>> 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

>> Stefano Pilati favors supermodels for his Yves Saint Laurent ad campaigns — five seasons strong now — and two showed up front row for the YSL show today: Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss.  Pilati, who favors little color, as famously noted by Anna Wintour in The September Issue, stuck to mostly white and black, gray, and tan, with a little emerald, periwinkle blue, and coral pink thrown in for good measure. “It’s many, many ideas, a multiplicity of influences, an aesthetic paradigm of new minimalism,” the designer, often referred to as "cerebral" or "intellectual," said of the collection, which he styles himself.

He drew from Saint Laurent's heritage peasant motif, and added a dollop of strawberries — in prints, appliques, and ceramic earrings, which raised a number of eyebrows but have a fan in at least one influencer; Kate Moss announced backstage, “I want to wear that strawberry dress."  For all the sweetness, there was no lack of edge: leather shorts with knee slits are sure to be a hit, and suiting was left with slashed hemlines and loose threads hanging.

>> Peter Lindbergh seems to be quite taken with this no-makeup, minimal-to-no retouching concept: In April, he captured Eva Herzigova, Ines de la Fressange, and a slew of European actresses without makeup or retouching for French Elle. A month after, he told the New York Times that he was tired of subjects in fashion magazines looking like overly-Photoshopped “objects from Mars": “My feeling is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being visually defined today. Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century.”

Lindbergh continues to lead the charge against excessive retouching, this time by capturing supermodels Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, Helena Christensen, Shalom Harlow, Claudia Schiffer, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and Kristen McMenamy without makeup or excessive retouching for Harper's Bazaar's September 2009 issue.

>> As this year's Cannes Film Festival wound down Friday, fashion fixtures were still going strong that afternoon — Carine Roitfeld pulled out her favorite floppy hat and pair of flats for the Amend Charity Luncheon at Hotel du Cap, Stefano Gabbana hosted Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova on his yacht, and then they all convened that night for Dolce & Gabbana's annual "Fabulous in Cannes" bash at Le Baoli.

The party's guest list was reduced significantly from previous years, and the VIP room completely abolished, but sunglasses were handed out to guests because, Gabbana explained, “All the movie stars wore sunglasses in the Fifties, and at the end of the night when you’re drunk, it’s always better to have a pair.”

Carine, her son Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Anna Dello Russo, Vogue Russia's editor Aliona Doletskaya, Eva, Claudia and a smattering of British it girls all hit the mirrored dance floor, while Natasha Poly reflected on her festival experience: "I'm having so much fun here in Cannes, I already forgot about the stresses of the campaign season. That felt like ages ago."

Host Domenico, too, was elated: "This has truly become our favorite little party of the year.  We come here and spend time on Stefano's yacht, see friends, and really leave happy and relaxed."  Unfortunately the relaxation didn't last long — as of Monday, the duo could be liable for more than a billion dollars in unpaid taxes, an Italian police spokeswoman confirmed.

The designers have already released a statement denying any wrongdoing — “It’s a paradox! Since when does one have to pay taxes on money one never actually collected? It’s an absurd demand based on a completely abstract calculation. This higher taxable sum . . . is a virtual figure we have never received, the result of a theoretical accounting exercise” — and vow to "strenuously defend ourselves to avoid being unjustly forced to pay for something that never existed in the first place.”

>> This evening's amfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala in Cannes promised the appearances of chairs Donatella Versace and Carine Roitfeld, and it more than delivered.  Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are hosting their annual blowout tomorrow night, have officially docked their "mirrored floating disco" yacht, according to T's Stefano Tonchi, and joined in on the fun.  Natasha Poly, who needed the help of two women to get into her Cavalli gown yesterday, reappeared in a leopard dress.  Claudia Schiffer made her first red carpet appearance of the festival.  And Carine Roitfeld made the rounds, stopping to chat with Twilight's Robert Pattinson.

>> One of Valentino Garavani's favorite models, Natalia Vodianova, missed the big premiere of his documentary; she was in London for the launch of the 2009 Fashion Fringe search for emerging British design talent — the UK's version of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award — instead.  In celebration of this year's honorary chairperson, Donatella Versace, who flew in from Milan for the event, guests like Claudia Schiffer, Roland Mouret, Jonathan Saunders, and Jacquetta Wheeler were served "Donatella Delight" cocktails.  Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet is also on the judging panel this year, as is Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon, who is overseeing the introduction of Fashion Fringe's first accessories prize.  The four as yet unnamed finalists will show capsule collections during Spring 2010 London Fashion Week, and the winner — who in the past has been Basso & Brooke and Erdem — receive upwards of £100,000 for a follow-up show.
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