>> For his second major runway show in Paris — last time around he surprised everyone with a video presentation instead — Gareth Pugh, went softer, androgynous, and gray.  None of his until-now trademark hard-edged black and white palette to be seen — gray covered the model's faces, hairs, nails, bodies, and even blocked out their eyebrows.  Toni Garrn walked for the first time this season.

Showstopping plumed mohawk headdresses are an editorial shoe-in, and will perhaps soon be seen on front row guest Rihanna, dressed in Pugh, who marked the designer's first major celebrity front row guest (Adrian Grenier and Michael Stipe also attended). Both menswear and womenswear were combined into one show this season, which ended with the Cranberries' "Zombie" playing — perhaps symbolic of the season's "gender-bending zombie look," as the Los Angeles Times's Booth Moore put it.  More details from the show here.

>> A number of designers are sticking very close to ideas from seasons past for the Fall 2009 round of ad campaigns — Louis Vuitton went for Madonna "Part Deux," Versace's set features the same model — Gisele Bundchen — doing the same pose she did for the house's Spring 2008 ads, and now Donna Karan, who decided last season to save money by taking her runway photography and reinterpreting it for the ads, is using the same tactic this season.

The set of Fall 2009 ads that appear on the front page of Karan's website all feature Toni Garrn, one in the look she wore down the runway. In the other two ads, it appears that Toni's head was Photoshopped onto the bodies of Anya Kazakova and Sasha Pivovarova — the stances on both bodies are identical to those in the runway photos of the collection on the website.

>> Before heading back to the States from Venice, a number of Chanel Cruise attendees — and show strutters like Toni Garrn and Siri Tollerod — made a stop over in Vienna for the annual Life Ball AIDS charity spectacular Saturday evening.  The town hall was surrounded by 2.5 million liters of water trucked in for this year's marine theme, and the guest list topped 40,000.

Amber Valletta opened the motorcade in a blue crystal-covered chariot, Anja Rubik was in attendance wearing her favorite label as of late, Balmain, and Sessilee Lopez sported a blonde wig for one of her turns during the catwalk festivities.  Heather Marks, Iris Strubegger, Emina Cunmulaj, Eliza Cummings, Kinga Rajzak, Sara Blomqvist all also participated, plus first-timer Stephanie Carta, who described the experience as "a fantasy world of glitter and botox and some kind of neverending celebration."

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>>  A few seasons ago, Jourdan Dunn made headlines as the first model of color to walk Prada in ten years; Prada is carefully casted and a coup like that can make a model's career.  The same goes for Calvin Klein, except that since CK is so early on in the season, it sets the tone for the rest of the three Fashion Weeks.  This afternoon, Lyndsey Scott became one of the few models of color to land in the Calvin Klein lineup — Jourdan Dunn has done the honors in recent seasons.  Monika "Jac" Jagaciak bounced back from her fall at Herve Leger to both open and close; Addison Gill, Bojana Reljic, and Louis Maselis round out the chosen ones as exclusives — expect to see much more from all.

Notably, former house face Toni Garrn and current face Anna Selezneva were missing in action, but enough about models — let's not forget Francisco Costa's turn to the darker side — burned out lace patterning and pops of chartreuse keep the collection right where we want it: coveted.
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>> Spring 2009 campaigns may be overrun with supermodels, but two younger, less-established models are giving them a run for their campaign money: Toni Garrn and Anna Maria Jagodzinska.

17-year-old German model Toni — who Art + Commerce called the "undisputed First Lady of Advertising Campaigns" for the season — broke onto the scene with a worldwide runway exclusive to Calvin Klein in September 2007, followed by an only-girl campaign for the brand; 21-year-old Polish model Anna Maria is a Steven Meisel favorite who has been around since 2003, took a break from modeling for two years in 2006, only came back with a smash in 2008.  Between the two of them they have at least twenty Spring 2009 ad campaigns, including Balenciaga, Fendi, Gianfranco Ferre, and joint campaigns for Prada and Chloe.  Their ad currency is strong, and it's worth noting that so many brands still think blondes are where the money is.
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>> For Fall 2008, three of the big campaigns that every model wants to catch — Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu — all went with one big name — Linda Evangelista, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Vanessa Paradis, respectively.

Come Spring 2009, all three labels have decided to switch things up by using a large number of new faces — Prada is using eight models (Anna Jagodzinska, Giedre Dukauskaite, Katrin Thormann, Nimue Smit, Sigrid Agren, Toni Garrn, Viktoriya Sasonkina, Ymre Stiekema); Miu Miu is using eight models as "accessories" to campaign star Katie Holmes (Darya Kurovska, Elena Lomkova, Imogen Morris-Clarke, Katie Fogarty, Myf Shepherd, Sophie Srej, Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva); and Balenciaga is going with ten models (Amanda Laine, Anabela Belikova, Anna Jagodzinska, Anya Kazakova, Diana Farkhullina, Elsa Sylvan, Hanne-Gaby Odiele, Iris Strubegger, Katie Fogarty, Kinga Rajzak).

Surprisingly, there are only two girls overlapping between the campaigns: Anna Jagodzinska in Balenciaga and Prada and Katie Fogarty in Miu Miu and Balenciaga, and especially in Miu Miu's cast, some girls — Tilda Lindstam, Yulia Leontieva — are very new faces. Although some are skeptical, especially in the case of Miu Miu, that all the models cast will make it into the final shots, it's notable that all three labels, which usually go with one face, have all decided that power comes in numbers this season.  Get to know the chosen faces in the gallery below.
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