>> 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? »

>> Kate Moss Is Sweeping the September 2009 Covers —We've known that Kate Moss is getting the September 2009 W cover — preview, by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, at left — for a while, but she's surprised us with at least a couple of other major September covers (and you never know, maybe more are on the way).  Her Vogue UK cover came out last week, and now comes the news that she has the Vogue Russia cover as well, although no preview is available yet.  The take-away message?  Editors still feel that Kate sells, and are willing to put her on their biggest issues of the year. [TFS]

>> 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]

>> 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? »

>> INSIDER WIRE —Quickly gaining editorial clout — Mark Fast, the 28-year-old London-based knitwear designer whose web-like knit dresses covered a pregnant Elena Perminova (wife to the owner of the Evening Standard) in the May 2009 British Vogue and Sigrid Agren in the June/July 2009 issue of i-D.  He uses a machine bought at a charity sale, wants to work with Raquel Zimmermann — "she is a dream" — and hopes to make it to Paris.

>> 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

>> Natalia Vodianova made a splash last year when she hit the Paris runways three weeks after giving birth to her third child, Viktor, and now the June 2009 British Vogue cover girl tells CNN she credits the success of her career to her pregnancies:

My agency thought that I might never do shows because I was a bit shorter and not skinny enough, but when I gave birth to my first son I was 19 and I lost a lot of weight.  I guess the stress on the body was extreme and I suddenly just turned into this stick — just the way designers love models. My career took off after Lucas was born because I opened a lot of shows on the runway and that's where a lot of stars are made in my industry.

CNN recently followed Natalia around Moscow for their twelve-minute segment My City_My Life, during which she introduces some of her favorite bars, boutiques, and even a banya (Russian sauna), where she goes to get "whipped with" a "branch" by two men.  One such highlight — a stop in a market with her children Lucas and Neva, where she pronounces (as she eats it): "I'm buying some lard.  It's fantastic on toast and something that in my culture we eat all the time."

Video: The full episode! »