Fashion News

New York - The boys from "Body of Lies" met up on Sunday night in New York to premiere their new action flick, and the three seemed to have been dressed by the same stylist.

PARIS - Paris Fashion Week ended on Sunday, capping a season which saw designers play it safe to coax customers into stores despite the global financial crisis.

Paris - It's amusing that in a moment when American economic policies are being questioned in the midst of the current financial crisis that France's most illustrious luxury label, Hermes, should dedicate its entire collection to the United States' quirkiest contribution to modern entertainment, the cowboy movie.

New York - Clint Eastwood is no fool. He knew that the moment he cast Angelina Jolie as the woman to play the single mother of a kidnapped child in his new fact-based period drama "Changeling" that she would bring more than just her acting talents to the project. She and partner Brad Pitt are, after all, the most famous celebrity pair on the planet, so where Angelina and Brad go, publicity follows.

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian designer Alessandra Facchinetti said she was bitter to be leaving the Valentino fashion house after learning from media reports that the company was replacing her, Italian newspapers said on Sunday.

PARIS (Reuters) - The new Hermes woman is a 21st century Western film heroine.

PARIS - Italian fashion house Valentino said on Saturday it had named its in-house accessories designers as joint creative directors of the brand. Outgoing designer Alessandra Facchinetti said she learned about her dismissal from press reports.

Paris - The house of Valentino has dropped Alessandra Facchinetti as its designer and replaced her with two former assistants of the founder of the label, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Hip-Hop pioneer and designer Russell Simmons is bringing a little sophistication to the urban over 25 crowd.

Paris - We discovered the ideal cure for the current financial blues; attending Chanel's rock-n-roll aristocrat runway show, Friday, Oct. 3, in Paris.

Paris - The mood got very somber and rather solemn Thursday, Oct. 2, when viewing the spring 2009 collection of Yves Saint Laurent, the first women's show presented by the house since the death of its founder.

Paris - One fashion house that seems poised to ride out the current financial crisis is surely Stella McCartney, the London-based designer who staged a wittily tailored spring 2009 collection in Paris Thursday, Oct. 2, that was all about women raiding their boyfriends' wardrobe for clothes and inspiration.

Paris - We got a major shift in paradigm and aesthetics at Dries Van Noten, the Belgium print master, ethnic driven and gardening obsessed designer who went all modern and chic in his spring 2009 collection staged Wednesday in Paris.

Paris - Things went a little inside out at Balenciaga in Saint Germain on Tuesday, Sept. 30, where the interior structures from the time honoured metier of haute couture were re-thought to make the latest, exciting futurist statement by the house's designer Nicolas Ghesquiere.

Paris - Fashion's cleverest mind, Karl Lagerfeld, got a little Sci Fi this season in his spring 2009 collection shown Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Paris, but with his own classic German Expression spin and in the most courtly of style protocol.

Paris - No self-respecting gal would ever need a backstage pass if she donned most of the looks in the Christian Dior spring 2009 collection so naughtily chic and suggestively racy were the clothes in the latest collection by John Galliano presented Monday, Sept. 29.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters Life!) - Tired of running out of batteries and having to find a socket to charge your cell phone or iPod? An Argentine fashion designer may have the answer: a timeless jacket with a built-in solar panel.

Los Angeles - Lucy Liu wore her favorite black Manolos, so did Hilary Duff and China Chow, while "Mad Men" star January Jones preened in her Blahnik red pumps.

Milan - The cool late afternoon light of Northern Europe, the high tech fabrics of modern sports, the world's best fur atelier and a large dose of design genius combined to create a truly great Fendi spring 2009 collection, unfurled to gasps and a certain breathless acclaim in Milan on Thursday, Sept. 25.

Milan - The management, rather than the mode, was the main item on the agenda at the Gucci Spring 2009 runway show Wednesday, Sept. 24, where departing CEO Mark Lee greeted each guest at the door, in a bittersweet fashion farewell.

PARIS - Paris designers whipped up a rainbow burst of colors on Wednesday as an antidote to the economic blues plaguing the luxury industry.

Milan - Not that many women wear all-leather looks, which is a slight pity given that the rather stellar opening outfits in the fine and sophisticated Bottega Veneta spring 2009 show staged Tuesday in Milan were almost 100 percent animal skin.

NEW YORK - A New York judge has bid "auf Wiedersehen" to fashion industry veterans who claimed Heidi Klum and others ripped off their idea for television's "Project Runway."

Milan - Leave it to Miuccia Prada to create the most original collection of the current international season, with a thoroughly memorable metallic moment, where the models may have stumbled badly on the rambling catwalk, but the fashion aesthetic soared.

Milan - There's a moment when sad is beautiful and melancholy has a certain brilliant charm, which was the case Monday in Milan when witnessing the romantically rural collection by Burberry for Spring 2009.

Milan - If you really wanted to know what cool girls will be, and should be wearing next spring, then you should have been at the D&G runway show Monday, Sept. 22, in Milan, a sunny, beach chic selection with humor, wit and sass.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hardy Amies, the fashion house that dressed Britain's Queen Elizabeth for more than 30 years, plans to file for administration after failing to find new sources of funding, though it added that talks continue.

Los Angeles - Kristin Chenoweth may not have won the Emmy for her terrific performance in "Pushing Daisies," but that didn't stop the diminutive powerhouse from shining on the red carpet at the Entertainment Tonight/People magazine post-Emmy party held Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Milan - Gianfranco Ferre, oft described as the architect of fashion, saw his label and ideas rebuilt lovingly Sunday in Milan at the debut show by the house's new design duo Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi.