- Halle Berry bathes in celestial light to advertise her new scent, Pure Orchid. The actress’s first perfume sold $40 million last year. This one, says Berry, is “something different.” “Celebrity fragrances,” says a perfume company executive, “are not dead.” [WWD]
- Gisele Bundchen wrote a $1.5 million check to the Red Cross for its relief efforts in Haiti. You can donate to the Red Cross, if you haven’t already done so, here. [Boston.com]
- Ryan McGinley shot Tilda Swinton — and filmed her for an ad — for Pringle of Scotland for spring. [Vogue UK]
- Kate Moss is set to design two handbag collections a year for Longchamp. [WWD]
- Vogue Italia published one of its patented marathon Meisel editorials in the latest issue. It clocks in at 80 pages, and focuses on the runway. Turns out the legendary photographer, whose shots are so finely composed, has quite the eye for the acute disorder of backstage. [Refinery29]
- Natalia Vodianova lives in a converted mill in rural England with her husband, three children, and when it all gets too much she can nip out to her “spa house.” It has a fireplace and a swimming pool. Also she does really good charity work building playgrounds for children in towns all over Russia. [Telegraph]
- An Israeli general has added to the criticism over Bar Refaeli‘s avoidance of national service in Israel. Shortly before her compulsory two-year stint with the military was to begin, the model married a family friend. Married women are not subject to the draft; Refaeli’s marriage was later annulled. General Avi Zamir is calling for a boycott of products advertised by Refaeli. [NYPost]
- Claudia Schiffer is pregnant with her third child at the age of 39. In fact, she’s already five and a half months along, and is due to give birth in May. [Daily Mail]
- This new commercial for Bing, the Microsoft search engine, with Alexa Chung and Richard Mark Jordan is clearly poking fun at the idea that Chung might be anorexic. [YouTube]
- One feels as though we’ve reached a crisis point with female body image as a culture when someone like Daisy Lowe says she often “feels like I’m too big.” [Elle UK]
- Jesus Luz speaks! Among the scintillating bon mots the Brazilian prettyboy lets loose in this Interview interview are: “When I’m in nature, I feel like I’m recharging my soul.” Luz says his father named him Jesus, because he admired Jesus Christ as the “greatest philosophical mind of all time.” And, “my name is ‘Luz,’ too, which means ‘light.’ So I feel like if I have this name that’s so special, I should attract good energy.” There’s a really cute part where he pretends to know who Malcolm Gladwell is, and then Luz cuts the interview short because his Kabbalah teacher turns up. [Interview]
- Annie Leibovitz must have enough money to settle lawsuits now. The photographer who convincingly claimed she took his location-scouting snapshots, manipulated them digitally, and used them as backgrounds for a coffee company advertising job, now says, “Annie Leibovitz is one of the great photographers of our times.” [P6]
- Are you a fashion designer? Yes? Are you currently selling your wares at Macy’s? No? Well, then this event might be for you. [Crain’s]
- British retailer Browns is having a sale this weekend where some designer goods will be marked down to £100. [Vogue UK]
- Analysts say that Martin + Osa, the American Eagle-owned brand that courts a slightly older market, may have lost up to $40 million in the last quarter alone. This is giving urgency to rumors that the Pittsburgh-based company may close M + O; C.E.O. James O’Donnell says he is “still evaluating” the brand’s future. Competitor Abercrombie & Fitch closed its Ruehl chain, which had a similar audience to M + O and a comparable lack of success, last year. [WWD]
- Shiseido is buying Bare Escentuals for $1.7 billion. [NYTimes]
- After closing 35 of its 126 retail stores, Crabtree and Evelyn says it is poised to exit bankruptcy in the next two weeks. [WWD]