>> INSIDER WIRE —Sacha Baron Cohen hit the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada runway this morning as "Bruno" in a goofy outfit, but at Versace last night, it was a different story. Decked out in head to toe Alexander McQueen, he could have definitely passed for a fashion figure — but the security at Versace wasn't convinced. Instead, he was left "frantically making phone calls and crying into his mobile phone trying to get into the show." Now everybody's wondering: Will he show up again in Paris? [Go Backstage]
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld Knows How to Accessorize for Fall 2008
>> That Fabien Baron training has done Julia Restoin-Roitfeld well: She now not only art directs ad campaigns behind the scenes, but she also stars in them as well. First Gap for Fall 2008, and now British fashion accessories chain Accessorize: The latter campaign may have been styled by Russian Vogue's Simon Robbins and shot in Greenwich Village, but I never really took Julia for a catalogue girl.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Naomi Campbell, Domenico Dolce, and Stefano Gabbana are longtime friends — she sat front row at their Dolce & Gabbana show in Milan yesterday, where she debuted a new, shorter haircut. But when it came time to celebrate Domenico's 50th birthday last night with the rest of the front-rowers, Naomi never showed up — she "was apparently having a bad hair day." [WWD]
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Julie Verhoeven Takes on the Medusa for Versace Spring 2009
>> Julie Verhoeven has developed a cult following for her whimsical fashion illustration style — she's designed limited-edition bags for Louis Vuitton, capsule collections for Mulberry, and for Spring 2009, Donatella Versace commissioned her to rework the Versace iconography. The result? Colorful, cartoonish Medusas scrawled across bags, gowns, and swimwear, sure to be as coveted as those Prada fairy bags from Spring 2008.
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>> INSIDER WIRE —Yves Saint Laurent's beloved private art collection is going under the hammer in February — the 700 pieces, which include everything from Roman sculptures to Picasso paintings, is estimated to be worth up to $440 million. His former business partner and companion, Pierre Berge, who only kept an African sculpture and an Andy Warhol portrait of the designer, said he had no regrets about the decision to sell: "Yves Saint Laurent is dead. This collection doesn't mean anything anymore." [WWD, Telegraph]
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Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno Causes Mayhem at Milan Fashion Week
>> Bruno is in Milan — that's Sacha Baron Cohen's gay Austrian fashion show presenter alter-ego — and he's filming for his upcoming movie at Fashion Week. It all started Wednesday, backstage at Iceberg, where he threw himself on the floor, dragged down a rack of clothes that stuck to his Velcro-trimmed outfit, and appeared to tear off his clothes until security removed him.
Yesterday morning, he tried to hit up Dsquared, but was blocked by security, and yesterday evening he tried to crash Versace, dressed all in McQueen, but was denied again — the Italian Chamber of Fashion has sent out a press release to designers, warning them not to accredit Cohen's film production companies, after all.
[break]Unfortunately, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada didn't get the memo . . . »[/break]
Unfortunately, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada didn't get the memo, and this morning, "Bruno" appeared on her runway as a big black-cloaked lump, stumbling around until he revealed himself, dressed in a huge bundle of clothing. A laughing security guard unsuccessfully tried to yank him off the catwalk as he walked among the models until the lights went down and police could escort him away.
A video of the incident below.
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>> THE MODELIZER —The rash of model falls in Milan continues — at Emilio Pucci yesterday, Angela Lindvall fell not once, but twice — something that has never before happened in her modelling career. Karlie Kloss helped her up the first time she fell, but the same thing happened again during the finale, causing a domino effect among the procession. [Telegraph, Grazia]
Model.Live Episode Eight: Two Out, One Grand Slam
>> The third Fashion Week in for the Model.Live girls, and things start to get difficult — for Madeline Kragh and Austria Alcantara, at least. Austria went to over 30 castings for Milan Fashion Week and got nothing, except a call from a casting director to her agency IMG saying that she wasn't looking her best. Ouch. Madeline had the same troubles — she wasn't cast for any shows, and at one point got frustrated enough to tell the cameramen to stop filming. Both girls, defeated, move on to Paris early. Cato van Ee, on the other hand, scores Prada for the second season in a row — and does a little impromptu song and dance when she finds out. Will Paris be a whole new ball game, as the girls are promised? Next week, we'll find out.
>> INSIDER WIRE —Spring 2009 is a season of new for Gareth Pugh: Not only is he moving his show from London to Paris for the first time, he's also "commercializing [his] first shoe this season." Something for the shoeaholics to look out for. And it sounds like the Paris move might stretch more than one season: "I quite liked the idea of having my girls stomping round a really classic French salon, but maybe we’ll leave that for next season." [WWD]



