>> Who walked 73 shows this Fashion Month while still finding the energy to play guitar backstage? Who skipped London Fashion Week this season and still managed to land among the top catwalkers this season? See which models were most in demand for Spring 2012 in the slideshow.
Photos by Greg Kessler
>> A deal that has been rumored since March 2010 could go through as soon as this Friday, Cathy Horyn reports, although she notes that the talks are not yet complete.
European private equity firm Permira — which took a 45 percent stake in Proenza Schouler four years ago and is also the principle owner of Valentino — is expected to sell its shares to a group of New York investors led by Andrew Rosen (founder of Theory, overseer of Helmut Lang, and investor in both Rag & Bone and Alice + Olivia) and John Howard, an early and successful investor in Seven for All Mankind and Aeropostale.
Horyn speculates that after the deal is complete, Proenza Schouler may explore more product categories like denim or bolster its accessories offering with more leather goods, shoes, and eyewear.
As for Proenza launches already in the works, the label just released its Fall 2011 ad campaign (left), shot in New York's Milk Studios by Willy Vanderperre, styled by Marie Chaix, and starring Zuzanna Bijoch.
Proenza Schouler just released its Fall ad that is bursting with enough color to remind you cold weather doesn't always mean darkness. The vibrant campaign, shot by Willy Vanderperre, features polish beauty Zuzanna Bijoch wearing some of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez's most memorable modern tribal motifs from the collection. To complete the chic downtown-girl appeal, make-up artist Hannah Murray douses Zuzanna's lips in a matte red hue and gives her hair a wet-look finish. Take a look at one more picture from the campaign, then give us your verdict.
>> You've seen a good portion of the Fall 2011 ad campaign for Louis Vuitton, but now the house has released a making-of video, complete with Marc Jacobs explaining the photoshoot's inspiration: "Steven [Meisel] and I met and decided we would do this wonderful story of beautiful antique cars, little dogs, and fresh-faced young women dressed in the collection. So we cast Gertrud [Hegelund], Zuzanna [Bijoch], Daphne [Groeneveld], Fei Fei [Sun], Nyasha [Matonhodze], and Anais [Pouliot], a bunch of beautiful cars, we cast Richard as the chaffeur and various dogs, and came out here to Brooklyn. I think it's a very classic scenario — of course it suggests travel, and it's definitely luxurious. But I think we gave it a fresh and kind of modern, sometimes a little bit naughty, tongue-in-cheek sort of spin."
>> Louis Vuitton populated its Fall 2011 runway with supermodels like Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Carolyn Murphy, and Naomi Campbell, but you wouldn't guess it based on the collection's campaign. Instead of its usual top model or actress seasonal face, the brand went with a cast of young upstarts — very young, in some cases: 16-year-old Zuzanna Bijoch, 15-year-old Daphne Groeneveld, 20-year-old Gertrud Hegelund, 16-year-old Nyasha Matonhodze, 20-year-old Anais Pouliot, and Fei Fei Sun, who was born in 1989.
Matonhodze, for her part, said of the moment she found out she was chosen: "My eyes filled up with tears and I thought 'Lord, you are lucky!'" The campaign was shot by Steven Meisel in a vintage car at a disused Brooklyn aerodrome; Matonhodze added of her experience: "It didn't actually hit me until I was sat in a Rolls Royce sitting eye-to-eye with Mr. Meisel. He is a wonder to work with, he and Marc [Jacobs] made me feel beautiful." Jacobs added of the set: “Who wouldn’t want to be this gorgeous young woman in the back seat of this beautiful car?”
>> In what may be the best campaign video in some time, Prada Spring 2011 faces Tati Cotliar, Kinga Rajzak, Arizona Muse, Mariacarla Boscono, and Zuzanna Bijoch don the collection's stripes and give their best dance to Ratatat’s 2008 song "Mirando." And don't forget to take a second look at those sunglasses — apparently Prada has decided to do a limited-edition 500-pair run, and they will be in stores starting next month.
