>> Is Renee Zellweger's Red Carpet Partnership with Carolina Herrera Over? —Last week, sources told WWD that Mario Grauso, president of Puig Fashion Group who oversees Carolina Herrera, Nina Ricci, and Paco Rabanne, has submitted his resignation and will step down after New York Fashion Week.  The exit is said to be amicable, but it is speculated that he was unhappy with Olivier Theyskens's ousting at Ricci.  Now, a source tells Page Six, Grauso, who introduced Renee Zellweger, Amy Adams, and Reese Witherspoon to Carolina Herrera, may be taking his celebrity followers with him: "None of them will wear Carolina Herrera on the red carpet now that he's gone. Mario paved the way for the brand by putting Renée in Herrera for award shows and carpets. He made it youthful." [WWD, Page Six]

>> Peter Copping's First Nina Ricci Collection Said to be "Great" —We have yet to see any work from Peter Copping for Nina Ricci — his first collection for the line, for the Cruise 2010 season, was supposed to come out late last month and seems to be running a bit late — but it sounds like it's something to look forward to. Kate Betts's has "an extremely reliable Parisian source" who says that Copping's Cruise 2010 collection is "great." [Kate Betts Twitter]

>> INSIDER WIRE —Peter Copping is busy preparing his first collection for Nina Ricci — a capsule resort collection, which is expected to be unveiled later this month — and in the meantime, the house is trying to clear out all trace of Olivier Theyskens.  On Friday, its holding a major one-off sale in Paris, with catwalk pieces and ready-to-wear spanning several seasons, as well as shoes and accessories going for as little as 40 euros ($55). [WWD]

>> INSIDER WIRE —Hamish Bowles, who accompanied Marisa Bensen to Monday's Costume Institute Gala, crowned Shalom Harlow his favorite of the night and in the meantime set the record straight on her showstopper of an outfit: "the golden apple would have to be presented to Shalom Harlow, wearing a billowing black taffeta domino created by Bob Mackie in the eighties, over Olivier Theyskens’s black and scarlet beaded catsuit for [Nina] Ricci." [The Hamishsphere]

>> After a manicure yesterday and another round of rumors about his future placement, Olivier Theyskens turned up on the Costume Institute gala red carpet with Lou Doillon in Nina Ricci on his arm.  So what does he have to say about the possibility of an Anna Wintour-orchestrated takeover at Halston? “Oh God. These are rumors.”  When further prodded, he started laughing: "These rumors — I have to live with that.”  But there's no outright denial, it just sounds like he's still weighing his options. “Oh, this I don’t know. Really. It’s really something I don’t know.”

Down the way, Andre Leon Talley — who is usually outspoken about who he wants to work with for the red carpet (this time around he was in pursuit of Marisa Tomei), but after a very public misstep or two, he seems to have reconsidered on stamping his name on specific looks: "I gave a lot of advice to a lot of people, but they shall remain nameless because they don’t want me to say who I’m giving advice to."  Does that mean Anna Wintour doesn't want him connected as a stylist to certain looks?  Or that the people he dressed didn't want to be connected with him?

>> INSIDER WIRE —The attention-grabbing platform shoes that were part of Olivier Theyskens's Fall 2009 Nina Ricci sendoff weren't put into production, but at the birthday party she threw for Steven Klein last night, Daphne Guinness showed up wearing a pair along with a gown from the same collection.  Before the party was supposed to start, she already admitted to falling once. [Style File]
*image: source

>> Not that it was expected any other way — Olivier is officially gone from the brand and sources have been pinpointing him as next in line for months — but now it's official: Peter Copping is the new artistic director at Nina Ricci.

He started at the brand on Monday and is already hard at work on a capsule resort collection, which is expected to be unveiled in late June.  It sounds like his first Nina Ricci runway show won't be in the Fall, but rather in March 2010 — the company wants to give him time to settle in (and hopefully get it right, considering that he's the third designer they've had within a span of three years — Theyskens started in 2006, and Lars Nilsson was in place before that).   

But he already has plenty of ideas »

>> Nina Ricci is currently in a state of transition — Olivier Theyskens officially left the house earlier this month, and although Peter Copping's name has been thrown around as the replacement of choice, nothing has been made official.  Apparently several staffers, including PR director Kate Etter, also left the brand with Theyskens.

Today, Mario Grauso, president of Ricci owner Puig, verified that there are "no plans [for] a hiatus at Ricci," adding that the company "will announce a new designer within the next few weeks."  According to Fashion Week Daily, a well-placed industry insider is "99% sure" that Copping will be tapped, but Grauso would not confirm anything, and when prodded about a possible Copping appearance at the Costume Institute Gala, replied, "I have not yet invited people for the Met."

As for Oliver's legacy, those towering shoes he created for Fall 2009 will not be going into production — no surprise, but still, a comment on the ever-present misalignment between the brand and its former designer.
*image: source