Suzy Menkes

The Spring 09 Vivienne Westwood ad campaign featuring Pamela Anderson has dropped.

Kayne West rants and raves on video about his Louis Vuitton sneakers, accidently conducts product placement for Goyard.

Suzy Menkes writes on the Fall 2009 menswear season, and divides the shows into instances of either rampant communism or capitalism. 

The Spring 2009 Haute Couture shows begin today and, surprisingly, with as much demand from global clients as usual. 

Last night, Alexander Wang was awarded the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award, granting him a 200,000 dollar allowance and mentorship for one year. The designers of Vena Cava and Albertus Quartus were the runners up and the two brands were each awarded 50,000 dollars and a business mentor. To see photos from last night's event, click here. To see Alexander Wang's Spring 2009 collection, click here. 

A 1980's themed Reebok pop-up has opened on the Bowery in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Reebok pump. Limited edition sneakers will run Reebok fans a mere 90 dollars--not much compared to the competition. 

Burberry reports a 13.1 percent increase in profits this half, however, the company articulates their concerns that there is worse to come. Burberry stated that U.S. department stores have unexpectedly decreased their re-orders. 

Suzy Menkes reports on the new Yohji Yamamoto flagship recently opened in Paris and the cultivation of a new pocket of cutting edge boutiques in the area. 

In our current economic situation, and considering that we're finishing off the Paris shows, it feel the right thing to pay attention to designers with decades of experience (and the economic ups and downs that go with that) under their belt. Sonia Rykiel spoke with WWD in an interview that went live this morning, where she talks about creative distribution in her company, now also headed by her daughter, Nathalie, and designer Gabrielle Greiss, as well as her beginnings as a designer forty years ago. Considering all we've been reading falls on these lines, it's a comfort to be given some perspective.

Oh dear, Paul Smith is opening an outlet in Williamsburg. Prepare yourself for editorial and conversational anecdotes about how "up and coming" is the neighborhood that is neither cutting edge nor undiscovered. That's not to say that we don't think the Williamsburg area isn't filled with talented, unique people, many of them important to the culture of fashion in New York, but we're not shocked at the arrival of the outlet. We've an APC outlet just down the road, OAK just up, and about a dozen bourge-y cafes in between. People shouldn't be shocked by this decision. We've seen Paul Smith outposts in the smallest, most desolate, European airports.

Suzy Menkes just celebrated twenty years as fashion editor at the International Herald Tribune, and there's a fashion designer-studded video to prove it. Menkes we saw quite a bit from London Fashion Week and while we pretended to do various purse-digging things we picked up quite a few sound bites from our favorite fashion writer. We can tell you for one that she wasn't very thrilled about going to Fashion Fringe (which everyone buzzed about all week) and that she uses a PC in the media lab among the rest of us lowly bloggers and photographers.

When we're going to just throw up our arms and stop reporting on this all together we do not know...for old times sake, there's a new collaboration hitting stores in London. Former creative director for Balmain and right hand man to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Giles Dufour, is launching a knitwear collab with Browns.

>> Suzy Menkes's 1.7 million-plus words during her twenty years as fashion editor at the International Herald Tribune were commemorated on Saturday with a special video. "You've made me cry . . . To earn a glowing review from you is the holy grail of fashion," John Galliano declared.  Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Karl Lagerfeld and then some all honored the Samurai, Olivier Theyskens with his words as much as his pompadour hairdo — which apparently got a big laugh.  Even Marc Jacobs chimed in — but only with kind words, and no sticking out of the tongue.  But let's be honest — in the middle of show season, who would dally with such an influential reviewer?