>> INSIDER WIRE —Christophe Decarnin's Balmain creations have earned more than a couple of comparisons to Michael Jackson's style, but when Jackson himself was spotted wearing a Fall 2009 Balmain top recently, it threw the blogging world for a loop.  It might be an idea to get used to, however — apparently Vogue Paris fashion director (and Balmain creative force extraordinaire) Emmanuelle Alt is "100% obsessed" with Jackson . . . that's how he came to wear the top. And she "would weep" if he allowed Balmain to do his comeback tour costumes. [The Imagist]

>> The things we learn when Karl Lagerfeld gives interviews — like he tends to hit his hand on a table for emphasis and the impetus for wearing his hair in a ponytail.  During a Paris Fashion Week fitting this past March, he submitted to questions from Sigrid Agren — who apparently already has at least three major Fall 2009 campaigns in the bag — for Interview.  The highlights:

Agren: Okay. How do you look when you wake up?

Lagerfeld: That’s why I sleep alone. My hair is curly, and that’s why I have my ponytail. I look like a madman, like something out of a horror movie! But I'm very impeccable and clean before I go to bed. It’s just like right before I’m going out. When I was a child, my mother always told me that you could wake up in the middle of the night and be deathly sick, so you always have to be impeccable. I laugh about it now, but I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door.

He then gives advice on attaining supermodel status. »

>> THE MODELIZER —More details on that mysterious "major" London cover shoot that Sessilee Lopez and Chanel Iman both twittered about last Friday — apparently they were joined by Jourdan Dunn and Arlenis Sosa Pena, and according to The Imagist's sources, it's not the cover but the editorial inside that will have followers "sprinting down to the newstand."  It's still unclear which magazine commissioned the shoot — some say i-D (although Chanel is on the May 2009 cover), some say a Vogue. [The Imagist, Fashion Copious]
*image: source

>> After a little confusion yesterday about when it would launch, Net-a-Porter's new designer outlet site The Outnet finally got up and running at around 3 am this morning.  The first customer was a Londoner who scored a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps for forty percent off, and since the site has been visited by legions checking out the goods — a number of items are already sold out.

So what has been the first impression?  The consensus seems to be disappointment.  A commenter on Racked notes, "[Net-a-Porter] addicts will recognize all of this merch as leftover from last seasons' sales, despite their claim that there would be new stuff on the site!! Plus, there are no small sizes in anything. Very disappointed."

Some even called it "ridiculous." »

Periodic Elements Of Style compiled a trend report on mustard from Japan Fashion Week. ..

Pink Rock Candy told readers about an Alexander Wang handbag giveaway on Pronto.com. 

LA Pretty reported on day two of her 21 day "Martha's Vineyard" detox diet. 

Fashion Addict flashed back to a Dior Spring 07 ad campaign with Gemma Ward. 

>> INSIDER WIRE —Marc Jacobs isn't the only designer who has a predilection for tattoos: Stefano Pilati, who got his first tattoo — interlocking male and female symbols on his arm — at 13, has just added to his collection in a major way with a full floral sleeve.  Don't expect to see much of it, though — he tends to wear long sleeve sweaters and blazers to cover his body art up. [Purple Diary]

>> We found out a couple of weeks ago that Frida Giannini chose nine models for the Fall 2009 Gucci campaign, and now we've got more details.  Apparently the designer is quite taken with London and decided to have her usual campaign photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin do the honors in a north London studio; she's even picked to feature native Londoner and 1999-2000 Gucci face Jacquetta Wheeler (left, Fall 1999).  “We’re in London, so of course I had to have an English girl.”

Joining Jacquetta in the campaign are Raquel Zimmermann, Natasha Poly, Freja Beha Erichsen, plus Myf Shepherd and Abbey Lee Kershaw, whose television commercial for the brand's Flora fragrance, which was filmed over four days in Latvia last July and created using more than 20,000 fake flowers, just debuted.

Three faces are left to be named — Lily Donaldson is likely one of them, since Frida likes to stick with the same girls and Lily has been in at least two of her campaigns.  Plus, a Gucci spokesman advises that the upcoming campaign will be similar to past seasons, “a continuation of Frida’s Gucci generation."
*image: source