>>  Hey Lauren Weisberger, Jr. -- this is your chance.  Gawker says Anna Wintour is looking for a new assistant.  Well, what are you waiting for -- fine-tune that CV and get it in to Conde Nast.  If nothing else, maybe you could get a movie deal out of your interview experience!

>>  They had a starring role in Risky Business and Andy Warhol's self-portrait.  It seems the oversized sunglasses are on their death throes and Ray-Ban Wayfarers are poised to take their place.  Ray-Ban just recently relaunched the silhouette for sale in Europe this month and in the US in January in black, tortoise, white and black.  They've  already been spotted perched atop the noses of your favorite hipster candidates Mary Kate Olsen and Cory Kennedy, among others.  I have to admit, I kind of like the shape for their hipster appeal. 

>>  Hollywood starlets have already swept two of the big campaigns for next spring -- and the announcements are just beginning.  Lindsay Lohan still hasn't gotten to be the face of Louis Vuitton like she wanted this fall, but she does get to front Miu Miu's spring campaign, shot by Mert & Marcus.  I'm sure many of you are groaning right about now, but I am honestly excited to see what Miuccia will do with La Lohan.   Yes, it could be very bad, but let's not go there.
Lindsay may not be able to pull through a LV campaign, but Scarlett Johansson sure seems to be able to -- she is repeating her 2004 appearance as LV cover girl for this spring. 

>> Happy Holidays to you from American Vogue -- they've rallied and given you the best editorial I've seen from them in a while for their December 2006 issue -- "Garden of Delights," featuring Gemma, Sasha, Caroline Trentini, and Karen Elson shot by Steven Meisel.  I'm really feeling the gamine dark hair and kohl-rimmed eyes that feature on all the models -- like I have been saying a lot recently, the twentiesy excess has really been rolling around in my head.

These three are my favorite shots:  portraits of Gemma and Sasha each with beautiful floral headpieces by the talented Stephen Jones.  And I love the melange of monochromatic green textures between the Dior Couture dresses, grass, and leaves.

Enjoy the flowers while they're fresh -- we'll be experiencing a floral explosion all over the pages of magazines come spring.  The rest of the editorial can be seen here.   

>> Nor do tomatoes and apples, as Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, 21, found out.  Miss Reston tragically passed away last Tuesday as a result of complications due to anorexia and bulimia.  She is the second model to die this year of anorexia -- Luisel Ramos, 22, died in August after subsisting on lettuce leaves and Diet Coke for three months. 
Miss Reston was going travel to work in France right before she was hospitalized -- at 5'7" and 88 lbs.
Perhaps with the resurgence of the nineties the glamazon model look will experience a resurgence as well.   It seems like Alexander McQueen might be hoping so, judging from his new luggage line.

>>  Finally, months and months after filming wrapped, the first Factory Girl trailer has popped up.  I so desperately want this movie to be good, but Sienna Miller's accent is weird and the trailer is kind of a yawn.  Hopefully Guy Pearce will salvage the movie -- I do like him.   But seriously, whoever made the trailer should have taken a page out of Sofia Coppola's book:  it needs more rocking and less talking.   And some better editing.

>> It was scandalized in the twenties and patriotic in the forties -- the dramatic red lip is having a moment in my books (and Miuccia's too, apparently, from looks of the Fall 2006 Miu Miu show -- right).   I love the hint of demure mystery and the punch of colour the dramatic lip adds to dreary winter days.  Plus, it stands out in the sea of this fall's nude lip.  The two shades currently on my rotation?  Scarlett Empress and Shanghai Express, both by Nars -- they give a great dark stain. 

>>  When you take the sixties and the nineties and mix them up together, what do you get?  This fantastic Qui etes vous, Polly Magoo?/Smells Like Teen Spirit reprise starring Jessica Stam, photographed by Tom Munro for the November 2006 Vogue Italia.  I'm always a fan of the vivid black and white photo, and Stam posing with her mile-high Barbie doll ponytail throws me over the top. 
Notice the combat boots -- word is your favorite ol' grungy Doc Martens are trying to make a comeback.  I'm loving them paired with a very feminine chiffon dress, a look that's been seared into my brain ever since I saw the movie Brick last summer and one of the characters wears a pink tutu with untied Docs.  Perfect contrast for a modern look.

>>  Mr. Tom Ford, who quit designing womenswear until he made his first movie, may be back like old times before you know it -- he is set to start shooting a "tight, independent film"  come July.   He's been dabbling in perfumes, sunglasses, and menswear, but maybe he'll finally get his feet on solid ground again?  He still doesn't seem to have his energy focused well enough.  But as Suzy Menkes points out in today's IHT:

[Ford's] problem is that he gave his powerful and particular persona to Gucci. That brand may be changing, but, significantly, two almost identical invitations arrived on fashionistas' desks last week: both square, black and shiny with insets of gold. One was celebrating a new Gucci book being released on Wednesday; the other was inviting guests to the Black Orchid launch on Thursday. What was the difference? One was for the 85th birthday of a two- billion-dollar brand; the other was, even accounting for Ford's proven talent and name recognition, a start-up.

It's almost sad, really, for a man whose self-professed strength is marketing to have the carpet pulled out from under him by Gucci like that -- even now.  Emasculating, really.  Not that we should pity Mr. Ford, he's doing just fine I'm sure, but I'm rooting for him.    

>>  The color palette, the cropped hair, the heavy brows -- all very Dior spring 2007 (which I loved, by the by).  But it translates wonderfully onto the November 2006 cover of Vogue Italia.  The navy and olive provide a striking background for Miss Agyness Deyn's eyes to pop under her furrowing brow.  And the peachy lip and bleached out hair provide the perfect amount of contrasting lightness.  I think Agyness might be my new favorite model for the moment.  Bravo, Meisel!