Reese Witherspoon's Vogue Cover Is Here

Reese Witherspoon is on the cover of Vogue, again. “AMERICA’S SWEETHEART TOUGHENS UP,” alleges the hard-hitting ladymag, which previously investigated Witherspoon’s NEW STYLE in November of ’08. But our favorite cover line is “WINNING BAGS AND SHOES.” Charlie, is that you? [TFS]

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The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has a new show up called “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels.” It’s brought to you by Van Cleef & Arpels! That a Smithsonian institution would allow a corporation to essentially rent an exhibition hall to showcase its goods and call it a museum show has drawn the ire of the New York Times, which pronounced this little venture into the brave new world of curation “an embarrassment.” [NYTimes]

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The forthcoming Alexander McQueen show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is, by the way, sponsored by PPR, the global luxury conglomerate that owns McQueen. Some pictures and excerpts from the exhibition monograph are available here. [The Cut]

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Coco Rocha has written about her recent humanitarian trip to Haiti for this month’s Flare magazine. The photography is by Rocha’s friend and fellow model Behati Prinsloo. [Oh So Coco]

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• Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, the future owner of Hermès, and the head of world mega-luxury company Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, went to the White House last week to receive something called the Corporate Citizenship award. He gave a speech about jobs and the evil that is counterfeit handbags, and was congratulated by Barack Obama, Diane von Furstenberg, and Tony Blair. [WWD]
• Cathy Horyn does not have high hopes for the eight new fashion-related reality TV shows making their debuts this season — though, to be fair, it’s not clear which ones she’s actually watched, and for which she’s merely reacting to the (abysmally cheesy) promotional materials. (We are, for the record, very cautiously optimistic about Dresscue Me, which follows vintage buyer Shareen Mitchell, but only because Shareen’s is one of the few almost-decently-priced vintage stores in Manhattan, and her email newsletter is 100% PURE WIN. Most recently, we bought a hat there this winter and wore it a lot. Also Lux got a banging dress for the AVN Awards there.) Horyn has some suggestions: “Personally, I’m waiting for the scripted series about a closeted fashion executive and his talented business partner who has a secret cocaine habit and a long list of powerful clients, including two first ladies (it’s an international company, naturally). As they fly down to St. Bart’s, the executive is about to be exposed by a blogger who during New Year’s witnessed an unflattering moment on a Russian billionaire’s yacht. That’s just the first episode.” [On The Runway]
• Oh, the problems of being the C.E.O. of Adidas: “We always try to make the best running shoe, the best basketball shoe, but sometimes when you give designers too much freedom, they make Ferraris when you only need a BMW.” [WWD]
• Last year in the U.K., sales at “low-end” retailers — like Primark and H&M — fell 21%, while sales at “mid-range” stores — this story name-checks Urban Outfitters — rose 11%. Sales of eco-friendly clothing and accessories rose 68% during the same period. [Telegraph]
• Laura Ashley inked a licensing agreement which will call forth the existence of Laura Ashley lingerie. Was that something the world was clamouring for? [WWD]
• A fake news site made a video touting Costello Culo‘s possible ascension to the creative directorship of Christian Dior, replacing disgraced designer John Galliano — and some people flipped out on Twitter. Except, Costello Culo doesn’t exist. There is no such designer. [Racked]
• Kate Spade is selling $1,100 bicycles this spring. [WWD]
• Chinese tourists spent “$54 billion outside the Mainland in 2010, and tourism spending abroad is growing at about 12 to 14 percent a year,” reports Women’s Wear Daily. “Chinese tourists as a group actually spend about $6 billion more overseas than they do domestically, due to the large number of trips to Hong Kong — and increasingly Europe — to buy big-ticket luxury brand items like bags, shoes, clothes, watches and jewelry,” because luxury goods are subject to high taxes in China. This article follows a 140-member Chinese tour group on its12-day journey through America, reporting on the brands the tourists buy — and ignore. (Interestingly, Evan Osnos has a piece in this week’s New Yorker with a similar, if less retail-specific focus — following a Chinese tour group on a whirlwind one-week bus tour of Europe.) [WWD]