PPR has partnered with Yoox to help build an ecommerce platform for the fashion group's luxury brands — including Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta — that its CEO Francois Henri-Pinault says will create websites "at the level of the shopping experience in store."

"The idea was to build a new business division at the group level, linked to me, to have a 360 degree vision of the digital world," he explained in an interview with Business of Fashion. "The team here is more about sharing experiences and making sure that the basics of e-commerce are fulfilled for every brand, whatever the size. We are benchmarking all the sites against the best practices in the world and we also have consumers testing our brands and using the sites."

Pinault said he decided to partner with Yoox — which currently powers ecommerce sites for Alexander Wang, Valentino, and Jil Sander, among others — because the retailer is the "best player when it comes to ecommerce and logistics platforms in the world of luxury and technology." While all the brands will build their sites from the Yoox base, each brand will have control over the way its site is designed.

The company hopes to have the other sites live and ready to deliver products to 100 countries by mid 2013. Pinault has even toyed with the idea of adding personal touches — like in-home tailoring — to go along with his efficient, up-to-date fleet of websites.

"Two considerations, your customer is close to a store, so at least you should have a service for making appointments and being received on time, or if you're not close to a store, why don't we think — and it's not done yet — of a network of professional tailors that come to your home, based on an appointment online to do the alteration for you?" he said. "This is the type of service that will be completely inaccessible for mainstream brands, but will make the difference between a luxury brand and an accessible brand."

Photo: The finale of Alexander McQueen's Fall 2012 show.

Some of the industry's biggest names commented on Hedi Slimane changing the name of Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris, but Slimane himself had remained silent until recently. The designer finally explained his reasons for the shift in an interview with Vanity Fair.

"It is interesting to see how much reaction this retro branding has created," Slimane said. "Clearly, this period of the history of the house was not well-known, which I trust was a surprise for Pierre Bergé. I went back to 1966 — just before the events of 1968 [when 11 million workers revolted against the conservative politics of then-President Charles de Gaulle — the biggest general strike in history], but the awakening of youth was in the air, and Yves Saint Laurent wanted to dissociate himself from the clientele of haute couture and embrace this new generation."

Since Slimane announced the name change in June, Arizona Muse, Karl Lagerfeld, and Bergé himself have publicly voiced their support for the change. When the house revealed an image of the new branding on Facebook last month, its followers were not as enthusiastic. One called the new name and logo "an act of disrespect" against the house's founder.

Saint Laurent, who would have turned 76 last week, was considered a pioneer in ready-to-wear when he founded Saint Laurent Rive Gauche in 1966, but he continued to design couture until he retired from fashion in 2002.

Those stories in our daily news roundup.

• Terry Richardson stepped in front of his own camera in a new ad for jeweler David Webb. Richardson stars in the ad with model Eniko Mihalik. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Isaac Mizrahi will make his first foray into the fragrance business with his new scent Fabulous. [WWD]
  

• Nine West's Runway Relief Program — which raises money for the CFDA's Fashion Targets Breast Cancer charity — will add new garments to its lineup this Fashion Week, including sunglasses, a drawstring backpack, and a newsboy cap. [Modelinia]

All the news bits fit to print.

And in other Fall 2012 campaign news, Juicy Couture has tapped Karlie Kloss for its latest ads, which were photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. [Fashion Gone Rogue]

Fashion's latest obsession isn't a shoe or a handbag or even a designer scandal: it's two teenage brothers by the names of Harry and Peter Brant II, the youngest sons of supermodel Stephanie Seymour and billionaire businessman Peter Brant. The boys (15 and 18, respectively) are also the subject of a profile in the September 2012 issue of Vanity Fair, which examines why the fashion and art worlds are so taken with them. The unabashed way in which they share the details of their fabulous lives — in both interviews and through their joint Twitter account, @HarryPeterBrant — might have something to do with it. See a few snippets from their profile below.

On private islands and supermodels: "We stayed at an island with Naomi [Campbell] not too long ago. It was like a private island," said Peter. "We were all, like, on one of those little rafts in the bay. We were, like, lying around talking, and the rope that connected the raft to the beach got broken off. . . . And we just started drifting, but we didn't notice. And then one of us got up to get water or something from, like, a cooler, and we were, like, 'Where are we?' We had drifted way out into the ocean. We all started freaking out and, like, waving our arms."

On disappointment on not getting into the Met Gala: "I had arranged for the baby panther and everything," Peter says. "What could be better than diamonds and exotic baby animals?"

"You're nobody until PETA either loves you or hates you," says Harry.

On their art-collecting, fashion-loving parents: "There's just no way around it," Harry says. "We wake up and see beauty everywhere. Both my parents bring such a unique element to it. They've both devoted their lives to beauty."

"We have lengthy dinner conversations," Harry adds. "It can be about anything — whether we went to a show, or an auction, or an option sale. It can be about gardening or fashion or magazines."

"We're, like, a very aesthetic family," says Peter.