• The Chanel show at Paris Fashion Week was just as chaotic as it was expected to be. Photographers ended up in a scuffle when Kate Moss turned up and part of the set broke. [NYT, WSJ, NYT, WWD, Telegraph, Guardian]
• Roberto Cavalli has branched out into petwear. He's selling dildos now, too, apparently. [FWD, FWD]
• Earnest Sewn's Scott Morrison and Eleanor Ylvisaker have left the company. [WWD, FWD]
• An Italian fashion website tried to tape an interview with Anna Wintour three times during Milan Fashion Week. Denied each time! [Fashionologie]

• Lindsay Lohan's self-tanning mist, Sevin Nyne, launches on April 15. And she even has an elaborate website set up to mark the big occasion. [NYM]
• Kanye, Pink, and Salma all turned out for the Stella McCartney show today. Kanye likes his coffee with "mad cream and sugar," on the off chance you were wondering. [WSJ, Telegraph, Fashionista]
• Quelle horreur! PETA activists tore Carine Roitfeld's Balenciaga gown outside the JPG show! [SF]
• Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel show takes place tomorrow. And everyone will be there, naturally. [NYT, Grazia]
• Yves Saint Laurent has turned its first profit in a decade. [FT]
• Reviews of some of the other shows at Paris Fashion Week. [NYT]
• It's looking likely that Peter Copping will take over at Nina Ricci. [Fashionista]
• Kate Moss will be in NYC for Topshop's opening on April 2. [DM]
• Conspicuous consumption is no longer cool, reports the Times, in the event you've missed the 2,243 articles on the same subject up 'til now. [NYT]

• Ralph Lauren closed out Fashion Week with a predictably opulent show. Anna Wintour turned up with Morley Safer in tow since 60 Minutes is filming a segment on the Vogue editrix. Blake Lively, however, did not appear all that interested in the conversation. [NYT, WWD, FWD, Racked]
• David Lauren appeared at Ralph's show with his leg in a cast. "He just sort of stepped off an uneven sidewalk wrong," explained Lauren Bush. [NYM]
• In the end, good design won out this week, says Cathy Horyn. [NYT]
• Hamish Bowles says Marc Jacobs' and Alexander Wang's shows were "two bright spots in his week." Also: He could really use a nap. [NYO]
• Did you feel the depression this week? "Serotonin levels are down." [NYT]
• A bit of advice from Barneys' Julie Gilhart: "Bet on leggings." [NYM]
• Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland will handle the hosting duties on the new Bravo series, The Fashion Show. Fern Mallis will serve as judge. Yay. [Variety]
• Karl Lagerfeld knows what people want: Behold the Chanel Segway. [Pipeline]
• London Fashion Week started today. Enjoy! [Vogue UK]

"Mr. Lagerfeld said he cut the VIP section to create 'equality in an unfair world.'"

• Fashion Week will move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center beginning next year. [NYT]
• Former frenemies Rachel Zoe and Nicole Richie kissed and made up at a party in LA last week. The hugfest went down in front of a cameraman filming footage for Zoe's reality show, though, so a bit of skepticism may be in order. [WWD]
• Macy's is eliminating 7,000 jobs. [BN]
• Jonathan Adler is launching a Barbie collection in 2009; it will include "designer pottery, pillows, decorative objects." [SW]
• Douglas Hannant tells the WSJ he's traveling the country and hosting events to sell his label. He also shaves five years off his age, but who's counting? [WSJ]
• Last week, Karl Lagerfeld said the recession wasn't having much of an impact on him; today he says he's fully embraced the "New Modesty." As for why he eliminated the VIP section at the Chanel show last week, it was to "create equality in an unfair world." Thanks for doing your part, Karl. [WSJ]
• The hot, new trend from Stockholm Fashion Week? Shaved heads! [Pipeline]

• Is the economy having an impact on spring couture season in Paris? No, says Karl Lagerfeld, it's just having an impact "on the conversation." [NYT]
• Other words to live by, courtesy of Mr. Lagerfeld: "Luxury is for the rich, not the nouveau riche." [SF]
• What's something you might be able to afford? Can we interest you in a $14 sundress by Taylor Swift? [NYM]
• Marc Jacobs disciple Peter Copping is in line to succeed Olivier Theyskens at Nina Ricci. [WWD]
• As you probably guessed, the Times didn't out Jason Wu after all. [J'bel]
• Scenes from Stockholm Fashion Week, in case you skipped it. [Pipeline]
• A report from the Japan Fashion Week in NYC show last night. [Pipeline]

[Designer Karl Lagerfeld at the Chanel show for Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week; image via Splash]

Depending on your perspective, it's either a reassuring indication that the global recession can't be as bad as all that, or the kind of tasteless display of decadence that no longer has any place in the new economy: Couture fashion week in Paris is currently underway with shows as lavish as ever, even though you'd think that dresses costing a quarter of a million dollars might have a slightly shrinking client base. Dior designer John Galliano, who put on a show yesterday that cost around $3 million, points out that his job "is to make women dream. Of course I'm aware of the credit crunch, but it is not a creative crunch—not at the house of Dior, anyway."

• Karl Lagerfeld on the recession: "Bling is over. Red carpety covered with rhinestones is out. I call it 'the new modesty.' " Of course, said recession isn't affecting Karl personally, who says he has "no budget" and that "throwing money out the window brings money back in through the front door." [NYT]
• Saks is laying off 9% of its workforce. [WWD]
• A clip from The September Issue, the new Vogue documentary, is online. [Fashionista]
• Roberto Cavalli is selling a stake in his company. [FWD]
• The Forever 21 that turned into a Century 21 is a Forever 21 again. [Racked]
• Designers are scrambling to dress inauguration-goers, not that most residents of Washington seem to be terribly interested. [NYT]

The documentary about Anna Wintour and Vogue, The September issue, which is showing at Sundance this weekend, sounds like it will be a nostalgic look at a golden era when advertisers had huge budgets, readers had disposable income, and print media still had a reasonably healthy pulse: Based on footage gathered during the months before the publication of the September '07 issue, Vogue's biggest-ever, the film goes behind the scenes at the fashion bible and exposes the creatives processes of its inner circle like Grace Coddington (who filmmaker R.J. Cutler said was "unhappy" about the presence of his cameras), as well as delves into Wintour's personal life.

• Gisele is engaged. [People]
• Fur is back. Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani are among the designers leading the rebellion. [Ind.]
• Despite the recession (and a gazillion lawsuits), American Apparel is one of the few retailers seeing record profits. [WWD]
• Sass & Bide has dropped out of New York Fashion Week. [Fashionista]
• With marketing budgets on the decline, more designers are looking for a boost from Hollywood's awards season. [WSJ]
• Menswear designer Ferruccio Pozzoni is departing Valentino. [Reuters]
• As expected, vacancies are up on Madison Avenue. [Crain's]
• The worst of the worst from the Stephen Sprouse party last week. [Pipeline]
• Rumor has it Elite is cutting both models and bookers. [NYM]
• Blake Lively refuses to wear anything but a size zero. The solution? The Gossip Girl costume department cuts the tags out of larger samples. [FWD]

• Why is Karl Lagerfeld pro-fur? Because if we didn't kill animals, they'd kill us, naturally. Oh, and don't complain about skinny models until the "zillions" of fat people get "taken care" of. [Telegraph]
• Don't hold your breath, but Topshop has scheduled its opening party for March 26. [NYM]
• Gemma Ward is taking a break from acting to return to modeling full-time. [Sassybella]
• Ecco Domani's annual Fashion Foundation award winners have been announced. [WWD]
• Claudia Schiffer is launching a line of beauty products. [DM]
• Fashion mags are very thin this month, in case you haven't noticed. [NYT]

Delightfully insane fashion person Karl Lagerfeld is not afraid to formulate patently ridiculous defenses of decadence. Fur is bad and models are too skinny? More like animals are dangerous and girls are too fat!

Anna Wintour's sequined, seahorse-looking Karl Lagerfeld dress was controversial back when the Vogue ruler wore it to the Costume Institute gala in May. Time's final verdict is another slap to the embattled editor.

Is Karl Lagerfeld doing anything to adjust to the new economic climate? Sort of! The 85-pound designer tells Germany weekly Die Zeit that he's been busy tightening his belt in recent weeks and just moved into a smaller house in Paris. And even though he recently purchased a house in Vermont, he'd like to point out that it's a modest affair. (It's "very Emily Dickinson... in fact it's almost Puritanical.") Of course, since this is Karl Lagerfeld we're talking about, he adds that there are certain things that just cannot be sacrificed. Like his "chambermaid, chauffeur and chef," who are "still musts." And he doesn't have any plans to trade in his three Hummers: "I don't want to drive at the same level as the others." Who does?

Here at Defamer HQ, we'd agreed that no recent video packed so many delightful moments into so short a time as Stephen Colbert's rendition of "Peace, Love, and Understanding (f. Feist, Toby Keith, and a bear)," and then, a challenger emerged! Sure, there was lots of talk this morning about yesterday's Britney Spears performance at the German ceremony known as the Bambi Awards, but precious little of that discussion centered on Spears accepting her award from eccentric designer Karl Lagerfeld. We're at a loss to pick our favorite moment: is it Lagerfeld telling Britney, "[You are] coming back not only as a phoenix, but as a bird of paradise"? Is it Britney's "Y'all, double-u-tee-eff?" reaction? Or is it the random cutaway to a totally confused Meg Ryan? You be the judge — the clip is after the jump:

♦ Unlike the Marc Jacobs store window in LA, which is mocking Sarah Palin, Henri Bendel's display is bipartisan, with mannequins flanked by red and blue polling booths. In more other Marc news, you can add his "Rock and Roll Circus" holiday party to the list of festivites that have been cancelled due to the economic downturn. [WWD, WWD]
♦ Madison Avenue is "pockmarked" with vacant storefronts, reflecting "sky-high rents and how cautious and dollar-conscious European and American brands have become in their expansion plans." [WWD]
♦ Donna Karan is opting not to spend money shooting an ad campaign for spring '09; instead, the company will just use images from the runway show. If this is going to be a trend, models and photographers might want to consider a side job. [The Cut]

Karl Lagerfeld looking over a street vendor's wares on Prince Street this weekend ... Chace Crawford hailing a cab in SoHo ... Jennifer Garner and daughter Violet leaving Matt Damon's apartment building on Lafayette Street ... Kelly Ripa leaving ABC studios in Midtown ... Jessica Alba holding hands with husband Cash Warren while carrying baby Honor ... Heidi Klum and Seal walking on the street on Friday... Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber taking a stroll in NoHo ... Matthew Broderick walking son James to school in the West Village ... Kate Winslet standing on the sidewalk ... America Ferrera sipping coffee on the set of Ugly Betty ... Agyness Deyn walking with some friends ... Julianne Moore taking her daughter trick or treating on Friday afternoon in the West Village ... Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise going to lunch at Balthazar ... and Ryan Reynolds crossing the finish line yesterday in Central Park.

♦ Zac Posen posted a 15-second video online urging people to vote for Obama. Also: He'd really like you to dress for the occasion. "I think blue obviously is the color of choice, and red is a good accent color." Duly noted! [WWD]
♦ Anna Wintour choked up? We can't contemplate the thought. [Unbeige]
♦ Bravo has no less than five new fashion reality shows in the works. [The Cut]
♦ Sarah Jessica Parker has no less than three fragrances to promote these days—Dawn, Endless and Twilight. [WWD]
♦ Chanel creative director (and part-time Vermont resident) Karl Lagerfeld has unveiled Chanel Unlimited, a newline of bags and accessories. [Vogue UK]

The most unintentionally hilarious video we've seen all day: This clip from the good folks at WCAX in Burlington, Vermont, who have been all over the arrival of Karl Lagerfeld in nearby Grand Isle. Karl purchased a home in the neighborhood a couple of months ago and this week he's using it for a Chanel shoot. And while some of the locals aren't entirely sure what to make of the ponytailed fashion icon in their midst ("It's hardly weather for sunglasses," the station's reporter observes), Mandy Hotchkiss, the owner of the Blue Paddle Bistro, is pretty excited. She's catering the shoot! Even Loomis Bean, Karl's new next-door neighbor, is willing to concede that having Karl in town is more exciting than duck hunting and fishing! [WCAX via The Cut]