>> Since the all-black issue of Vogue Italia is still in the process of being shot, things are still very up in the air, especially with all the buzz it's getting.  The newest rumor is that there may be more photographers involved than just Steven Meisel . . .

An unfortunate side-effect of all the buzz, however, is that a second "major black model moment" that was being thrown around just got canceled.  Maybe a major Asian model moment will be used in its place?

>>  As Marchesa's red carpet-driven business continues to explode, the company seems to be experiencing a few growing pains.  Page Six is reporting that Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig were both listed as "co-designers" of the label on Marchesa.com a week ago, "but the firm has now changed Craig's title to 'co-founder.'"  A source also says that at a recent Marchesa-sponsored event:

. . .  anyone who called Craig a designer was instructed to instead refer to her as co-founder.

Georgina's brother, Edward Chapman, Marchesa's chief executive, was backstage being very specific that Georgina is now to be called the designer of the company, but Keren is her co-founder, and not the designer. And boy, was that emphasized several times. The girls are absolutely the best of friends and work together without much confrontation, but it's very clear there's been some issue recently with who's who at the company.

Funny, because when I look at Marchesa.com, all I can find is Georgina and Keren both being referred to as co-founders.  I wonder if a change was made in response to this article, and if Page Six really has something . . .
*image: source

>> The Time 100 List of Most Influential People was released today, and three fashion notables made the cut: Karl Lagerfeld, Carine Roitfeld, and Takashi Murakami.  The fun thing about this list is that Time gets other big names to write about the honorees' sphere of influence, so Marc Jacobs did the honors for Takashi, Hedi Slimane for Carine, and architect Zaha Hadid for Karl.

Marc Jacobs' piece on Takashi comes across sounding exactly like you would expect Marc to write — daydreamy, and always self-consciously obsessed with the cool:

When I first saw Takashi Murakami's work, I smiled and wondered, Where did this explosion come from? Who was responsible for this collision of psychedelia, manga and, well, art? Then I thought, I would love it if the mind that imagined this dizzying world of jellyfish eyes, singing moss, magic mushrooms and morphing creatures would be willing to have a go at the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram.

So I e-mailed Takashi. And he answered. Before long, there he was, standing in my Paris office, wearing his round, wire-rimmed glasses, skeleton-print T shirt, baggy short pants and a sort of samurai ponytail. He looked like a cool skater kid, an eternal teenager.

Hedi clearly adores Carine:

Carine, 53, has always been a charismatic Parisian, one of the most Parisian women I know, in every detail of her life. She has immaculate taste, and she is beyond unconventional in her thinking. With time I discovered that we shared a few principles: a preference for the "now" rather than the "new," a preference for imperfection rather than so-called good taste and an attitude driven by intuition rather than reason. Most of all, she has an innate ability to mix street culture and society, always avoiding the caricatures that can define both worlds and always recognizing the mix of both worlds as the only catalyst of energy and creativity.

And Karl, well, he's still convincing the world that he's 69 rather than 74.

The Australians really seem to enjoy letting it all hang out if Rosemount Australian Fashion Week's Spring/Summer 2008 collections are any indication. If you want a little peek a boo there is plenty to see on the runway from bare tits poking out from see through tops at Manning Cartell and Silence is Golden to tamer bare midriffs at Camilla. And of course the Aussies love their bikinis.

Despite all of the bare skin, big boobs, and tan hides, we are most fascinated by a subtle cover up from Stretsis. The designer Pim Sukhahuta showed a haunting collection of barely there dresses with delicate fabrics like charmeuse and chiffon. But the most fascinating element of her collection was the styling choice of a chiffon cat mask. The cat mask perfectly hovers over the models upper face, sheer enough to see out of but clearly obscuring the natural face leaving the viewer in an uncomfortable middle ground between seeing and being seen that leaves many questions about the power of the gaze unanswered. The fact that the cover up was paired with a very sheer top doubled the fascination quotient for us. It was a most unexpected intellectual quandary in the midst of overdone visceral stimulation.