Australia Kinda Cracks Down On Skinny Models; Tom Ford Making Another Movie

By Jenna Sauers | June 28, 2010 | 4:00pm

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The Australian government has developed a vaguely worded, voluntary code of conduct for designers, modeling agencies, and fashion magazines intended to foster healthy body image among consumers. The code includes these provisions:
Only hiring models aged 16+ to model adult clothing, producing clothing in “a wide variety of sizes,” not hiring models who are “very thin,” and disclosing when photographs have been retouched and not retouching excessively. So, although this headline reads, “Australia To Ban Ultra-Skinny Models,” it’s really more like “Australia To Institute Feel-Good, Fuzzily-Worded, Entirely Voluntary Fashion Industry Code of Conduct That Might Disincentivize The Hiring Of Unhealthy Models — Or Not.” [News.com.au]
Morgan Freeman, the clothes whisperer: “My grand-mother was a master seamstress, in Arkansas and Mississippi, so I have the connection to fine-tailored clothing. She taught me to look for the workmanship, to see the stitches, to feel the cloth. That’s how I know something’s good.” [Telegraph]
Diane von Furstenberg says that Michelle Obama wore one of her wrap dresses — the same one, in fact, that DvF herself wore for a publicity photo 35 years ago — for the White House holiday card last year. We couldn’t find the card, though Obama did wear this DvF wrap dress in April. [Vogue UK]
Cintra Wilson, no longer writing for the New York Times, pops up on The Cut to review the new Forever 21 mothership in Times Square: “Forever 21 isn’t about fashion any more than fast food is about cuisine. The addictive component is kicky shapes at price points you can find beneath the cushions on your couch, and the fact that you can buy 37 clothing items for under $200. If it’s the slow-food, slow-clothes, minimalist approach of ‘less but better’ you want in a wardrobe, you’d best skip this Times Square monstrosity and bugger off to Europe. Forever 21 is a shrine to the American obsession with More New Stuff.” [The Cut]
Tom Ford is making another film, but no details of the project are currently available. [Grazia]
Here’s a new image from Prada‘s fall campaign. [Design Scene]
Androgynous, long-haired male model Andrej Pejic is the toast of Paris men’s wear week. [WWD]
At the end of this link, Ryan McGinley explains that he would like to make a feature film, but currently lacks a script and a co-writer, and someone named Chrissie Miller says not particularly articulate things about American Apparel and Terry Richardson. Also, Terry Richardson and Jen Brill have split up. [The Cut]
Speaking of our favorite sexual harasser C.E.O., here’s the latest in disgusting advertising from American Apparel. [Copyranter]
Two men, perhaps too embarrassed to purchase their Lace-Trimmed No-Lines Super-Sexxy Angel thongs in person, stole a truck full of Victoria’s Secret merchandise in Florida. [UPI]
Norma Kamali is adding sleepwear to her Wal-Mart range starting this October. [WWD]
Designers! Stop trying to make $300 temporary tattoos happen! [Refinery29]
“Customers are looking for more and more, and especially during the recession, desirability is the key word that makes the difference between continuing to [prosper] or the recession killing you,” says Fendi‘s chief executive. “The idea was to launch something that’s never been done before,” says Sylvia Venturini Fendi. What they came up with is a watch! A very fancy, patented, $2,400-$15,000 watch which has — get this — 12 tiny gemstones on the face at the hour marks. And when you twiddle a knob, the face rotates, and the gemstones change. It’s called Crazy Carats and sounds easily knocked off. [WWD]
New owners BlueGem Partners seems committed to Liberty of London‘s future. [Vogue UK]
Matthew Williamson is the subject of a coffee-table book from Rizzoli, to be released this fall. Sienna Miller writes an introduction. [DFR]
Le Monde‘s journalists association, which manages the paper, voted to accept the takeover bid from Pierre Bergé and several other businessmen over a rival proposal. [WWD]
Tommy Hilfiger apparently invited 60 fashion students to his flagship store for a “mentoring session,” and then donated $50,000 to the fashion scholarship fund, which gets young designers positions with established companies. [P6]
Hilfiger on Friday addressed 1,000 C.E.Os at the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit in support of the Millennium Promise. “I am asking all of you to join me in this crusade to end extreme poverty. We know the model works, and with additional resources, we know we can double our efforts,” said the designer. [WWD]
Lanvin opened its first pop-up store in St. Tropez on Friday. [WWD]
Louis Vuitton re-opened its renovated St. Tropez store and started selling a beach bag version of its Neverfull handbag (which always makes us think of Nevernude, and giggle). [Vogue UK]
A medical supplier that makes x-ray machines released a pin-up calendar — of x-rays. [Nylon]