Gela Nash-Taylor

• Vogue's Virginia Smith turned down the Barneys fashion director position last week, and now the other front-runner, Lane Crawford fashion director Sarah Rutson, has too. “I have no intention or plans to leave Lane Crawford,” Rutson said over the weekend [WWD]
• Tomorrow's British Fashion Awards will honor Alexander McQueen posthumously for Outstanding Achievement; McQueen's frequent collaborator Nick Knight made a short film of the designer's archives for the occasion, scored by Bjork: “It is being styled by Edward Enninful and will feature black models only” [Style File]
• The first image of Dolce & Gabbana's Spring 2011 campaign, which features Izabel Goulart, Alessandra Ambrosio, Maryna Linchuk, and Isabeli Fontana captured by Steven Klein, has leaked (pictured) [TFS]

• Giorgio Armani and Lady Gaga, who have a multimillion dollar partnership, finally met for the first time last night; Anna Dello Russo also met Gaga and brought her a doll [Styleite]
• See the Ann Taylor-inspired looks the 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists created as part of this year's competition [Fashionista]
• Hairstylist Didier Malige on Terry Richardson's childhood: "Now I see Terry as an adult, and at the time I knew him as three or four years old. His upbringing was totally liberal compared to a French kid of his age. They had a Fiat 500, which is a tiny little car, and he always had to share it with a huge poodle, like a royal poodle. And he always had to sit in the back with the poodle." [Into The Gloss]
• Juicy Couture co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, who favor vintage pieces, furry vests, black leather pants, and vertiginous heels, plan to launch a new label next year, and they're dropping hints: “It will reflect the way we dress now. We have outgrown our track suits and grown up” [WWD]
• Sasha Pivovarova, who likes to make dolls, opens up her Brooklyn loft for T's cameras [T]
• Watch the music video for a young Jean Paul Gaultier's 1988 single, "How To Do That," featuring Naomi Campbell [Jezebel]
• 23-year-old Central St Martins graduate Thomas Tait only does private orders so far, but he's already got fans in Giles Deacon, Daphne Guinness, Stephen Jones, and Manolo Blahnik [T]
• Intermission Magazine's website just launched, featuring interviews with the likes of Gaia Repossi and Hanne-Gaby Odiele [Intermission]

>> Erin Fetherston was hired as guest designer and creative consultant at Juicy Couture in April, three months after the label's co-founders and co-designers Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy gave up their day-to-day responsibilities to launch their own label next year. Fetherston will design for Juicy Couture until the end of 2011, and has already shown a Holiday 2010 collection, which included "bugle-beaded blazers, sateen-trimmed jackets and beribboned draped skirts to bustier dresses," WWD writes.

While she's only contracted to design the Holiday and Fall 2011 Juicy Couture collections, Fetherston definitely has some legwork to do for the brand. When Fetherston was brought in earlier this year, retailers had been complaining about Juicy Couture's fit and quality, and said the line needed to be reinvigorated.

A number of retailers have started dropping the line »

Last night we attended the Juicy Couture Flagship store opening and boy, was it inspired--we arrived early to take some pictures of the store which, we will say, is massive. In fact, what seemed like modest second floor from the entrance was, once upstairs, quite sprawling with rooms. Once the guests started arriving we found ourselves falling into a kind of Gatsbyesque stupor, we thought,

"When I grow up I want to have a biiiiig store of Fifth Avenue and in the windows there will be dancing ballerinas and in the doorways, men in suit jackets. When I walk upstairs there will be men on stilts in marching band coats and when I get to the top, cakes of all varieties. In the store there will be enough candy, fur, and pajama pants for a whole lifetime and..."

At which point we were snapped back into reality by Ann Slowey who muttered the words "baaaaar" as she walked past us in her sky-high suede platforms. There were other interesting fashion characters there, like Julie Macklowe dressed noticeably in Chanel with her hair pulled back like a teenager. There was, just before, Martha Stewart, taking photos with her digital camera, seemingly oblivious to the people as she was so enchanted by the spectacle of the whole thing. There were actresses of young ages, socialites of young ages, actual everyday children, and some New York-type adults throwing back the champagne and taking a load off.  

Juicy founders, Pamela Skaist and Gela Nash-Taylor, worked the red carpet in black princess dresses--it was fitting extravagance for a Juicy Couture party in Gotham City.