• Models fees are required in France, so Christian Lacroix chipped in to pay his 10 models 50 euros apiece. Normal couture fees are said to be around 1300 euros per show for new faces — every year of experience earns a "raise" of about 1000 more euros. [Imaginary Socialite]


• Jean Paul Gaultier had a 12-lb dress, Chanel had three seamstresses working on the bride look, and Maison Martin Margiela used 2,000 pen caps for a jacket: it's Fall 2009 couture by the numbers. [The Cut]


• Cathy Horyn yearns for Alessandra Facchinett's Valentino; Of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli's couture, she says: "Frankly I’d be worried about getting too close to one of those prickly, encrusted numbers. You might get a rash." [On the Runway]
Couture clients, a video of Chanel couture in the making »

>> Valentino Fall 2009 Couture Said to Be "Radical" —Valentino has made some major personnel changes recently in hopes of reinvigorating the brand under the direction of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, and the designer's third effort — their Fall 2009 couture show tomorrow — is to be "shrouded in black," according to TIME Style & Design's Kate Betts. Meanwhile, a Times UK editor who attended a collection preview says it's "incredible. It's Valentino meets gothic. Radical." [Kate Betts Twitter, Times UK Twitter] 

>> Dior To Show Twice at Couture, Lacroix's Early Collection Reviews "Glowing"—Despite Vogue only sending a "very small" team and Elle sending two people — creative director Joe Zee and executive accessories editor Kate Davidson Hudson — John Galliano is planning to show his Fall 2009 Dior couture collection twice because he's using a smaller location this year.  Meanwhile, Carlos Souza is inaugurating his return to Valentino with a big bash post-show, and early reports of Christian Lacroix's "fightback" couture collection are "pretty glowing." [FWD]

>> Former Valentino vice president of worldwide public relations and the designer's right-hand man Carlos Souza, who exited the company where he worked for over twenty years after his contract ran out in January 2008, is back in place.

Souza, who left the house after Valentino's farewall couture show in January 2008 before Alessandra Facchinetti took the reins, is widely credited with growing the brand's devoted clientele and celebrity fan base and producing the runway and party spectaculars that took the brand to the global level.  Between Facchinetti and current Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, the house has struggled to define itself post-Valentino — the latter designers have received unenthusiastic reviews for both collections they've presented.

Just in time for their third effort — the Fall 2009 Couture show in July — Souza has quietly been brought back to head up public relations in the US, a move many insiders consider to be in efforts to get the brand back on track — re-attracting the strayed celebrity ambassadors, included.

>> Anne Hathaway has been tied to Valentino Garavani recently — she sat next to him at the New York premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor, where he spilled red wine all over her white dress, and last week she presented him with a Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award. 

While Valentino is not using a celebrity for its upcoming Fall 2009 campaign, it sounds like Anne might have a chance with another designer.  Apparently, she's recently become close to Marc Jacobs — likely through Rachel Zoe, who dresses Anne and is close to Marc — and he promised to dress her for high-profile events. According to one of her friends, "Marc and Anne have forged a fast but very intense friendship and they’re going to start doing public appearances together soon. Anne hasn’t signed up to do any advertising yet but . . . if it works well, Anne would be happy to model for some of Marc’s campaigns."

Maybe one of those upcoming public appearances they're doing together is the Costume Institute Gala in a month?  Because although Marc is known for choosing quirky and unexpected faces for his campaigns, Anne doesn't really seem the right face for his neon, '80s-centric Fall 2009 collection.
*image: source

>> Valentino Garavani may have retired from fashion — or maybe not, there are rumors that he had a hand in the Fall 2009 Valentino collection — but either way, he's been a busy man promoting the impending US premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor tomorrow, March 18, in New York.  He does, however, say he's "extremely happy to have quit from fashion. All of the designers are doing the eighties. I hate the eighties. I did it, and I hate it. When I go to see my dresses of the eighties, I vomit.”  Instead, he's appearing on Oprah, The Martha Stewart Show, receiving a Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award, and contemplating designing for opera and ballet.

As for the movie, Matt Tyrnauer, the documentary's director, promises "one explosion after the other. Valentino is very impatient. He’s a Taurus. He loves the drama. There are divo moments and there are tantrums, and a lot of them are directed at the camera. It’s sort of like a cross between a hurricane and a cyclone." Which made it interesting when he first showed Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti the director's cut: "It was not easy.  To tell you the truth, they kind of freaked out. We had some healthy discussions and multiple screenings over the course of several months. And they have come to accept it."

You've probably seen the pug-filled trailer by now, but another clip is below, featuring Karl Lagerfeld telling Valentino after his show, "That's the way it should be done.  Compared to us, the rest are making rags."  After the movie hits New York, it travels to Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — information here.

The clip! »

>> An in-house team has produced the last two Halston collection since Marco Zanini left, but the search is still on for a creative director.  Sources say that young London talent Marios Schwab might be the man — he's apparently been in talks with the brand — but Bonnie Takhar, Halston CEO, wouldn't confirm anything. “We have been looking at all options in the market, but we have made no decisions.”

If Schwab were to take the job, would he be required to shutter his eponymous label?  Increasingly, brands are looking for devoted creative directors who don't have to split time between labels; in fact, a lot of brands are digging up designers who have never helmed a label before: Vionnet just hired Prada alum Rodolfo Paglialunga, Nina Ricci is supposedly going with Louis Vuitton-trained Peter Copping, Valentino recently promoted accessory designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, and Chloe decided on alum Hannah MacGibbon.

Hiring designers: it's not what it used to be »