>> Earlier this week, Claudia Schiffer and Karl Lagerfeld were snapped on the Chanel Spring 2010 campaign shoot in and around Buenos Aires; Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi, who are also supposed to be in the campaign, were not so easily spotted. On Tuesday, Lagerfeld and Schiffer were on location just outside Buenos Aires in Monte Grande, where local media reports they stopped for a lunch of "rich barbeque."  Then on Wednesday, they started production in Buenos Aires's oldest neighborhood, San Telmo, before they had to stop because of rain.
*image: source, source, source, source

>> Inspired by Marie Antoinette's Petit Hameau farm at Versailles and the fact that he spent part of his childhood on a farm — "You hear a lot about the environment these days. I thought it would be interesting to put a fashion twist on it" — Karl Lagerfeld sent his parade of Chanel models stomping through dirt starting at the sound of a rooster's crow.

Guests sat on burlap aged to look mildewed as the high heel-clogged (Lagerfeld called them 5 o'clock clogs), fake tattooed, wicker basket-carrying girls stepped one by one from a giant haystack.  The barnyard set took a month and a half of construction beforehand and then a week to assemble at the Grand Palais, where the show was held. Apparently pigs were supposed to be involved, too, but Heidi Mount Twittered that they were too scared to be in the show.  Chanel face Lily Allen and mock band popped up through a trap door in the floor — Iekeliene Stange and Charlotte di Calypso provided backup singing — and Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi walked the runway four times together.

The last time, they were joined by Lara Stone as bride, and all "fell upon each other in the hay as Karl walked past to bow" — in jeans, no less — while Freja and Lara shared a kiss.

>> After bringing back Jerry Hall's mature woman for the Spring 2009 Chanel handbag ads, Karl Lagerfeld chose to go for a much younger look with Lily Allen this Fall. Reflecting the peek from the shoot we saw earlier this month, the only things the two seasons have in common is the photographer — Karl, of course — and appearances by Baptiste Giabiconi: Jerry was more Lea de Lonval from Cheri, while Lily's tiara and updo give her a touch of Breakfast at Tiffany's Holly Golightly. 

>> Although he skipped the oversized set at the Grand Palais last season, Karl Lagerfeld brought Fall 2009 couture back to the usual with a set of four white oversized Chanel No. 5 perfume bottles forming a square in the center of the Palais' catwalk. With guests on plush sofas, models wove through displaying a predominantly high/low skirt silhouette — because long, according to Lagerfeld, looks old.  For the finale, one of the perfume bottles opened up to reveal Lara Stone as couture bride on Baptiste Giabiconi's arm as groom — Style.com's Derek Blasberg reports of the duo: "They kissed when they went back in the bottle. And started necking when it closed back up!"

>> For Fall 2009, Maison Michel, whose art director Laetitia Crahay doubles as Chanel's accessories designer, asked her other boss Karl Lagerfeld to photograph the milliner's lookbook.  The result is a veritable list of Chanel favorites — Karl's muse Lady Amanda Harlech, Chanel face Heidi Mount, Karl's male model favorite of the moment Baptiste Giabiconi — and plenty of other models including Lara Stone, Angela Lindvall, Sasha Pivovarova, Erin Wasson, plus surprise appearances by Olivier Theyskens and Crahay herself, all donning the latest in Maison Michel's headgear.