>> From London to Sydney to Miami, this week's best-dressed is a colorful bunch. See who's wearing what — and where — in the slideshow.
When Marc Jacobs Gifted Her His Perry Ellis Grunge Collection, Courtney Love Burned It
>> Courtney Love, who launched WhatCourtneyWoreToday.com last week, has been gifted many a designer dud over the years, but she's typically given it an unconventional welcome. She's set fire to some of it (“Marc [Jacobs] sent me and Kurt [Cobain] his Perry Ellis grunge collection . . . We burned it. We were punkers — we didn’t like that kind of thing.”); tried to take shears to some of it (“I went to whack [a floral, Empire-waist couture gown given to her by John Galliano in 1997] with scissors because it would be more useful that way . . . Somebody said to me, ‘You aren’t whacking s--t and this is why,’ and explained to me what couture was.") . . . and has even worked out in some of it ("I perform in Rick [Owens], I sleep in Rick and I jog in Rick. I have, like, eight pairs of his harem pants. I’ve been running in Rick Owens for years.")
Anna Wintour Wants to See Rodarte Design for Schiaparelli, and Other Sundry Details from the Mulleavys' New Yorker Profile
>> In the Jan. 18, 2010 edition of the New Yorker, Amanda Fortini profiles Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte and their quest to go against your typical "high gloss, high fashion, glamour, put-together, shiny, perfect — everything too exact" label, in the words of Laura. The Fall 2009 thigh-high wraparound boots Nicholas Kirkwood created for Rodarte, for example, were meant to evoke "hands wrapped in plastic in a morgue."
Kate told the magazine, "The most unhappy Laura or I have ever been was when we heard we made 'a pretty dress.' We want to make people think, and, once you decide to do that, you will have people that don't like what you're doing." She later added, "The other day, we were laughing that if we could take our clothes and bury them, and in ten years take them out, we would actually be satisfied [with how they look]."
Video Sneak Peek: The Day Before with Proenza Schouler, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Sonia Rykiel

>> Loic Prigent's The Day Before series, documenting the 48 hours before Proenza Schouler, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Sonia Rykiel shows, doesn't air on the Sundance Channel until Sept. 9, but they've put up 11 clips total spanning the four segments, and the entire Fendi episode has leaked to YouTube — watch here. A couple of favorite clips below: the first in which Karl Lagerfeld's muse Amanda Harlech yells for some music, initiating the Fendi employees' seasonal late night fashion show — one male staffer even wobbles the runway in vertiginous Fendi heels; the second in which Proenza Schouler's clearly nervous Jack McCullough — who yearns for a cheeseburger — and "fidgeting" Lazaro Hernandez are inclined to physically touch every look backstage before it goes out on the runway. Ikram boutique' Ikram Goldman calls it "blessing" the garment.
Maison Michel Enlists Karl Lagerfeld and Crew for Fall 2009 Lookbook
>> For Fall 2009, Maison Michel, whose art director Laetitia Crahay doubles as Chanel's accessories designer, asked her other boss Karl Lagerfeld to photograph the milliner's lookbook. The result is a veritable list of Chanel favorites — Karl's muse Lady Amanda Harlech, Chanel face Heidi Mount, Karl's male model favorite of the moment Baptiste Giabiconi — and plenty of other models including Lara Stone, Angela Lindvall, Sasha Pivovarova, Erin Wasson, plus surprise appearances by Olivier Theyskens and Crahay herself, all donning the latest in Maison Michel's headgear.
A Peek Backstage at the Chanel Cruise 2010 Show in Venice
>> Yesterday's Chanel Cruise spectacle opened on the Lido beach in Venice with a barefoot, becloaked Tanya Dziahileva in a tricorn hat, and was immediately followed by an afterparty at the nearby resort hotel for the guest list of 300 or so. Lara Stone wandered, "looking for a boyfriend," according to Style.com's Derek Blasberg, and the crowd was overrun with sequin jackets. Karl Lagerfeld held court on the terrace, grooving to the disco music, with a bodyguard (presumedly Sebastien Jondeau, who walked earlier in the show) "holding back the editors back from his young perfect people posse."
Afterward, Karl retired for a late night salmon dinner with a select few — among them Ingrid Sischy and Heidi Mount — in the basement of the hotel, which apparently turned out to be a dungeon, not a basement, as Lady Amanda Harlech pointed out.
A gallery from backstage at the show, below.
