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone dream.

Unilever bans size zero models from its ads [Guardian]

According to today's Slate, Unilever, the company responsible for the above atrocity, is also responsible for the "love-your-body" ads produced for Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty.

More cheap feminism, indeed.

More Cheap Feminism From Dove[Slate]
Girl Parts Mouse Pad: Almost As Good As The Real Thing [Gizmodo]