Sasha Pivovarova

>> Although Emmanuelle Alt says her full vision for Vogue Paris won't be felt until the August 2011 issue, the April 2011 issue marks her first as editor-in-chief of the magazine. Already, she's made some changes — expanded beauty coverage, simpler layouts and typography, a bigger commitment to feature articles among them. And she has plenty more in mind: “I want to show in French Vogue more and more a lot of clothes." In fact, of this first issue, she says: "It’s simple fashion. You can see the clothes perfectly.”

She plans to continue devoting covers largely to models, but will require them to show less skin than they did under Carine Roitfeld's eye. “One boob,” she says of this first issue: “Otherwise, you don’t recognize it’s French Vogue.” And instead of Roitfeld's edgier vision, Alt says: “I want the Vogue to become very feminine. Women are very interested in fashion and beauty.” She's also recruiting a new team of freelance stylists: “I want to have new people working for the magazine. I also want to push some young stylists: all the girls who have been trained by French Vogue.” A look at the outcome — Alt's first issue — in the slideshow.

We have a project for you this weekend. Street style has become a major part of contemporary fashion, and Rag & Bone designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright are taking the personal perspective one giant leap forward. Instead of doing a traditional Spring ad campaign, the designers handed cameras to their favorite models — Sasha Pivovarova and Abbey Lee Kershaw among them — and let the girls produce their own shots, wearing their own Rag & Bone duds. How do you fit into this candid camera campaign? By printing out the image PDFs from the Rag & Bone website and plastering them all over your city. Snap a pic of your guerrilla marketing, email it to the peeps at Rag & Bone, and you might just find yourself at New York Fashion Week in two weeks! Click through to see the model snaps.

>> Instead of hiring a professional photographer to shoot their ad campaign, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville handed Abbey Lee Kershaw, Edita Vilkeviciute, Sasha Pivovarova, and Lily Aldridge a digital camera and asked them to take pictures of themselves in Rag & Bone clothes — with full creative freedom. “We have always been very inspired by the girls who do the show,” said Wainwright. “Rather than do what every other brand does and have a high-end photographer take very polished shots, we thought, ‘Let’s flip it on its head to get the girls to take over.’ We wanted it to be very real.”

Wainwright and Neville are hoping the guerrilla ad campaign, which included plastering more than 1,000 posters on walls and against deli boards below 14th St. in NYC, will lure fans to their new e-commerce site, which features social networking elements such as a blog and videos. The duo also enlisted Elettra Wiedemann, Details magazine’s Eugene Tong, Marie Claire’s Taylor Tomasi Hill, V’s Jay Massacret, Julia Frakes of Bunny Bisous, and Sean Sullivan of The Impossible Cool to submit their own images for the site, which will be showcased later in a gallery. “It’s about real people and real clothes, clothes that we want people to wear and feel good in,” said Neville.

>> After seasons and seasons of Carmen Kass-fronted ads, Michael Kors has switched to another Estonian-born Karmen this season: Karmen Pedaru, who Kors paired with Simon Nessman for his Spring 2011 ad campaign. “They’re both youthful and elegant all at once — which makes them so very Michael Kors,” the designer explained. A first look at that — plus Daria Werbowy for Celine by Juergen Teller (left), and Lara Stone exercising her Calvin Klein exclusive for the second season running — among the latest batch of Spring 2011 ad images.

A while ago, I posed this question: Do you prefer Erin Wasson polished or grungy? Let's take it a step further and check out a few more models who undergo major transformations when they model. Agyness Deyn is way punky in her personal life, so it's not so strange seeing her in a grungy editorial, like the one on the left. But, I am a bit taken aback when I see her looking polished in a glamorous gown and heels, like in the Giorgio Armani ad.
Click through to see more models in their cleaned up state, then tell me, do you like it?

>> Carine Roitfeld's masquerade ball last night, celebrating 90 years of Vogue Paris and loosely Eyes Wide Shut-themed, meant lots of sheer gowns, and lots of show attendees preoccupied with finding a mask yesterday. Anna Dello Russo, inspired by Lady Gaga, paired a Gareth Pugh headpiece with her custom Emilio Pucci gown. Jean Paul Gaultier designed a metal mask for himself adorned with long feathers: "Yes, they're giant eyelashes, acting like hair -- since I'm missing some as you can see — so instead I've gone for this black plume."

Tyra Banks made do with cut up fishnets, Sasha Pivovarova got her mask "from a sex shop," and Lily Donaldson wore a red tulle veil to match her Christian Dior gown: “I made it myself. I went all the way up to the fabric district in Montmartre today.” Stephen Jones made Karlie Kloss's star spangled mask to go with her Christian Dior gown, and Riccardo Tisci did Mariacarla Boscono's over the top feathered hat, while he looked to Philip Treacy to custom make his mask.

While there was plenty of mask ogling, Carine Roitfeld was more preoccupied with other thoughts. “Oh my goodness, even the models are eating, it’s amazing!” she laughed, as Lily Donaldson took a leaf from a chocolate cabbage.

>> Roberto Cavalli reportedly spent about $2 million on his 40th anniversary bash held last night at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris — and that doesn't include the budget allotted to bringing Natalia Vodianova (and perhaps some of the other 1,200 attendees) to the party. As the New York Times's Eric Wilson wrote: "It was one of those fashion parties that felt like another era, when it was possible to enjoy such extravagance without wondering how a designer could possibly be selling enough animal-printed evening gowns and exuberantly distressed denim to afford it all."

Kylie Minogue performed, the walls were lined with Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott's images of models in Cavalli, and Heidi Klum introduced the designer as a four-tier, 10-foot birthday cake covered in sparklers was wheeled onto the stage. But even through all that, Cavalli, almost 70, admitted he's not the party animal he used to be: “Don’t say it, don’t say it, please, because the people should still dream with me,” he said. “The young should think that, instead of sparkling water, I drink Krug, or that I still smoke 10 Cuban cigars every day.”