>> BFC, Vogue UK Start Fashion Fund —Two weeks before this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winners are announced in New York, London has decided to get in on the fun.  The British Fashion Council and British Vogue have teamed up for the new BFC Vogue Design Fashion Fund, which will provide one British-based designer with £200,000 (approx. $328,000) and a year's worth of mentoring support, much like its American counterpart. The inaugural winner and finalists will be announced next April, with Alexandra Shulman chairing the judging panel. [WWD, Telegraph UK]

>> The second edition of LOVE comes out next week, and even though she just recently got married, editor-in-chief Katie Grand didn't have time for a honeymoon because she had to finish the issue.  Katie is somewhat the antithesis of Anna Wintour in the so-called glamorous world of fashion: she doesn't feel the need to have every hair in place and she doesn't mandate high heels, like Vogue supposedly does.

“I’m really practical,” she recently told the Times UK. “I go to the gym most mornings and I walk everywhere, so that’s why I wear flat shoes and no make-up. It’s not vanity; it’s laziness. I didn’t wear make-up on my wedding day because I didn’t want mascara running down my face if I cried.”  Also missing from the wedding?  The traditional white dress. “I wore an Azzedine Alaïa brown snakeskin dress, which he tortured me for about two months to get into, but at least it’s something I can wear again. I didn’t want some stupid white dress; it seems like such a waste."

Food banned at LOVE's office? »

>> Two Vogue Editor-in-Chiefs MIA at Couture —Anna Wintour isn't the only one who is mysteriously missing from the front rows at couture, an unprecedented move; British Vogue's Alexandra Shulman is also missing in action.  Both women have deputies on the scene, but their absence begs the question: Are the September issues causing an issue this year? [FWD]

>> Over the weekend, Christian Lacroix told the Telegraph UK that he would be having a Fall 2009 Couture show — "and it won't be a funeral: it'll be a fightback."  Now, we have more details.

A spokeswoman for the designer confirmed today that Lacroix is having a "very small and simple presentation" on July 7, with 20 outfits on live models.  In his interview with the Telegraph UK, Lacroix stated that it "can't cost us a single euro to put this show on," which means that any model (as well as any other staff) working at the upcoming show will have volunteered her time without pay.

But the models won't be "too thin" »

>> INSIDER WIRE —Days after British Vogue's editor Alexandra Shulman advocated against size zero models and sample sizes, two models have joined Erin O'Connor in supporting Alexandra's letters to design houses: Helena Christensen and Crystal Renn. Helena went on record saying: “It’s about time somebody takes action. Obviously I am of the same belief…aren’t we in a business that is supposed to explore all kinds of shapes and silhouettes?” Crystal, too, applauded Alexandra's move: "This will hopefully serve as another critical step towards having better representation of women throughout all categories in fashion." [WWD]

>> Over the weekend, a "strongly worded letter" from Vogue UK's Alexandra Shulman "sent to scores of designers in Europe and America" — including Prada, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel — was leaked to the Times UK in what some are calling a publicity stunt.

In the letter, Shulman exhumed the size zero fight, accusing designers of an "increasingly disturbing" practice of sending fashion magazines "minuscule" clothes for photo shoots. "I am finding that the feedback from my readers and the general feeling in the UK is that people don't really want to see such thin girls."

She noted that the samples sent were becoming "substantially smaller": "Nowadays, I often ask the photographers to retouch to make the models appear larger." Furthermore, she wrote: "We have now reached a point where many of the sample sizes don't comfortably fit even the established star models. Instead, we are having to use girls with jutting bones and no breasts or hips, to fit them."

So who's with her? »

>> THE MODELIZER —Alexandra Shulman thought it risky to place a nude Natalia Vodianova on the June 2009 British Vogue cover — "because, obviously, people buy Vogue to look at clothes" — but she got Kate Moss's attention.  The model picked up a copy earlier today in London . . . or maybe she was just doing research?  She's rumored to be shooting for the magazine this week, with Kate Phelan styling.  If she gets the cover, that will make number 27. [Vogue UK, TFS]

*image: WENN.com

>> Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue who proclaims herself "not a great fashion person," isn't too worried about the current economic downturn. In her sixteen-year tenure, she tells The Independent, she's been there before — in the early '90s.  "I'm not sure if it was actually classed as a recession, or just a downturn, but I remember all the 'For Sale' signs ranked in rows on terraced houses and everything. Certainly we'd lost a lot of ad pages in the previous year, and business for Vogue was a lot tougher than it had been in the 1980s."

She points out, however, that last time around, a lot of good things came out of all the bad.

"At that time a whole slew of new designers bubbled up – like McQueen, Stella McCartney, Hussein Chayalan, Clements Ribeiro.  A new generation came up through that period.  I'm not sure whether it encourages creativity, whether it's because people are looking for alternatives to what's fed to them on a mass scale, whether they are more interested in what's happening on the underground, or what it is, but you do get new names, new businesses, during recessions. Things happen. It can be quite an exciting time creatively. And old names often die."

And she thinks Vogue isn't going to be one of those old names to die.

"We had, up until the end of last year, as good a year as the one before, and that was a record year. That's in ads. Circulation, I think we're going to be 1 per cent down on the newsstand, which compares to other people being 20 per cent down. So we've been really lucky. The first issue we've lost some ads is February. And I'm still waiting to hear about March which is a big fashion special. Nobody thinks it's going to be as good next year as last year, but it's a question of: 'How bad?'"
*image: source