>> Now that Georgina Chapman has officially realigned herself as the designer of Marchesa, leaving Keren Craig, former co-designer, to the more business side of things, she's branching out beyond Marchesa.

Garrard, the British jewelry brand that supplied Princess Diana's engagement ring, is seeking a creative director since Jade Jagger left the post in 2007, and in the meantime, they've asked Georgina to be a guest designer.  The Georgina Chapman for Garrard collection is to be unveiled next September during New York Fashion Week — no doubt accessorizing the Spring 2010 Marchesa collection — and prices are expected to run in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.

It's interesting that the collection is called "Georgina Chapman for Garrard" rather than "Marchesa for Garrard," don't you think?  Especially when the company is looking for a new creative director and Garrard's CEO says Georgina's line is expected to be "a significant part of the Garrard business."  Not that Georgina would leave Marchesa behind for jewelry — but it does seem like she's trying to do things more on her own without Keren.
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>> Along with the annual International Best-Dressed List, the September 2008 Vanity Fair features a spread dubbed "America's New Fashion Guard," featuring up-and-coming designers, including a few designing duos like Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte, Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava. 

Marchesa was also spotlighted, but as Chic Report so astutely pointed out, only one half of the brand's designing duo is pictured: Georgina Chapman, with no Keren Craig in sight.

Interesting, in light of the rumors back in May suggesting that Keren was being phased out as a co-designer; the photographic evidence here definitely lends credence to that possibility.  Or maybe, as Chic Report suggested, Keren was just on her honeymoon when the picture was taken.
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>> The revolving door of designers continues, this time at Halston.  Marco Zanini, who has presented one Fall 2008 collection for the newly revived brand, is no longer working at company headquarters, WWD reports. 

Rachel Zoe's job as advisor for red carpet and celebrity styling to the brand may also be on the rocks, especially considering that Halston by Marco Zanini have made few to no red carpet appearances, not even on Zoe's clients.  Trouble between Zoe and the brand was first heralded when the celebrity stylist failed to appear at the inaugural Halston show in February after sitting front row at Oscar de la Renta an hour earlier.

Marco Zanini is said to have designed the Spring 2009 Halston collection, which will be presented at New York Fashion Week in September.  The company may already be looking for successors, but board member (and Jimmy Choo wunderkind) Tamara Mellon adamantly denied that Georgina Chapman, wife of Halston owner Harvey Weinstein, will be assuming any creative role.

Tough times these days for a designer who gets a less-than-positive review.
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>>  In the first part we did a lot of staring, but in parts two and three of the July 2008 W behind-the-scenes vids, there are more gems to be discovered.  Like — in case you didn't know before, the eyes can be deceiving — the cover shot of Daria Werbowy, Kate Moss, and Lara Stone makes it appear as if they are naked under a shared bedsheet, but in Part Two, you get a peek at what they're actually wearing. 

Annnnnd in Part Three, the wheels on the bus go 'round-and-'round, Georgina Chapman frolicks in a poofy skirt, and Kate Moss stick her tongue out.

>> It's out: This is the secret project Alexander Wang hinted at — but it's something much bigger than just a collaboration between Wang and Kate Moss.  W magazine's July 2008 issue is devoted to fashion, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

A Bruce Weber-lensed photo places Daria Werbowy, Kate Moss, and Lara Stone on the cover, and that mean troika is joined by Sasha Pivovarova and a whole cabal of up-and-coming designers — think Alexander Wang, Rodarte, Gareth Pugh, Danielle Scutt, Christophe Decarnin of Balmain, plus more — to cavort around for 36-page editorial shot in Miami.

Bruce Weber was the perfect choice to capture the high summer heat in action — favorite images include a portrait of Kate Moss with her father and sister (below), glasses-wearing Jeremy Laing being playfully bullied by a bevy of much tanner, much beefier male models, and Laura and Kate Mulleavy trying on vintage couture hats. 

According to Danielle Scutt, she, Louise Goldin, Gareth Pugh, and Georgina Chapman got together during the shoot for a performance of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90”:

Gareth was playing the washboard, Georgina had maracas, and me and Louise had tambourines.  Some of us then went back to the hotel and jumped in the pool. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn’t find my trainers or jeans.

Another fun fact: Jason Wu, besides designing his eponymous line, is the creative director and partner of a $5 million company, Integrity Toys Inc., for whom he develops dolls.

Anyway, back to the good stuff — full editorial here (NSFW).

>> At last night's CFDA-hosted "Beauty of Health" discussion, Michael Kors, Coco Rocha, and casting agent James Scully all stepped up to the plate to address the waning weights of models. 

Kors threw in a designer's perspective, suggesting that his peers should "stay away from child-size clothes unless [they're] designing for children," and pointing out that when designers offer such small sample sizes and celebrities starve themselves to fit into them, their super-skinny aesthetic has a far-reaching impact on the general female population.  He also advised agents to only send the most suitable girls to castings:  “Sending a girl when there's little chance of her being booked throws a 16-year-old into a tizzy.  The odds of a girl being booked for my show and Rick Owens’s are slim.”

Next up to the podium was Coco Rocha, who just like Natalia Vodianova and Ali Michael before her, admitted that the job comes with some very unhealthy habits.  Two years ago, she weighed 108 pounds (at 5'10"), and yet people were stilling telling her "you need to lose more weight.  The look this year is anorexic.  We don't want you to be anorexic, we just want you to look it."  Even crazier, an agent once advised her to throw up after meals. 

Eventually, she submitted to the pressure.  "Last season I took diuretic pills. Once I took so many on an empty stomach that I was doubled over for hours. That's the last time I ever did something so terrible to my body."  She asked designers to provide healthier food at their shows — "No one wants to be caught with that photo 'Model Eats Cake'" — and to make their fit models, and therefore their sample sizes, bigger — models are humiliated when zippers won't zip up at castings. 

Finally, casting agent James Scully advised insiders to consider the weight of their words.  "Let's stop treating models like greyhounds we plan to shoot after a race. We have to remember we are dealing with real people who have real feelings."

Francisco Costa, Georgina Chapman, Keren Craig, Donna Karan, Richard Chai, Marcus Wainwright, David Neville, Derek Lam, Doo-Ri Chung, Diane von Furstenberg, Phillip Lim, and Anna Wintour, plus several other Vogue editors, were all in attendance at the event — which leaves quite a few American designers unaccounted for.  But as Michael Kors pointed out, designers aren't the only people responsible. "The next one we need to do is about skinny people who work in fashion: editors, buyers, stylists. That’s called ‘Why Does This Sample Fit Me?”

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