- Madonna returns for fall as the face of Dolce & Gabbana, playing an Italian housewife with a much-younger man. She does normal housewife things, like ironing, and going to the market in a see-through lace dress. [Pursuitist]
- This year’s September issues — “September is the January of fashion,” to quote Candy Pratts-Price — will be bigger than last year’s. Well, they’d have to be! Last year’s were pathetic, minuscule, wee things unsuitable even for swatting flies. But we digress: Vogue will have 525 ad pages (“The endemic categories were very strong for us,” says the publisher, a turn of phrase that makes advertising sound kind of like a disease), InStyle will have 403 ad pages, Elle will have 382, and Harper’s Bazaar will have 302. W, publishing its first issue entirely produced under new editor Stefano Tonchi‘s watch, trails slightly, with 252 pages. [WWD]
- Marc Jacobs: “I watched every episode of Jersey Shore‘s first season. I don’t know if it was any good and I certainly didn’t learn anything, but it was definitely hypnotic and it gave my brain a vacation. As for music, I know everyone associates me with edgy rock, but there are times when I just want to hear Britney Spears singing ‘Womanizer, Womanizer…’ over and over. I know, I know, it’s Britney! But I told you. I love imperfection.” [DFR]
- Stella McCartney: “I didn’t want to go into what my parents did because that would have been a story and people would have talked about it. Also, I liked fashion. I used to get embarrassed about the fact I liked fashion. I still get a bit cringy. I’d sit at dinner parties and people would say to me, ‘So what do you do?’ And I’d be like, Oh design! When I fill passport forms I put ‘Design’. I don’t say fashion. But don’t get me wrong, I love my job!” [Vogue UK]
- Nina Garcia is now Target‘s “Fashion Expert.” She appears on the website and dispenses advice in English and Spanish. [WWD]
- Léa T., Riccardo Tisci‘s transgender former personal assistant, stars in Givenchy‘s fall campaign and was featured in the brand’s fall haute couture lookbook. Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, into a Catholic family, she tells Vogue Paris that her family reacted very badly to her physical transformation — but she intends to get bottom surgery “as soon as the paperwork is all complete.” Modeling offers came pouring in after the Givenchy campaign, including this nude portrait. [NSFW Fashin]
- Arnold Scaasi, 79, has shut his made-to-order clothing business after 55 years. He dressed the likes of Barbra Streisand, Joan Crawford, and Elizabeth Taylor in his heyday. Of the industry today, he says, “I am amazed by the price of clothes. That really shocks me. A lot of these clothes look like what we used to call housedresses and they are $2,000 and up. They don’t look like anything special. They just look like ordinary clothes that you would wear on weekends or to work.” [WWD]
- The same Miu Miu dress ended up on the August covers of British Elle and Vogue, and the July cover of W. “Obviously I’d rather it wasn’t on a major rival,” said Elle editor Lorraine Candy. [Guardian]
- Nick Knight got stars like Lily Cole and Lady Gaga and film-makers and photographers like Craig McDean to make short films inspired by parts of the human body. The films will premiere on his SHOWstudio website. [Vogue UK]
- Lancôme‘s fall campaign features Daria Werbowy and Elettra Wiedemann, rocking ’20s smoky eyes, bobbed hair, and berry lips — somewhere beneath a thick mist of Photoshop. [StyleList]
- Gap vice-president and creative director Dennis Leggett has left the company, which has struggled with sluggish sales and lagging market share, after 14 years. [WWD]
- Erin Wasson‘s line with RVCA seems to be dunzo. RVCA was recently acquired by Billabong, and Wasson’s contract expired. [Fashionista]
- Jean-Paul Gaultier company president Véronique Gautier has resigned. Replacing her is…Jean-Paul Gaultier, the individual. [WWD]
- In the wake of three known Manhattan bedbug infestations, Women’s Wear Daily asked retailers if they had, or were formulating, plans for dealing with the unshakable critters. Saks, Bloomingdale’s, J. Crew, Ralph Lauren, and Gap all declined to comment; Lord & Taylor said it had upped the frequency of its exterminator visits to one per week, and Bergdorf Goodman said it was “currently in the process” of developing a bedbug strategy. [WWD]
- Architect Peter Marino, who is designing a Louis Vuitton store, says: “I want to be the first person to animate bags — everything done for handbags bores me to tears. I want to make it more playful.” [Vogue UK]
- Vena Cava, which recently launched a diffusion line named Viva Vena, is doing a collection for Bloomingdale’s lower-priced house brand Aqua. [Elle]
- For the first half, Hermès‘ sales have gone up 27% on the same period last year. Leading categories were leather goods, watches, and perfumes. [WWD]
- A lip-plumping gloss by the name of “Huge Lips, Skinny Hips” contains the appetite suppressant hoodia. [Elle]
- Should you be looking to counteract that side effect, Terry Richardson took a photo of some nice bongs. The glass is etched with Louis Vuitton‘s monogram, which of course makes them extra illegal. [Terry’s Diary]