marcus piggott

• Riccardo Tisci is following up his Fall 2010 campaign featuring the transsexual model Lea T. with a Spring 2011 ad campaign featuring albino model Stephen Thompson, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott in black and white alongside Mariacarla Boscono, Daphne Groeneveld and Iris Strubegger; the idea came from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo of an alabaster Roman bust juxtaposed against leopard print fabric [WWD]
• 39-year-old David Lauren and 26-year-old Lauren Bush, who met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala six years ago, got engaged Friday at the museum; she Tweeted today: "Thanks for everyone's warm wishes about our engagement! I am so happy, and really enjoying every minute of it! I am truly a lucky lady!" [NY Post, @LaurenBushTweet]
• Conde Nast looks to be in shopping mode: its parent company just raised $500 million for mergers and acquisitions [All Things Digital]
• Karolina Kurkova posted a teaser photo of her and androgynous model Andrej Pejic on the set of Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2011 ad campaign [Frockwriter]
• Before The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman stops someone to ask to take their picture, he says, "I pretty much know where I'm going to stand, where I'm going to place them in relationship to the light, where in the street . . . so as soon as they say, 'Okay,' I'm pretty much ready to go." He continues: "I'm not much of a people person, I don't push to find out that much more [about his subjects]. I want to shoot them the way that I see them; as opposed to really creating a true essence of who they are, it's my idea of who they are." [NY Times]
• Christian Louboutin, on how extremes have changed in his twenty years in the business: "When I started, I remember people saying, ‘Oh my God, I can’t walk in that!’ It was like, three inches — they look like kitten heels now. The low cleavage I was doing was considered too sexy, but now what I call a low cleavage is much lower. It’s really very much a mental shift. I remember doing very pointy lasts. People would say, ‘I like the shoe, but it’s too pointy.’ And then the year after, it’s fine." [Style File]
• Marc Jacobs may bring his legendary holiday costume party — which hasn't happened since 2007 — back next year [The Cut]
• Anna Dello Russo is evasive on how she affords her two apartments and thousands' worth of designer clothing; her only response: "Of course, I am journalist! Then I have discount, I am privileged!" [Guardian UK]
• Peep Zac Posen's Pre-Fall 2011 lookbook, featuring "Zac-ettes" — his words (“They’re all women who have been significant for me this year”) — Hilary Rhoda, Crystal Renn, Anna Cleveland, and Leigh Lezark [Vogue]
• Reiss is planning on reissuing the dress Kate Middleton wore in her engagement photos as part of their Spring 2011 collection [The Cut]
• Former WWD Eye editor Emily Holt has been named fashion news editor at Vogue; she started last Monday [DFR]
• Leighton Meester is rumored to be the new face of Missoni [InTouch]
• Christian Lacroix is art directing and selecting the 150 Middle Eastern pieces to be featured in the Musee du Quai Branly's "The Orient of Women" exhibition, opening Feb. 8 [WWD]

• Anna Dello Russo now has a perfume ad, shot by Juergen Teller, to go along with her promotional video [ADR, ADR]

• Nina Garcia welcomed her second son over the weekend, she announced over Twitter: "Delighted to announce that over the wknd we welcomed 8lb13oz Alexander David Conrod into our home! Baby is doing great & Lucas [her oldest son] is thrilled!" [@ninagarcia]
• Stella McCartney also reportedly welcomed her fourth child just before Thanksgiving last week; she just relaunched her website, with behind-the-scenes photos and videos, as well [The Cut, Style File]
• 40 percent of Vogue Italia's readers come from the United States, but Anna Wintour calls Franca Sozzani "magnificent" [WashPo]
• Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot Laetitia Casta in London for the Spring 2011 Roberto Cavalli campaign [Laetita Casta]
• More Spring 2011 campaign rumors: Iselin Steiro is said to be the face of Lanvin; Gisele Bundchen of Isabel Marant (by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin); Raquel Zimmermann of Louis Vuitton (by Steven Meisel); and Givenchy's group is said to be Daphne Groeneveld, Iris Strubegger, Mariacarla Boscono, and Natasha Poly [HoM, HoM, TFS]
• Prada, which saw its profits triple in the last nine months, is now eyeing an initial public offering in 2011 rather than 2012 [WWD]

>> The power of a Riccardo Tisci plug: after appearing in Givenchy's Fall 2010 campaign, Tisci's longtime personal assistant and former fit model Lea T scored editorial coverage in Vogue Paris, Interview, and Hercules, but that was just the beginning. The transgender model, who is repped by Women Milan, has now graduated to covers: she's on the new Lurve cover, wearing Givenchy couture, and it's rumored that Katie Grand styled her for a Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott-snapped LOVE cover last week. [Models.com, @GB65]

>> Vogue Paris Picks an Actress for September 2010 Cover, First Time in Five Years —Marion Cotillard may have graced Vogue's cover before Vogue Paris's — surprising considering that she's a French actress — but maybe it's because Carine Roitfeld was saving her for the coveted September issue spot. Unlike their American couterpart, however, VP doesn't shy away from putting models on their September covers — Lara Stone scored last year's cover, and Marion's marks the first actress on a Vogue Paris September cover since Nicole Kidman in 2005. Cotillard — much like Alessandra Ambrosio on one of Love's Fall covers — gets the bleached eyebrow treatment for the occasion, and is photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. [TFS]

>> Alessandra Ambrosio Bleaches Eyebrows for Love Cover —The first of eight Fall 2010 Love covers portrayed Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as a pin-up — not far from her usual fare — but it's the second cover that takes another Victoria's Secret model for a 180-degree change. Katie Grand styled and Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot Alessandra Ambrosio in the Givenchy look — complete with the bleached eyebrows Riccardo Tisci so favors. Models.com plans to reveal two more covers daily this week, and the magazine is on newsstands Aug. 23. A preview of the accompanying iPad application, with previews of the contents, below. [Love]

Video: The preview! »

>> Stefano Tonchi's W revamp involves a new italic logo; a new tagline — "it’s not just women’s fashion, but the world of style and, more exactly, our five Ws: the who, the what, the where, the when and the why in the world of style"; and a new direction — "It’s more about fashion in the context of contemporary culture."

The September 2010 issue, which gives a first look at Tonchi's front to back W makeover, features up-and-coming actresses Kat Dennings (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Kenneth Branagh's upcoming Thor), Jessica Chastain (Terrence Malick's upcoming The Tree of Life), Yaya DaCosta (The Kids Are All Right, Tron: Legacy), Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone, the upcoming X-Men: First Class), Emma Roberts, and Zoe Kravitz in three triple-page foldout covers, which according to Tonchi the magazine has never done before, photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The main cover headline reads "Great Expectations" because Tonchi "wanted to have some self-irony, because there are so many expectations about what this W will be," and Lynn Hirschberg's name is listed on the cover because Tonchi "want[s] to put writers’ names on the cover. The content — the writers — are going to have a strong place in the magazine."

What's inside? »

>> Busty Model Ashley Smith Making Waves —With the success of Lara Stone and the current taste for more zaftig shapes, it was only a matter of time before more bustier-than-usual models flooded the scene.  Enter Texan Ashley Smith, who has Lara's gap teeth and the usual model measurements — 5'8.5" height, 24-inch waist, 34-inch hips, dress size 2 — with one notable exception: her 32D bust size. She shot with Terry Richardson back in February, and it's rumored that Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott are "in love with her." [Fashin, Fashin]