It's 2013, and Karl Lagerfeld is standing by his calling Adele "a little too fat." (Which is weird, because he actually apologized for those comments in 2012?) In a new interview, the designer says he never called her "fat," just "roundish," and that in any case "after that she lost eight kilo so I think the message was not that bad." At the time, Adele sharply rejected Lagerfeld's comments, so the causal relationship Lagerfeld is implying seems tenuous at best. [Fashionista]
Lanvin's fall children's collection is pretty adorable in this video. [YouTube]
Lily Cole launched a collection of jewelry made from wild rubber. The model wants to support Brazil's wild rubber industry as a way of preserving the Amazon rainforest. "In the short-term the land is more valuable for cattle farming," Cole explains, "so currently there isn't enough of a financial incentive to do wild rubber trading, to protect the forest from being deforested." [Telegraph]
Marc Quinn, the artist who made a statue of Kate Moss out of solid gold, unveiled a portrait of a pregnant Lara Stone at the Venice Biennale. [Telegraph]
• Congressman George Miller of California has come out in support of ending preferential trade status for Bangladesh until the country improves its safety record. Bangladesh's economy is dominated by the apparel and textiles trade, and currently is the world's second-largest exporter of apparel (China is number one). In April, 1129 people died when the Rana Plaza building that housed multiple garment factories collapsed, the latest of a string of deadly fires and other preventable industrial disasters. The impact of such a suspension of trade preferences could be devastating to the Bangladeshi apparel industry. Miller reiterated his criticisms of Gap Inc. and Wal-Mart, two U.S. mega retailers that have failed to sign on to a binding agreement to improve safety at its Bangladeshi suppliers. Wal-Mart and Gap contracted with factories involved in some of the deadliest recent disasters, including the Rana Plaza collapse and the Tazreen factory fire that killed 112 people last November. [WWD]
• Puma, meanwhile, signed that agreement. That brings the total number of signatories to 42. Companies that have signed include H&M, Benetton, Inditex, C&A, Primark, Carrefour, Marks & Spencer, PVH, Abercrombie & Fitch, Sean John, and the parent company of Joe Fresh. [WWD]
• A woman who allegedly contracted herpes from a contaminated makeup sample is suing MAC. The alleged victim was given the Riri Woo lipstick from Rihanna's makeup collection and subsequently developed a cold sore. [CBS]
• The French market regulator has recommended Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy be fined €10 million for its actions in acquiring a 22.3% stake in Hermès. As the New York Times explained in an excellent piece about LVMH's dealings to acquire the stock, the luxury conglomerate used a variety of subsidiaries over a period of nearly a decade to stealthily take the stake in the publicly traded but family-controlled luxury brand. Hermès is one of the last, and arguably the most prominent and valuable, brand that has yet to fall into the hands of any of the conglomerates that dominate the luxury market, and Hermès is fiercely proud of its independence. LVMH acquired stakes of less than 5% — which at the time was the threshold for disclosure under French law — buried the strategic acquisitions on its balance sheet, and used cash-settled equity swaps to camouflage the purchases. That meant that LVMH's enormous stake appeared to materialize all at once only years later, when the swaps were settled. The stake apparently came as a surprise to Hermès, which considers LVMH's actions an attempt at a hostile takeover. Even if the full fine is levied by the regulator, it would be a pittance compared to the estimated $2 billion LVMH has made from the deal. LVMH has denied wrongdoing and is fighting the charges. Developing. [WWD, NYTimes]
• Elle editor-in-chief Robbie Meyers, on makeup and power:
"It’s interesting—the fashion business takes women who wear no makeup very seriously, which I think is kind of great. If you look at what you’d call the more ‘senior’ members of the fashion class, they don’t wear a ton of makeup."
[ITG]
• Tonight is the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. Vera Wang will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. She says, "More than a romanticist, I think I’m a sentimentalist. Things that came before, people and things and experiences — that does mean something to me. It doesn’t mean I don’t embrace the new, but I don’t forget the past either. That’s part of my emotional makeup, or how I was brought up, or it’s Asian." [WWD]
• Oscar de la Renta, meanwhile, will receive the Founders Award from none other than Hilary Clinton. He says he'd rather be up for women's wear designer of the year. [WWD]
• Before the show is even over, Clinton and de la Renta are gonna hightail it to Henry Kissinger's 90th birthday party. Apparently the (accused!) war criminal and the designer are friends; Kissinger wrote part of his last book at the designer's home in the Dominican Republic. [WWD]
• Here's the latest on tonight's guestlist:
Sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, Sofia Vergara, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Olsen,Juliette Lewis, Greta Gerwig and Cody Horn will join such models as Miranda Kerr,Karlie Kloss, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Stella Tennant, Jessica Stamand Joan Smalls. Designers expected to attend include Carolina Herrera, Francisco Costa, Donna Karan, Olivier Theyskens,Georgina Chapman, Mary-Kate Olsen andMichael Kors. Other notables include Marina Abramovic, Roberto Bolle and Kembra Pfahler, as well as Wyclef Jean and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy.
[WWD]
• Style.com will be streaming the red carpet, hosted by model Kiara Kabukuru. Kabukuru was a top model in the 1990s — a CoverGirl and a favorite of Tom Ford's. She recently returned to work ten years after an accident (her bike vs. an 18-wheeler) left her with a broken pelvis and numerous other injuries. [Fashionista]
• Neiman Marcus is apparently exploring two options for a sale: an IPO or an outright sale. It's currently owned by the private-quity firms Warburg Pincus and TPG, which acquired it for $5.1 billion in 2005. [WWD]
• Mango has announced it's launching a plus-size line, and a new brand for teenage girls. It also wants to more than double its sales by 2019. That would give it annual sales of $5.85 billion. The chain also wants to triple its number of stores, to 7800. [WWD]
• There's a new Web site devoted to the fashion and costume design of the next Hunger Games film. [Capitol Couture]
• The openly gay mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, was interrupted by anti-marriage equality protesters as he unveiled a plaque honoring Yves Saint Laurent in Paris. Moujik IV, the late designer's surviving bulldog, was in attendance with Saint Laurent's partner Pierre Bergé. [WWD]
