Loose Threads

• Judith Leiber is launching a mid-range line of clutches, Overture by Judith Leiber, with prices ranging from $200 to $700.

• Derek Blasberg tweeted that Mario Testino has shot Britney Spears for V magazine’s March issue.

• Carolina Herrera has produced a capsule line of her signature white shirts inspired by, and named for, the women in her family.

• Lady Gaga dyed part of her hair black and tweeted about it.

• The new owner of Gianfranco Ferré, Abdulkader Sankari, answered only “we’ll see” when asked if designers Tommaso Aquilino and Roberto Rimondi would remain in charge.

• British fashion chain All Saints is reportedly up for sale for $140 million.

• Melissa Molinari, the actress in the new Old Navy ads, discusses her uncanny resemblance to Kim Kardashian.

• True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld helped Marchesa design her Oscars gown.

• Terry Richardson hung out with Monica Lewinsky.

André Leon Talley and Eric Wilson Disagree Strongly on Last Night’s Oscars Fashion

In what were quite possibly the most polar-opposite red-carpet reviews of the year, Vogue editor André Leon Talley praised last night’s Oscar fashion for its “sensational sweep of elegant yet hot dresses,” while Times fashion critic Eric Wilson sniffed that "many women were wearing dresses that were, well, as plain and flat as the carpet beneath their feet."

Among the trends that rustled down the red carpet were nude and neutral-colored gowns with accents of feather and tulle. Talley couldn’t get enough of the trend, as worn by Halle Berry, Hillary Swank, and Hailee Steinfeld (one of his “best-dressed ladies” of the evening, along with Michelle Williams in a “superb column” by Chanel). Wilson, on the other hand, called Williams’s frock a “blahsy white T-shirt dress covered in white beading.”

He was equally unimpressed by what little glitz he did see:

There was a bit of a sparkle trend happening, to the point that some of the gowns looked like they might be more appropriate for competitive ice skating, like Mandy Moore’s gold beaded dress with an illusion neckline, Monique Lhuillier, or Hilary Swank in silver sequins and frothy feathers from Gucci.”

Another trend that made almost as many appearances as Colin Firth's face was the color red. While Talley applauded Jennifer Lawrence for “looking like the 20-year-old star that she is” in a simple Calvin Klein creation and Sandra Bullock for her “to die for” Vera Wang strapless gown (both in the popular hue), Wilson was much less enthused by the two stars’ picks. He called Bullock's dress a “tomato-red Calvin Klein design that looked about as complicated as a one-piece bathing suit” and thought that Lawrence “looked a little dated."

Other disagreements on the fashion front came by way of Amy Adams (Talley: hit; Wilson: miss) and Gwyneth Paltrow (more of the same). The two critics were on the same page with a few things, though: Talley disapproved of Nicole Kidman's Dior ensemble, noting that her red shoes looked "random"; Wilson thought the dress "looked like the front of a train coming down the red carpet. Look out!" Mila Kunis’s lavender Elie Saab was perhaps too sexy, per both critics, and Natalie Portman's Rodarte dress looked, well, good. For Talley that meant "elegant," and for Wilson, "great" — though it's hard to say exactly how "great" when his lasting impression of Portman was that he "kind of wanted her to work that bump like Snooki does." This is probably not what the Oscar winner was going for, but hey — a half-compliment from Wilson last night was almost as hard to come by as an Oscar itself.

Beauty Marks

FRAGRANCE

• Dita Von Teese dropped some hints about the new perfume she's working on. "No fruit, no vanilla, no candy. Velvet sensuality with a dash of vulgarity! I want to evoke passion with fragrance: intense love/lust and distaste/fear rather than merely popular acceptance."

• Meadham Kirchhoff designers Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff have teamed up with Brit fragrance purveyor Penhaligon’s to “scent” their latest collection.

• South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius is the new face of Thierry Mugler’s A*Men men’s scent.

MAKEUP

• Ashley Smith tried out tangerine eye shadow and a matte fuchsia lip color for the latest issue of Dansk.

• January Jones stepped out wearing bright red lipstick and thick stripes of yellow eye shadow.

• Lady Gaga, promoting her MAC lipstick, sales from which go toward the fight against HIV: “MAC has a strong identity, a strong camp of people who are the faces of MAC. It’s not just beautiful girls that are airbrushed and stretched to look teeny tiny and perfect. It is so without prejudice and without judgment in the most beautiful way. And that’s how the conversation about sex should happen. It’s removed of race, it’s removed of sexual orientation. Wrap it up, protect yourself, and buy that lipstick for your mom, or your sister, or who knows, maybe your brother likes to wear lipstick — and tell them to be safe. Love yourself.”

Shiny Pants Are the Party Garb of Next Fall

The shiny metallic trousers that showed up in several collections conjured an era of liberated, bohemian cocktail parties; part Betty Draper, part Gloria Steinem. Stacy Bendet's version at Alice + Olivia were cut loose and easy, while Jill Stuart and Marc Jacobs kept theirs trim and paired with tailored jackets.

Flash Mobs, High-Altitude Drops, Skating Rinks, and the Season of the Stunt Show

A model walks out. Then another. Then another. Then the Designer. Then there's applause. That's been the fashion show formula since time immemorial — well, since Paris in the thirties — but this past week in New York, that went out the window. Or rather, dropped from a great height via a crotch harness which was then unbuckled for the runway walk.

More than any other season in memory, designers did very public stunt shows this week. Like Elise Overland's show on ice, which starred the newly fledged fixture that is Johnny Weir, and a gigantic ice sculpture that had that morning been in a Pennsylvania lake. “It is a slash between a nuclear tower and an igloo,” Overland explained. “If it is just an igloo, it is too romantic for me. I’m not romantic."

Catherine Malandrino is; her show took place in slightly dingy former offices of the New York Times. The Times Square building is soon going to be converted into a hotel, and Malandrino said, “This made it more exciting, like it was an installation that would soon disappear.” Malandrino chanced upon the site during an extensive scouting search. “The space reminded me of the photographer Peter Lindbergh when he would set up a model in a raw space with daylight. Ten minutes before we opened the show I was looking at the space and I thought, This is a moment of magic."

Andrew Buckler didn't even need a roof; he shut down the street in front of his store and used it as a runway. Siki Im had a runway made out of dirt and Native Americans chanting and beating drums. Moncler had a flash mob dance performance in Grand Central, and Thom Browne showed his women's collection in the august wood-paneled interior of the New Your Public Library. But the biggest stunt goes to Band of Outsiders, whose mountain-climbing-inspired show opened with models rappelling down from the ceiling.

“It was wicked!” enthused model Jonatan Frenk. "At the casting, Sternberg asked, 'Are you scared of heights?' And then we had to try on the harness.” The safety measures were high, but Frenk would have liked a little more thrill. "I was surprised about how slow it was,” he says. “I thought it was going to be a freefall drop.”

Loose Threads

• Gilt Groupe is considering a public offering in 2012.

• Abbey Lee is flanked by shirtless men in Versace’s latest campaign.

• Lauren Santo Domingo’s e-commerce site, Moda Operandi, launched over the weekend.

• Emmanuelle Alt on her decision to put Gisele on her first French Vogue cover: “For me it was just a spontaneous decision. There was no question."

• Dree Hemingway and Pixie Geldoff modeled for a House of Holland video.

• A fan approached Gwen Stefani at the L.A.M.B. after-party on Thursday and showed her his tattoo of her face on his stomach.

• Brad Goreski styled Kate Spade’s fall 2011 collection, which is full of pinks, leopard prints, and bows.

• Rachel Zoe threw a baby shower this weekend, and guests included Demi Moore, Kate Hudson, Brian Atwood, and Nicole Richie and Joel Madden.

• Glenda Bailey: "It's enormous ... to be able to see a collection from all angles with the models moving, being able to see the fabrics, the textures and it helps you understand the spirit of the designer. Now, can you see those individual looks on the internet? Yes and great. Anything that gets everybody more interested in fashion, I'm so pro and so for. But it's a different experience and it is, from a journalist's perspective, so much easier to be able to see things in reality. After all, Alber Elbaz says, 'If it's edible it's going to be food. If it's fashion it's meant to be worn.'"

• In China, sales of luxury goods are expected to rise 25 percent a year over the next five years.

Luca Luca Fall 2011

When you ask a designer for his or her inspiration for a collection, you can’t predict the answer. Some are vague or brief. Others, like Raul Melgoza, the creative director at Luca Luca, are much more specific.

“The inspiration was a woman traveling through the woods. I envisioned her first coming in with a horse,” he said backstage afterwards, beginning a nearly scene-by-scene storyboard description of his Fall 2011 collection. “A little bit of the riding inspiration, the utility,” he said. “This idea of kind of a masculine feminine.”

Mr. Melgoza began the show with heavy layers, a camel colored trench coat and olive green leather pants, followed by a gray twill skirt and then a fox fur jacket.

The weight of the fabrics eased as the woman in Mr. Melgoza’s story “jumps off her horse and she starts to run through the woods. She starts to take off the layers and we start to see a lot of lace, a lot of sheers.” An olive silk dress with black lace and later a fuchsia jersey dress lightened the collection, as did an orange ensemble made of “lightweight suede,” according to the show notes. A cocktail shift with a beaded overlay was especially ladylike. (Although the dress that preceded it, which was covered in tufts of silver fox fur, suggested perhaps the woman got into a tussle with an animal whilst running.)

Mr. Melgoza’s story ended when the woman leaves the woods and heads for “the fabulous party,” – to which she presumably wears one of a trio of gowns that closed the show, including a high-necked, flowing fuchsia print dress and a black cowl neck dress with embellished shoulders.

The fairytale journey is the response to what Mr. Melgoza sees as a return to luxury. “The recession is turning and I think people are tired of just fast fashion,” Mr. Melgoza said. “They want special pieces, they want special colors, special finishes…pieces that can’t be knocked off left and right by the mass producers.”

Duckie Brown Fall 2011

The menswear designer duo Duckie Brown is known for taking bold risks on the runway, subverting traditional menswear. Think sequins, three-arm sweaters.

And sometimes for subverting any chances of mainstream success for their small label.

On Thursday, the designers put on a show that again turned traditional menswear on its head. The pearl sweatshirt with a big scoop neck early on in the show, for example.

The show also subverted audience expectations.There were flannel “wrap” trousers that looked part drapey-dress, part pant, and fun, shaggy shearling fur coats that brought Muppets to my mind.

There were also some sharply tailored three-button sportcoats, a black cashmere “Crombie” coat and the final look, a dreamy camel cashmere “wrap” coat, that some audience members, who are used to the duo’s more artful impulses, probably weren’t expecting to see in a Duckie Brown show.

The pull and push between fashion as commerce and fashion as an artistic pursuit that played out on Duckie Brown’s runway may or may not have been deliberate and may have disappointed some of its avid fashion-forward fans.

But it did manage to give a complete picture of Duckie Brown: the designers can turn out exquisite tailored sportswear with a slight modern twist or exquisite tailored sportswear with a loud 360-turn.

Fashion Week Off To A Cold Start

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicked off on Thursday with a cold start.
Temperatures well below freezing seemed to keep some people away, but the serious fashionistas braved the cold to make it to the runway shows.
"I have blue fur. I'm prepared," said Seventeen magazine stylist Andrew Mukamal of his stylish winter attire. "Then again, I'm wearing a mesh shirt underneath and that's making me freezing. But it's fashion, it's not supposed to make sense."
The morning's big show was BCBGMaxazria, which featured long layered styles in the fall 2011 collection. Celebrity attendees included actresses Jennifer Love Hewitt, Taraji P. Henson, and Katrina Bowden.
A moderate crowd gathered for the Duckie Brown show in the early afternoon, featuring oversized outerwear for the menswear line.
Industry insiders said Fashion Week's slower start was typical. Still, the excitement level was high in the main tent on Thursday.
"It's kind of like the first day of class at school. You get to see all your friends from the other magazines and everyone's at their best and in their best outfits and really polite and cheerful," said Andrew Bevan, style editor at Teen Vogue.
"But it starts to unravel by Monday and Tuesday when people have been going to the parties for multiple nights in a row."
Mukamal added that Fashion Week provides those in the inudstry the opportunity to see into their own future.
"You see what you'll be working with for the next six months and what you'll be wearing in 12 months," Mukamal said.
"If you live by fashion like I do as a stylist, this week is really it."

Prada Goes Bananas This Spring

If your bananas come with the Chiquita label, you are doing bananas all wrong. The best ones now bear the label "Prada," and if you needed a reminder that the collection from whence the fruit originated is the greatest thing since Darwin's theories on evolution, here is the complete spring campaign. Shot by Steven Meisel and starring models Arizona Muse, Mariacarla Boscono, Kinga Rajzak, Zuzanna Bijoch, and Tati Cotliar, the ads also may show you that you're doing things other than bananas all wrong — such as fur, which should be bright and striped. And as for your jeans — did you know they're laughing at you? For denim is not for skinnies (coughpassécough), but neat handbags, and an even neater loose-fitting, boatneck shirt. Also, why don't your sneakers have thick foam platform soles? Don't just conform — this spring, flatform!

Naomi Campbell’s Agent: ‘I Now Look for Girls With Breasts’

It may be too soon to say whether or not the preferred model look is changing, and super-skinny girls will fall (at least somewhat) out of fashion, making way for curvy girls to book the big jobs, too. You would think that, rather than issuing guidelines each season on how to keep very thin models healthy, the industry might decide the better solution is to just make samples bigger already and hire less thin, slightly older girls. Anyway, Naomi Campbell's ex-agent Carole White, who runs the Premier agency in London, confirms that while the jury may be out on hips, boobs — which the notoriously breast-fearing fashion industry seemed to shun until Lara Stone came along — seem to be the hot things nowadays. White spoke to the Daily Mail:
"I now look for girls with breasts, and that is something we wouldn’t have countenanced ten years ago. Our biggest demand in the past two years has been for a D cup, but obviously you have to have a really fit body.

'Now, we talk to our models about nutrition, make sure they have a personal trainer. Even our language has changed. A decade ago, we would have just said: “Don’t eat!” ’

White says the girls — and really "hot" ones can fetch anywhere from $16,000 to $32,000 per show season across the four major Fashion Weeks — have to be fit so they can handle going to the sometimes twenty appointments they'll have in one day.
‘That’s why I tell the girls they need to be as fit as Olympic athletes to make it,’ Carole says. ‘After New York, I have girls who are crying with exhaustion.’

‘I agree 16 is very young. And while in London we stick to the rules, and don’t use girls who are younger, that’s not the case in New York, Milan and Paris. You will see girls cast for the big names who are 14. That will never change.’

So now the girls have to worry about, well, being 14, doing all their appointments, and having boobs in addition to everything else? Is "having boobs" the new "being thin"? We just hope more designers start putting them in bras and breast-concealing undergarments on the runway. Runway nips are always unsettling, especially since sometimes you don't know if the girl is 14. But hopefully if large chests are in fashion, designers will have to hire girls who are at least a little bit older.

Beauty Marks

SKIN

• LVMH has just acquired luxury botanical skin-care brand Ole Henriksen. 

• Breaking: Pregnancy has supposedly cured Victoria Beckham’s acne. A “source close to the star” reports, “The hormones really suit her and she’s said this pregnancy has cleared up her spots!” 

MAKEUP

• Liu Wen, Kirsi Pyrhonen, Jeneil Williams, Milou Van Groesen, and Rose Cordero painted thick, black stripes over their eyebrows and doused their eyelids in neon colors for the cover of i-D’s pre-spring issue. 

• Take a peek inside stylist Julia von Boehm's beauty cabinet. 

• Dior released two short teasers of Kate Moss’s video spot for the brand’s new Addict Lipstick. What we can discern: Paris, paparazzi, and pink makeup. 

NAILS

• Fergie wore crystal-encrusted talons over her nails for her Super Bowl performance. 

HAIR

• The Green Bay Packers’ longhaired linebacker Clay Matthews just landed a deal endorsing Suave for Men’s reformulated line of hair-care products. 

Gaga to Wear Thierry Mugler to the Grammys?

She has a contract with Armani Privé — who she so famously wore last year — but sources say she is likely to wear Mugler in support of her stylist Nicola Formichetti, who debuted this season as the label's creative director. Whatever she wears is bound to be amazing. If there's one thing we can rely on her for, it's not to show up to events wearing just one outfit because it was comfortable.

Gisele Calls Sunscreen ‘Poison,’ Upsets World

"I cannot put this poison on my skin," she said. "I do not use anything synthetic." She exposes herself to the sun, she says, only before 8 a.m. Before you all go out and get skin cancer, remember that Gisele also once got a lot of flak for saying this: "I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breast-feed their babies for six months."

Tom Ford is "All That" Now!

Tom Ford has said he'd show his womenswear stuff each season to editors in his London showroom. After reporting that Ford would show at London Fashion Week earlier today, Catwalk Queen has updated its story with a statement from a spokeswoman who says the event "will only be a small presentation for international monthly magazines." Goes with his whole "Screw you, Internet!"

Jennifer Lopez Looked Very Sparkly Thursday Night

Jennifer Lopez celebrated her new gig as the face legs of Gillette razors at last night's Venus Goddess Fund for Education Campaign launch, where she wore a tiny sparkly skirt by Haute Hippie. She paired her disco-ball mini with a silky tan blouse, Louboutin platforms, and plenty of bronzer and baby oil.

Do you like this look? Or is it time for J.Lo to branch out from all things nude and sparkly?

Loose Threads

• To market their products in China, Chanel is teaching prospective customers about the history of the brand by launching an exhibit called “Culture Chanel” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai.

• Stella Tennant stars in Zara's spring 2011 look book.

• British designer David Koma has done a capsule collection with Topshop, available in stores February 18.

• The Wall Street Journal’s Tina Gaudoin on workout gear: “I truly believe that over the age of 16, one should only be working out in black, navy, grey or, in extreme cases, deep red or burgundy (white T-shirts are permitted).”

• Giovanna Randall, the designer behind the label Honor, is opening a store at 68 Gansevoort Street on February 22.

• Christian Lacroix illustrated a children's storybook by Camilla Morton.

• Thakoon Panichgul’s Yorkshire terrier-Chihuahua mix Stevie has become quite snippy lately, reportedly going so far as to bite one of the designer’s interns.

• Paco Rabanne just hired Indian designer Manish Arora as creative director for womenswear.

• The latest in unsubstantiated Tom Ford rumors: Word is that he'll show at London Fashion Week.

Italian Vogue’s Latest All-Black Spread: ‘The Black Allure’

Perhaps Italian Vogue is at the forefront of the all-one-race trend that's been proliferating in magazines since it put out the now iconic all-black issue for July of 2008. This month's Italian Vogue features another all-black editorial, "The Black Allure," shot by British photographer Emma Summerton and styled by Edward Enninful. The spread includes some of today's top models of color, like Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn, Arlenis Sosa, and Chanel Iman. American Vogue, which recently ran an all-Asian spread, hinted in a recent blog post that it had an all-black spread in the works, featuring rising star models Ajak Deng and Anais Mali. It's difficult to say whether these pages are gimmicks or actual steps towards fashion becoming more inclusive. Until time hopefully answers that question, we hope magazines continue to embrace all kinds of faces — and bodies, for that matter

A Preview of Harper’s Bazaar’s ‘Best Covers’ Issue

With all the jockeying and politics that goes into magazine covers these days, it's amazing to think that monthly fashion magazines used to be created with just paper and pen. In a nod to their near-145th year of publication, Harper's Bazaar has put together a collection of their covers dating back to 1867, when fashion publications relied entirely on illustrations. I chatted with Glenda Bailey about the challenges of creating cover concepts yesterday.

Would you ever do another illustrated cover?
I would love to do an illustrated cover. We encourage illustration in the magazine, and yes, absolutely I would consider an illustration for the cover. The thing is, we really try to produce timely covers, and obviously with photography, you have the immediacy. Also, we get fabulous access to models and celebrities, so we want to use that. But if the situation were right, I would love to use an illustration for the cover.

What's an example of an illustration that could work for a cover image?
It would have to be something very timely. A few years ago, when the Simpsons movie came out, we got their illustrators to do illustrated version of the collections that had shown that season, like Chanel and Versace. We could have easily put one of those illustrations on the cover. That's the sort of very timely thing that we would consider.

One could argue that, with all the photo editing technology that's used these days, a lot of photographed covers have an illustrative quality.
Well, we try to do as little as retouching on covers as possible, because we want it to be real and immediate. We use photographers who are, by nature, very light with retouching. For example, Peter Lindbergh famously did a set of portraits for us of supermodels without makeup, completely un-retouched. But on the other hand, we also work with another photographer, Jean-Paul Goude, whose art form is indeed Photoshop. Some people actually think that he invented the art form of, as he likes to call it, "French Correction." He creates — he almost paints — by manipulating his images, and that's how he chooses to express his creativity. And that's his point of view, and his images can be staggeringly fabulous. But to say that retouched photographs are similar to illustrations would be too much of a generalization.

You were one of the first fashion magazines to create separate newsstand and subscriber covers in 2004. How did that idea come about?
Well, I started it with the January issue in 2004, and then February 2004 was the first time that we did two completely different cover concepts. I'm ashamed to tell you that it took me 16 years of being an editor-in-chief to work this out, and we were the first. For magazines like Bazaar, there's a very loyal subscriber base who knows all that Bazaar stands for as a fashion magazine and prefers a more artful image on the subscriber copy. And then for the newsstand, you're attracting new readers who don't necessarily know all about the content of your magazine. So therefore, you're producing a poster to catch their eye amongst all the competition. This has been such a successful formula, and at the time I was very criticized for doing it, but now many magazines have started to create this themselves, which I just think is the greatest form of flattery.

Newsstand covers have been accused of becoming increasingly homogeneous. Do you agree?
First and foremost, for a magazine to be successful, it must sell. As Tom Ford used to say, "It's not a successful fashion collection unless it sells," and that's the same for a magazine. You want to produce an eye-catching cover that is going to capture the attention of your potential reader. But that doesn't mean that you don't want to be creative. I wanted to use some of that great imagery that we feature inside the magazine and put it on the cover, and that's why I came up with the two-cover concept.

Do you try to avoid having the same pieces of clothing on your cover as other magazines?
Well, we always want to shows the greatest looks of the season, and often, people at different magazines have the same opinions about the best looks from each collection. The key is really how you choose to feature it. We try to come up with cover concepts that are completely original no matter what clothes are in it. For example, last year, the Alexander McQueen collection was so exceptional, and we wanted to feature it in a very meaningful way on our cover. So I had this idea to do something very surreal, almost like a Dali landscape, so we got a beach and a giraffe and we convinced Demi Moore to climb a very unstable staircase going into the sky in her 10-inch Armadillo shoes. And of course, that Alexander McQueen collection had been featured in many magazines, but none of them in an image like ours. And that cover won an ASME.

Bazaar did some iconic covers with Princess Diana. Have you looked into having Kate Middleton on your cover?
Well, Kate is a very beautiful young woman, and we've been very fortunate to show some of the great Kates on our cover — Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett — and it would be a great pleasure to have Kate Middleton on our cover.

Stefano Tonchi to Wed, Have Babies

The W editor will marry his partner of 25 years, David Maupin, in an intimate ceremony in Massachusetts on Friday, the Post reports. The paper also hears the couple is expecting twins via a surrogate this summer. Anyway, let's freak out over their wedding attire because that's the thing to do these days.

Loose Threads

• Here are Kate Moss's and Lea T's solo Love covers.

• Theory founder Andrew Rosen has appointed Brian Blake, the former Gucci chief president and CEO, as the new president and CEO of Theory and Helmut Lang for the U.S. and Europe. Andrew Rosen will stay on as co-CEO.

• There have been some staff shake-ups at the Gap: Art Peck, the company’s head of outlets, will succeed Marka Hansen as the president of Gap North America.

• Alex Gonzalez joins W as a new creative director. He's not replacing anyone, just giving Stefano Tonchi some much-needed "extra help."

• Ann Taylor is casting Columbia students to model for their online look book.

• Terry Richardson shot the look book for Opening Ceremony’s latest collaboration with Levi’s.

• Madonna reportedly made Kelly Osbourne sign an "extensive" confidentiality agreement before naming her as the new face of her Material Girl clothing line.

• Anne Christensen has made some changes to Glamour.

• Naomi Campbell on that blood diamond scandal: “I was afraid for my own life and I was afraid for the life of my family. If you hear someone has killed thousands of people — of course I was afraid! One more person is not going to make a difference. People forgot that I was a witness and thought I was a defendant."

• Gilt Groupe has partnered with Nicole Richie to host a sales event featuring her House of Harlow 1960 and Winter Kate spring collections.

Nigel Barker Appreciated the Lack of Retouching in Kim Kardashian’s W Spread

The noted and lovely fashion photographer Nigel Barker ate breakfast with the press this morning to discuss his new book about being beautiful inside and out, Beauty Equation. Barker is a straight man who cares — and, perhaps more rarely, thinks — about female empowerment. As such, he's not a fan of plastic surgery or too much retouching, which is what made him like the nude W spread Kim Kardashian posed for and then complained about. "I thought it was daring of her. I thought she actually looked amazing, and I was surprised how little they retouched her," Barker told us. "I thought that was refreshing. I immediately thought, when I heard it, that I was going to check these out and they'd look like silk or something, and be retouched to oblivion. But, no, there she was, and you could see little goosebumps on her bottom, and all the rest of it. And I was like, 'Okay. Great.' It was cool. It's back to what photography is about — we're not trying to be animators. We're meant to be photographers. The fantasy should not be a computer game."

Brad Goreski to Award Free Car Rides in Mercedes Benzes to Stylish Fashion Week People

You will see Rachel Zoe's former assistant Brad Goreski at Fashion Week, which begins next week (go ahead and stand it). In fact, if he finds that you embody "fresh, creative design looks and alluring appeal," he might just shove you in a brand new Mercedes for a ride to your next destination. Mercedes has brought on Brad and a team of "Fashion Enforcers" to spot people with style worthy of a free car ride. Some of them will also get to attend a "culmination event" in the Mercedes-Benz Star Lounge in the tents (which will be decorated in DVF homewares this year, by the way). Honestly, a free car ride is maybe the best reason to look awesome during Fashion Week. Because remember, a street-style blogger might make your shoes look awesome, but they won't make your feet hurt any less. Hopefully all the car rides don't go to people who already have car service.