Aline Weber: One Mgmt: in ID Sept 08 PH Richard Bush via tfs

High priestess of chic rock Pop: PH Sebastian Faena Image via tfs

High priestesses, Agyness! Naomi! Amber!Jourdan!Natalia! Oluchi in Prada for the new Pop!

Lara Stone PH: Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for Purple

Kamila F/IMG: A girl most wanted in her too gorgeous polaroid

Rachel Clark: Supreme is super-glam for Louis Vuitton Cruise FW 07

My God! It's almost a year since I first met Rachel Clark and look how much she's grown! Last June I Q+A'd Ms Clark for my Spur/Japan magazine model column after hearing she was on set for Louis Vuitton Cruise FW07 with M+M and Ms Grand. I love me some Rachel Clark because she is the realest model I know right this minute. Here's the abridged transcript that's the proof:

Rachel Clark first surfaced on our model-watching radar while we were visiting Miami in December 2006. Her local booker dragged the unwilling 18 year old out for an impromptu meet and greet. "She's going to be huge!" he boasted and scanning Rachel quickly you could see that all the raw materials were there...the long clean body line good for runway and the angular, beautiful face that could be painted into anything you want it to be.

But there was a hitch. It was obvious that Rachel hated the entire proposition of fashion. In her tank-top, cut-off shorts and flip-flops she was so heedless to high fashion that it seemed unlikely she would catch on in a world where personal style was a dividing mark between working and non-working models. With her nonchalant stroll, her lazy way with a cigarette and her haste to run off to play video games with her beach pals, she seemed more like an escapee from a late period Larry Clark film (think "Bully" ) than a budding super-model

Stylists: The Interpreters Of Fashion: Rizzoli 2007

The talk this week? Rachel Zoe's bold claim about possibly being more influential than Anna Wintour. The cabal is in a frenzy at this sacrilege. Its the best fashion sound byte since “We don't get out of bed for less than 10,000 a day” But given the high altitude Rachel now lives at (and the corresponding lack of oxygen) Rachel Zoe is entitled to be as megalomaniac as she wants to be. I mean maybe she means more influential in malls...or more influential with the 18 and unders. There is even a rumor in circulation that Zoe has first pull at Calvin. A rumor probably...possibly started by the Zoe camp. But it gets you thinking. Whose eyes, tastes, preferences inform the idea of what is fashion now? And how does the tastes and preferences (and talent) of these forces affect how fashionable women dress? . I spent my entire Saturday ringing up some kids in the trade to form an informal style council. Not only was Wintour with her fashion funds, speed dial to billionaire CEO's and Met Costume Balls PR machines in another universe of influence, the conclusion was there were easily 5 forces in the world of styling who could eat Zoe for lunch...and use her ribcage as toothpicks.

THE FIVE:
Grace Coddington:

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week S/S 08

While trawling the agencies all week (its not as seedy as it sounds) to scan the scene, TI picked up on a strange frequency. Apart from a faint enthusiasm as to what referential/vintage road Marc might go down next, there is not, in general, a sense of excitement at the modeling agencies regarding the upcoming shows. Of course there is the customary dread as to the 17 non-stop days of booking between now and the end of the NY shows. There is the bracing for the daily abuse that is sure to come from stressed out, harried casting directors screaming “What do you mean Calvin has her exclusive? How about if I don't book a single one of your models then?” And then there are the endless after-parties that one is obliged to trot your prize girls around as if NY had become one massive pony show. So make that 17 non-stop 17 hour days. And the windfall from all that? Obscure designers who pay in trade, offering unwanted clothes to the models in lieu of cash. An off-skelter schedule toe-jammed with shows which means major conflicts every day. Clients switching around casting directors with reckless abandon. Casting directors taking shows that pay a grand total of $4,000. And the compensation to the models is still “trade” which means said casting director is expected to solicit top girls for next to nothing while being paid next to nothing. It is not as glamorous a living as you'd hope to think.