>> Elle style director Kate Lanphear has a good explanation for fashion's current obsession with street style.

Lanphear recently sat down with Ruffian's Brian Wolk and Claude Morais to discuss the industry, her personal style, and why she loves her work. "My job is to make people dream, and to get them excited about dressing in a new way," she says. Below, a few more highlights from the interview.

On the current obsession with street style: "It's a by-product of social media. There is a true wealth of information online now, but the coverage first began in Japanese street style magazines. At the time, the economy was more robust—people were buying goods from luxury brands, but they didn't necessarily know how to wear them. People were hungry for ideas, but magazines were just shooting full looks, so if it didn't resonate with you on the runway, these street style mags were a great source of inspiration."

On growing up in the South: "I love the culture of the South, and the people there, but living in New York is a dream. There was a time when everyone around me said this dream would never come true. I still pinch myself every day. When I work, I always think about that girl in Virginia—what I'd want to wear, what I dreamed about then, and what I would have wanted to see in a magazine. For that girl, fantasy and fashion collide in simple images with a real spirit, like a gorgeous woman getting a coffee or hailing a yellow cab."

Her favorite lie: "'Your ass looks small in that!'"

>> Madewell creative director Kin Ying Lee spends her day dreaming up cool things for her customers, so it's no surprise that she buys cool things for herself.

We caught up with Lee for a quick chat in advance of the Madewell Denim Roadtrip, a styling tour that will make stops in 14 cities across the country and at Coachella. The tour also marks the beginning of a nationwide expansion for Madewell; the brand plans to open 15 more stores by the end of the year. Read on to find out a bit more about the creative mind behind the brand.

What's a surprising talent you have that's not related to designing clothes?
"I can carve a chicken. Like a raw chicken, no problem, blood and raw meat don't bother me. I used to work in a restaurant with my parents. Whenever I am at a friend's or family dinner, like at Thanksgiving, I am always the one to carve the turkey. I can dismantle it perfectly. Everyone is always amazed."

What's the last cool thing you bought?
"A hematite heart from Love Adorned. I never buy tchotchke stuff, but this is so beautiful and crushed and sparkly. It's on my desk."

Above: The hematite heart from Love Adorned on Lee's desk.

>> Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Jean Paul Gaultier is the new creative director of Diet Coke in Europe. His first order of business? Decorating the iconic bottles with corsets to make them look more like his signature torso-shaped perfume bottles. [The Cut]
  

• Fashion blogger Bryan Boy is taking some flak for tweeting about the Miss Universe Canada pageant's decision to allow a transgender woman to participate in the competition. "I'm very much pro-tranny but i don't want them to take part in miss universe," he wrote, much to the dismay of The Cut's Alex Rees, who replied, "and some trannys are probably pro-bryanboy but they don't need you passing judgement." [Stylelist]
  

• Rosie Huntington-Whiteley joined Twitter today with the handle @RHW. "Hello!" her first tweet read. "Finally joining Twitter and looking forward to sharing some exciting and fun things with you all very soon...so stay tuned. R x" At the time of this posting she had already amassed over 2,000 followers. [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• Jeanne Beker's Fashion Television, the Canadian-based TV show that ran for 27 years, stopped production this week. Representatives from Bell Media, which owns Fashion Television, say Beker will stay with the company to work on "the development of new projects." The half-hour show aired weekly in over 130 countries. [The Fashion Spot]
  

• Alice Temperley is lobbying against a proposed British law that would raise the price of cider made in Great Britain — like the kind her parents produce for a living. "It is a crippling tax that would make local cider bought from local farms like my parents' three times more expensive, so ruining the livelihood I grew up with and England's beautiful orchards," she said. [Vogue UK]