>> Cindy Crawford's kids may appear with her in the new Propel commercial, but she's not pushing them into the spotlight, she tells Parade: "Originally, I didn't want to use my kids in the commercial because I don't ever want to make them feel like they have to work because they might be in a bad mood that day or they might want to have a play date. I don't ever want to say, 'Well sorry, you're booked.' But the night before the commercial, they heard my husband and I talking and they heard that we were having 'fake' kids. They were like, 'You can't have fake kids! You have to have us!' So at the last minute, they ended up doing it."

Crawford also strives to make sure her daughter, 9-year-old Kaia, has a healthy body image: "I think the way kids learn most is not by what you say, but by what you do. They see me making healthy choices, and they see my husband and I exercising. Being a woman and having a daughter, I don't want her to feel like in order to be attractive or healthy or thin, that you have to deprive yourself all of the time. So if we go out for ice cream, I don't say, 'Oh, I can't have that!' I'll order one. I don't make a big deal out of it.  She sees how I eat and I always say that I try to be 80 percent good, 80 percent of the time because that's achievable."

As for the modeling industry and how its changed since her heyday, Crawford admits: "I do feel like an outsider now, but I just saw the CoverGirl commercial with Taylor Swift and I thought, 'Wow, it is so hard for models to get a job these days.' You have to sing and act, too. There doesn't seem to be as much work specifically just for models. And I also think when I was modeling, size 6 was a normal size and now it's like 2 or 0."

>> In anticipation of "Savage Beauty,” this year's Alexander McQueen-focused Costume Institute gala and its accompanying exhibit which opens next month, Sarah Burton shared some of her favorite memories of working with the designer. Among the highlights, the Fall 2006 finale dress at left, of which Burton says: "This dress was actually based on my wedding dress — I got married two years earlier. We had to figure out how to make lace work in the round with those ruffles because Lee hated gathering. So we cut out all of the flowers from the lace and reappliqued it on tulle to make our own fabric. This is the collection most people remember as the one with Kate Moss in a hologram. Oh, my God, it was so beautiful. He loved that show.” [Vogue.com]

>> With the influx of one Vogue alum at Town & Country — former style director Alexandra Kotur, who recently joined the magazine as creative director — out goes another. Billy Norwich, who left Vogue to join T&C a year ago as special correspondent, has exited his position in the wake of the Town & Country's January editor-in-chief changeover.

Norwich was told he would now be working exclusively as a writer by new editor Jay Fielden, who added, "We thank Billy for his contributions to the magazine during his tenure and look forward to publishing his freelance work if the opportunity presents itself.” Norwich for his part, noted, “Alas, there isn’t a web site yet to satisfy the urge to write more in real time so I think it is really time for me to do something out of the box."

Speaking of Kotur, her successor at Vogue has been named. 25-year-old Chloe Malle (left), daughter of Candice Bergen and the late French film director Louis Malle, will take the title of social editor. Malle previously spent a year as the residential real estate columnist at The New York Observer and has been freelancing for The New York Times for the past six months.

>> LVMH is taking its time with the announcement of Dior's new designer, and it sounds like the decision still has yet to be made. At a recent shareholders' meeting, Bernard Arnault said the plan was to interview a number of candidates before making the call when "conviction" arrives.

But who's reportedly on the short list of candidates Bernard Arnault's advisors have submitted? Tom Ford, Hedi Slimane, Olivier Theyskens, Nicholas Ghesquiere, Alber Elbaz, Haider Ackermann, Prabal Gurung, and Sarah Burton. However, a source in Paris told WWD that LVMH is placing less importance on marquee names and focusing rather on “someone who understands Dior and fits the needs of the company.”

While Arnault, chairman of the board at Dior, is sure to get the final say on the appointee, Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, who has helmed the company since 1998, and Delphine Arnault (Bernard's daughter), deputing managing director at Dior and widely viewed as the eventual LVMH heir apparent, are also expected to weigh in. Apparently Dior execs are also receiving unsolicited designer suggestions from top editors and even shareholders.

Delphine, for her part, is seen as a champion of Riccardo Tisci; the Givenchy designer has reportedly been lobbying for the position as well, sketching out his vision for the brand. Bernard Arnault, meanwhile, is reportedly transfixed by royalty, and if Sarah Burton does dress Kate Middleton for her wedding at the end of the month (despite Burton's and the McQueen company's denials), she may pull ahead in the race. Arnault would be keen to launch the new Dior alongside the newly-married couple; Princess Diana, after all, helped catapult the brand's image in 1995 when she wore a Lady Dior bag and then in 1996 when she wore a midnight blue, bias-cut Dior gown by John Galliano to the Costume Institute Gala.

In the meantime, design duties are falling on Dior's in-house design studios, headed by Bill Gaytten, who has worked beside Galliano since the '80s. They're already creating the Cruise 2012 collection and have started in on the upcoming Fall 2011 couture collection, in preparation for its debut in July.

>> Namesake designer Jimmy Choo and LVMH are no longer in the running to buy the Choo label — which is said to be valued at between £400 million and £500 million (or up to $813.4 million) — but Jones Group (which owns Nine West and last year bought Stuart Weitzman) reportedly is. Although a Jones Group spokeswoman declined comment on the matter, the company is said to be one among three potential buyers, the other two of which are German luxury company Labelux, which owns Bally, and US buyout firm TPG. The next bids are expected in mid-May. [WSJ, Reuters]

>> In a move that wasn't entirely unexpected, Gianfranco Ferre creative directors Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi — who also design under the moniker Aquilano.Rimondi — are out at the brand. They joined Ferre in 2008, after the founding designer's successor Lars Nilsson was dismissed in February of that year.

A "well-placed" source told WWD that after the Fall 2011 show, “sales didn’t go well at all" and "the designers have already left.” While attending February's show, new Ferre owners Abdulkader Sankari and son Ahmed (of Paris Group) already seemed lukewarm about Aquilano and Rimondi. “We will see,” was all they would say when enquired about the designers' future at the brand.

A retailer who asked to remain anonymous also blamed poor sales for the designers' departure: “We bought a minimal amount of the collection for the sake of carrying the brand, but there simply were not enough samples. There was almost no daywear and evening wear was fairy-tale-like, something for the Oscars. It may work for a small, niche brand, but not for such a global brand.” Aquilano and Rimondi's Ferre designs were also known to be expensive, putting the brand on par with the likes of Chanel.

>> Hannah MacGibbon's fate at Chloe was reportedly lying in the balance this past Paris Fashion Week — as her contract with the house was about to expire — but it seems she's going to stay for now. According to WWD's market sources, MacGibbon's contract was recently extended for another season. Reached for comment on Friday, Chloe CEO Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye said, “Hannah is still with us, that’s all I can say.” [WWD]