>> With Laduree macaroons catered backstage and Rihanna arriving half an hour late to sit front row, Daria Werbowy opened (and closed, and walked in the middle of) the Balmain show — her only show for the season — in the gilded, marbled ballroom of The Grand Hotel.

Christophe Decarnin's strong shoulders and ripped jeans were still present, but gone were the '80s. This season, “it’s warrior women and the military, with a mix of different times and a touch of Mad Max," he told Suzy Menkes; stylist Emmanuelle Alt's personal style was prevalent as ever, particularly in the pants-and-jackets combinations.

Since Decarnin took over at Balmain in 2006, the brand's ready-to-wear sales have double each season, according to CEO Alain Hivelin, and next season brings an eyewear collection with Oliver Peoples.  The brand's much-buzzed-about $2,000 jeans are priced as such because, Hivelin says, certain pieces receive hundreds of hours of embroidery or have been reworked up to 50 times before they hit retail.  But here's irony for you: Decarnin picks up his own wardrobe at army surplus stores.

>> It turns out the image of Anja Rubik curling around a handbag against a black background was for Gucci's Pre-Fall 2009 collection; the first couple of images from the actual Fall 2009 campaign, photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin back in April, are here.  So far, Natasha Poly, Anja Rubik, Raquel Zimmermann, and Myf Shepherd are all pictured — as styled by Emmanuelle Alt — but Jacquetta Wheeler, Freja Beha Erichsen, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Dree Hemingway, and Jamie Bochert have also been mentioned as part of the campaign.

>> Some thought that Vogue Paris's August 2009 cover with Daria Werbowy all decked out in Burberry check looked too blatantly like an advertisement, but in the context of Inez van Lamweerde and Vinoodh Matadin's 65-page accompanying editorial inside — with a plethora of models, each embodying a different brand's identity — it all makes sense.  

It's a few of the magazine's usual suspects — Anja Rubik doing Gucci's "glam star" in fauxhawk, Kamila Filipcikova striking an eyepopping McQueen silhouette — plus a few new faces like Regina Feoktistova and Ranya Mordanova in Gianfranco Ferre and Junya Watanabe, respectively.  The trifecta of stylists that produced these images — Joe McKenna, Emmanuelle Alt, Carine Roitfeld — prove that there is creativity to be found within the bounds of a studio shoot, after all.

Full editorial here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; gallery below NSFW.

>> Anja Rubik has been in the game for a number of years, snagging her fair share of runway work and high-profile campaigns, but it's taken until now for her to join her contemporaries in scoring a major Vogue cover. She'll feature on Vogue Paris's prime spot for not one, but two months, since it's the magazine's June/July 2009 issue.  The cover was photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, but inside, Anja stars alongside Natasha Poly in an Emmanuelle Alt-styled, Terry Richardson-lensed madcap romp around Paris.

>> Yesterday was all fittings and a dinner party — which host Karl Lagerfeld and his entourage were a full two hours late for (blame it on the fittings and Lady Amanda Harlech's mosquito-stung eye) — but the Chanel Cruise 2010 was this evening at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Lido Resort in Venice.

Siri Tollerod, Heidi Mount, Liu Wen, Charlotte di Calypso, and Denisa Dvorakova were all in town to walk, powwowing with Lagerfeld for their fittings yesterday; add to that list Inguna Butane and Snejana Onopka, who sent photographic evidence of their arrival, plus Lara Stone and Tatjana Patitz, who walked the finale with Karl.

Carine Roitfeld and Emmanuelle Alt were spotted lounging in the sun on the Hotel Europa's terrace pre-show, and at the Excelsior Lido, white tents were set up on the beach and the pier lit up. The catwalk was a boardwalk and the front row a line of deck chairs, with editors left to deal with their heels sinking into the sand.

Last night, Lagerfeld hinted that the clothes would be reminiscent of Peggy Guggenheim, the patron whose palazzo now houses Italy’s most important collection of twentieth-century art, and inspired by Venetian high-society of the '30s, with fabrics sourced from "the rich reds of the Renaissance, Fortuny's prints, and the chiaroscuro technique of the great Italian masters."

The show happened at sunset — Karl made everyone wait two hours because he wanted to start then — with the girls wearing Marchesa Casati-inspired wigs and makeup, the opening "sailor girl-inspired cream and navy knits" and a finale of metallic lace cocktail dresses.  Guests brought home a Chanel beach towel as souvenir.

More photos of the collection here.

>> The print casualties aren't done: the Women's Summer issue of T magazine will appear as a 24-page "bonus section" of the New York Times Magazine this Sunday instead of its usual stand-alone issue, and now word comes that French style magazine Mixte announced it's folding — the forthcoming June 2009 issue will be its last. Vogue Paris fashion director Emmanuelle Alt is an alum of the cult magazine, and its vividly colored covers (a few of our recent favorites below) and innovative spreads will be sorely missed.
*image: source, source