New Vogue Documentary to Really Get to the Bottom of That Whole Styling Business

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Moss and Naomi Campbell share the cover of Interview‘s German and Russian editions this month. Inside, they talk, including about racism in the fashion industry:

KATE: When I first got to New York, I was like: “What are they talking about?”. I couldn’t tell, you know. It was really weird and also I think growing up in South London, it’s so mixed race.
NAOMI: Exactly, we just know our area and how we were raised, so it was a big eye opener to me.
KATE: Did it feel like a battle you were fighting? And are you still fighting for equality in fashion?
NAOMI: It felt… I can’t say that the word battle is the right word but it definitely felt like it was an uphill struggle for something. I felt like I had to do what I had to do for my race and to keep awareness out there.

[Fashionista]

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And now for some big news: the models in this year’s Pirelli Calendar, that annual compendium of highbrow automotive-financed smut, will not be nude. Photojournalist Steve McCurry cast models whose charity work he wanted to highlight and who had some kind of a connection to Brazil, where the calendar was shot. Adriana Lima is in it, and she’s pregnant. He also shot local women who were not models, like the woman pictured at left. “Next year we will probably do something different,” says a spokesperson for the tire company. So enjoy your not-entirely-objectifying, kind-of-charitable girlie calendar while you can. [The Cut]

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We want to move to France just so that we can send all of our paper correspondence with these Hermès stamps. Available from France Post. [TLF]

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• Protests continued Tuesday in Bangladesh, where a fire at a garment factory killed at least 124 workers and injured more than 200 this weekend. It is the deadliest incident in the apparel-producing country where more than 700 garment workers have died in factory fires since 2005. The Bangladeshi interior minister, meanwhile, has stated that the blaze was an act of arson. “We are finding out as of now who exactly the saboteurs are and all culprits will be brought to book,” says the minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. Wal-Mart, C&A, and Li & Fung (which handles sourcing and production for a sheaf of Western brands) all had orders with the factory, which had been flagged as a firetrap by Wal-Mart’s own auditors. [WWD]
• Illamasqua, everybody’s favorite purveyor of blackface in contemporary advertising, is still refusing to apologize for its ill-considered blackface ad. Did we mention the ad was blackface? As in black makeup on a white model, big red lips, a top hat and a bow tie? Yeah. This morning the brand sent out a second statement about the situation, in which Illamasqua criticized unnamed “blogs” for “focusing on” race. (It included an edited selection of anonymous Huffington Post comments, because if there’s anybody whom we look to for intellectual leadership in matters of racial sensitivity and judgment, it’s anonymous Huffington Post commenters.) Meanwhile, Twitter users have hijacked the hashtag the blackface ad initially was intended to promote to talk about racism and how blackface is generally considered kinda bad these days. #ImDreamingOf not seeing blackface in advertising in 2012. Or any other year. How’s that? [Jezebel Inbox, Racked]
• Soon-to-be-former Balenciaga designer Nicholas Ghesquière attended a dinner for Christian Dior in Paris, fueling speculation that he may be in line to take a creative directorship at another Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy brand (or that the luxury giant may invest in a namesake line of Ghesquière’s own). [WWD]
• Meanwhile, PPR — which owns Balenciaga — has apparently been in talks with Christopher Kane. Kane is rumored to be a frontrunner for the Balenciaga job, and today’s word is that PPR is thinking of investing in his namesake brand. When a designer takes over a position at a luxury house it is common for the conglomerate that owns the house to take a stake in his or her own brand. [WWD]
• Isabel Marant: “I don’t like the image of a woman being just a sex object. I’ve always loved those feminist women that were strong and fighting, proving that they are equal to men.” [ITG]
• What is a Gingerbread Brazilian wax, you ask? A beauty writer got one so you don’t have to:
• Turns out it’s a wax that smells like British gingerbread. It’s so authentic that they even sent it to two of their outposts in London to tweak the scent. Because if you’re going to put gingerbread wax on your crotch, it had better be authentic, right?
• When I walked in I was accosted by the not unpleasant smell of gingerbread wafting through the place. I just pretended I was in a little London bakery and skipped down to the treatment room.
• The wax sounds pretty normal after that. [Fashionista]
• Coty, the perfume giant with annual revenues of $4.6 billion, has signed a deal to take over distribution of Katy Perry‘s existing fragrances and to develop a few more for the singer. [WWD]
• Karolina Kurkova is guest-starring in an upcoming episode of Person of Interest. [THR]
• The British Fashion Awards were last night. Designer of the Year and the Designer Brand award went to Stella McCartney, Cara Delevingne took home Model of the Year, and Alexa Chung won the British Style award. [WWD]
• McCartney discusses the success of her accessories — which, like the designer, are vegan — in this article. “After a couple of years [in business], my C.E.O. was like, ‘I’m not sure if you can have a really strong accessories business because you don’t use leather. It’s a real struggle and people can’t get their heads around it,'” says McCartney. That man is no longer her C.E.O. and non-leather bags and shoes are apparently a strong category for the brand. “We really thought our customers were leather- and exotic skin-focused, but the minute we bought the bags there was extreme demand,” says an accessories buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the look and feel of [McCartney’s] product. I don’t even think that a lot of our customers know that it’s not real leather.” [WWD]
• In supermodel real-estate news, Karlie Kloss has bought a West Village apartment for $1.97 million. [P6]
• Designer Norma Kamali is launching a new Web site dedicated to fighting the objectification of women, which she believes holds us all back professionally and personally. “The humiliation and embarrassment of being objectified is so profound that you tuck it deep away and you don’t deal with it,” says Kamali. “When you do that, it starts to chip away at your self-esteem and your self-image, and manifests itself in your behavior.” The designer also interviewed Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Steinem, Venus Williams, Christine Quinn, Margaret Cho and Mika Brzezinski about their experiences of objectification for an upcoming Sirius radio program. “Everybody says, ‘Well, you’re a fashion designer, how do you have the nerve to talk about objectification when the fashion industry objectifies women?’” she says. “I have to admit that and, yes, we do have to talk about it. Of all the women in our industry, models would be the most objectified. She comes on a go-see, and we are looking at her as an object.…We send her away, or we book her, and then we change the way she looks completely.” [WWD]
• Harper’s Bazaar is selling some Hermès shoes on its online shopping site, ShopBazaar. [WWD]
• Dubious trend story of the day: “Yes, Men Are Actually Buying Leggings This Fall.” Are they? Really? As pants? [The Cut]
• Ann Inc., formerly known as Ann Taylor, reports that net income during the quarter just ended rose year-on-year by 26.2%, to $40.7 million. Net sales were up 8.6%, to $612.5 million, and same-store sales grew by a healthy 5.5%. [WWD]
• At American Eagle, net income during the same period was up by 50%, to $78.6 million. Overall sales rose 11.1%, to $910.4 million, and same-store sales by 10%. [WWD]
• PVH, which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and other brands, says its net income for the quarter rose by 47.4%, to $165.4 million. This is excluding one-time costs associated with its acquisition of Warnaco. [WWD]
• Also reporting quarterly results today is Nieman Marcus, which saw net income rise by 2.5%, to $49.6 million. Overall sales were pretty flat, reaching $1.07 billion, but same-store sales were up by 5.4%. [WWD]
• And now, a moment with Valentino Garavani. Valentino, what do few people know how to do these days?
• “Few people love and make beautiful clothes, clothes that are soft, smooth and elegant. And very few designers today design — it’s very important to be able to do your own sketch on paper and then explain [your vision] to the fabric cutters. Instead, lots of designers drape — it’s the new way.”
• [WWD]
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