>> Versace is definitely feeling the economic crunch, completely pulling out of Japan, where it's had a presence since 1981, and announcing impending layoffs of over a quarter of its current workforce. But Donatella Versace aims to keep up appearances — she sponsored the Whitney Museum Art Gala in New York two weeks ago, jetted off days later to Rio de Janeiro for a Fashion Rocks event, and has just named Georgia May Jagger, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger's 17-year-old daughter, the face of her Spring 2010 campaign, as photographed by Mario Testino. She also refuses to take off her stilettos, except for at the gym.
The New York Times's Eric Wilson caught up with her when she was in New York, staying under the name "Mrs. Montez" in a suite at the Waldorf Towers. When she first took over Versace, she says, “it was not easy to believe in myself or the future. Everyone was looking at me like a savior, and I had to have this image of this powerful strong woman, which I am not.”
Georgia May Jagger
Donatella: I Handled Versace While Under Influence of Cocaine, Will Weather Economy, Too
Louis Vuitton Spring 2010: All Clogs, Raccoon Tails, and Massive Fros
>> Louis Vuitton started exactly on time this afternoon, leaving more than a few editors shut out and half the front row empty; of those who did make it inside in time, some were still on the runway when the show commenced, leaving opener Patricia Van der Vliet to barge right through. Every single girl had on a sky-high afros, each made from five smaller wigs sewn together, which bobbed "up and down like big pom pom balls" as they walked; Grace Coddington apparently "whooped with delight" at the first sight of them.
A flurry of models were front row — Sophie Dahl and her fiance Jamie Cullum, Natalia Vodianova, Daisy Lowe — but Georgia May Jagger was a surprise on the catwalk. The show, inspired by the '80s and '90s New Age traveller and “street clothes, embracing the hippie-cyber, tribal-punk world,” according to Marc Jacobs, included everything from kitten-heeled clogs to bags with raccoon tails — straight from Williamsburg hipsters — to bike shorts and glitter anoraks. And Jacobs himself wore a pair of the furry clogs for the finale.
Armani Jeans
Herve Leger
Meltin Pot