Francophiles, literary folks and Karl Lagerfeld devotées can have the perfect gift as France's “Le Petit Larousse Illustré” (“Larousse Small Illustrated Dictionary”) is being redesigned in a special edition by Karl himself. The book, more than a dictionary but somewhat less than encyclopedia, contains not only routine definition of words but erudite explanations of various subjects. It is a must have for any serious student of the French language or those who simply enjoy a little cultural edification with their word definitions. In an age of instant word definitions thanks to Google, Le Petit Larousse Illustré holds as a tiny line of demarcation the good taste and high cultural that can come with the best editors and a French sense of humour. To wit, in this edition Lagerfeld has even made it into the dictionary’s proper nouns section for the first time

According to WWD, the cover of the limited edition, matte black tome, due for release Nov. 4, features a corner illustration by Lagerfeld of the famous Larousse “Semeuse,” or “Seed-Scatterer,” blowing a puff of dandelion seeds in her birthday suit and a pair of blue, elbow-length gloves. The book’s black case features a photo-cum-sketch, self-portrait of the designer, with the words “Habillé par Karl Lagerfeld” (“Dressed by Karl Lagerfeld”) scrawled in silver.

The excitement over Diesel's 30th Anniversary party has reached a fever pitch for the fashion media as it would appear that Diesel oriented subjects are literally all anyone can talk about including us.

Renzo Rosso is hosting 17 parties in eight time zones for Diesel's 30th Anniversary — from Tokyo to New York via the likes of Dubai, Zurich, Munich and Oslo — all on Saturday night.  We personally are looking forward to the New York party because it is our 25th and it happens to be in Brooklyn.

In addition, Diesel will be selling limited edition 'Dirty Thirty' jeans, which would normally sell for around £200 but the company has dropped the price tag to just £30. Alas even jeans pricing is no longer in dollars.

In other Diesel news WWD has a feature on its unique approach to retailing which differentiates each store to its market making the shopping experience more personal and more culturally appropriate.

And finally, Diesel is publishing “XXX Years of Diesel Communication” a retrospective on their controversial advertising campaigns through the years.  But the best tidbit? “My dream is to do a soap opera for the Internet, our very own ‘Dallas’ in the Diesel spirit, in a modern and fresh way,” said Rosso.

Balenciaga has signed a deal with Coty Inc.’s Coty Prestige division to create, develop and distribute fragrance lines under the Balenciaga nameplate. The first fragrance is tentatively slated for a spring 2010 launch.

Shoppers are poor at math J.C Penney's has concluded, doing away with tiered discount systems such as "take another 30% at the register."