>> "I feel the men's magazines lack energy. Everything feels so affected and fey and not real somehow," Ashley Heath, Arena Homme+ editorial director, proclaims. "These new covers are just an attempt to do something a bit different and eye-catching on the newsstand."

The magazine's two Fall 2011 covers — the issue hits newsstands tomorrow — are a hint at the 30-page portfolio inside, which David Sims shot, employing his friends, assistants, and models who caught his eye. "[The covers] come from this quite raw, punky, digital space," Heath explains. "I feel there's more reality in David playing about with shapes and colors and cheap computer effects — deconstructing fashion photography if you like — than there is in the status quo . . . You look at a painter like [Gerhard] Richter and how brutal he is; he'll switch from a beautiful canvas to thinking, 'How can I do the total opposite of that?' I think there's an element of that with David Sims's new work. He's handing in stunning fashion images to Grace Coddington [at Vogue], then working on playful, experimental stuff for Arena Homme+."

>> Tyler Ellis wants to make pieces that are timeless, timely, and sophisticated — or as she puts it, "based on classical elegance with a modern edge." If that credo sounds familiar, it should: Ellis is the daughter of Perry Ellis, a designer revered the world over for his clean-lined, understated approach to modern sportswear.

Inspired by her late father, Ellis created the Tyler Alexandra handbag line in 2010, and, with its architectural silhouettes and refined materials, the collection manages to strike a balance between luxurious and wearable. "It is all about distinctive shapes and, most importantly, touch. I chose leathers and skins that differed from the norm," Tyler Ellis explains. Slim box bags and chain-strap pouches come in a super-tactile assortment; there is suede baby-blue crocodile, pearly fuschia satin, and even a metallic "tweed" calfskin.

Handmade in Paris and Italy, the bags are also rife with the kind of smart details and personal touches one would expect from the daughter of an American design icon: Interior pockets are roomy, hardware is feminine, and each bag is adorned with a signature pinecone fastener. "[Pinecones hold] the spiritual significance of eternity, dating all the way back to ancient Egypt. When I was developing my brand in Paris, I began to notice the city is full of pinecones — door handles, tops of poles, the garden at the Ritz — so I decided to make the pinecone the Tyler Alexandra symbol, and hope to be around for eternity."

Click through to see the full Tyler Alexandra Spring 2012 collection, available via the brand's website and at Louis Boston starting in mid-December.


Photos Courtesy of Tyler Alexandra

>> After closing Givenchy's Spring 2012 runway show earlier this month, Gisele Bundchen was assumed to be a shoe-in for the collection's ad campaign. It seems that those assumptions may not be off par. On Saturday, male model Noah Mills tweeted, "Going to jamaica tomorrow to shoot with Gisele," and earlier today, Forbes's Anderson Antunes tweeted, "Rumor has it that Gisele Bundchen shot the Givenchy S/S campaign last week in Jamaica with model Noah." If the rumors turn out to be true and the campaign involves just Bundchen and Mills, it marks the first Givenchy campaign for which Riccardo Tisci hasn't used close friend and muse Mariacarla Boscono since the Fall 2007 campaign.

Bundchen was the face of Givenchy once before, in Fall 2000, when Alexander McQueen was the house's designer. See that campaign in the slideshow.

>> Style.com's new magazine, Style.com/Print launches next Monday, Oct. 31. Meant to be a distillation of the Spring 2012 shows which ended earlier this month, the magazine, Eric Wilson writes, "is a surprisingly effective product, one that reads with a swiftness that is not unlike the experience of clicking through multiple screens at a time. The first 100 pages can be read in five minutes."

“We wanted to give the reader a sense of what it is like to go through the journey of the shows, from New York to London to Milan to Paris,” said Dirk Standen, the editor of Style.com.

Inside, there's a profile of Proenza Schouler in which Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough talk expansion plans: "We want to create easier everyday stuff, like jeans and a collection of more wearable shoes." Theo Wenner followed Lindsey Wixson (who appears on the magazine's cover) from her home in Wichita, KS, through the month of shows, and then back home again for a 27-page portfolio. There's a Q&A with Azzedine Alaia, Tommy Ton's street-style photos, top-10 lists of most-viewed shows on Style.com (Chanel was No. 1 with 3.5 million pageviews, followed by Louis Vuitton, Prada, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana), Style.com's top 10 shows (Balenciaga came in first, followed by Lanvin, Prada, Givenchy, and Proenza Schouler). There are also lists of the most ubiquitous party people, "fashion maps of New York, London, Milan, and Paris," and "an illustrated guide to the world's fashion cliques — from Miuccia Prada to Aziz Ansari in six degrees or less."

The issue costs $14.99 on select newsstands across North America and Europe, including Kirna Zabete in New York, 10 Corso Como in Milan, and Colette in Paris, and costs $4.99 plus shipping to order online before Monday. (It will be $6.99 after.)