According to reports, Anna Wintour‘s team has been calling in some samples in U.S. sizes 14 and 16 — an event so unusual in our age of miniature celebrities that it merits a mention in today’s Women’s Wear Daily. Certain (unnamed) designers have been asked to create special outfits so Vogue will have plenty of cover options — and the word is that all the effort is for a cover that will feature Adele. This would be for Vogue‘s March issue, the spring fashion issue. This is newsworthy for a couple of reasons: one, it’s been four years since Vogue featured a plus-size woman on its cover (Jennifer Hudson in 2007) and two, Vogue isn’t even putting Adele on the Shape issue cover, it’s apparently giving her a “real” cover. (Conventional ladymag wisdom is that March is the second most important issue of the year after September — which is a huge vote of confidence on the part of Vogue in Adele’s salability.) It’s been a good year for Adele, vocal cord issues aside: 21 is the top-selling album of the year, and she’s nabbed six Grammy nominations, in addition to covers of U.S. Cosmopolitan, British Vogue, and The Gentlewoman. [WWD]
These Chanel running shoes are so hideous. And yet they cost $795-$950. [TLF]
Model Anna Speckhart hails from Pittsfield, Illinois. She says she doesn’t talk much about her career with her friends when she visits. “I don’t really talk about it at home. I avoid questions about it. They’re really proud of me but it’s awkward for me. I feel totally unrelated to my pictures sometimes,” she says. Even though as a model she’s under a certain amount of pressure to look stylish at castings, “I’m not going to spend $1,200 on designer gear,” says Speckhart. “I’d rather work for money than trade…I’m really frugal — J.Crew is a real stretch for me.” [WWD]
From the man who brought you “Showtime”: there’s a new Baptiste Giabiconi song trailer, y’all. (Songs have trailers now?) [DFR]
The new Prada campaign is here! As promised, it features Elise Crombez. Damn, have we missed Elise Crombez. [Fashionista]
H.R.H. Princess Shinyhair-upon-Tyne wore a black velvet Alexander McQueen dress to a black-tie event. [WWD]
Here’s the official ad for the Hunger Games nail polish collection, Capitol Colours. It stars Elizabeth Banks in character as Effie Trinket. [MTV]
Arizona Muse, Raquel Zimmerman, Karlie Kloss, Anja Rubik, and Lara Stone were the five models who worked the most for Vogue (and all of its international editions) during 2011. Muse shot some 220 editorial pages, enough for a magazine of her own. [Fashionista]
Vogue‘s roundup of designer holiday cards is pretty cute. [Vogue.com]
- Absolutely Fabulous costume designer Sarah Burns has come back to style the new episodes. “In essence it really sort of stayed the same,” Burns says of Edina Monsoon‘s personal style. “Patsy’s whole feel was effortlessly chic with Betty Jackson. And then, when a case occurs in the script, she tips into this sort of more vampy rock chic,” Burns explains. “But that’s what we’ve always done with them,” she added. [WWD]
- Rihanna was supposed to be “designing” a capsule collection for Armani Exchange to be sold at Macy’s, but it’s over one month past due for the clothes to be in stores and Macy’s has “no details to share at this time.” [SheFinds]
- Scarlett Johanson recommends using manuka honey on your face. “Something I’ve discovered recently is actually using honey as a mask. I use Manuka honey. You just warm your face so that your pores are open (you can steam your face right after getting out of the shower), and then you just take a spoon and apply the honey directly to your face and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. It really adds an amazing glow and your skin is so soft afterwards.” We find this intriguing — manuka honey is good for all kinds of shit, so it stands to reason it’d be good for your skin — but a little perplexing. Manuka honey is so delicious, how could anyone stand to just wash it down the drain? [Style.com]
- Universally beloved New York Times street style photographer Bill Cunningham will receive the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence in April. Cunningham previously lived for decades in Carnegie Hall’s famous artist housing, before he (and all the other tenants) were evicted and relocated after Carnegie Hall won a long-running battle to convert the apartments into office space. [WWD]
- Bruce Springsteen is said to have bought a pair of jeans from J. Crew. [NYDN]
- Last week, four out of five business days saw online retail sales of over $1 billion. Billion-dollar days were a rarity as recently as two years ago. What have you been buying online? [WWD]
- Dolce & Gabbana — two designers Women’s Wear Daily calls “among the few Italian designers of their generation to sustain ongoing commercial success” — give the trade an end-of-year interview. They say they aren’t considering an IPO, but in our experience, nobody really talks about EBITDA unless an IPO is somewhere on the horizon. (They talk about, you know, “profit.”) Dolce & Gabbana is happy to state for the record that its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization for the fiscal year ended March 31 was a nice $376 million. Stefano Gabbana says the decision to fold the lower-priced line D&G into the main Dolce & Gabbana brand was a strategic one, because now Dolce & Gabbana is free to explore higher-end “demi-couture” offerings, with, he points out, “more precious buttons.” God, don’t you hate it when your demi-couture has inferior buttons. [WWD]
- Ultrasuede: In Search Of Halston, the new documentary about Roy Halston Frowick, sounds pretty thoroughly depressing. But also, there’s this:
- Naeem Kahn, who assisted Halston in the seventies, remembers going [to Studio 54] on Valentine’s Day when all the waitresses were naked (and sporting dyed pink pubic hair shaved into the shape of a heart), staying until morning, and then passing out on the subway on his way home.
- [The Cut]
- Angela Ahrendts, the C.E.O. of Burberry, donated 50,000 shares to the charitable foundation she has set up in her name. The foundation sold those shares for just under $900,000. [WWD]
- Ladurée, the Parisian makers of pastel-colored macaroons that fashion people who seem not to have eaten solid food in years nonetheless rhapsodize with suspicious eagerness, is launching a makeup line in Japan. [WWD]
- Talbots has rejected as too low a buyout offer from Sycamore Partners, which had wanted to acquire the struggling company for $3/share. [WWD]
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