Crystal Renn’s latest coup revealed: the holy grail of campaigns, Chanel (above). Karl Lagerfeld shot Renn and Baptiste Giabiconi in Paris for the new ads. [Fashionista]Lynn Yaeger convenes the “nutty-dressers’ convention” at the Carlyle Hotel, inviting New York’s chicest ladies-of-a-certain-age (including the legendary Iris Barrel Apfel) for a talk about their wild, Comme des Garçons-stuffed [...]

With his Spring ‘09 menswear collection, Alexander McQueen helped kick-start a trend for skulls and skeletons. (Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier kept skulls top of mind for those tracking a different fashion demographic.) And then, as with all gluts, it seemed that the moment had passed—we’d seen just one memento mori too many. Who needed [...]

Calvin Klein has unveiled its latest fragrance and its latest fragrance campaign star: They are, respectively, Beauty and Diane Kruger, who appears in the ads looking fresh, clothed, and sweet. In other words, like she wandered in from someone else’s beauty campaign. Where’s the sweat, linoleum, and conservative-horrifying sex? [WWD]Speaking of unusual campaign stars, Riccardo [...]

“Just looking”—words that strike fear in the hearts of retail sales staff the world over. But it’s what’s encouraged at Dover Street Market, where Rei Kawakubo has just installed the Trading Museum, an exhibition of archive pieces and one-offs there for the observation. (They actually are for sale if you’re feeling flush, but the emphasis [...]

Aimee Mann is better known today as a composer of sad-eyed, symphonic chamber pop, whose dour songs won her an Oscar nod when Paul Thomas Anderson used them in Magnolia. But in the eighties, as part of the Boston-based new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, Mann was in full avant provocateur mode—with a wardrobe to match. [...]

Some men have inner demons; Undercover’s Jun Takahashi has his Graces. The lamblike stuffed dolls the Japanese designer invented a few seasons ago have stayed with him ever since, popping up in Undercover’s fashion shows (they sometimes perch on the shoulder of a dress), their own gallery exhibitions, and, soon, at the Diane Pernet-curated SCOPE [...]

It’s a changing of the guard at DVF: Longtime creative director Nathan Jenden (pictured, with Diane) is stepping down to focus on his own line, and Yves Mispelaere—formerly of Chloé and Gucci—is taking the reins. [WWD]Collab-happy Comme des Garçons is at it again. The brand is working with Moncler in Japan to launch a pop-up [...]

The experience of watching a show by Rei Kawakubo or her protégé Junya Watanabe is akin to being given a code to crack, hardly a challenge which presents itself very often in the fashion arena. And that’s why I could reel away from today’s shows in Paris with a sense of achievement. I cracked the [...]

With the holidays upon us, you’re probably looking forward to wrapping up in a cashmere blanket and settling down for a long winter’s nap. Don’t get too comfy. The Spring collections will be arriving in stores a few weeks after New Year’s, and the season’s must-have coats will go fast. In 2010, you’re going to [...]

The YSL auction numbers are in, and they’re bigger than expected. Items from the beloved designer’s estate went for around $13.4 million, including an umbrella stand ($162,475) and Hermès luggage ($44,420). Maybe you can buy good taste. [WWD]
Tavi, the pint-size fashion blogger, is heading to Tokyo. She’ll be the “guest of honor” at Comme des [...]