American Apparel CEO Dov Charney acted out as a young man before he became a defiant adult fashion maven. Everyone knows this. So why is he "super pissed off and embarrassed" and "ranting and raving," according to an associate, about a scene from an absurdist documentary that reveals him as a crafty, charismatic little capitalist? In 20th Century Chocolate Cake, a young Charney talks about how he hides money from the redistributionist staff at his "communist" summer camp and about how all the food in his care package was given away to ungrateful poors. Maybe Charney's worried his childhood ramblings will tarnish the labor-friendly American Apparel brand. He should just be grateful he didn't talk about anything else he may have done at summer camp. UPDATE: The credits in the video above misspell the name of the filmmaker. It is Lois Siegel. [Anittah Patrick]

As dog professions go, it's not quite sniffing out heroin or guiding the blind, but did you know that nowadays dogs can be runway models? At Saturday's New York Pet Fashion Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, various breeds modeled sweaters and accessories, while their owners acted like horrible stage parents and pretended the poor little creatures enjoyed it. [NYDN]

Even assuming Marc Jacobs remains clean and sober per his recent stints in rehab, there is no doubting the designer retains quite the pet collection of addictions. Add to unabashed bed hopping and obsessive workouts a new fascination with bathing and a mushrooming collection of tats. The fashion designer says in a New Yorker profile this week that "I spend hours in the bathroom now. I like shampooing my hair. I like putting on moisturizer." The 28 tattoos, meanwhile, include "Bros before hos." The 29th will read "Shameless," an apt label for a narcissist who uses gossip columns as mirrors through which he might further admire his own reflection. Jacobs should be especially thrilled to gaze upon his words in the New Yorker, especially this defining quote: "I am a perfect being in a perfect world." [Daily News] (Picture from Marc Jacobs via Daily News)

Karl Lagerfeld-designer, living statue, colonel in the German Gay Zombie Army-would like to show your child a little something. No, not his series-of-metal-braces-and-leather-straps genitalia! He's made a fancypants teddy bear that will retail at Neiman Marcus for a completely reasonable $1,500. Lagerfeld is very optimistic about the ursine species "bears are very nice, as long as you are nice to them," but not so cheery when it comes to his own childhood: "I never played with anything like toys. I wanted to be grown-up." Oh very nice. Then he stood up and walked off into the sunset, a strange chorus of hums, whirs, and clicks emanating from his joints, which are fashioned out of old wheelchairs. [W]

Clothing retailer the Gap is experiencing a critical revival under designer Patrick Robinson, leading the Times to hail the "Second Coming of Khaki." Customers could be forgiven for confusing it with the first coming, in the early 1990s, which was also propelled by the Gap, also arose during the administration of an unpopular President Bush and also saw a Democratic presidential candidate zoom quickly from obscurity to prominence with a campaign focused on the troubled economy. Both today and then there was a real estate meltdown under way, in the residential and commercial sectors, precipitated by the collapse of key financial institutions. Marijuana had a moment in popular culture then as now. Famous youth are (MKO!)/were (Kurt!) wearing flannel and being apathetic, annoying some. And technology was/is the great hope for fixing everything , along with living simpler, cheaper lives. What does the return of the 1990s mean, other than more Janeane Garofalo/Ben Stiller film collaborations?

The latest trendsetter in fancy lady handbags? Gossip Girl actress Chace Crawford, of course! [Popwrap]

Design You Trust makes the bold assertion that Louis Vuitton is the "World's Most Counterfeited Fashion Brand." We're not sure. More than Chanel, or Gucci, or those garish knockoff Polo or Tommy Hilfiger shirts you see in street stalls in third-world markets? Finding out would be a good project for a grad student. Do something useful, kid. Regardless, LV certainly has the most creative knockoffs you'll ever see, outside of the seedier parts of Canal St. After the jump, four more of the worst Vuitton brand-jackings of all time:

You thought that all American Apparel clothing was inspired by Dov Charney's endless parade of sexual fantasies? Not true. Some of it is inspired by Africa! Or as Bambaataa and fey hipsters spell it, Afrika. Is it bad that the company doesn't use any black models for these products? It might be worse if they did use black models, actually. Check out more of this season's most authentic adornments for those in the struggle, after the jump. Real hipsters still have their Cross Colours from '92:

Oh, Gwyneth, you swanned back into the spotlight by hiring a stylist to put you in a string of mini-dress and S&M heel combos, but then the fun and games ended and your unparalleled talent for making people dislike you reared its ugly head. Last weekend you offended rich Hamptonites by refusing to breathe the same air as them at a benefit. Then on Saturday night you dissed Madonna by not showing up to her 50th birthday party. Today the media has branded you an enemy of defenseless animals.

New York is stoking a rivalry between Nina Garcia of Project Runway and Marie Claire and Anne Slowey, Garcia's TV stand-in at Elle and star of the forthcoming reality show Stylista. It's hard to imagine either of the two fashion editors terribly minded New York's in-depth article on their differences — which, disclosure here, was written by our own Moe — considering they both have shows to push, Slowey's being brand new and Garcia's in the midst of a controversial jump to Lifetime. But it's hard to imagine Slowey, who desperately needs to put Stylista's embarrassing trailers behind her, is thrilled about the particulars of how she looks.

Lots of fashion advertising is "artistic," in the sense of being executed by a highly-paid photographer who, at some point in their lives, produced actual art, and is able to form an advertisement into a reasonable simulacrum thereof. But at least if, say, Vincent Gallo is pimping Belvedere, you get some sense of parity between the "artist" and the product. Not so in the new Wrangler (say with Southern accent) campaign shot by naked hipster photographer Ryan McGinley, which is plagued by the fundamental disconnect of trying to sell workaday Wranglers (again, Southern: "Rayun-guhlurr") with what seem to be outtake photos from the world's shittiest cult family vacation:

It's less than a month until Fashion Week, which means it's time for runway models to increase cigarette and laxative consumption and cut back on anything containing calories or nourishment. And time for journalists to write stories about the cruel travails of trying to be a size zero. Today the Wall Street Journal talks to 18-year-old aspiring mannequin Tatiana Stewart (left), who's attractive enough to work at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie and Fitch (no small feat), but at 6'2"and size 4 she's repeatedly told to lose weight by casting agents—and didn't even make it through ANTM auditions after being told to lift her skirt.

Sass or Scientology?: The Katie Holmes Baggy Man Jean Movement. A retrospective. [Observer]

Dov Charney, the self-stimulating CEO of American Apparel, is wondering if you've seen his dog HedKayce. The little guy went missing in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles for at least the second time since April, when he was feared eaten by the local coyotes. Oy maybe Charney has been looking for the same dog for more than three months. In any case, the creepy clothier presumably holds out hope the dog has not become canid food, because he has "slammed" the surrounding area with "Lost Dog" flyers, LAist reports. Charney even switched some of his billboard advertising from scantily-clad young women to the plea for help seen at left. Awww, sweet and sad all at once. But how did a neurotic obsessive like Charney misplace his dog in the first place? Maybe he was somehow distracted?? [LAist]

Speaking of cratering ad sales in print media: Your favorite fashion magazine's historically huge September issue is going to be a bit lighter this year. Which god knows is a good thing for our nation's lower backs. Not so good, though, for the equally hardworking slaves to fashion that toil in the caves of Conde Nast and Hearst. W magazine lost 18% of its ads this September! (What, not enough girl-on-girl covers?) And almost all of their brethren are suffering, too. Is it finally a backlash against ostentatious luxury in lean times? Not at all, actually. It's not the luxury companies that are cutting back on their ads, you see; Oscar de la Renta, for example, increased his ad spending 15% to bring you news of his new $5,000 handbags. Rather, it's "midtier marketers" like bebe and Nordstrom's that are responsible for the decline. So while fashion magazines are totems for a certain segment of the overclass, their suffering is not a sign of fewer rich people. Rather, it's yet another indicator of the decline of the aspirational middle class. As goes W magazine, so goes the American dream.

What do Rachel Ray, stylish residents of the "inner city," and the United States Olympic cycling team have in common? That's right, they're all at the forefront of a tenuously conceived fashion trend, unbeknownst to them! Many people-such as outraged Chinese authorities-believed that the US cyclists showing up to Beijing wearing anti-smog masks was a grievous insult predicated on the notion that China, despite its charms, is a toxic hellhole. But really the image-conscious Americans were just trying to get in Vogue.

Apparently there's a firestorm of controversy over the uniform Ralph Lauren designed for the U.S. team to wear at the opening Olympic ceremonies, and it's not hard to see why. For starters, the damned Ralph Lauren Polo logo totally upstages the Olympic rings logo. It's huge! Also, as shown in a picture after the jump, the uniforms look pretty cheap up close, probably because they were made as part of a rush job sent to Chinese "tailors" at the last minute. The American Politics Journal wrote, "Lauren – and most likely his son David – celebrated not the spirit of athletic competition but themselves and their brand, morphing our athletes into unpaid billboards for the "Polo™" pony and rider that has helped bring the Laurens great... riches." Well, sure, yes, but everyone is kind of past the whole notion of the Olympics as unspoiled, non-commercial amateur competition no? Which brings us to another key criticism of the uniforms, familiar to anyone who has followed the presidential race: They are elitist. Wrote one commenter on Project Rungay:

The Beyonce/ L'Oreal Photoshop scandal, which began earlier this week, has reached critical mass. Lots of people think that L'Oreal digitally lightened a photo (pictured) of Beyonce in an ad in Elle magazine. L'Oreal denies it. The contention that they did lighten the pop diva's skin tone is supported by-in summary-the fact that it looks like they did. Five Beyonce photos from the past are below; compare and contrast:

The September issue of W magazine features actress and Lance Armstrong lover Kate Hudson glaring purposefully down her nose at the camera. "The look is a definite departure for her!" writes W's flack, enthusiastically. The look's not a departure for the magazine industry, though; it's strikingly similar to this 1994 Harper's Bazaar cover. There simply must be new ways of looking at the camera, people. Click to enlarge. [via J'Adore Joey]

Earlier this week we brought you damning evidence that the new Seth Rogen comedy Pineapple Express may have engaged in the shocking, unauthorized theft of a t-shirt design from a small Brooklyn company called WOWCH. The scandal now threatens to swamp the movie's marketing efforts like a tidal wave of justice. James Franco, the shifty long-haired actor who was the wearer of the shirt in question, took a brief break from seducing swooning women in order to stammer a denial of the crime's very existence: