Kate Moss/IMG PH: Mert n Marcus for Interview Sept 2008 via tfs

“It’s time for a magazine to have well-executed visuals to counterbalance the culture of point-and-shoot "...“Quality needs to be put into magazines today, otherwise there will be no reason for magazines to exist.”

Fabien Baron in WWD on the new Interview

Natalia /DNA: Louis Vuitton SS08

frillr.com is on TI's bookmark list because they do such a great summary of current fashion news. For instance, I was away all weekend and didn't catch WWD's previews of the Mert n Marcus LV SS08 ads. And look! Its Eva/1 Mgmt and Stephanie/IMG AND Naomi/IMG for first run with Natalia/Angela/Claudia to follow. But you heard all about the genius casting here first, no?

Eva/1 Mgmt, Naomi/IMG, Stephanie/IMG for Louis Vuitton SS08

Major New Beauty: Shane gets the morning started right. PH: GREGORY VAUGHN

Packing to get on the plane back to NY but one hour into the Manhattan business day, already picked up these signals...Mr Kanner at Major Models kicks the day off right with these new snaps of another star :Shane Sather. How expressive is this kid's beauty....A certain highly touted new beauty was spotted in LA recently making TI suspect she may have just nabbed a magnificent blue chip cover moment...Brazilian newspapers and magazines are flooding the MDC offices with requests for interviews on the occasion of Raquel Z hitting No 1 on the Editorial Girls ranking...Speaking of Miss Z which other leading campaign queen is about to get a full-on Only Girl 40 page well in that other blue chip fashion bible? And word is Mert n Marcus have been offered a whopping, stunning, jawdropping contract to be exclusive to a certain major magazine publishing entity.So there IS money in them thar hills afterall. And while in LA this weekend, TI caught up with nightlife impresario Micheal Sutton on the subject of his new endeavor Goa, which opened this weekend. Does LA have a new starlet-studded hotspot? Stay tuned!

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

Natalia;Viva: PH: Paolo Roversi for Egoiste 06

...and for that matter Kate Moss. But you already knew, no?

Sienna Miller: Pop Magazine: Image via frillr.com

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.