>> Three Models Supposedly Skipping Fashion Month for Studies, A Fourth May Also Be Taking a Break —Although it's possible that they still may pop up in Paris or Milan, three top models: Sigrid Agren, Toni Garrn, and Georgina Stojiljkovic are all supposedly skipping out this season to focus on their studies.  And Gucci face Myf Shepherd — who surprisingly only walked eight relatively low-profile shows (except 3.1 Phillip Lim) in New York and so far none in London — has apparently said that she's thinking of taking a break, as well. [Styledotcom Twitter, TFS, Frockwriter]

>> The first issue of POP under Dasha Zhukova's guiding hand hits newsstands tomorrow at $8, with two international newsstand covers, each with a 50/50 split run, of Style Rookie's Tavi, plus a 500-copy limited-edition hardback cover by Ed Ruscha (below, left), and a limited subscriber's cover of Cicciolina for the Baltic States (below, right).

“The new Pop launches at an exciting turning point in fashion, where the possibilities and potential for creativity are almost overwhelming,” Zhukova told WWD. “The new era is more fluid than ever before; one where teenage girls in Chicago, fashion editors in Paris, street photographers from Berlin and bloggers everywhere . . . redefine the fashion landscape.”

Fake Karl, Jen Brill, and Mark Borthwick are all involved »

>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —The first of many Fall 2009 Gucci ads has dropped, this one featuring Anja Rubik. Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin still did the photographing honors, but the look is a hard-edged change from the pastoral, verdant ads of seasons past.  Expected in upcoming images: perennial Gucci faces like Jacquetta Wheeler, Raquel Zimmermann, Freja Beha Erichsen, Natasha Poly, and Abbey Lee Kershaw, with a few surprises — Myf Shepherd, Dree Hemingway, and Jamie Bochert. [TFS, TFS, TFS]

>> THE MODELIZER —Are two models involved in a love triangle?  Pictures have surfaced of Catherine McNeil — who was rumored to have broken off her highly-speculated-but-never-confirmed relationship with Freja Beha Erichsen — kissing openly gay MTV Australia VJ Ruby Rose Langenheim last Saturday at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.  Curiously, Myf Shepherd, who just scored her first Vogue cover — for Australia's July 2009 issue — was also photographed kissing Ruby Rose at the Jimmy Liks restaurant in Sydney at the beginning of this month.  Both Catherine and Myf are represented by Chic Management in Australia; Ruby Rose has been represented by the agency in the past. [ONTD_FF]

>> We found out a couple of weeks ago that Frida Giannini chose nine models for the Fall 2009 Gucci campaign, and now we've got more details.  Apparently the designer is quite taken with London and decided to have her usual campaign photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin do the honors in a north London studio; she's even picked to feature native Londoner and 1999-2000 Gucci face Jacquetta Wheeler (left, Fall 1999).  “We’re in London, so of course I had to have an English girl.”

Joining Jacquetta in the campaign are Raquel Zimmermann, Natasha Poly, Freja Beha Erichsen, plus Myf Shepherd and Abbey Lee Kershaw, whose television commercial for the brand's Flora fragrance, which was filmed over four days in Latvia last July and created using more than 20,000 fake flowers, just debuted.

Three faces are left to be named — Lily Donaldson is likely one of them, since Frida likes to stick with the same girls and Lily has been in at least two of her campaigns.  Plus, a Gucci spokesman advises that the upcoming campaign will be similar to past seasons, “a continuation of Frida’s Gucci generation."
*image: source

>> THE MODELIZER —Myf Shepherd just finished out her first couture week ever, and it sounds like quite the caper.  She was not only mistaken for Olga Sherer backstage at Dior — they look nothing alike — but she developed a case of sore tongue after eating too many figs backstage at Chanel. [Fashion Schmashion]

>> INSIDER WIRE —During Spring 2009 couture last week, The New York Times Magazine traveled to each backstage with Ellen von Unwerth and a mini-studio, capturing "quick and dirty tableaux vivants" that will appear in the Sunday Magazine in weeks to come.  Editor Alix Browne recounts her experience in the chaotic backstage world — watching the hairstylists at Christian Lacroix suspend the heavy earrings with ribbons worked into the hair; having Giorgio Armani drag their equipment, yelling “What is wrong with you people? Do I have to do everything myself around here?”; and hearing Myf Shepherd exclaim, "I'm not Olga, I'm Myf!" [The Moment]
*image: source