uniqlo

• Karl Lagerfeld photographed Cara Delevingne for the cover of Plastic Dreams' Winter 2013 issue. [Yahoo! News]
  

• Kimberly Ovitz says that 3D printing may revolutionize the way brands handle supply and demand. [The Business of Fashion]
  

• Tennis star Novak Djokovic is set to appear in his first ad campaign for Uniqlo after becoming brand ambassador last year. [WWD]
  

• Christie Brinkley may join the cast of The View. [Styleite]
  

• Could Kate Spade outpace J.Crew? Some insiders think so. [Racked]
  

• Natalia Vodianova will receive the Inspiration Award at this year's DVF Awards ceremony. [Style.com]
  

• Karin Gregersen has been named the new president of Vince. [WWD]
  

• This is what it would look like if nostalgic childhood cartoons like Doug, My Little Pony, and Pokémon collaborated with designers. [Lucky]
  

If you've got little style setters at home, you'll want to mark your calendar for this June, when New Zealand designer Karen Walker's debut childrenswear line will launch at Uniqlo locations in the US and around the world. With "child geniuses" as the inspiration for the collection, it's set to encompass 18 pieces of mix-and-match apparel for girls between the ages of 3-11. The dresses, tops, pants, and skirts will feature the designer's signature alphabet print and a new pattern that's reflective of a child's doodles on graph paper.

"We drew inspiration from the look of Karen Walker collections and with a little help from my 5-year-old, Valentina, we picked out some of our beloved signature styles such as frill hem sweatshirt dresses and boat pants and restyled them for kids," Karen Walker said of her line. "As a brand with working parents in the team, we wanted to create a fun and spirited kids' collection that used high quality utility fabrics and would be kid-friendly and a great price."

Pieces will start at $16, and the collection will be in stores on June 3. In the meantime, get your fix for the affordable, adorable Uniqlo Kids line here!

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• What does the industry want from President Obama's second term? "The first priority is getting the economy up and running and strong," says designer Nanette Lepore. A group of nearly 40 designers, retailers, and other fashion professionals — including Elie Tahari, Tommy Hilfiger, and Norma Kamali — generally agree. [WWD]
  

• Uniqlo and Theory collaborated on a line of down outerwear for men, women, and children called T Down. The vests (seen below) and jackets will range from $99 to $149 and will arrive in Uniqlo and Theory stores on Nov. 15. [Style.com]
  

• Alessandra Ambrosio's 4-year-old daughter, Anja, has already made her modeling debut. Both mother and daughter star in London Fog's Fall 2012 campaign. [Vogue UK]
  

• Isaac Mizrahi has landed a recurring role playing himself on Showtime's The Big C. [The Hollywood Reporter]
  

• Add Calvin Klein to the list of New Yorkers whose home is uninhabitable thanks to Hurricane Sandy. [Page Six]
  

• We weren't the only ones who found the Native American-inspired costume Karlie Kloss wore during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show controversial. [Jezebel]

Top: First Lady Michelle Obama and President Obama celebrate his reelection in Chicago. Bottom: A vest from the T Down collaboration, courtesy of Uniqlo.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Rebecca Minkoff is now moonlighting as a contributing editor for InStyle. She'll write an advice column called Ask a Designer for the magazine over the next six months. [WWD]
  

• Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's label The Row has been named one of WSJ. Magazine's Innovators of the Year. "The twin designers display an eye for nearly monastic classicism that's redefining American luxury," the magazine says. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• McDonald's is suing the city of Milan, claiming it was forced out of its location there to make way for a Prada store. [Vogue UK]
  

• The massive $20 million class action suit between models and a variety of New York modeling agencies isn't the industry's only big court case. Ford has sued Women Model Management for "poaching" two of its rising stars, Alana Zimmer and Karolina Waz. [NY Post]
  

• In other courtroom news, a lawsuit has exposed the "Aircraft Standards" to which the male stewards on Abercrombie CEO Michael Jeffries's private jet must adhere. The guys on Jeffries's flight staff must wear flip-flops, pop the collars of their polo shirts, and always respond to requests from the boss with "No problem." [Bloomberg]
  

• A few British tabloids have reported that Ben Stiller offered Lady Gaga some $5 million to appear in the sequel to his seminal '90s modeling comedy Zoolander. [Fashionista]
  

• Lovers of colorful staple pieces, rejoice! Uniqlo will debut its online store next week. [The Cut]

I, for one, am a huge fan of Japanese retailer Uniqlo and its super-chic, reasonably priced denim and basics but have lamented the fact that I can get my hands on them in person only on my infrequent trips to New York (or out of the country). Apparently, my shopping god made nice with the Internet angels, because the brand is opening its West Coast flagship store here in my hometown of San Francisco on Oct. 5, and it's signed on YouTube star Maru as the spokesperson . . . and game-show host.

I'm already making room in my closet for a new Fall coat and a few pairs of skinny jeans, but frankly, I would shop at any store that allowed this cuddly celeb to pick out my prize.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Louis Vuitton has been named the world's most valuable luxury brand for the seventh consecutive year by the Millward Brown Optimor's 2012 BrandZ study. Vuitton is worth an estimated $25.9 billion, followed closely by Hermés at $19.1 billion and Rolex at $7.2 billion. [Fashion Etc.]
  

• Anna Sui's "genius box" — a collection of magazine clippings and inspiration pages from books and other sources that fills a whole closet — has spilled onto the Internet in the form of a newly minted Pinterest page. "Now, I can do this on my desktop!" Sui said in a statement. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Louise Gray will design a clothing and cosmetics collaboration for Topshop that will go on sale at the end of August. "My idea behind the collaboration was to design for the Topshop girl a range that was young and fun, similar to both the fashion and make up I wear already," Gray said. [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• How do imitations of high-fashion runway looks end up on sale at mass-market retailers mere months after Fashion Week? The process involves almost everyone in the industry, including bloggers, magazine editors, buyers, retailers, and manufacturers. [Refinery29]
  

• Elsa Peretti, whose jewelry designs have made up 10 percent of Tiffany's net sales over the past three years, plans to retire. The company has worked with Peretti since the early '70s and is trying to acquire her intellectual property rights so that they can continue to produce products under her name. [The Cut]
  

• Uniqlo has named Novak Djokovic, currently the number one-ranked men's tennis player in the world, as its new brand ambassador. Djokovic will wear the brand's clothing on and off the court for the next five years, starting this Sunday when he plays in the French Open tournament. [WWD]

>> Uniqlo appears to be working on a plan to add shopping functionality to its US website, but the company says that nothing about the site is set in stone.

According to documents acquired by Advertising Age, Uniqlo has asked an array of digital agencies to come up with a plan to build an ecommerce site for the US market. The request for proposal asks that the site go live by October and that it "provide a universal foundation for future expansion in other global markets," like China and Europe. Currently, Uniqlo operates online shops in Japan, the United Kingdom, and a handful of other countries.

Uniqlo also wants to add mobile commerce and a shoppable tablet app. The documents say that Uniqlo wants to grow its business in the United States to $10 billion by the year 2020, with 20 percent of that money coming from digital sales.

But for all the specificity in its request for proposal, the company is still tight-lipped about its plans to launch a site.

"We continue to explore the possibility of launching e-commerce," said Mary Lawton, Uniqlo's head of public relations, in a statement. "However, at this time, we are a long way away from confirming when specifically this will happen in the U.S. As we have said in the past, when we launch e-commerce in the U.S. we want to be sure it will benefit our customers, and currently we do not have a plan that meets that expectation."

Uniqlo's rival H&M has said it will launch a US ecommerce site in late 2012. Zara, meanwhile, launched an online store here last September.

Photo: A look from Uniqlo's Spring 2012 line.