david sims

>> H&M has finally had enough with the no-clothes teasing of its upcoming Lanvin collaboration and released a first look at the collection. The campaign, shot by David Sims and styled by Camille Bidault Waddington, shows Hannelore Knuts, Jane Schmitt, Tati Cotliar, and Natasha Poly, from left to right, in dresses that hark back to past Lanvin runway collections. The full, highly anticipated collection will be revealed Nov. 2 in a short film on H&M's website and hits stores Nov. 23.

>> Luella Bartley folded her Luella label last November — and while she says she doesn't know what's next, she's sure that the Luella girl isn't gone. “My lifestyle changed, but she stayed, which is nice,” Bartley — who has been living full-time in the Cornwall farmhouse she shares with her photographer boyfriend, David Sims, and their three children, since Luella shuttered — explains. She adds that her next step may not be about dressing the Luella girl — she's thinking of turning her into a graphic novel.

Bartley doesn't seem torn up about the end of the label, for which she had to commute daily into London. “It’s a difficult thing, being a woman, trying to have a successful business, be creative and do the best by your family. I sold it to myself that I could do it all,” she tells the Times UK. “You can, but not the way my business was set up. It was set up for the old me. Maybe I was moving away from that life without realising it.”

“To anybody urban and creative, it obviously sounds like a drop-out situation,” she continues. “Letting go has been the biggest lesson. I used to think that if someone wasn’t successful, it was because they were crap, but now I realise that if people aren’t successful, it’s probably because they aren’t that bothered . . . You think that everyone’s going to forget who you are. But I had a chat with Phoebe [Philo, the creative director of Céline], who I admire so much. She took three years out and made sure her kids were secure. Then, when she was ready, she got the deal she wanted. You’ve just got to know what you want. I know I’ve done the right thing. I don’t mourn anything. I loved what it was, but I’m happy to be out."

>> Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli are driving Valentino in a "younger, more contemporary, complete and desirable" direction, according to the brand's CEO Stefano Sassi, and the Fall 2010 Valentino campaign continues that evolution.  Photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott were replaced this season by David Sims, who in what is his first Valentino campaign helped the label with a "radical image change," as WWD put it, capturing Freja Beha Erichsen, Monika Jagaciak, and Tati Cotliar (below) in black and white. Each ad shows the model in two side-by-side images, one of her nude ("shocking," says WWD) and the other fully clothed.

The official word on Valentino's rumored sale »

With an increasingly obvious directive to attract a younger customer to the house of Valentino, creative directors Maria Grazie Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli tried to up the shock value with their latest advertising campaign. Not exactly explicit when compared to some recent Tom Ford ads or even a naked Marc Jacobs, but nonetheless a change for Valentino, the campaign images feature side-by-side portraits of the same model—one clothed in the fall collection and one nude.

Photographed in black and white by David Sims (who replaced Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott to shoot his first Valentino images), models Freja Beha, Monika Jagaciak, and Tati Cotlar front the campaign photos, which were taken in the house's Parisian headquarters. “The idea is that of an unexpectedly intimate black-and-white portrait with candid shots of unconventional, delicate and individual beauty and a more dangerous undercurrent,” Chiuri said to WWD. “We believe it is a very modern and feminine vision and we wanted to show each woman’s unique personal allure,” added Piccioli. The first photos break this month in the Italian edition of Vogue.

>> First Pics: Gisele Bundchen, Post-Baby; Plus, The Model Talks Benjamin's Birth —Gisele Bundchen had her first post-baby photoshoot in Boston Monday with David Sims for Colcci's upcoming campaign — she promises the ads next month — and was visited by a reporter from Brazilian magazine Fantastico, who called her "in shape as always, six weeks after the birth of her baby." Gisele talked about Benjamin's birth, dispelling reports that she went into labor and was taken to a hospital. Instead, she says, "I gave birth in the bathtub" at her home in Beacon Hill. More pics of Gisele at Fantastico. [Gisele Bundchen, People, Fantastico]

>> Gisele Bundchen Has First Post-Baby Shoot This Weekend —Gisele Bundchen may have skipped her usual turn on the Brazilian runways to stay in Boston with son Benjamin, but she's not totally forgoing her contract with the brand. This weekend, approximately seven and a half weeks after giving birth, she's said to be doing her first postpartum photoshoot with David Sims in Boston — for Colcci. [NY Post, @jcreportglobal]

>> A month after giving birth to her first child, Benjamin, Gisele Bundchen is already being lined up for her first postpartum modeling job. “She is doing photos for Colcci’s Winter campaign at the end of January,” a representative for the Brazilian fashion brand, with which Gisele has had a longterm relationship, told People. “They will be the first photos of her since the birth.”  Word is Gisele won't have to travel far for work — David Sims is said to be shooting her in her current hometown of Boston.

Just because Gisele's honoring contracts doesn't mean her photoshoot production level will be where it was pre-pregnancy. A source "who knows [Gisele]" told People:

“With the exception of her few contracts, she’s definitely taking a break [into] the New Year. It wouldn’t surprise me if she gives up most of the business. Why not? She has tons of money and a rich, gorgeous husband she adores and she wants a large family and more children, so why not?”