Arizona Muse maintains that there are "plenty" of models who juggle baby-birthing and having a job, but, when pressed by the Telegraph, admits that her pregnancy might have been a little different because she had a kid first and then made it big. "I think the others were established before they had children. I had a child and then became established, which I would not recommend doing! I highly recommend getting your career established first and then having children." Muse, 23, is the single mother of a 3-year-old son named Nikko (who has already starred in a few fashion shoots). She started working as a model in her teens, but her career was not so successful that her old agency had any qualms about dropping her when she became pregnant in 2007. It took her over a year to get back to work. And Muse doesn't pretend that she lost the pregnancy weight in six luxurious weeks of newborn bonding, painless breastfeeding, and sipping on green juice.
"At first I was like, 'I'm going to be fat for ever!' I think we all feel that way after we have a baby. I threw away so many clothes thinking that it would be so depressing having them sitting in my drawer when they're never going to fit me. I got rid of my favourite pair of jeans, which of course would fit me now. You just have to give your body time. You can't have a three-month-old baby and think, 'That's it for me.' I tell mothers that you have to wait a whole year before you start judging your body, before you start working on it."
She eventually lost weight and got back to work, she says, because she needed to support herself and her son. Then Miuccia Prada cast her to open the Prada show, Anna Wintour dedicated an editor's letter to her, Freja Beha Erichsen started dating her, and the rest is history. [Telegraph]
Anne Vyalitsyna and that dude from that shitty band broke up. [Us]
- Diesel's Renzo Rosso listed his company for sale on eBay for April Fools. [WWD]
- In other April 1st news, Fashionista published a story reporting on the rumor that Kanye West is in talks to take over at Christian Dior. [Fashionista]
- Into the Gloss profiled the beauty routine of an investment banker named Patrick Bateman. [Into The Gloss]
- And Glamour joked that Karl Lagerfeld was collaborating with Peeps. [Glamour]
- Dior is curating an exhibition at the company museum — located in Christian Dior's childhood home — to highlight all the celebrities that have worn Dior over the decades. [WWD]
- Avon has rejected a $10 billion buyout offer from cosmetics giant Coty. The board felt the non-binding offer was an attempt to get a "free look" at its finances. [WWD]
- Please welcome Tim Gunn to Twitter, everyone. [@TimGunn]
- Brunello Cucinelli, the Italian luxury brand best known for its philosopher-king-like namesake C.E.O. and its incredibly expensive cashmere, is said to be planning its I.P.O. on the Italian stock exchange for May 3. The company is valued at around €500 million. [WWD]
- Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani says, "I'm ready to do any kind of cosmetic surgery on my body. But for the face I'm much more scared. I have a lot of wrinkles around my eyes, but I'm scared that after I wouldn't have the same look. If I had to do something, I would do plastic surgery instead of injections, that's for sure, because you don't know what happens." She also hates purses, because that's what pockets are for. [WSJ]
- Dries van Noten says that as a designer, "Accessories are important, but not too important for me. I don't want to become a designer [whose] main business is in bags and shoes." He also famously doesn't advertise. "People will buy the clothes for the clothes and not for the label." [WWD]
- Van Noten spoke at a public event where he was introduced by Iris Apfel. "His clothes are artistic, architectural and completely ageless — thank God," said Apfel. "He's not plagued by trend-itis. He's fiercely independent and appears to be in complete control of everything he does — the design, the creation, and the distribution. Free from all of the hazards of the money-grubbing, trendsetting-plagued boardrooms, he has carved out his freedom to be his own man. Quite a feat in these days of sell outs and media freaks." [The Cut]
- At fashion school at the Antwerp Academy in the 1970s, van Noten's instructors would impart annoying wisdom like, "Jeans are for poor people." [Fashionologie]