Says Britney Spears to Elle in the brand-new October issue:

"I love my jeans and my sweats-I'm really just a tomboy at heart. So it's really hard for me to be like Kim Kardashian and be makeup-and hair-ready every time I go out of my house. I'm not a believer in that, you know? On the other hand, when you do wear those sweats, you're like, Oh God, I should step it up a notch."

On Elle's Web site, this quote runs alongside a photo in which the magazine styled the singer in a pair of sparkly hot pants, a $3,795 leather jacket, and a gauzy layer of irony. [Elle]

• Just two days after the spring DVF show — the one styled with those kooky Google glasses — creative director Yvan Mispelaere is out at Diane von Furstenberg, effective immediately. The soft-spoken Mispelaere has been at the company since 2010; from now on, von Furstenberg will oversee the house's business and creative teams herself, according to a statement. [WWD]
• Terry Richardson announced on his blog that his mother, photographer Annie Lomax, has died at age 74. Lomax — who was a frequent subject of Richardson's work, including some of his nude photography — was born Norma Kessler, but was given the name Annie by her second husband, musician Jackie Lomax. (Her marriage to photographer Bob Richardson, Terry's father, broke up when her husband left her for model Anjelica Huston.) Terry has described his mother as "a better photographer than me and my father put together. Her pictures are incredible." Lomax was left partially paralyzed by a car accident in the 1960s. [Terry's Diary]
• Karl Lagerfeld hosted a party in Paris for his Shu Uemura collaboration. [WWD]
• At the party for W's October issue, a smoke machine triggered a fire alarm that blared for more than 20 minutes until the fire department showed up. [WWD]
• Alison Pill is turning 27 in November. "I want a birthday that involves me and the movie Oliver and Company and some Champagne and some marijuana," she says. "Yeah, put this shit in the magazine! Give me the best birthday ev-ah!" [The Cut]
• Florence Welch will wear Gucci on the next Florence and the Machine tour. [WWD]
• Carmen Dell'Orefice, the 81-year-old supermodel, walked in the Marimekko show at New York fashion week. In this interview, she gently scolds a reporter about sunscreen use — "I can see your lovely, little charming freckles at your age. You're very vulnerable unless you have sunblock." (When we profiled Dell'Orefice earlier this year, she told off the photographer for lighting a Camel on set.) Turns out Dell'Orefice had to have some cancerous moles removed recently because she was a fan of tanning in her youth. Dell'Orefice says she feels like the last of her generation: "All my friends are dead. All the models I cared about or knew are gone." [Fashionista]
• Karlie Kloss is buying an apartment in the West Village. [P6]
• Dutch model Odile Coco says during her first season in New York, she's been impressed by the way New Yorkers dress. "I've seen tutus, sneakers, red wigs," she says. And when she's standing at a presentation for an hour or two, "I people-watch, for sure." [WWD]
• Doutzen Kroes says she's already thinking about her diet and workout regimen in preparation for the Victoria's Secret show in November. She's been snacking on edamame. "I wish they would have that in cinemas, so when you watch a movie you could chew on it," she says. "It would be perfect because it's salty, and then you don't need the popcorn and butter." [P6]
• J Brand jeans may be for sale. The company reportedly has sales of over $100 million annually, and potential suitors may include apparel giants VF Corp, PVH, and Warnaco. [WWD]
• Nordstrom is planning an aggressive Canadian expansion. [WWD]

Katie Holmes on her clothing line, which she showed at New York fashion week yesterday: "We as women spend a lot of money on clothes, they better make us look skinny and hot." [InStyle]
The New York Times on Katie Holmes' clothing line: "Fourteen outfits on 14 models, none of them especially interesting." [On The Runway]

• Lynne Tesoro, the public-relations executive who was slapped outside the Zac Posen show by Jalouse editor Jennifer Eymere, is now suing Eymere. Tesoro believes she is owed $1 million for "assault, battery, emotional distress, slander and/or libel." [NYDN]
• In other lawsuits news, Naeem Khan is fighting a vendor over $10,521 worth of fabric. The designer says the price is unfair — prices for custom textiles vary widely and cannot always be agreed-upon in advance — and the vendor is suing to recover the debt. "This was a print on organza. The price of organza is $12 to $15 a yard. They wanted more than $100 a yard to put a print on it," says Khan. [NYDN]
• Those people you always see wearing those kooky outfits on the street-style blogs may be dressed that way because they were hired to promote a given clothing brand:

  Branding consultants estimate that popular bloggers and other so-called influencers can earn $2,000 to $10,000 for a single appearance in their wares. More typically, though, "If you give them a gift card of $1,000 and you pay their expenses, that's a good quid pro quo," Mr. Julian said.

  [NYTimes]

• Heidi Klum confirmed to Katie Couric that she is seeing her bodyguard. Klum says the relationship began after her breakup with Seal. [TMZ]
• Next summer's Met Costume Institute exhibit will be titled "Punk: Chaos to Couture." It will focus on the origins of punk and its impact on high fashion. [WWD]
• Adriana Lima has given birth to a baby girl whom she and her husband named Sienna. [Us]
• Diane von Furstenberg dodged questions about her company's rumored initial public offering plans at a public Q&A session with former New York fashion week director Fern Mallis. She also said that creative director Yvan Mispelaere is leaving her company because, "He felt like his mission was accomplished so we parted." When Mallis mentioned the two days that von Furstenberg spent with Fidel Castro in Cuba in the 1970s, she said, "I didn't have an affair with him." This, incidentally, is how von Furstenberg described the Cuban dictator in her 1998 memoir:

  He was tall and handsome, with piercing eyes. He was charming and spoke at length, asking us many questions about America. A lawyer by training, he is very intelligent and I found him extremely informed, but somehow he was not as macho as I had expected. At the end of our visit, I wasn't sure if I liked him or not. I did, however, continue to admire him for his loyalty to his cause. "Your mother really picked the right name for you," I told him on our last evening, fidel meaning "faithful" in Spanish. He was amused by my comment but confessed that his mother had named him Fidel because she was hoping that a very rich landowner they knew named Fidel would be his godfather. It hadn't happened, but he had kept the name and its meaning.

  [Racked]

• WSJ. editor Deborah Needleman has apparently been asked to take the reins at the New York Times' T magazine — twice. Sally Singer left T at the end of August. [WWD]
• Frank Ocean played the J. Mendel after-party. And when his set was done, he left. The end. [The Cut]
• The Olsens are working on a perfume under their Elizabeth & James brand. It'll be sold exclusively at Sephora starting in March. [WWD]
• The Vogue team "commandeered" an elevator to exit the Reed Krakoff show, angering other reporters, editors, and buyers, who had to stand by and watch while the doors closed on a half-full car. [@EricWilsonNYT]
• Betsey Johnson, at her 70th birthday show, confirmed what we already knew: she's filming a reality show for the Style network with her daughter, Lulu. [WWD]
• And now, a moment with André Leon Talley. Oh André — no, no, no. This is all wrong:

  "I'm in it for comfort. When I discovered Uggs, it was a revelation. I love Uggs. Uggs can be as chic as heels for women. Uggs are comfort shoes and it's important to have a shoe that gives you a sense of comfort. I have about 15 pair of Uggs — he same shoe, the same color. And I also have the bedroom slippers. It's my shoe of choice at this moment of 2012 — it has been my shoe of choice. I love that you noticed I'm wearing Uggs. And this is a Tom Ford bag."

  There's more.

  "Uggs for me are a moment of utilitarian comfort that keeps you anchored in the reality of today's world, which is very important. People have forgotten, and we're all so busy running around, and these shoes give me a grounding. Men also have shoes, but sometimes, those tight little fabulous shoes are not exactly the thing you could wear for eight hours a day."

  [Styleite]

There's a picture of me on Vogue's Web site. And I'm missing a hand.

Last week, the street-style photographer Phil Oh snapped my picture as I was hurrying to make it to the first fashion show of this season, Rachel Comey. (It was a beautiful show.) I don't know Oh personally, but his is a welcome friendly face at the collections, and I was feeling buoyed by the first-day-of-school atmosphere, so as he raised his camera, I smiled. Then I ran inside, took my seat, and forgot about it. Until the picture turned up on Vogue's Web site as an illustration for a shopping guide.

First reaction: wow, how flattering! It's Vogue, after all.

Second reaction: wait, why am I flattered? It's Vogue, after all.

Third reaction: my entire outfit cost less than the single cheapest item on Vogue's shopping list.

Fourth reaction: oh, God, why did I read the Facebook comments. Why why why.

Fifth reaction: hand?

You can see Oh's original photograph at right and Vogue's version on the left.

I can see why they did it. I was mid-stride and the arm flung behind me reads a little weird on camera. That's just one of those bodily quirks that makes street-style photography, well, street-style photography — as opposed to fashion magazine editorial photography, which is always airbrushed to the familiar dubious standard of "perfection." But what I don't understand is why they left in the sections of my arm visible between my back and the strap of my bag. Perhaps we should not ask, 'What happened to Jenna's hand?' but rather, 'What happened to Vogue's vaunted thoroughness?'

For the record, I was wearing: a Rachel Comey dress ($100, bought because the print incorporates a photograph of the Great Mosque of Córdoba, a building I dream of one day seeing in person), secondhand Ferragamo T-straps ($19.99), a brown vintage bag ($16.50), a vintage Balenciaga scarf ($2), and a pair of Karen Walker sunglasses (free in a gift bag given to show guests last season — which I'll be the first to acknowledge as an example of fashion-writer privilege). Total outfit cost: $136.49.

Vogue's shopping guide includes: a Rochas dress ($3,457), a pair of Givenchy sandals ($890), Miu Miu sunglasses ($365), an Ilya purse ($940), and a Dries Van Noten scarf ($410). In a creative flourish — or perhaps keen to exploit the commercial possibilities of styling options I myself had regrettably overlooked — Vogue added a $290 Yves Saint Laurent ring and an $870 Aurélie Biederman gold necklace to its list of suggestions. The total cost of Vogue's shopping guide (which admittedly includes multiple options for dresses and shoes): $24,279.

Losing the hand didn't hurt so much as tingle — like the accumulated psychic pain of a lifetime reading overpriced ladymag market pages.

The Sundress's Last Hurrah [Vogue.com]
Jenna Sauers, NYFW [Streetpeeper]

At the Ralph Lauren show yesterday, Vogue cover star and noted Sexy Douchebag Ryan Lochte decided to greet Anna Wintour, who had already taken her front-row seat. When Wintour didn't stand, Lochte bent down to kiss her on the cheek and planted one paw on Wintour's knee for support. Wintour seemed nonplussed, but then again she always does. [Racked]

I respect and accept criticism because in many ways it does help us develop; I try to make my work better each time. What I do not accept is when criticism is personal. If you have the right to call me a hot dog why do I not have the right to call you a stale 3-day old hamburger? My advice to you is to abstain from personal criticism. Professionals criticize the clothes, not the people.

Oscar de la Renta is an 80-year-old Dominican-American more used to dressing Upper East Side society doyennes than parsing dated surfing and skateboarding slang, so his literal interpretation of the term is perhaps understandable. What's not understandable is how it is that apparently nobody in Oscar de la Renta's office was in a position to Google "hot dog slang" before ol' Oscar wrote and paid for a huge, and in retrospect somewhat embarrassing, ad in WWD. [The Cut]
Horyn confirms, "I used the term in a professional context, as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer. I thought an ad was a little over-the-top." [Fashionologie]

• A fire at a garment factory in Pakistan has killed 264 people. The youngest victim was just 10 years old. The fire in the illegally wired Karachi factory apparently started when a boiler exploded, and the business owners have been charged with murder and criminal negligence. The factory reportedly manufactured jeans for the U.S. and Europe, though the brands involved were unknown. On the same day, a fire at a shoe factory in Lahore killed 25. Speaking about the Karachi fire

  Chief fire officer Ehtisham-ud-Din told reporters that the large number of casualties was due in large part to the fact that there were no emergency doors, no extra stairways and most of the people died of suffocation in the locked, smoke-filled basement.

  [WWD]

• In this interview, Kelly Osbourne seemed to suggest that she is working on a clothing line, because "no one takes notice of a fat girl in fashion. That's the truth! It's sad. That's why I love women like Beth Ditto who are doing their own clothes. That's why when my line comes out I'll never make anything that won't be translated to plus-size as well. Because everyone deserves to wear fashion." [Fashionista]
• Roberto Cavalli is mad, mad, mad that the Camera Nazionale de la Moda — the Italian body that oversees show scheduling at Milan fashion week — moved his show time to accomodate Giorgio Armani. Cavalli is now set to show on the evening of Monday, the last day of the fashion week when some press and buyers have already left for Paris fashion week, while Armani will show in the prime Sunday night timeslot. Cavalli wrote on his blog (obviously):

  The Cavalli maison has always been a member of the fashion chamber. I think that Armani is a member, too, but his every choice is perceived as an order! [...] As usual, the Camera Nazionale della Moda is washing its hands of the situation and it will not go against the wishes of ‘Little King' Armani.

  [WWD]

• The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it is ending its probe into Avon's overseas dealings. Avon's Chinese bribery scandal led to an investigation into potential violations the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. No further action will be taken. [WWD]
• Betsey Johnson says even though her retail licensee went out of business, forcing her to lay off most of her staff and refocus her efforts on a scaled-back dress line produced under license, she will continue showing at New York fashion week. Asked if her big retrospective (where Cyndi Lauper performed) Wednesday night would be her last show, she said, "No, no, no, no, no. This is the one-and-only show like this. It's my 70th birthday, and if 70 isn't old enough to throw a retrospective, I don't know what age is." [WSJ]
• Deborah Needleman's future at WSJ. — and whether she'll jump ship to take over the Times' T — continues to be the subject of rumor. From WWD:

  On Thursday, insiders insisted that not only was Needleman going to T, but she was also planning to take a bunch of editors with her. It was believed that Needleman would make the transition from The Wall Street Journal to The Times following the collections in Europe. Reached by e-mail, Needleman said Thursday, "This is not true. If I had accepted a job there I would be working there."

  Can't really argue with that. [WWD]

• Christian Dior reported its sales rose year-on-year during the quarter just ended by 28%, to $405.7 million. [WWD]

New York fashion week wrapped up its Spring-Summer 2013 season with a whopping 143 shows and live presentations — more shows and presentations than we've ever had to cover during the eight seasons we've been compiling these runway diversity reports. (Back in February of 2009, there were only 116 shows.) As NYFW has grown, so has awareness of the problems that models of color can face in the industry: the ways that some magazines talk about race as though it were a trend, like British Vogue, and the manifest (if only occasionally acknowledged) preference of most clients for white models. Way too often in fashion, looking "aspirational" is still considered synonymous with "having white skin."

It is heartening, then, that this season proved to be the most racially diverse that we have ever counted. For the second time ever (and the second season in a row), white models actually comprised just less than 80% of the total model pool. Contrast that with the 87% of all runway spots that were given to white models in Fall-Winter 2008, when we began keeping track of models and race at NYFW.

This season, 143 designers presented some 4708 individual women's wear "looks" to buyers and press during the eight days of fashion week. 3736 of those looks, or 79.4%, were given to white models. Again this season, the second largest ethnic group on the runway at fashion week was Asians — Asian models got 476, or 10.1% of all the runway looks. Black models nabbed 383, or 8.1%. Non-white Latina models had 88 looks, or 1.9%. And models of other races wore 25, or 0.5% of all looks. Click on any chart in this post to enlarge.

These results may be partly attributed to the season, because one trend that is apparent from our data is the preference for slightly more models of color at the spring-summer collections and slightly fewer at the fall-winter collections, which may be due to a belief on the part of casting directors that darker skin tones suit the bright colors of spring clothes better than they do fall's more somber hues. (Or at least that's what some casting directors tell us off-the-record — generally while rolling their eyes.) But more jobs for models of color is good news no matter what the reason.

Despite the overall positive trend, there were still a number of shows that were not very diverse. Eight brands — Araks, Brood, Calvin Klein, Elizabeth & James, Louise Goldin, MM6 Maison Martin Margiela, See by Chloé, and The Row — had zero models of color. Their casts were entirely white. That's around 6% of all shows. (In 2007, according to published reports, one-third of the shows at NYFW had all-white casts.) Additionally, there were 31 shows and presentations that had three or fewer models of color. That's more than 20% of all shows.

Calvin Klein, after seasons in which it showed its collection on an all-white cast but for one model of color, decided to just go with an all-white cast. The Olsen twins continued their habit of hiring all-white casts for their two brands, The Row and Elizabeth & James.

Some of the most diverse shows were Tracy Reese, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jason Wu, Jen Kao, Anna Sui, Barbara Tfank, Boy by Band of Outsiders, Edun, Chado Ralph Rucci, Zac Posen, and Betsey Johnson. At the industry's high end, Ralph Lauren and Oscar de la Renta showed their collections on very racially diverse casts. Emerging brands like Calla and Dean Quinn also included a lot of models of color.

The conversation about racial diversity in fashion is a large and complex one, of which data like these are only one part. As I wrote last season,

It's difficult to quantify a problem like high fashion's demonstrated preference for white skin. Race is a social construct, not a fact. And our "categories" — black, Asian, non-white Latina, and what we for lack of a better term call "other" — are not (and probably cannot be) perfect. We don't count white women from Latin America in our gerrymandered "Latina" category; though they are as Latina as their darker-complected countrywomen, on the international modeling circuit, the color of their skin is more important than the passports they bear or the cultural heritage they represent, and they have the privilege of competing with other white models for the much larger pool of jobs that are open to white models.

And racial diversity is only one way in which the fashion industry — and, by extension, our cultural ideas about what and who gets to be beautiful — could stand to broaden. There's also age, sexual orientation, and, most obviously, size. Despite necessarily imperfect methods, we do this census every season because it can be helpful to put anecdote and reportage in the context of actual numbers. Again, as I wrote last season:

People are always arguing that things are getting better, that fashion is on some long, meliorative journey towards post-racial harmony, or whatever. Some people argue that fashion is already there! (To which I have only these words: slave earrings.) In an industry where the criticism and the reporting alike are informed by a certain amount of anecdote and conjecture, it's good to have some hard numbers.

For those who are curious, our full report is embedded below.

Prabal Gurung, another critically acclaimed young designer who showed his collection on a very diverse cast this season, talked a little about the rationale behind his casting to the Wall Street Journal. "It wasn't deliberate, like 'let's look for Asian models,'" said the designer, who was himself born in Singapore and raised in Nepal. "But for me being a minority myself, I have always believed personally and professionally that there's beauty in every race. I have a 6-year-old niece, and in a few years she will be aware of all this stuff and I want to make sure there are enough role models for her. Beauty is beauty."

Fashion still has a long way to go before all forms of beauty are truly given equal consideration — but this season is another small step in the right direction.

Lede photo: model Sessilee Lopez walks in the runway finale at the Nanette Lepore show at Lincoln Center on September 12, 2012. Behind Lopez is model Lee Hye Jung.

Special thanks to Madeleine Davies, Tanisha Ramirez, and Isha Aran, who helped compile this report.

Models of Color at NYFW SS2013

Related: The Fall-Winter 2012 Report
The Spring-Summer 2012 Report
The Fall-Winter 2011 Report
The Spring-Summer 2011 Report
The Fall-Winter 2010 Report
The Fall-Winter 2009 Report
The Fall-Winter 2008 Report

Rihanna Tweeted, and has since deleted, that she was shooting her second cover of American Vogue with Annie Leibovitz. Just like she did last time! Timing would suggest this is a December cover. [@Rihanna]

• Oscar de la Renta still doesn't seem to understand what "hot dog" means. "Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the people who read it read it the way I read it," says the designer of the term, which was included in Cathy Horyn's recent review of his collection. De la Renta took out an entire ad in Women's Wear Daily after the New York Times critic wrote him a — largely glowing — review that included the slang phrase for an athlete showing off his tricks. Jesus, Oscar. We know you're like 103, but Google is your friend. Cathy Horyn was not calling you a mechanically separated pork food product. [WWD]
• Sadie Frost says she wants her friend Kate Moss to turn to acting. "I have my own production company now called Blonde to Black and we'd love to get Kate on the big screen," says Frost. "Kate really comes across well on screen. I've always said to her, 'You should do it, you should do it.' I think it will be the right script and the right timing for her." [Telegraph]
• Wal-Mart has again failed in a bid to open a store in New York City. The notoriously anti-union retailer had wanted to open a store at a planned development in East New York, which needs a supermarket, but instead the location will become a ShopRite. ShopRite employees are unionized. [WWD]
• Speaking of labor inequality, the Times' Ginia Bellafante weighs in on unpaid internships, which are common in fashion and publishing:

  Plenty of jobless people who haven't gone to Vassar are capable of returning shoes to their designers after fashion shoots. But enlisting the edgy and chic to do the job free deprives an entire class of people from whole categories of entry-level work. Beyond that, the belief that performing these chores for no fee provides entree to a more meaningful career is challenged by a survey conducted last year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers that indicated that graduates who had paid internships were more likely to receive job offers than those who took unpaid work.

  [NYTimes]

• According to rumor, Lea Michele has been signed as a face of L'Oréal. [P6]
• As the trend for "heritage" brands in (particularly) men's wear reaches its apex and intersects with the vogue for American-made products, new Web sites showcasing pricey domestically manufactured goods are cropping up. Like "19th-Century-style" baseballs made from leather tanned in Chicago, shuttle-loomed jeans from North Carolina, all kinds of stuff made in Brooklyn and/or Detroit, and, ahem, "an O.C.E. Hickory work shirt, produced by inmates in the Oregon correctional system as part of its job-training program, for $26.99." Prison labor: at $0.13/hour, what could be more American? USA! USA! USA! [NYTimes]
• The French knitting and crochet pattern-design company World Tricot reached another judgment in its long-running lawsuit and countersuit with former client Chanel yesterday. World Tricot initially sued the luxury brand in 2005 after it says it recognized a crochet pattern it had proposed to Chanel, but which Chanel had decided not to purchase, on a Chanel runway. Chanel counter-sued World Tricot for disparaging its good name; the extent of the disparagement was apparently bringing the intellectual-property lawsuit in the first place. A judge initially found in Chanel's favor on the matter of the disparagement and in World Tricot's favor on the matter of the counterfeiting. Chanel appealed. An appeals court judge has now reversed both decisions, finding in Chanel's favor on the intellectual-property suit but concluding that World Tricot had not disparaged its former client. Chanel has been ordered to pay €200,000 to World Tricot. Chanel may opt to appeal to the Supreme Court. [WWD]
• As usual, the Tom Ford show was presented in London under a veil of total secrecy. No photographs of the event will reach the public until Ford is good and ready. So let these reviews paint a picture in your mind:

  PERVERSITY and chastity were the driving forces behind Tom Ford's presentation today — an off-schedule moment of calm and serenity for those in the know. "There can be something a little perverse about chastity," said the designer.

  — British Vogue, which added that the models wore "teased beehives." Ford also showed high heels wrapped in beige leather. "It's a bandage colour," said the designer. "There's something perverse about bandages — it makes you think: is she nude or not nude beneath?"

  The collection on Sunday felt completely contemporary, yet still in the Ford glamor mode. The key looks for day were his signature pencil skirt or a pair of biker shorts with a minimalist top, fuzzy sweater, or a semi-fitted hoodie. The biker shorts just seemed fresh again — thanks to Mr. Ford's polished treatment. He showed one pair with a matching black crepe-de-chine popover top with black patent-leather patches on the shoulders, and gold metallic heels that had been wrapped to resemble wedges. The wedge part was coated in tiny golden spikes, like pins on a sewing cushion.

  — Cathy Horyn

  Then came the Tom Ford black – a sheer tracksuit, a liquid patent flasher mac with matching portfolio shoulder bag. Both of which made you wish Helmut Newton was still around to shoot them. Vivid blue entered next — a second-skin pencil skirt in stretch mesh worn with a track top ("I wasn't thinking Olympic sport," he told one editor afterwards, suggesting she had "another sport in mind." Cue blushes and giggles.

  — British Elle
  Perverse bandages, sport, bike shorts, Olympics, leather, chastity. Let's wait and see what Virginie Mouzat makes of all this. [Elle UK, Vogue UK, NYTimes]

• Petit Bateau and Carven are launching a new collaboration for both children and adults. Prices will range from €50 euros ($64) for a boy's polo shirt to €250 ($320) for a woman's dress. [WWD]
• The male model River Viiperi never turned up to the Michael Bastian show because he was out partying with Paris Hilton the night before. Bastian's styling assistant had to walk in Viiperi's place. [NYTimes]
• New York fashion week may be over, but the band plays on: Fashionista has a handy-dandy listicle of all the London Fashion Week livestreams you could watch from the comfort of your laptop. [Fashionista]
• Buyer feedback on the New York collections ranges from "It was a happy, upbeat season, with lots of newness, sexiness and boldness...It was strong," to, "Overall, it was hit and miss, with a number of young designers still being inspired by last season's Paris." [WWD]
• H&M's sales rose 10% year-on-year during the quarter just ended. But same-store sales during the period were flat, with gains in June and July erased by a 4% year-on-year drop in August, which the retailer attributed to a "heat wave." [WWD]
• New York was a fly on the wall at Joanna Coles' first staff meeting as editor of Cosmopolitan:

  "The No. 1 thing when I'm pitching is, how can I relate this to the reader?" offers [writer Jessica] Knoll. "They don't necessarily care about our thoughts on, you know, culture, TV, books, whatever. They just want to know about themselves."

  "What about Girls makes you uncomfortable?" Coles asks, turning back to [senior editor Anna] Davies.

  "I just felt that they were so whiny. You are living in New York, you are 24, and if you aren't having fun, you just need to go to the corner bar and meet a guy and just make something happen," she says. "I mean, no girl who is 22, 23 years old should be sleeping with a 23-year-old!"

  "You mean, because it's not aspirational enough?" Coles asks.

  "She needs a fortysomething-year-old vice-president from Morgan Stanley. Who will at least teach her how to have interesting, good sex."

  "Who has had good sex with a 42-year-old senior executive at Morgan Stanley?" Coles asks. Davies raises her hand. "Are you still seeing the 42-year-old executive?"

  "No. I lied and told him I was moving to California. And then I wrote a ‘Modern Love' column about it. He still e-mails me."

  "Intriguing," Coles drawls.

  You know, culture, T.V., books, whatever. [New York]

Rumor has it (sorry, couldn't resist) that Adele was asked to be a face of Burberry — and that she responded by asking if the brand would be interested in collaborating on a collection for plus-size customers. Seems pretty reasonable to ask a company interested in making money off your face to make clothing for your body. Burberry, of which Adele has long been a self-professed fan, refused to comment on the allegation. [Vogue UK]

• More than a year after firing Patrick Robinson, Gap has a new creative director. And she comes to the company by way of H&M. Dane Rebekka Bay, who was responsible for the development of H&M's higher-priced European brand COS, says she is excited about the new job and sees some parallels between the Danish design aesthetic and Gap's own, namely that each is "very functional and modern and based on great craftsmanship and design. The approach to design is very craft based. The material itself can carry a good part of the design." [WWD]
• Now in addition to worrying about (and spending money on) your aging skin, the beauty industry would like you to worry about (and spend money on) your aging hair. At least, that's why Pantene says it hired Noted Old Person and actress Courtney Cox as its latest "face." [WWD]
• Dudes, don't act like you get a free pass, either — especially not in South Korea: reports the Associated Press, "This socially conservative, male-dominated country, with a mandatory two-year military conscription for men, has become the male makeup capital of the world." South Korean men spent $495.5 million on beauty and skincare products in 2011. [AP]
• VFILES, the social media site-cum-giant, searchable fashion image archive associated with V magazine, is now live. You should all be using it. It's like Pinterest but with more Damir Doma! [WWD]
• Kate Middleton and the British Royal family being upset by the recent publication of a certain set of grainy photographs of the former's nude torso, they have retained the services of French lawyer Aurélien Hamelle. Hamelle, you may recall, represented disgraced designer John Galliano during his trial last year. [WWD]
• A show of photographs by Vivian Maier is now up at Chicago gallery Thomas Masters. [Racked]
• "Tom Ford talks about bondage knots as others might the weather," begins Women's Wear Daily's review of the photography-averse designer's spring collection. "Like it's the most normal subject in the world." The review continues:

  For spring, he went for "a mix of chastity and perversity," which meant the bondage knots that wrapped up silky tops and dresses were tied using silk cord, and slithery black patent pencil skirts were often teamed with roll-neck sweaters or loose, blouson tops. But make no mistake: This collection was fierce and often brazenly sexy. There were glossy, patent trenchcoats with demonstrative collars in black and nude; skintight pants composed of tiny strips of cobalt blue leather, and slinky gowns made up of beaded mesh bands unstitched here and there to reveal flashes of thigh.

  [WWD]

• Scott Schumann says the nearly lost art of sneaking into shows is still alive and well in London: "I'm a little disappointed that in New York the FIT kids and the Parsons kids don't bring the same enthusiasm. They don't try to sneak into shows. I don't know why the kids aren't trying to sneak into shows?" Fashion G.P.S. is why, Scott. [Fashionologie]
• A photographer died and a male model was injured after falling out of a window — the blind was drawn but the window was apparently open — at a London Fashion Week kick-off party. [Telegraph]
• The power went out for a brief minute during the Erdem show at London Fashion Week. The models kept walking, which must have driven the runway photographers nuts. [The Cut]
• Former Pringle of Scotland designer Alistair Carr has been named the creative director of Alexander McQueen's lower-priced McQ line. [Telegraph]
• The very rich, they are different from you and me. Take Target C.E.O. Gregg Steinhafel: he just made $6.2 million on Friday by exercising an option to buy some of his company's shares at $33.80 a pop and selling them on the stock market for $64.57. How was your Friday? [WWD]
• And now, a moment with Iman. Iman says that in by her early 30s, years of modeling had so extensively manipulated her hair that "my lacefront had a lacefront." So she's not sure when she started going grey, only that she first noticed it at 34. Iman prefers to dye her greys — "I will not surrender my crowning glory simply because the Good Mother [Nature] is standing on the sidelines politely flashing an illuminated wrap it up box," she writes, "She knows I'm prideful about my swag" — but she has respect for women who embrace the grey, too:

  I think women who are completely gray are positively sublime. Whether cropped short or long and layered, every woman I've ever laid eyes on with a well-appointed sterling mane is at once regal and proud. They always strike me as being high priestesses of sorts; women who are light years beyond societal beauty norms so much so that they've created their own niche where they can be alluring and beguiling without having to get into the whole battle royale that is aging. They get the joke; what makes the hot chicks hot is that they aren't slaves to narcissism. They have the moxie to take their vanity in moderation which gives them an air of wisdom and strength.

  [Destination Iman]

The August issue of Vogue China includes the model Ondria Hardin in one shot, pictured above, in a group editorial. So far, so much the usual for a rising star in the modeling world. But the problem is that Hardin — at least according to multiple print and online news sources — is not 16 yet. Has Vogue already violated the Health Initiative it pledged to abide by just four months ago?

Hardin, a South Carolina native, has been modeling since the age of 13 — and given her extreme youth and the lack of labor protections available to models, controversy has long swirled around the industry's demand for her. In the spring of 2011, when she was just 13, Steven Meisel shot Hardin for the fall, 2011, Prada campaign. That September, after turning 14, she walked at New York fashion week for designers including Marc Jacobs. In February of 2012, designers pledged not to hire for runway work models under the age of 16, but Hardin — along with at least one other model under 16 — walked again for Jacobs, spurring significant criticism in the media. She continued to work through the spring and summer, shooting editorials with magazines including W and Lula (where she scored a cover), numerous designer lookbooks, and walking in Resort shows for the likes of Stella McCartney. In February, Hardin was reported to be 14. At the New York shows this September, when Hardin could have been no older than 15, she walked for seven designers, including Jacobs, Thakoon, Marchesa, and Oscar de la Renta. Just a couple hours ago in Milan she walked for Gucci.

Hardin's agency, Ford, says she is currently 16, but won't divulge her date of birth or provide any proof of her age. Lying about models' ages is common in modeling; there are famous examples both of models being told to shave years off their true ages to compete in an ageist industry (Agyness Deyn) and of models being instructed by their agents to tell clients they are older than they are in order to book more work (this is documented extensively in, among other sources, the new movie Girl Model; 15-year-old Valerija Sestic was also able to walk at NYFW after her agency, Women, lied to clients about her age). And Ford has lied about its business practices as they pertain to model age in the past: the same season it sent 14-year-old Hardin to walk for Jacobs, it signed a pledge not to put models under 16 forward for runway work.

And Vogue, well, Vogue promised in May to end its practice of hiring models under the age of 16 for print work in all of the magazine's international editions. Yet here is Hardin in the August issue. How old was she at the time of the shoot? Not 16, surely. [Fashionista]

• Vivienne Westwood would rather you not buy her spring collection. "I don't really care about fashion," she told reporters before the show. Westwood cares about climate change. "My motto is ‘buy less, choose well, make it last.' You should wait until you really need something before you buy it. In fact, don't buy this collection." [Vogue UK]
• Put Solange Knowles in the Westwood camp: the singer says she, too, isn't really that into fashion, though she does take a measure of pride in her personal style. As regards that incident where she was criticized on natural-hair blogs for the way she wore her hair, she has no regrets: "I thought to myself, ‘This is really crazy. That these people know more about my hair than the human that even carries it!' I went to my Twitter and sort of impulsively expressed that. I don't regret it one bit, but sometimes trying to put how you feel in an one-hundred forty character structure is not really successful." And Knowles is no longer a face of Carol's Daughter. "I was constantly fighting for the right message to be heard," she says. "The message that the way we wear our hair is a personal choice, there's no right or wrong way." [Fashionista]
• Beth Ditto is heading to Milan fashion week to perform during the Versus show. "I'm a big fan of Beth's voice and energy," says Donatella Versace. Does Versace make clothing in Beth Ditto's size? [WWD]
• Last week, the New York Times published an article about how graft is influencing street style photography — in terms of brands giving or lending clothing to popular street-style subjects, like top fashion editors and bloggers, and even paying them money as endorsers. "Popular bloggers and other so-called influencers can earn $2,000 to $10,000 for a single appearance in their wares," wrote the reporter. But Independent Fashion Bloggers' Jennine Jacob tried to find someone, anyone who could confirm that such a $10,000 transaction had ever taken place, and nobody — not a P.R., not a blogger, not an agent, not a photographer — could offer any examples. Jacobs even contacted all of the sources included in the Times article: no dice. Several people said they had "heard" about such sums changing hands, or that it was "possible" that bloggers are cashing $10,000 checks, but nobody could actually identify one. [IFB]
• Leandra Medine of the Man Repeller calls the article "interesting, informative and conceivably true." [Man Repeller]
• And onto the next: here's a list of all the Milan shows you can watch from the comfort of your home Internet connection. [Fashionista]
• Karl Lagerfeld says he didn't mean to imply that Pippa Middleton was ugly when he reportedly said "I don't like her face." He says now, "I didn't mean that! I only meant I don't think her make-up is right; she has a roundish face and round eyes and she should pick another make-up for the eyes." Also, Lagerfeld thinks the "sexiest" Middleton is Carole, because of her "energy." [Grazia]
• The first Yves Saint Laurent store to be built under Hedi Slimane's watch is set to open in Shanghai this week. Revamps of stores in Berlin and Paris are to follow. The Chinese store is big, black, stark, and '70s, with lots of marble. Slimane's first women's wear collection for the brand will walk in Paris on October 1. [WWD]
• Betsey Johnson's daughter Lulu is reportedly starting her own fashion line. "My archives, my knowledge, everything — I hope at the end of the day, I give it all to you and hope that you're happy," Johnson tells Lulu in a Web video. That might prove difficult considering that during her company's financial difficulties, Johnson put up all of her brand's intellectual property and archives as collateral for a loan. Which it then defaulted on in bankruptcy. [Racked]
• Inditex, parent company of Zara, had a great first six months: profits rose year-on-year by 32%, to $1.24 billion. Same-store sales were up by 7%. [WWD]
• Glamour's Louise Roe is set to replace Elle MacPherson as a host of Fashion Star. [DFR]
• The late, lamented Filene's Basement in Union Square is turning into a Burlington Coat Factory. [WWD]
• The ever-inventive folks from Benetton's advertising firm have a new campaign out, and there's no smooching world leaders this time — just funemployed Millennials. [AdRants]
• Iconix may be interested in buying the troubled men's wear company HMX (which owns the brands Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman). [WWD]
• Disney is opening new in-store boutiques with exclusive products in at least 520 J.C. Penney stores. [WWD]
• Lady Gaga has weighed in on the ongoing fast-food throwdown between Oscar de la Renta and New York Times critic Cathy Horyn. Gaga Tweeted @OscarPRGirl, the social-media face of the house, "Bravo Oscar. Only you would be so chic as to purchase an entire page in WWD, making statements like a good fashion citizen." Jesus Christ. De la Renta made a mistake! A simple, easily understandable mistake. He misunderstood a slang term from a register he doesn't himself use. Many people would do the same! But making a mistake is not admirable or "chic." Gaga — writing in her V opinion column, naturally — has previously criticized Cathy Horyn for having opinions. [@LadyGaga]
• Natalie Massenet has taken over from Harold Tillman as the head of the British Fashion Council, the trade organization responsible for organizing London Fashion Week. [WWD]

This isn't like the "newest" thing on the Internet right now, but it just happens to be the thing that is cracking my shit up in particular today. Presented for your mid-afternoon delectation is the often obscene and always hilarious Kanye'd By The Bell, a "Nietzche Family Circus"-esque exploration of the thrills of juxtaposition. It's Kanye lyrics. On top of screenshots of Saved By The Bell. To hilarious effect.

All of your favorite Bayside High characters come under consideration: Zach. Lisa. Slater. Screech. Kelly. Jessie. And, duh, Mr. Belding. Here are some of my favorites.

New York fashion week has ended and the collections have been presented to the buyers and the press — but what happens on the runway is only one small part of the action. We sent intrepid photographer Nilina Mason-Campbell to bring you the best of backstage. Click on for Paris Hilton, Amanda Lepore, Solange Knowles, and lots of outlandish eye makeup.

Holy eyebrows: Emmanuelle Alt put George Michael and Kate Moss on the latest cover of French Vogue. The singer seems like kind of a random choice, but then again as we know from the video she made to mark Vogue's Web redesign, Alt is a George Michael superfan.

This being the awesome video in question. [DS]

"We shot this in White Sands, New Mexico. Apparently Jerry had been visiting her family in Texas at the time, so she told me, 'I will make my arrangements, just tell me where the hotel is.' The day of the shoot, a huge white stretch limo appeared with a chauffeur who looked like a pimp or something, all dressed in white with white crocodile boots. Jerry came out and had big Vuitton trunks filled with lingerie with her. She spent her evenings doing fittings with her own lingerie in an ugly little motel in Alamo Gordo. That was the sort of thing she did."

[The Cut]

• "Are you kidding? If you have a social conscience, you have to vote Obama," says Tom Ford. The designer co-hosted, with Anna Wintour, a $15,000-a-plate fundraiser for the Obama campaign in London during that city's fashion week. Attendees included Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth McGovern, and Cameron Diaz. Wintour, who is now the fourth-highest-grossing Obama fundraiser, will host a second $10,000-a-plate benefit in Paris while she's in town for the French fashion week. [WWD]
• Burberry has pulled production of some of its handbags from a factory in China after concerns were raised about working conditions for the employees there. The factory was recently bought by a South Korean company, and workers say the new management was often "aggressive and verbally abusive." A four-day strike at the factory in June ended with arrests. Michael Kors and Coach have also produced accessories at the factory. [Guardian]
• Kate Bolick reports that during this weekend's Berkshires WordFest, a literary festival that took place at Edith Wharton's stately former home, the recent Vogue shoot celebrating the author was a hot topic of conversation. Although Vogue included three male novelists in its lavish recreations of scenes from Wharton's life — Junot Diaz, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Jeffrey Eugenides — Wharton herself was portrayed by the Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova. The absence of women writers was something we drew attention to at the time the spread was published, and it has not gone unnoticed by novelists. Reports Bolick:

  "Vogue might have considered at least hiding Jennifer Egan in the hedgerows, or Lydia Millet by the fountain," said [Elissa] Schappell. Age-appropriate Egan, not in attendance, turned out to be a popular suggestion — [Heidi] Julavits and [Roxana] Robinson both mentioned her, and she'd sprung to my mind as well. It's her camera-ready cheekbones, obviously, but also the fact that, like Wharton, Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winner. But Schappell ultimately decided she sympathized with Vogue's plight. As she wrote to me yesterday in an email, "Female authors are notoriously dumpy and plain. Often obese. To find a female writer without a hump back and a mouth of tusk-like teeth is quite a task. Behind our backs they refer to us as The Beasts of the creative arts."

  Julavits would have been another good choice; she's even written for Vogue in the past. Neither Vogue, Eugenides, Diaz, nor Safran Foer responded to Bolick's interview requests. [Slate]

• Scott Schuman of the Sartorialist weighs in on the New York Times' allegations that some popular street-style subjects are paid on D.L. to represent certain brands:

  "I don't really care where these people get their clothes from, it doesn't matter to me, it isn't going to matter 100 years from now. A good shot is a good shot. That's all I really care about. But you can tell who are the people who are going over the top to create a shot [or] to be shot. There's something about that, that, to me anyway, doesn't create a good shot. There's something very calculated about it."

  [Fashionista]

• As if Amanda Bynes needed another point in common with Lindsey Lohan, she is now moving to New York to start a clothing line. [People]
• Robin Lawley, the plus-size model who recently snagged a Ralph Lauren campaign, was interviewed on Good Morning America. Cringe-inducing moments include when the host asked Lawley how much she weighs (she tactfully demurred) and when the host mentioned that Lawley "dabbled in eating disorders" when she was a straight-size model. Just, no. No. Nobody "dabbles in" anorexia. It's not a fun little hobby you do on weekends, like stringing together home-made wind chimes or taking Instagrams of the cat. [The Cut]
• VF Corp, which owns Lee, Wrangler, and Vans, among other brands, expects to reach $900 million in sales in Asia this year. In 2007, the company's Asian revenues were $150 million. [WWD]
• Sales at ASOS rose year-on-year by 31%, to $229 million, in the quarter just ended. [Reuters]
• Nick Gruber — who dated Calvin Klein once, did you hear? — says that the former fashion designer has hired a private investigator to "stalk" him. [P6]
• Cate Blanchett's character will wear a Chanel suit in the next Woody Allen movie, which is currently in production. [WWD]
• Fox sent noted noted creepy stalker-producer Jesse Watters to fashion week to make fun of fashion people. Somehow, Watters even managed to fuck that up. "They don't know anything about Paul Ryan, or Medicare," Watters whined, after Kimora Lee Simmons read his game. "You're putting me on O'Reilly?" she protested. "He doesn't like stuff like this, girls like us. He's not on our team. I don't think so." [Fox]
• It's a day ending in -y, so Terry Richardson is posting lots of topless pictures of models to his blog. [Terry's Diary]
• Chris Burch is opening another C. Wonder store in Manhattan. The newish chain intends to expand overseas in the coming year, first in Germany and Asia. [WWD]
• And now, a moment with the Backstreet Boys. Boys, do you regret any of your fashion choices from 1996-2001?

  Brian: "We wore some sucky crap!"
  Kevin: "Tommy Hilfiger overalls that were bright blue and bright white..."
  A.J.: "They weren't Tommy Hilfiger, though."
  Kevin: "They were supposed to be Tommy Hilfiger overalls, they were made out of parachute-pant material. Those were pretty crazy looking. They were knock-offs that were supposed to be Tommy Hilfiger."
  A.J.: "They were Tommy with one M. Tomy."

  [Refinery29]

So this is the first hint of what Solange Knowles' long-awaited third album will sound like, and it's only 41 seconds long. But it sounds promising! Playing "Suck and Blow" (à la Clueless) in artist Mickalene Thomas's Brooklyn studio makes for a very cool video.

Vogue magazine titled its Tim Tebow profile "Superman Returns." Really. Tebow tells the magazine that his perfect woman will have "a servant's heart" and must rival his mother in saintliness:

"I definitely, definitely want a family...I've been blessed to have an amazing mom and two amazing sisters — so they set a very high standard," he says. "Obviously looks play a big part. Being attracted to someone plays a big part, but there's also so much more than that for me. It's about finding someone sweet and kind — and that has a servant's heart. It's about finding a girl who likes me for me, and not because of what I do or who I am or the name."

In other Tebow news, if that whole quarterback thing doesn't work out, "There are a lot of goals and ambitions that I have in life, things I want to accomplish. Who knows? I mean — it could be politics one day. I want to have a life that can help people." [Vogue]

• The fire at the Karachi garment factory earlier this week — current death toll: 289 — is prompting the major certification agencies responsible for factory inspections and safety standards to reconsider their methods. Since 2006, more than 600 garment workers have been killed in Bangladesh alone in preventable industrial accidents. [WWD]
• Salma Hayek has seen some of Hedi Slimane's first women's wear collection for Yves Saint Laurent and pronounces it "Extraordinary!" However, Hayek's privileges as the wife of François-Henri Pinault, the owner of YSL's parent company, apparently do not extend to getting free clothes: "He still pays for it, so I feel always like I can't just go and take anything I want, you know? I could, because he is really nice to me, but I always feel I cannot become that, some crazy woman that comes and takes half the store." [Telegraph]
• Fergie is working on a collection for Wet 'N' Wild, the cosmetics brand of which she is a face. "My creative energy has to go somewhere," says Fergie. "I get up early and get so many things done during the day on my computer." [WWD]
• Georgia May Jagger will be the face of a new Just Cavalli perfume. [Grazia]
• The fur industry is "booming," reports Women's Wear Daily. The industry says sales rose by 70% during the decade 2000-2010, and raked in $15-16 billion in the winter of 2010-11 (the most recent season for which figures were available). Fur trade association spokesperson Mark Oaten says it's 'cause the youngs don't give a shit about animal welfare anymore:

  "I think design has led the consumer attitude change," Oaten said. "And also a younger generation whose passion is not animal rights. They're very motivated on environmental issues, more than on animal rights issues, and that for us represents a new industry demand, because we have gone a long way to ensure welfare is of the highest standard.

  "There is less focus on welfare. Maybe it's because we've got our act together, maybe it's because attitudes have changed, maybe it's because they're seeing fur more on the catwalk, in magazines and in products that they like," he explained. "The younger generation loves fur trim, and they are buying it."

  [WWD]

• Glenda Bailey will receive the Legion of Honor in Paris next month. Lanvin's Alber Elbaz will present the award. [Telegraph]
• The latest iteration of the bill that would define design piracy and offer some limited intellectual property protection to fashion designers passed the Senate. It now awaits its fate in the House. [WWD]
• This season, some reporting has been done about fashion brands and the rates of increase of their Twitter follower counts. Everyone likes a nice, straightforward story about Brand X doubling its follower count and Brand Y gaining 50,000 new followers and maybe a listicle with some neat graphs in it. Business Insider did such a piece. Mashable did such a piece. But blogger Chelsea Burcz points out that follower count is only part of the story: some brands may be buying fake followers — perhaps so they can end up atop soft-news listicles of the Best Brands Who Win At Doing The Twitter. Take Rebecca Minkoff, a brand which increased its follower count from 64,271 to 94,794, or by 47%, during New York fashion week: Burcz found that 61% of its followers are fake bot accounts (the kind you can buy by the thousand). Furthermore, the brand's follower count didn't grow organically during NYFW, as one might expect — it gained followers by the double or low triple digits every day, except for two days when it jumped by 27,707 and then by 31,807. Those two big jumps didn't actually coincide with the Rebecca Minkoff fashion show, which was livestreamed online and promoted heavily on Twitter by the brand. Other brands that gained a lot of followers during NYFW, like Carolina Herrera and Victoria Beckham, have dramatically fewer fake followers: 4% and 16%, respectively. Rebecca Minkoff denies buying followers. This is a worthwhile reminder to tech reporters to always use the publicly available apps that identify fake follower percentages and track Twitter follower growth over time to look for suspicious patterns of activity. [IFB]
• The world's biggest shoe store — actually, a 96,000-square-foot department store devoted entirely to shoes — is opening in Dubai. Obviously. [WWD]
• Richemont has acquired the niche American clothing brand Peter Millar. Terms of the deal — nor even an estimated dollar value — were not disclosed. [WWD]
• Ivan Bart is overseeing the relaunch of IMG Models men's division. [WWD]
• Gilt Groupe is shuttering Park & Bond, its full-price men's wear site. The online retailer is understood to be trimming some of its unprofitable businesses ahead of an expected I.P.O. next year. [AllThingsD]
• Giorgio Armani was assigned the show time traditionally given to Roberto Cavalli at Milan Fashion Week, forcing Cavalli to delay his show by one day. In response, Cavalli sarcastically called Armani "Little King" on his blog and teased the Italian body that oversees fashion week scheduling for kow-towing to Armani unnecessarily. Armani responded at a press conference by saying, "Cavalli should be quiet because the ‘Little King' could start to get angry." You'd think a fight between two old Italian garmentos would have a little more spice, actually. [WWD]
• If you have $23,000 sitting around — like, each month — you can live in Marc Jacobs' old three-bedroom apartment. The designer moved into a townhouse he owns a few days before NYFW. [Racked]
• Michael Kors is expecting strong quarterly results and raised its guidance — year-on-year same-store sales during the last 11 weeks are up 45.1%. [WWD]
• Sonia Rykiel has named Geraldo da Conceicao, who formerly worked at Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton, and Yves Saint Laurent, as its new artistic director. Rykiel herself announced that she has Parkinson's disease in April. [WWD]
• Protests in China over the disputed sovereignty of the uninhabited Senkaku islands (which are also claimed by Japan) have been negatively affecting the Japanese-owned Uniqlo chain. Japanese businesses, restaurants, and even cars have been targeted by mobs. Signs reading "The Senkaku Islands belong to China" have been posted at several of Uniqlo's Chinese stores, once at the request of local police looking to defuse tensions, and other times by persons unaffiliated with the company. Sixty Uniqlo stores were closed temporarily because of the protests. In Japan, the backlash over the reports of signs has been severe, with thousands of Japanese customers calling and emailing Uniqlo to say that they won't shop there anymore. [WWD]
• Now Art Ortenberg, the former Liz Claiborne executive and longtime partner of Cathy Horyn, has weighed in on the New York Times' critic's weird, distantly food-related spat with Oscar de la Renta. De la Renta, you will recall, misunderstood Horyn's use, in an overwhelmingly positive review of his spring show, of the slang term "hot dog" (meaning "showboater"). And — rather than Googling it — de la Renta bought a page of Women's Wear Daily to express his hurt feelings and ask why he shouldn't now go around calling Horyn a "stale, three-day-old hamburger." Then once everyone had explained the slang and made whooshing over-my-head gestures in de la Renta's general direction, the designer doubled down and said, well, probably "99.9 percent of people" read it the same way he did. And everyone said NO OSCAR CATHY HORYN REALLY DOES NOT THINK YOU ARE A MEAT PRODUCT. REALLY. Everyone except for Lady Gaga that is, who Tweeted that she found de la Renta's paid ad which was based on a basic misunderstanding "chic." This is because Lady Gaga has never liked Cathy Horyn, because as Gaga explained to us all in V magazine last year, she comes from a magical realm where the relativity fairy has made all opinions equally valid and actual professional critics are like so last season because we have Tumblr now. Well. Ortenberg wrote a letter to the editor of Women's Wear Daily and ugh why can't this whole stupid thing just end now please here is the letter:

  To the Editor:

  True, Cathy Horyn is my girlfriend. Nevertheless, I feel it necessary to cudgel Gaga for her badly informed, dumbing-down opinion that an uninformed opinion is as valid as that of a seasoned critic — as though Gaga and Bridget Foley of WWD or David Denby of The New Yorker or Ben Brantley of The New York Times or Brooks Atkinson or Pauline Kael or any professional critic is just another opinion and that Gaga's vacuous thoughts deserve the same status. Grow up, Gaga.

  Please, people. Just stop. [WWD]

Just four months after announcing its commitment to end the practice of hiring models under the age of 16, Vogue magazine has violated its word — for a second time.

Brazilian model Thairine Garcia poses in front of the studio where her Vogue Japan shoot recently took place. Vogue has pledged not to hire models under the age of 16; Garcia is just 14.

The latest model for whom Vogue ignored its own rules is 14-year-old Brazilian Thairine Garcia. Garcia, who will turn 15 this December, last week shot an editorial for Vogue Japan with photographer Sharif Hamza. (Hamza was the photographer responsible for Vogue Paris' infamous 2011 spread featuring child models dressed and made up to look like much older women.) Garcia's editorial is understood to be for Vogue Japan's December issue. Further details about the unpublished spread are not yet available.

American model Ondria Hardin, who is currently 15, was also shot by Vogue China for its August issue.

Following months of media scrutiny of the issue of underaged models in fashion and the conditions of their labor, Vogue magazine this May announced a new six-point pledge regarding the well-being of the models it hires. Point 1 was, "We will not knowingly work with models under the age of 16." Vogue further pledged to ask that agencies not send models under 16 to Vogue, and said that its casting directors would card prospective models just in case. Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, announced the commitment would affect all 19 international editions of the magazine.

15-year-old model Ondria Hardin appears in the August, 2012, issue of Vogue China, another example of Vogue violating its policy not to use underaged models.

Vogue's pledge, which it called its "Health Initiative," marked the first time that any major publication had attempted to set an age limit for its models. Various fashion weeks around the world have set 16 as an age limit for runway work, with mixed success — New York's is regularly flouted, Paris' is strictly enforced — but in any case, fashion week is just a couple weeks out of the year. A lot of modeling work happens the rest of the time. There are many reasons why the mostly unregulated modeling industry can be an inappropriate working environment for a child (and why it's problematic for any 13-year-old to be working essentially full-time in any field). Given that the modeling industry's reliance on child labor has been linked to everything from financial exploitation, to interrupted or abandoned schooling, to eating disorders — not to mention that it contributes to an unrealistic beauty ideal for the adult women who are the main consumers of fashion's imagery — the prospect of a publication setting an age limit for print work was potentially revolutionary. If only it had been observed.

Garcia and Hardin have both been working regularly since they were just 13. Hardin was 13 when she shot the fall, 2011, Prada campaign and has worked extensively for clients all over the world, including the magazines W and Lula. Garcia has been on the cover of V magazine, and has shot an astounding 11 consecutive editorials — including two covers — of Brazilian Harper's Bazaar. Garcia appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in April, just before Vogue announced its new commitment. This September, despite a voluntary ban on hiring models under 16 for runway work in New York promoted by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Hardin and Garcia each walked for seven designers. Brands who hired the two underaged models include Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs, Marchesa, Oscar de la Renta, Peter Som, Thakoon, Theyskens' Theory, and Yigal Azrouël. (Garcia is pictured at the top of this post walking in the Theyskens' Theory show.)

Although Vogue technically announced it would not "knowingly" work with models under 16, Hardin and Garcia are two of the most high-profile (and successful) underaged models currently working. It seems hard to imagine that Vogue wouldn't know their true ages — even if its casting director didn't, as Vogue instructed, card the girls. How disappointing that Vogue's commitment to the health of its models should prove to be so short-lived.

The zipper on the green Zuhair Murad dress Sofia Vergara wore to the Emmy Awards broke just before the ceremony was due to start. Obviously, the actress Tweeted a photo. [@SofiaVergara]

• Karl Lagerfeld, that old yenta, set Vanessa Paradis up with Carla Bruni's ex-boyfriend, French singer Benjamin Biolay. And now they're going to make beautiful music together. By which we mean, Paradis and Biolay are recording a duet for Biolay's new album. [Daily Mail]
• Sharon Stone was rushed to hospital during the Fendi show because of a migraine, which is just about the best way to get out of having to sit still for 20 minutes and watch fur-draped models walk up and down a catwalk. She recovered well enough to host the amfAR AIDS benefit that night. [Us]
• Valentino Garavani confirmed that he designed Anne Hathaway's wedding dress. "She's like my daughter," said the designer. [E!]
• After two seasons, Kanye West has canceled his upcoming Paris fashion show — and may have shut down his clothing line entirely. Critical reception to the musician's first show was pretty cold, to be honest, but Kanye got a lot better the second time around — but then the only seemed to have attracted one retail account: Colette in Paris, which stocked one $5,850 shoe. Kanye's P.R. firm declined to comment when asked if the line had been discontinued, which is always a good sign. [WWD]
• Cathy Horyn enjoyed Jil Sander's first women's wear show in charge of her namesake label in eight years, writing:

  Maybe the most important thing to take away from her show on Saturday was how powerful the Jil Sander brand is. At the most basic level it has survived three different corporate owners in the past decade. But Ms. Sander's minimalist concept has proven to be incredibly durable and also expansive.

  [On The Runway]
  Meanwhile, the Times' Eric Wilson reports that although the circumstances of Sander's return left "many longtime supporters a little wary, to say the least" — you will recall that Raf Simons, a popular and talented designer, was fired from the company in order to enable Sander to take the reins, although Simons certainly landed well, later accepting the top job at Christian Dior — many buyers received the collection well. [On The Runway]

• Anna Dello Russo's 28-year-old assistant, Carlotta Oddi, sounds a little nervous in this interview: "I've never had a crazy request. But for Anna, impossible doesn't exist. When the time comes, I'll be able to do whatever she asks of me, I think." Oddi got the job through her father, who has a mutual friend with the Vogue Japan fashion editor. [The Cut]
• Italian luxury lingerie brand La Perla is for sale by its San Francisco-based owners, the private-equity firm JH Associates. JH acquited an indebted La Perla for around $400 million in 2008 and reorganized the company, cutting unprofitable brands but saving 250 Italian manufacturing jobs. Still, the economy in Europe being what it is, sources say it would probably accept $300 million for La Perla now. [WWD]
• Around 200 people turned out for a memorial service for the fashion editor and famously artistic dresser Anna Piaggi, who died last month at age 81. Rosita Missoni, Manolo Blahnik, and Stephen Jones were among the speakers. Jones recalled that, prior to going on vacation with Missoni, Piaggi once called him up to ask for some waterproof hats:

  "Why?" he asked.

  "Well, I can't be naked in the sauna," she said.

  [On The Runway]

• The new editor-in-chief of Brides is Keija Minor. Minor replaces Ann Fulenwilder, who went to Marie Claire, who replaced Joanna Coles, who went to Cosmopolitan, who replaced Kate White, who retired. WWD notes: "Minor's appointment at Brides marks the first person of color to become editor in chief of a Condé Nast publication." [WWD]
• Stores are opening in Brazil to dress a relatively new market: Evangelical Christians, which have grown from just 6% of the population (according to census figures) in 1980 to 22% in 2010. Many Evangelical congregations require women to wear long skirts or dresses and to cover their shoulders, either for services or in their everyday lives. Pants are verboten. Ana Paula Fernandez, who was shopping at one of the stores profiled in this story, told the Daily Mail:

  "Once when I first joined, I went to church in pants, and the pastor called me out on it," said the 25-year-old manicurist and mother of a 7-year-old daughter. "It seemed strange at first, but now I see how what you wear affects other people, not to mention your own sense of self-worth."

  Now, she says she wears only modest, loose-fitting dresses to church.

  "I feel dignified."

  [Daily Mail]

• Net profits at Prada during the first six months rose year-on-year by 59.5%. [WWD]
• Derek Lam's upcoming collection for Kohl's, set to reach stores next spring, is inspired by Lam's recent trip to Rio de Janeiro. This will be the second mass-market designer collaboration in the U.S. in recent months to count Brazil as an inspiration, after Francisco Costa's collection for Macy's. [WWD]

Benefit cosmetics hired comedian Sarah Colonna to film this short ad, in which Colonna plays a member of the beauty police who cruises around on a Segway and writes tickets to pedestrians for infractions like improperly applied fake eyelashes, wearing too much makeup, and for not working out to be skinny. "Really, you're just naturally thin?" says Colonna. "I'm going to give you another ticket because that's just annoying."

She tells another woman, "Look at your eyebrows, they look like McDonald's arches. Can I order a hamburger off your face?"

The clip isn't funny — it's just mean. Who thought it would be a good idea to hire a celebrity to go up to strangers on the street — not fellow famous people, or folks who have any kind of public image associated with their looks — and tell them how ugly they are? And why would a cosmetics company want to align itself with the message that it's funny to judge and insult women based on their appearance? This ad makes me want to pour my Benetint down the drain and go back to Nars.

Sofia Vergara had an Emmy Awards wardrobe malfunction, which she later Tweeted about. Vergara's heavily beaded backless gown caused the invisible zipper to split minutes before she was to go on stage. But apparently her fiancé Nick Loeb acted like the whole thing was, like, such a drag and generally behaved like an asshole:

According to a source, a frantic Vergara came storming through the halls with an entourage as she covered herself in Loeb's jacket. "Someone in the front was screaming ‘Wardrobe! Wardrobe!' and she was frantic and in tears," says the spy. "Nick was trailing in the back looking annoyed."

So what did Nick Loeb do? Did he comfort his tearful fiancée? Or help her find someone to fix the dress? Nope. He allegedly complained that he needed a cigarette, and kind of implied the whole thing was her fault, saying, "Her dress got stuck on the seat and made a huge rip. Her whole fucking ass was sticking out." While an assistant (where was her stylist?) used a needle and thread to sew the zipper closed as a temporary fix, Loeb said helpful things like, "Let's go Sofia!!" [P6]

• Vivienne Westwood has some harsh words for working mothers:

  "I've got people here in this company who pay as much to the baby minder as they earn at work. Because they'd rather work than look after their child. But I think they have to really think about what they're doing."

  Westwood herself worked when her children were young — first at a stand where she sold her own jewelry, then at her legendary boutique SEX, and then, you know, when she was building her clothing line into perhaps the largest female-owned independent global brand in the world today. "I know. I was a terrible mother," says the designer. "I didn't put my children first." [Independent]

• Nicki Minaj made an appearance at Macy's New York flagship to promote her first perfume. Three hundred people bought $155 gift sets of the fragrance to gain entrance. Industry analysts expect the perfume, produced under license by Elizabeth Arden, will do around $40 million at retail in its first year. [WWD]
• New York jeweler Jennifer Gandia says that marriage equality has made her job more fun:

  "It's been really fun since the marriage equality laws have changed, working with same-sex couples, since you see a ton of creativity. We had a couple who had waited 24 years for the law to change, and they had a design in mind for I don't know how many years."

  [Racked]

• Some moderately good news on the unemployment front: seasonal retail hiring may reach 700,000 jobs this holiday season, better than the 660,000 seasonal hires made by retailers last year. [WWD]
• Analysts worry that a growing taste in China for less conspicuous (and logo-laden) luxury goods will hurt the performance of brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton in Asia. [Bloomberg]
• Yay! Véronique Branquinho showed this season for the first time in over three years. [WWD]
• Karlie Kloss says her childhood ballet training has both helped and hurt her since she began modeling at age 13. The help is that she can jump in heels with no trouble because it's no worse than jumping en pointe. The hurt is, well:

  "I was cancelled for my first show in my first season because I walked like a duck with my feet turned out. I was devastated, of course."

  [Vogue UK]

• Uniqlo's latest U.S. store — its first store in a mall, and a prototype for its long-planned North American expansion — is set to open Friday in Paramus, New Jersey. Uniqlo had a couple stores in New Jersey malls a few years back but closed them to regroup and refocus, and this 43,000 square feet of merchandise is the result of the Japanese-owned chain's soul-searching. [WWD]
• Patrizio Bertelli told analysts and the press on an earnings call that we all need to calm down about the European debt crisis and the economy. "I'm here because I think we need to be more serene and less hysterical," said the Prada C.E.O. "I want to reassure you, with a minimum of caution, that I don't see the market as so disastrous...We are all too aware of political troubles on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, but this has been going on for years and we must be proactive. Brands that have always had a serious way of working have always seen their business increase." Said the guy who just announced a 59.5% year-on-year jump in net profits for the first six months. [WWD]
• Is Condé Nast's announcement that it will be launching a French edition of Vanity Fair just a long, involved way of stealing the new-magazine spotlight from fired Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld, who herself is launching CR Fashion Book? Reports the New York Times:

  [I]t is unusual for a magazine to be introduced many months before it appears, without a fixed date for the first edition. It is especially unusual for that to happen in the midst of an economic crisis, with a soft advertising market.

  One French journalist with close ties to the magazine business said the early announcement might have been aimed at stealing the limelight from Carine Roitfeld, former editor of another Condé Nast publication, the French edition of Vogue, who left that magazine two years ago.

  [NYTimes]

• Buyers say they mostly liked the spring collections in Milan. So what are we in for next spring? "Asian" themes (thanks, Prada), tunics over pants, and something called "summer leathers." [WWD]
• The Times critically shops the new Proenza Schouler boutique and lays the smack down on the super-popular PS1 bag:

  Personally, I think the thing looks like something a midlevel male account manager might use to lug his Dell laptop on a commuter flight to Buffalo.

  There's more:

  [T]he whole place, tucked into a frilly brownstone but with interiors designed by the architect David Adjaye, is kind of "Star Trek." Glass doors at the entrance slide open automatically. Cactuses rear up, an alien life form in humid New York. Reached by a flight of stairs behind a triangle-patterned screen, the second floor has a pockmarked look, as if brutalized by a recent meteor shower.

  And many of the current clothes, like the jagged miniskirts in techno fabrics, suggest something Lieutenant Uhura might don to seduce or confuse Captain Kirk into another clinch. A white sweater with black sleeves and gold zippers at the shoulders was a basic but brilliant feat of optical illusion ($700) that would go nicely with basic black skinny jeans ($255). One Tribble, a gray alpaca clutch, folded out cleverly at angles, like a piece of origami ($1,500).

  Automatic sliding glass doors. That technology has been around for what, 50 years now? [NYTimes]

• Kenneth Cole's plan to take the company private by buyout outstanding shares for $15.25 a pop has been approved by a majority of shareholders and will go forward, likely today. That values the company at around $245 million. [WWD]
• Wet Seal, which has performed exceptionally poorly in recent years and is currently defending a racial-discrimination lawsuit, is fighting an attempt by activist shareholders to replace several members of its board. [WWD]
• Entertainment Weekly is launching a new online fashion vertical called Style & Design. Women's Wear Daily notes that its logo resembles that of Time's style supplement. [WWD]

Victoria's Secret has quickly pulled an Asian-themed lingerie collection called "Go East" that traded in sexualized, generic pan-Asian ethnic stereotypes. The item people found most offensive? The $98 "Sexy Little Geisha" teddy. The teddy was part of the lingerie giant's "Sexy Little Things" product category — making it sort of like the "Sexy Little Sergeant" outfit or the "Sexy Little Showgirl" get-up VS also offers, only with overtones of Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The "Sexy Little Geisha" teddy boasted an obi-style belt and was accessorized with chopsticks for your hair and a paper fan. "Your ticket to an exotic adventure: a sexy mesh teddy with flirty cutouts and Eastern-inspired florals," read the VS Web copy. "Sexy little fantasies, there's one for every sexy you." Jeff Yang at the Wall Street Journal interviewed one of the most insightful voices on the topic of fashion's construction of race, Mimi Nguyen from Threadbared, about the "Go East" collection:

Mimi Nguyen, associate professor of women's and Asian American studies at the University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign and cofounder with Minh-Ha Pham of the Threadbared fashion blog, flags the collection as a set of "stereotypical images that use racist transgression to create an exotic edge," pointing out that all of the models wearing the Go East lingerie are non-Asian. "Asians can't wear things like the ‘sexy little geisha' outfit without looking ridiculous," she says. "But it's a way for white women to borrow a racially exotic edge for a moment's play." Or, as, Phil Yu, the inimitable voice behind the AngryAsianMan.com blog, puts it even more simply: "Hooray for exotic orientalist bullshit."

Following this uproar, Victoria's Secret promptly yanked the Sexy Little Geisha outfit, and then obscured access to the whole Go East collection, with publicists now saying that the line has "sold out," an assertion belied by the fact that the items have been purged from the website's very database: Searches for "Geisha" or "Go East" now come up as errors. (Though no longer accessible directly, the line can still be seen, sans sexy geisha outfit, at this link.)

[ABC, WSJ]

• Here is why Karl Lagerfeld does not wear hats:

  "I love hats, in a way, but when I was a child, I'd wear Tyrolean hats, and my mother — I was something like eight — said to me, ‘You shouldn't wear hats. You look like an old dyke.' Do you say such things to children? She was quite funny, no?"

  Also: "If you're accustomed to a handmade shirt by Hilditch, a ready-bought shirt is like wearing some torture stuff." [Fashionista]

• Women's Wear Daily reports that the women's ready-to-wear runway debuts of Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent and Raf Simons at Christian Dior this week in Paris are making other designers lift their game. "I love competition because it moves me forward," says Lanvin's Alber Elbaz. "I think it will be an exciting season in Paris. It is needed!" says Karl Lagerfeld.

  And competition for models is described as intense, with some designers blocking top walkers for four to five hours before their shows. "No designer wants to be told they can't have the girls they want," said one source. Slimane is also said to have lined up a pack of new faces who will walk exclusively for Saint Laurent Paris.

  [WWD]

• Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson went shopping at the YSL boutique in Paris. [DM]
• Model Jessica White, fresh from her assault rap, says she's excited to release the album she wrote and produced herself. Her first single, not yet released, is called "White Magic Power of a Woman." [Fashionista]
• Rebecca Minkoff C.E.O. Uri Minkoff says that the company's Instagram account — which currently boasts 100,530 followers — has helped its shoe sales double year-on-year between spring 2011 and spring 2012. This is the same company that was recently caught appearing to inflate its Twitter follower count with fake accounts, so perhaps take that with a grain of salt. [WWD]
• Joan Rivers explains fashion week:

  "Trying to make sense of New York Fashion Week is like trying to make sense of a party at Charlie Sheen's house: tons of beautiful women, lasts for days, and it's a miracle that no one died."

  [Buzzfeed]

• Baldwin spouse Hilaria Thomas' Emmys dress was lost by UPS. When it was finally located at a distribution center in Van Nuys, Thomas drove to pick it up, hugged the UPS employee who had helped her, and asked for everyone to give the woman a round of applause. P6]
• Chanel has acquired the small French glovemaker Causse, which employs around 40 people making 25,000 pairs of gloves per year. Causse happens to make the black fingerless gloves that Karl Lagerfeld is rarely without. [WWD]
• A model, on modeling: "[T]he reality is that it is a pretty unfulfilling job with a definite expiration date, in which you gain very few transferrable skills." [HuffPo]
• Stuart Weitzman is the latest U.S. brand to ink a deal with Indian-based Reliance Brands as a retail franchisee. Brooks Brothers and Steve Madden have already agreed to enter the Indian market with Reliance as their retail partner, and Weitzman plans for its first stores with Reliance to open in Delhi and Mumbai early next year. [WWD]
• Estée Lauder spent the past four years working on a top-secret new brand for the Asian market: Osiao. They shredded documents related to the project to avoid detection by competitors and the press. Osiao is a luxury brand — serums will cost $211 — developed by a team based in China. [NYTimes]
• Don't hold your breath for Tom Ford to go back to a major luxury house:

  "Been there, done that. I learned a tremendous amount from my time at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, but I was always designing within an existing framework. In launching my own line, I am allowed to only create products that I believe in. Everything at Tom Ford is steeped in my DNA — it would be a step backwards for me now to go and design for another fashion house."

  [Vogue UK]

• WSJ. editor Deborah Needleman is said to be deciding between keeping her job at the helm of the recently launched Journal-owned luxury magazine and leaving to take the analogous position at the New York Times' T. A potential spanner in the works is Hearst, which is reportedly also trying to recruit Needleman, though a spokesperson denied it. [WWD]
• Miss J. Alexander has a boyfriend who lives in Paris. "Nobody knows who he is. He hates all of this stuff," said J at a Paris fashion week show. "He's just a simple, blond-haired, blue-eyed Frenchman." [The Cut]
• And now, a moment with Giorgio Armani. Giorgio, how did you get your start in fashion?

  "Up until I was about 30 to 32-years-old, I used to potter around doing a small job at a department store. I used to coordinate what went into the window or other store tasks. And I didn't have to work very hard — because, well, I was quite good looking. The female managers in the shop used to favour me, making things really easy for me."

  [Vogue UK]

So. How'd everybody just notice that the Dolce & Gabbana collection that graced a catwalk in Milan last week was chock full of dated, racist imagery of black women? Mammy earrings? Hello? How'd the fashion press, those folks who keep their eyes always peeled for next season's hot accessory, miss Mammy earrings?

Click any photo to enlarge.

The Dolce & Gabbana collection was, according to the designers, inspired by their Sicilian heritage. There were rustic, flour sack dresses and examples of Sicilian basket-weaving in the form of wicker crinolines mixed into a show that favored generically feminine 1950s silhouettes. There were also lots of garments that hearkened back to an older tradition by incorporating prints based on archetypes found in the opera dei pupi, the Sicilian marionette theater where Medieval epic poems are retold with puppets. In many of those stories, the drama centers on the question of whether the heroic, puppet knights will again prevail against the wicked "moors" — the puppets representing Muslim invaders.

Is that the reason why the spring Dolce & Gabbana collection is full of blackamoor imagery? It's impossible to tell; to my eye, the black faces on the collection's prints and the black bust figurines that swung from the models' ears, with their deep black, undifferentiated skin tone, exaggerated, brightly colored lips, and head kerchiefs full of fruit, look more reminiscent of Jim Crow-era American depictions of black people than they do of opera dei pupi marionettes. They seem more like Mammy than they do the Saracens of the puppet theater, who — though intended to represent Africans — had bodies that were often painted the same color as their European knight foes. This seems like more of an appropriation of racist imagery for sheer kitsch value than it does an appropriation of racist imagery for its historical value and/or for purposes of critique. And appropriating this kind of imagery just for kitsch kicks — that's ugly.

In any case, it's hardly the first time that the world of high fashion has chosen to depict black people in stereotypical (and offensive) ways. Christian Dior made shoes in 2007 that had heels made of "fertility goddess" figurines — which actually looked a lot like Sarah Baartman. Vogue Italia advertised "slave earrings" last year. Model Alek Wek wrote in her memoir of her discomfort when she shot a Lavazza calendar where she posed inside a coffee cup, her skin intended to represent the espresso. She wrote of the resulting images:

"I can't help but compare them to all the images of black people that have been used in marketing over the decades. There was the big-lipped jungle-dweller on the blackamoor ceramic mugs sold in the '40s; the golliwog badges given away with jam; Little Black Sambo, who decorated the walls of an American restaurant chain in the 1960s; and Uncle Ben, whose apparently benign image still sells rice."

Oh, but look! Dolce & Gabbana made some earrings with a white lady, too. Obviously this whole thing can't be racist. Nevermind.

Colonialist Chic? No Thanks, Dolce & Gabbana [Refinery29]

In May, the 19 editions of Vogue magazine pledged to abide by a new set of rules governing their hiring of models. To promote fairer labor standards in the modeling industry and a healthier image of beauty and fashion, Vogue announced it would no longer hire models under the age of 16. All 19 Vogue editors-in-chief posed together for a photo and heavily promoted the news on their Web sites and in their magazines, and Vogue got a lot of good press. The June issue was the date of the changeover to the new, underaged-model-free Vogue.

The magazine kept its word for precisely two months. Vogue China broke its word by casting a 15-year-old model named Ondria Hardin in an editorial spread in the August issue (above right). In September, we reported exclusively that a second Vogue — Vogue Japan — had shot the 14-year-old model Thairine Garcia for a spread destined for the December issue. (Garcia is seen above at left walking in the Anna Sui show this season in New York. The Council of Fashion Designers of America has a long-standing policy against hiring models under the age of 16 for runway work; Sui is a member and a recipient of the organization's lifetime achievement award.) Both Garcia and Hardin have been working internationally since the age of 13. It is not known if either is regularly accompanied by parents or guardians or what impact their work has had on their schooling.

Now, Condé Nast International — which publishes all of the international editions of Vogue — is very, very sorry. Jonathan Newhouse, the head of Condé Nast International who announced the six-point "Health Initiative" manifesto alongside the 19 editors, says:

"The Health Initiative banning underage models is very serious, and we will reinforce it. I apologize for the error that took place in China. We will do everything possible to prevent future errors."

Vogue China editor Angelica Cheung has also apologized.

Meanwhile, Vogue Japan claims that it cast Garcia "unwittingly" — which seems unlikely given that she is one of the best-known underaged models working today, with covers of V and Vogue Italia (shot before the age pledge was announced) under her belt, and also given that one of the promises in the age pledge was that Vogue would card models to verify age. Vogue Japan says it will not publish Garcia's photographs. That gesture unfortunately could be interpreted as a punishment to the child — Vogue would do better to punish the adults who hired her in violation of the company policy. [WWD]

• During their recent tour of Asia and the Pacific, Kate Middleton and Prince William wore the wrong clothes to a state dinner in the Solomon Islands. Although the royal couple had intended to wear clothing from the Solomons, they mistakenly donned outfits from the Cook Islands — a totally different set of islands nearly 3,000 miles away. The details of the state dinner had been meticulously planned, until the well-intentioned interventions of a local official named Kethie Sunders threw a spanner into the works:

  The agreement between Clarence House and the Solomons' government was that William would be presented with two gorgeous shirts tailor-made locally, while his wife would wear a summer dress she had brought with her. The shirts were duly laid out in their hotel room. But at the last minute, an over-keen member of the welcoming committee, Kethie Sunders, nipped into the couple's room to leave a number of extra gifts. When William and Kate arrived, they found a handsome blue shirt and a brightly-coloured dress laid out on their beds and put them on, little knowing what offence they were about to cause.

  A press release issued by Government House said: "We are incredibly frustrated that this situation has come about and see Kethie as entirely to blame. It was completely inappropriate for her to go to Their Royal Highnesses' room, which she filled with various things, causing confusion."

  [Independent]

• Emma Watson:

  "I think the line between what being an actor is and what being a celebrity is has gotten so fuzzy that people don't even know what we do anymore. Models are actresses and actresses are models and actresses are designing sofas and it's crazy."

  [Nylon]

• New L'Oréal face Lea Michele has some advice for you: wear less makeup. "I try not to wear makeup in my daily life to give my skin a chance to breathe," she says. [WWD]
• "Reports Say Child Labor Still an Issue" — especially in apparel, footwear, and textiles manufacturing, cotton production, and mining. [WWD]
• Lily McMenamy, the 18-year-old daughter of model Kristen McMenamy and nightclub owner Hubert Boukobza, is rumored to be one of the new faces Hedi Slimane has booked for his first Yves Saint Laurent women's wear show. [Fashionista]
• H&M says its profits rose year-on-year by only 1%, to $549 million, during the three months just ended. The company also says it is delaying the launch of e-commerce in the U.S., which had been planned for this fall, until the middle of next year. It plans to launch a higher priced brand called & Other Stories in the U.S. next spring. [Businessweek]
• Pop'Africana, the African fashion magazine launched in 2010, has announced it will cease publishing. [Jezebel Inbox]
• And now, a moment with Cara Delevigne, Karlie Kloss, and Jourdan Dunn. Upon leaving the Anthony Vaccarello show, the three models were singing the Powerpuff Girls theme song:

  Cara: Powerpuff girls forevah!
  Jourdan: Forevah evah!
  TV reporter: It's incredible to see you all together — what brings you all here?
  Karlie: Anthony is incredibly talented and I think that all of us enjoy working with him. You feel beautiful in his clothes.
  Jourdan: And strong and sexy.
  Karlie: He's the next generation, too. And we're the next generation.
  Jourdan: We have to support each other.
  Cara: He sees potential in the Powerpuff Girls.
  Fashionista: Were you guys cold?
  Karlie: A little cold yeah, there wasn't much layering to that collection.
  Jourdan: My nipples were like, I was trying to warm them up.
  Fashionista: But that looks good on the runway right?
  Jourdan: Pointy nipples!? I guess it brings the clothes out a bit.
  Cara: Oh yeah, I guess maybe.
  Karlie: On that note I'm leaving.
  Cara: Powerpuff out!

  [Fashionista]