>> INSIDER WIRE —For his Chanel Pre-Fall Paris-Moscow collection, Karl Lagerfeld is pulling a Stefano Pilati.  The presentation Dec. 3 — in Paris at the Theatre du Ranelagh, not in Moscow — will open with a "laugh-packed" silent movie, loosely based on Coco Chanel's life between 1913 and 1923.  Lagerfeld muses Lady Amanda Harlech, Brad Kroenig, and Tallulah Ormsby-Gore are all involved — Tallulah plays a Chanel model who has to sell her real-life mother, Amanda, a hat. [WWD, WWD]
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>> We still don't know who the new Chanel girl is, but this little tidbit from the Spring 2009 campaign shoot in Vermont may mean Karl Lagerfeld is about to change his own image, too.  The designer, who famously abides by his restrictive diet, had a production assistant specifically on hand to provide him with "seven loaves of Pennsylvania Wheat Bread and a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to be brought directly from New York."

Granted, Karl's diet does allow for small amounts of wheat toast, but for a man who says he doesn't eat bread, the request seems odd.  Maybe the new house in Vermont made the thought of comfort food irresistable?
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>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Karl Lagerfeld must have learned his lesson after paparazzi spoiled his Fall 2008 Fendi campaign, because last week, he shot the brand's Spring 2009 campaign inside at Milk Studios, with "pieces of furniture against a backdrop of photos of classical Italian sites."  This week, he's at his new house in Vermont, suspected to be the one at left, where's he's shooting the Chanel Spring 2009 campaign. [On the Runway]

>> INSIDER WIRE —Last week, The New York Times deemed the art portion of the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit "completely mundane," and it seems like Karl Lagerfeld agreed.  He had only solicited Zaha Hadid's contribution to the project, not the contents within: "The pavillon is the most exciting.  Whatever may be in there — that is not my problem."  Guess he's established himself enough to nip at the hand that feeds him? [New Yorker]
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>> Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's book, Influence, doesn't come out until Thursday, but The Cut got an advanced copy — an advanced look at all the interviews the Olsens conducted for the book — among their subjects are favorite designers Francisco Costa, Diane von Furstenberg, John Galliano, Christian Louboutin, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Giambattista Valli, favorite photographers Peter Lindbergh and Terry Richardson, plus pictures by Rankin of the interviewees and their work. 

Needless to say the Olsens didn't leave out their favorite Karl Lagerfeld — The Cut excerpted parts of his interview, including his views on models:

KL: [N]owadays you start to model because you're young. Now the girls are sixteen, seventeen, fifteen, and Russian. They are like from another planet.
AO: They can look very bizarre!
KL: I hate all these tall women. They are all giants!
MKO: If only I were a little taller — that would make me happy!
KL: You are one meter fifty-one. You are taller than that?
AO: We're five feet and one inch.
KL: Oh, I thought my office told me that you were four-foot eight or something. Not that it matters. What you need is a face. If you have a face you don't need height or a voice. Models know this; that's why the good ones don't need to talk much.
KL: I like to work with models for a long time. Sometimes the girls change, but some girls I work with for years and years.

Enlightening, perhaps, since some think the Chanel Spring 2009 campaign will host not long-time Chanel girl Claudia Schiffer but either Heidi Mount or Russian model Sasha Pivovarova . . .
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>> Zaha Hadid's 7,500-square-foot ad for Chanel is now open in Central Park and ready for business.  The Mobile Art pavilion, which houses 20 artists' tributes to the classic 2.55 quilted and chain-strapped Chanel bag, required Chanel to ship 51 containers, donate a sum in the "low seven figures" to the Central Park Conservancy, and pay a city "use fee" of $400,000 all to get it in place. 

Tickets are free, but is it worth a visit? "No doubt," says Izzy Grinspan of Racked, who visited the exhibit this morning. "It's so much more insane than we could ever have dreamed."

If a visit is not an option, The Cut has a video tour with your name all over it.
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>> Karl Lagerfeld has a new favorite blonde, and her name isn't Claudia Schiffer.  Meet Heidi Mount, who opened and closed Chanel's Spring 2009 presentation and is now appearing in the house's Resort 2008 campaign, shot by none other than Lagerfeld himself.

Rumors are flying that after three Claudia Schiffer campaigns (Resort 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008), Karl Lagerfeld is ready for some new blood — and Heidi might just be the right choice: He did personally give her some freebies after the Spring 2009 show, after all, and the Resort campaign portends well.

It does seem plausible that Karl would be ready to switch it up, he tends to use a different model every year (Claudia for 2008, Freja Beha Erichsen did Fall 2007 and Spring 2007, and before that he really liked Daria Werbowy, who did Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, and Fall 2006).  So if the pattern continues, and Heidi is the girl — that means she would not only do Spring 2009 but be a likely contender for Fall 2009 as well.  Two seasons at Chanel would be quite the grab.
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>> INSIDER WIRE —Karl Lagerfeld always focuses his Chanel shows around a giant centerpiece — in the last few shows it's been a 75-foot tall Chanel jacket, a giant carousel, and a 50-foot set of organ pipes, but for tomorrow's Spring 2009 presentation?  Lagerfeld divulged: "It will be truly magnificent. It's a massive 35-foot recreation of our famous 31 Rue Cambon. Wait 'til you see it. It will be absolutely epic!" [FWD]