>> After over a month of rumors, Smashbox Studios finally confirmed that it was ending its five year partnership with IMG after Spring 2009 LA Fashion Week closes Oct. 16.

Dean and Davis Factor, co-owners of Smashbox, the current LAFW venue, wanted to relocate the event closer to Hollywood, "take it to the next level," but "New York is [IMG's] big focus and it’s difficult with everything they have going on all over the world. It would be hard for them to do LA on the level they do New York. My brother and I can."

So where does that leave LA Fashion Week?  As part of its agreement with the Factors, IMG is not able to produce a Fashion Week, so it's all up to the brothers, who say they remain committed to the event.  Ideally, they're looking at Hollywood rather than the current Culver City location: "Hollywood embraces the city of Los Angeles, there’s so much creative stuff to take advantage of here, the red carpet, costume design, stylists, everything from the surf industry to Maxfield’s."

But it may not be in the same runway show form: "We’re going a completely different route."  Will all the new changes be effective in harnessing a spot as the fifth major Fashion Week?  The Factors have their work cut out for them.
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>> INSIDER WIRE —Watch out, Colette?  Attending shows, posing for editorials, and designing for Lee Cooper isn't enough fashion involvement for Lou Doillon: She's scouting a location in Paris to open a concept store as early as next year: "We’ll have a mix of fashion, literature, modern and old, with more of an English than French influence, and not conventional." [WWD]

>> Just hours after we learned that Rochas's ready-to-wear department is being opened back up, designer names are already being thrown around to head the comeback.  More specifically one name — Marco Zanini, the designer who just a few months back was ousted from Halston.

Although his role in that brand rejuvenation didn't work out so well, he is currently in talks to design Rochas, since former Rochas designer Olivier Theyskens is happily holed up at Nina Ricci and all.  No confirmation from Rochas's new ready-to-wear producer Gibo just yet, but we're sure to hear something — confirmation or not — sooner rather than later, since they have a collection to get started on for March 2009.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Catherine McNeil missed both Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks, with her Sydney agent only offering that she was "unwell" as explanation.  But according to her grandmother, it's nothing to worry about — only exhaustion and homesickness: "She's just burned out." Instead of gracing catwalks aplenty, McNeil was recuperating in New York. [The Courier-Mail]

>> MODA OPERANDI —Sergio Rossi has a new main man: Francesco Russo, who has designed footwear at Yves Saint Laurent since 2000.  He replaces Edmundo Castillo, who exited the brand, as creative director of women’s and men’s footwear, bags and accessories, and will present his first collection for Fall 2009. [WWD]

>> In The Devil Wears Prada, the editor modeled after Anna Wintour mentions that if her job is ever threatened, she has a list of photographers, designers, stylists, and editors who she's helped over the years and who have pledged allegiance to her.  There's no word on whether Anna actually has a list like that — although there are plenty of people whose careers she's helped — but Page Six Magazine proffers that it doesn't matter: "with her army of progeny installed in cushy Condé Nast jobs . . . Anna isn't going anywhere fast."

If you've ever been interested in Anna Wintour's family tree — from her first husband David Shaffer, who after learning of Anna's 1998 affair with current boyfriend Shelby Bryan called Bryan's wife to tell her "Your husband and my wife are f---ing," and all his relatives to Shelby Bryan and his descendents, it's a good rundown, from Bee and Charlie Shaffer to Alexis Bryan.
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>> INSIDER WIRE —At Louis Vuitton, there is never a shortage of monograms or trinkets — and Sunday's show was no exception.  Marc Jacob's business partner Robert Duffy mentioned backstage that the models had on pretty lingerie, and Raquel Zimmermann and others flipped up their skirts to reveal LV-monogrammed underpants.  Meanwhile, after the show, Marc handed out the shoes straight off the runway to his favorite editors — Francesca Burns from i-D and Victoria Young of POP among them. [NYT, On the Runway, Style File, Jak & Jil]

>> Two years after Procter & Gamble shuttered the ready-to-wear portion of Rochas, leaving Olivier Theyskens temporarily without a job, they're ready to open back up for business.

The company has signed a licensing agreement with Italy's Gibo SpA — owned by Japanese apparel maker Onward Holdings Co., which has also produced clothes for Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors — to produce Rochas ready-to-wear once again, with the first collection debuting in March 2009.

There is no designer attached yet — at least not publicly, but one has to wonder: A new opportunity for Alessandra Facchinetti? And why would they resurrect the brand now, in this economic climate, when it was shut the first time around because it was losing too much money?  Not that it's not exciting to see it back . . .
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>> INSIDER WIRE —After the "confirmed" reports yesterday that Kate Winslet would be playing Vivienne Westwood in an upcoming biopic, it looks like someone spoke too soon.  Today, the designer's team is denying the claim: "The script has not even been finished yet, let alone casting. Kate Winslet was just one of many names that were mentioned as possibles to play Vivienne, but this whole thing has been blown completely out of proportion."  Winslet's publicist also said the reports were "not at all true." [Off the Rack]
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