>> Stella McCartney has never been secretive about her love for animals, but in her Fall 2009 campaign, she's making the message pretty clear: Sigrid Agren, who was photographed by Ryan McGinley (putting in his second season for the label) in the woods of Worcestershire, England, is surrounded by a live dear or fox, plus an overlay of Disney's Bambi and friends. 

“I’m a huge Bambi fan, and the film reminds me of my mum,” said McCartney explained.  “And we wanted to have some fun. The clothes in the campaign are looking quite fierce, and we wanted to contrast them with the innocence of Bambi.”  The campaign was styled by Jane How and the art direction was done by McCartney's in-house team team and Partner and Partner in London instead of M/M Paris, who she's used in the past.

>> Lara Stone has developed a devoted cult following — Carine Roitfeld dedicated an entire issue of Vogue Paris to her, Stella McCartney recently gushed about wanted to "celebrate Lara" and her "fantastic breasts" — and as a result Lara's been able to convert more single girl campaigns.  For Fall 2009, she picked up lingerie with Eres and the followup to DSquared2's epic Spring 2009 campaign with Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell fighting.  Originally, designers Dean and Dan Caten were supposed to join her in the ads shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, but in the images they uploaded, it looks like they went with three male models instead.

>> Stella McCartney likes to drop hints about her cruise collections — or "Spring" collections, as she calls them — by debuting them on celebrities in the weeks before the fashion press sees them.  She inaugurated the idea last year with Madonna, and this year gave Cameron Diaz a white dress with black floral beading from the Spring 2010 collection, which just debuted today, to wear Friday night.

But perhaps we should watch what Stella herself wears the most for clues about her upcoming collections — the black lace jumpsuit she wore to the Costume Institute Gala May 4, which she made in the hours right before the event, is included in the Spring 2009 collection, as is the embroidered floral dress she wore to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Opening on June 3 and the white playsuit she wore to the New Contemporary Art Center June 4.

>> Where art goes, fashion is soon to follow, and with the contemporary arts Biennale going on in Venice right now, there are plenty of designers, editors, and even models in town.  On Wednesday, Olympia Scarry’s installation brought out Patrick Demarchelier, Vogue Russia's Aliona Doletskaya, and POP's Dasha Zhukova, as well as Justin Portman and Natalia Vodianova, the latter whose face was reflected in a luminated, aged sketch on display called Dorian Gray, by artist Dasha Fursey.

Naomi Campbell and boyfriend Vladislav Doronin stopped by a lunch for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and popped up again yesterday at the opening of Francois Pinault's new museum, the Punta della Dogana. Stella McCartney was there with husband Alasdhair Willis to support her financier in his new endeavor, as were Franca Sozzani and Marc Jacobs, always the fan of contemporary art, who apparently kept exclaiming, "This place rocks."

Meanwhile, down the river, Angela Missoni held her annual party on boyfriend Bruno Ragazzi's yacht.  It was quite the family and friends affair: Angela's daughters Margherita and Teresa, plus son Francesco were all mingling, Franca Sozzani brought son Francesco Carrozzini, and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld arrived with Carine Roitfeld, who neglected to follow the rest in taking her lace-up shoes off: "It would just take too long to undo them." Bee Shaffer was sans Anna Wintour, but Jefferson Hack brought fiancee Anouck Lepere.

Even those who aren't in Venice in person are there in spirit — Mario Testino sent one of his art consultants to scout the exhibition.

>> It's official Costume Institute Gala time: Anna Wintour is already snubbing press in her black and white Chanel, Bee Shaffer has already had help navigating in her sheer navy chiffon Nina Ricci gown, and Andre Leon Talley who is wearing "20 pounds" of Roger Vivier jewelry, has already exclaimed "Goddess" upon sight of Kate Moss.

Gisele Bundchen has arrived in sequined Atelier Versace minidress — she says she picked it out herself and they had to make it two inches shorter for her.  Meanwhile, Eva Mendes grabbed Amber Valletta's booty on the red carpet, and Shalom Harlow, Amber, Natalia Vodianova, Eva Herzigova, and Stella Tennant have made a red carpet block while they stop to exchange air kisses.

UPDATE: More designer and model pictures have been added to the gallery!
*image: source, source, WENN.com