>>  Is Nicholas Ghesquiere getting starstruck?  For the second season in a row, he's chosen to go celebrity: Jennifer Connelly for Spring, and now Charlotte Gainsbourg for Fall. 

Granted, both women embody the Ghesquiere girl — Charlotte is well-known to be his muse, and Jennifer a good friend — but to hear him describe the reasoning behind his choice is striking, considering that he has built Balenciaga to be a true blue fashion-for-the-sake-of-fashion label, rather than a fashion label devoted to upping its star wattage.  Behold, he sounds smitten with actresses:

They are used to playing characters and go deeper into the image.  There's definitely a celebrity effect when you shoot an actress. There's a real frisson.

The Spring 2009 campaign cast will tell us all — three makes a trend.  Until then, enjoy the first look at the Fall 2008 Balenciaga campaign, shot by David Sims and featuring an archly posed Charlotte Gainsbourg, with the new Balenciaga store in LA forming the backdrop.
*image: source

>> Rather than giving us a hint of what's to come for Spring 2009 like most designers do with their resort collections, Nicholas Ghesquiere reworked his hard-edged Fall 2008 Balenciaga collection, softening the ideas up with pale pastels.  The result is similar, but not the same as Fall, and stays true to the sculptural shapes that have come to define Nicholas at Balenciaga.

For a few more pictures of the collection, go here.

*images: source

>> We covered most of the highlights from Monday's night CFDA Awards yesterday, but today come the videos shown to the audience.

First up?  The Mike Figgis-directed tribute video to Style.com's executive fashion director Candy Pratts Price, which contains such gems as Kate Moss, dubbed over with a man's voice, saying (what I assume is a quote from Candy): "You haven't got a Birkin, oh my god, you have to have one, we're going straight back to Hermes now."  Also, Anna Wintour, describing Candy:  "She is a fashion character . . . a fashion . . . nista."  A word which I never imagined to come out of Anna's mouth, but it does, and she simultaneously twirls her fingers for emphasis:

Then, the Douglas Keeve-directed spoof of HBO's In Treatment, which was used to introduce the Menswear Designer of the Year nominees — Tom Ford, Thom Browne, and Michael Bastian.  Only Tom Ford's clip is to be found, but Tom sobs, sips a martini, and vents to therapist Gabriel Byrne with all the gusto you would expect from Tom Ford.  It's like a peek at the Hollywood Tom Ford, when he left fashion to direct films, which never really happened . . .