>> Giambattista Valli Is Looking to Grow Past Cocktail and Evening Dresses —Giambattista Valli just signed a new licensing deal — starting with Fall 2010 production — and he already has big plans: “The collection is going to grow. I want to be known for all the parts of the wardrobe, not just the cocktail and evening dresses.”  He also mentioned bags and accessories as a very real possibility, and aims to grow his presence in New York by making more visits stateside and establishing offices in the city.  When prodded about showing at New York Fashion Week, he wouldn't commit, letting slip only: "Never say never." [Style File]

>> In today's New York Times, Issey Miyake wrote an op-ed in which, for the first time ever, he publicly shares his thoughts of the day when he was seven years old and the first atomic bomb was dropped in his hometown of Hiroshima.  

Before, he says, questions on the subject made him "uncomfortable" and he "did not want to be labeled 'the designer who survived the atomic bomb.'”  But now, he feels he has "a personal and moral responsibility to speak out as one who survived."

"I still see things no one should ever experience" »

>> Balmain Foraying Into Handbags —For those jonesin' to add a spangled bag to their collection of strong-shouldered jackets and glittery minidresses, Christophe Decarnin hears you. He's added about a half dozen handbags — including black leather messenger bags paved with crystals or studs and a fringed bag with silver hardware — to the pieces offered up to buyers as part of Balmain's Cruise 2010 collection. [WWD]

Fasion Copious got their hands on the new images from Prada's next ad campaign.

The Budget Fashionista has the DL on Alanis Morissette and Woody Harrelson's denim collaboration.

• Models fees are required in France, so Christian Lacroix chipped in to pay his 10 models 50 euros apiece. Normal couture fees are said to be around 1300 euros per show for new faces — every year of experience earns a "raise" of about 1000 more euros. [Imaginary Socialite]


• Jean Paul Gaultier had a 12-lb dress, Chanel had three seamstresses working on the bride look, and Maison Martin Margiela used 2,000 pen caps for a jacket: it's Fall 2009 couture by the numbers. [The Cut]


• Cathy Horyn yearns for Alessandra Facchinett's Valentino; Of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli's couture, she says: "Frankly I’d be worried about getting too close to one of those prickly, encrusted numbers. You might get a rash." [On the Runway]
Couture clients, a video of Chanel couture in the making »

>> As is to be expected, this year's September issues are not going to be the behemoths of yesteryear: publishers are approaching their closing deadlines this week and said that they expect issues to be about a third lighter than years past.  

The September issues are still anticipated to be the Fall's largest, as most advertisers withdrew their pre-collection ads that run in August to focus on September and will run fewer ads, if any, in the remaining months.  As for the cover faces, magazines are sticking with safe bets — blonde white women. Vogue will feature Charlize Theron, who usually graces their October covers (in 2004 and 2007); W will, as reported, have Kate Moss photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott; Elle will boast perenially newstand-friendly Jennifer Aniston; Allure went with Amanda Seyfriend, Glamour with Jessica Simpson, and Marie Claire with Ashley Olsen.  

No word on Harper's Bazaar, POP, V, LOVE, or Vogue Italia, but Vogue Paris is said to be breaking the blonde mold by dying a usually flaxen-haired model's coif black in a "radical model makeover" — some suspect the "luscious" beauty in question may be Lara Stone.

>> Karolina Kurkova Is Six Months Pregnant — The cast of this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is going to be decidedly different, now that three of its usual stars are pregnant: Angel Heidi Klum is due in the Fall, Angel Adriana Lima is due in the Winter, and Karolina Kurkova (whose Angel contract expired this year) just announced today that she is six months pregnant with her fiance, film producer Archie Drury, who she's been with for a little over a year. Meanwhile, the jury's still out on Gisele Bundchen, but she continues to wear flowy tops. [People, Page Six]