• Mario Testino shot Kate Moss for the cover of British Vogue’s September issue. Ahh, wouldn’t be the same without them.

• Club Monaco is expanding its jewelry yet again: Paris jewelry designer Ligia Dias is collaborating with the retailer for a capsule collection launching in November.

• Saks launched a new in-house menswear collection named Saks Fifth Avenue Menswear Collection. The retailer has been working on it for two years.

• Steven Meisel shot Lanvin’s fall 2009 ad campaign featuring Kristen McMenamy sprawled on a couch accompanied by two black cats.

• Ever wonder just who wears House of Harlow 1960 by Nicole Richie? We know! Madonna does! Madge sported one of Richie’s necklaces on the cover of her new single, "Celebration."

• "To be honest, at this point of the promotional tour I’d wear a bin bag if it was put in front of me. Any sense of my own personal fashion behaviour has gone out of the window," sayeth Sienna Miller.

• The U.S. Open ball boys and ball girls will be wearing Polo Ralph Lauren courtside again this year, after five years of doing so. Check out this year’s new uniforms.

• Target opened a new store at the Gateway Center in the Bronx. Now you know where to get the next Go line.

Photo: Getty Images

Just as predicted, Versace CEO Giancarlo di Risio resigned today. Versace did not give a reason for Di Risio’s departure, but rumors have swirled for some time that he had clashed with Donatella Versace over budget as the house succumbed to losses in the recession. Di Risio will stay on temporarily to ensure a "smooth transitional period" for the label. Versace has not named a successor. Hopefully they can keep their finances on track.

Photo: Imaxtree

When the Christian Dior collection walked yesterday, the first thing that struck us was the lack of pants, occasional absence of top, and see-through skirts. Lady Gaga’s pantsless fashions had become high fashion — haute couture fashion. With shirtlessness also in full force, the trend had managed to migrate above the waist. It was a melding of the past and future. We’ve seen underwear as outerwear on the runways before. Galliano has also made jackets the focal point of past Dior couture collections. Pretty soon, we thought, we won’t even be wearing clothes. We’ll just walk out the door naked with only a few strategically placed items of foliage. It would be the ultimate in retro fashions — a return to our Neanderthal roots. PETA will become PETAAP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Plants). Shop-A-Matic editor Diana Tsui will have to compile "Plants: And Where You Can Scavenge Them." Perhaps we’ve thought too much about this, but so have the critics.

• Cathy Horyn loved the collection. She called the jackets "the strong part of the collection." She especially liked the long-sleeve red silk coat dress, and found the hats by Stephen Jones "marvelous." And as for the long, massive tulle skirts at the end, she wrote, "longer lengths now seem as annoying as Rapunzel’s hair. Oh, just chop it off." [NYT]

• Sarah Mower felt relieved the show took place in Dior’s headquarters in the Avenue Montaigne, which prevented Galliano from using "deafening music" and "extravagant sets." She was not bothered that the show was yet another rehash of Dior’s New Look: "Nothing particularly novel, or even mildly shocking, but Galliano turned that to his advantage. It’s a moment when reemphasizing house values is a wise tactical move."

• WWD also applauded Galliano’s ability to reel in his signature extravagance in These Times, dubbing the collection "both controversy-free and superb in its own right." The bottomless and topless looks "allowed him to show off the craft of couture-building via the most intricate, exquisite undies imaginable." Couture. Undies.

• The underwear also left Hilary Alexander breathless. "Not since Jean Paul Gaultier put Madonna into a rocket-cone bra, has a couturier been so enamoured of corsetry, nor designed such underwear that positively demands to be on show," she writes in the Telegraph. She notes that Dior’s couture clients will be able to purchase matching skirts and jackets for the looks that appear to be missing pieces, and have the transparent skirts lined.

See a complete slideshow of the fall 2009 Christian Dior Couture collection. Also see backstage and details galleries.

Watch the slideshow

The Lush dress by Elsie Q.Photo: Courtesy of Elsie Q

The fifth annual Renegade Craft Fair returns to Williamsburg this weekend, showcasing more than 300 designers, artists, and printers. Though the event has always been a good place to find affordable accessories, this year’s lineup combines a slew of talented Etsy unknowns with local standouts like Digby and Iona, Species by the Thousands, and Erica Weiner (many of whom are offering Renegade discounts of up to 50 percent off retail prices). The fair is taking place in McCarren Park instead of the the usual McCarren Pool locale (which, fittingly, was drenched by rain last year), with booths snaking along the soccer and softball fields. Click ahead for a preview of some of our favorite finds from this weekend’s offerings.

Buzz shills Omega watches. Louis Vuitton models — himself included — are enthralled.Photo: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton, Getty Images

Astronauts are having a moment. Not hot, new young astronauts, but those who made history decades ago. Take for instance, the new Louis Vuitton campaign starring Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride, and Jim Lovell. The ads mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11. Louis Vuitton has also launched a spiffy new website to drum up excitement for their new (space) faces. Buzz Aldrin’s fashion prowess extends beyond the Louis Vuitton brand to Omega watches. Earlier this week he appeared in the Omega store on Fifth Avenue to help launch the new, limited-edition Speedmaster Apollo 11 Moon Watch. Apparently he wore a Speedmaster on the moon, making it the first and only moonwalking timepiece.

The rise of astronauts in the fashion spotlight makes perfect sense considering the retro-futuristic influences of the fall collections. Balmain, Karl Lagerfeld, and Preen all showed clothes that looked to be inspired by the Jetsons or old Star Trek costumes. And now, Louis Vuitton and Omega are banking on the faces of the moon to sell product. Thus, we may conclude that astronauts are hot right now. Mostly Buzz Aldrin, but still.

R.J. Cutler’s documentary about Vogue, The September Issue, chronicles the making of the 2007 edition of that magazine. You remember 2007, when people had jobs and wallets so flush with money they didn’t think twice about spending $1,500 on a beaded clutch that could barely fit two credit cards, much less a BlackBerry. At 840 pages, Vogue put out its largest issue ever two years ago. Photo shoots that cost $150,000 were killed and reshot. But now budget cuts of 15 percent have been enacted across all Condé Nast magazines. McKinsey has been hired to find more ways to cut budgets. Ad pages are down. What does this all mean? The September Issue is a lie.

Now Vogue editors are looking at price tags. They’re trying to print articles about budget-minded shopping, encouraging readers to, say, choose the $700 bag instead of the $1,500 bag. The Times reports Condé editors are nervous about McKinsey enacting more budget cuts. What if they can’t spend $5,000 for food on a photo shoot? What if they can’t have 30 photographic assistants on hand? Already fewer editors are expected to attend the shows in Europe. One editor told the Times, “It’s the fear of the great unknown: What if their consultants really question the culture we live in at Condé Nast?” As the outside world has done for years? Unthinkable. Cathy Horyn writes that Vogue will probably be safe for the most part:

Vogue is about wish fulfillment and escapism, so it can’t be expected to really change its stripes. It can’t be Marie Claire. A publicist for Mr. Cutler said he was unavailable to comment on the economic climate that will greet his film. But if his hope was to capture the heightened atmosphere of expectation at Vogue, with editors and photographers trying to meet Ms. Wintour’s demands while the industry bent in submission, then maybe he lucked out with his timing. Everything has now changed.

But that doesn’t exactly mean the film’s not relevant or worth seeing. Because, like the puppies in the Valentino documentary, watching André Leon Talley roll up to his tennis lesson with about five Louis Vuitton gym bags and then attempt to hit the ball with a cumbersome Louis Vuitton beach towel wrapped around his neck, amid grunting, squealing, and minor flailing, will always feel important.

Still Fearless at Vogue?

From left: the runway, details, and model Chanel Iman backstage.Photo: Imaxtree

Don’t miss our latest slideshows from fall 2009 Couture Fashion Week!

• See the complete runway slideshow of the Christian Dior Couture collection.
• See detail shots from the Christian Dior Couture show.
• See a backstage gallery of models getting ready for the Christian Dior Couture show.

Regis with a Stuart Weitzman fall shoe.Photo: Courtesy of Stuart Weitzman

• Pringle of Scotland will return to London Fashion Week this September. As previously announced, Burberry and Matthew Williamson are also returning to London.

• Harry Winston’s first-quarter sales dropped 30.4 percent from a year earlier. The Harry Winston CEO says business is improving, however.

• Stephanie Seymour’s divorce from husband Peter Brant turned violent this weekend when police were called twice to her house in Greenwich, Connecticut. A bodyguard for Brant is charged with shoving Seymour.

• Lara Stone landed the new campaign for Eres lingerie.

• Major breaking news: Regis Philbin likes thigh-high boots.
 

Auguste Abeliunaite at Burberry.Photo: Imaxtree

At the fall 2009 Jil Sander show in Milan, 14-year-old ( … we know) Auguste Abeliunaite hit the runway with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her agent said it was due to her "pale blue eyes," but those tears of joy, pain, or whatever were enough to give the Lithuanian beauty some significant publicity. This probably helped the rookie stand out in the sea of newcomers that flooded the market. Days later, she was confirmed for the Russell Marsh–cast burberry scarf show and Pringle of Scotland. Abeliunaite skipped the runways in Paris owing to age restrictions, but that didn’t stop her from nabbing a spread in Japanese Vogue’s April issue and working with photographer Alasdair McLellan for the Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti fall ad campaign, styled by Vanessa Reid. Next up is an only-girl spread in Teen Vogue’s upcoming issue, shot by Lachlan Bailey. Not bad for a crybaby, eh?

Model Profile: Auguste Abeliunaite

Find your favorite model on and off the runway in our extensive Model Manual.
 

Photo: Getty Images

The unraveling of Christian Lacroix began long before the label filed for bankruptcy in France in May. Lacroix has clashed with the Falic family, which owns the label, for years. The designer told Hamish Bowles that the Falics, “not being from the couture-and-luxury field … were not prepared for the long-term investment” in his label. “They thought that in two seasons they would get their money back.” As the Wall Street Journal notes today, couture shows are not staged for the purpose of making money off those clothes. The benefit of a couture show is its worldwide marketing power, which helps sell things like sunglasses and handbags to aspirational and wealthy consumers. Those sales are the meat and potatoes of a fashion house. The money brought in from the actual couture collection is just the gravy — and maybe not even the gravy, but the truffle oil in the gravy — on top.

Shortly after the Falics purchased Lacroix from LVMH in 2005, they tried to run the house on a budget. Yet at the same time, they wanted the label to be among the highest-end on the market. They quickly canned Lacroix’s lower-priced Bazar and Jeans lines. Lacroix was delighted not to have to bother with cheaper lines anymore. But it wasn’t long before suppliers failed to receive checks, new suppliers had to be found, and Lacroix was back to the cheap stuff. He was supposed to produce, as he says, “the ‘It’ bag in cheap leather.”

Although his fall 2009 collection was heralded and Barneys placed a large order for it, that line won’t be produced. Neither will his cruise collection. Which means Lacroix boutiques will have to close in September. The label has hardly been able to fill orders for the couture collection presented in January, even though some devoted clients paid up front for the pieces so that the label could buy the supplies needed to produce them. “I struggled to make the dresses for the [Marielle] Safra wedding,” Lacroix says.

So that’s how a celebrated, revered label goes to pieces. Lacroix says the Falics didn’t want him to stage a couture show this week (he did anyway because he wanted his employees to have work). Maybe they foresaw the flood of publicity their mistakes would receive.

Lacroix has until the end of the month to find a buyer. His banker friend David de Rothschild is helping him locate new investments from people who know what they’re doing. Lacroix says he’s met with “some important people” and will only see those “ready to support couture.” But whoever wants to invest will have to cough up about 40 to 60 million euros over the next few years. Although speculation has surfaced that LVMH might scoop up Lacroix again, no one at the company has said anything to indicate it actually will.

Lacroix thinks the Falics would rather just see the house go under. Sadly for them, the entire fashion industry holds out hope the label will survive.

Exclusive! Christian Lacroix Reveals All to Hamish Bowles