

Amy for Fred Perry?
One of the major rumours doing the rounds over the last couple of days is an Amy Winehouse for Fred Perry collaboration. Most people are rubbishing the rumours…but I can kinda see it. Remember when Amy was rockin those often blood soaked ballerina slippers? Her default shoes for her default daywear – teeny tiny shorts and a polo tee.

More Bill Blass Dramas
Ok so last week I wrote that Peacock Holdings had bought Bill Blass for $10million and the couture line would be up and running in about 9 months….well it’s not looking likely. It turns out that they only bought the name, not the company. Completely different factories, people and designers will produce the next Bill Blass products, whatever they may be.

A Little bit of Ashley
Here are some choice extracts of an interview with Ashley Olsen. I *heart* The Olsens!!
Q. When was it that you really started paying attention to designers?
A. I went to my first fashion week when I was 17. I think I went to Calvin Klein, and Oscar de la Renta, and I was completely blown away.
Q. Do you see yourselves staying focused on fashion, do you think you want to go back to acting, or combine the two?
A. I like building brands, so for me it’s building the brands that my sister and I are working on, which are Elizabeth and James, and the Row. Once I have more time, then I’ll start looking at what else I’d like to do. There’s obviously a lot of things I want to do, study, and continue learning about. But right now this is something that I think I can really focus on. I don’t have time to be stepping away to work on a movie.
Q. Do you find that it’s sometimes detrimental to your fashion career that you’re an Olsen twin?
A. It opened a lot of doors in the beginning, because people are curious, so that helped. But automatically people will write what they want to write. It was hard at first. When we started the Row I said, ‘I don’t want anyone to know I’m behind it,’ but you can’t lie to the people you’re selling to.
Q. How involved are you in the line? Are the two of you sketching and designing?
A. We have a very small team, so we’re as involved as anyone can get. We’re working on it every day.
Q. Are the two of you equally invested in it?
A. It’s up and down. It depends on our schedules, it depends on what we’re focusing on at the moment. Lately I’ve been a little more involved in the Row based on our schedules.
Q. Were you surprised at the access you had to designers like Karl Lagerfeld for your book, “Influence”?
A. I wasn’t quite sure who was going to respond, but basically everyone we reached out to wanted to be involved. For us, it was amazing. The book actually changed over time; we went through several different concepts. In the end everyone got their own section.

Galliano to Receive the French Legion of Honours
2009 is going to be stellar for John Galliano if the first 5 days are anything to go by. The Dior Couture designer, who also has his own line, is to receive the prestigious French award, previously awarded to Yves Saint Laurent and Azzedine Alaia.

Cheryl Cole is the Latest Photoshop Victim
One of my pet hates is celebrities/models being Photoshopped to within an inch of their lives. I can perhaps understand making skin look more even toned reducing eye bags etc. There is, after all, an element of fantasy involved in magazine reading (can I afford the clothes in Vogue? No).But jeez, Cheryl looks nothing like she normally does, I wouldn’t even have guessed it was her to be honest. Is it just me?

And now for Lagerfeld!
On his rings: “Today I counted 19. Sometimes I go up to 23. I have only 10 fingers like everybody else, hm?”
On his work: “I do everything…I have a very special way of working – I’m quite a good sketcher so I see a thing, I make a sketch, the people who are used to work with me they can exactly work nearly without questions after that, from the sketch.
“I see fittings and I change very little because: I put something on the paper, I think about it.
“I am not a second option person. It is that or nothing. If it is not the way I see it I prefer not to see it. It’s a very bossy way perhaps, but it works like this. It became a huge business like this so for me it’s OK.
“I do everything. I do the collections, I do the advertising, I do the windows, the concepts. I do the sets of the show – if not, I’m not interested.”