• How did a fish-and-chips waitress named Laura Hollins transform herself into supermodel Agyness Deyn? Cintra Wilson reports. [NYT]
• Crisis averted! The $5,950 alligator clutch that some people thought Michelle Obama was carrying in Russia earlier this week was a much more modest $875 leather one. [NYDN]
• Say hello to the 16 contestants who will be making it work (or not) when the new season of Project Runway debuts next month. [People]

• Voguette and social fixture Lauren Santo Domingo is branching out into modeling, apparently. [FashionCopious via Pipeline]
• Madonna's very special friend Jesus Luz is very much front and center for Dolce & Gabbana this season. [Telegraph]
• Kira Plastinina, the teenage designer and daughter of a Russian oligarch whose business went bust last year, may be preparing to return to the U.S. [WWD]
• Elle is launching its own online video channel. [Fashionista]
• Jack and Lazaro guest-edited the latest issue of A Magazine. [NYT]
• Beth Ditto has a new plus-size line and she isn't the only one. [NYT]
• Temperley is opening a pop-up shop in the Hamptons. [WWD]
• The first online D&G store makes its debut on June 23. [WWD]
• Roberto Cavalli and Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza had "a 15-minute conversation with a homeless man" after dining at Nobu. The mind reels. [P6]

• Saks has agreed to pick up Christian Siriano's fall line. The collection will be sold at the in-store boutique for up-and-coming designers. [NYM]
• Rachel Zoe is launching a budget clothing line. Because she can. [SW]
• Kira Plastinina, the 16-year-old designer and Russian mogul's daughter who watched her company implode recently, is ready for her next challenge. She's going back to school. Possibly to Parsons, in fact! [FWD]
• The company that bought the rights to the Bill Blass name now has plans to revive it and is currently hunting for a creative director. [Fashionista]
• H&M reported its first drop in quarterly profits in more than five years. [BN]
• Not only does Olivia Palermo shop at Strawberry's (or doesn't), she says she shops at the Strand, too. For, like, books and stuff. [Racked]
• The ever-humble Kanye West would now like to be known as Martin Louis The King Jr. The "Louis" refers to Louis Vuitton, obviously. [NYDN]

A couple of weeks ago, teen fashion designer (and Russian heiress) Kira Plastinina announced plans to close "most" of her US-based locations, including the hot-pink branch here in NYC. Today we learn it really is the end of the line: After burning through $80 million of the dairy mogul's cash, the company filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. But we're pretty sure it's the first time that Bloomberg News has reported on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing with a quote from a MySpace page. [Bloomberg]

• Whitney Port explains why she named her new clothing line "Whitney Eve" (it's complicated), and explains why it is that the world really needs another celebrity clothing line. [Nylon]
• The year's best and worst windows, fashion PR stunts, pop-up shops and more. [Racked]
• More on the messy meltdown at Kira Plastinina. [Shophound]
• The recession may be putting a damper on plastic surgery, but injectables like Botox remain as popular as ever. [WSJ]
• It's well worth braving the cold weather and crowds: Panicked retailers "are practically giving the goods away with last-minute sales in a desperate bid to save the so-far-disastrous season from catastrophe." [NYP]

• That was quick. After making a splashy debut in NYC back in May (and after paying Nicole Richie to come to Moscow two weeks ago), 16-year-old Russian heiress/designer Kira Plastinina now says she plans to close most of her 12 locations in the U.S. [FWD]
• In related news, retail sales in Russia are reportedly down 30 to 40 percent. [WWD]
• Coco Rocha's new look. [Fashionologie]
• More on Betsey Johnson's "smaller, friendlier" plans for Fashion Week. [WSJ]
• Sadly, this week is likely the last for Bill Blass. [NYT]
• Kate Moss has re-signed with Topshop for another three years. [Telegraph]

With the economic crisis putting the squeeze on nearly everyone and with fashion retailers dropping like flies, it's a tough time to be a young designer. So we're glad that Russia Today thought to check in with clothing empress Kira Plastinina—whose latest line was unveiled in Moscow last week—and even gladder that the 16-year-old heiress isn't stressing about her business. "The collection is not expensive, it is affordable," she says. "And I think it is important that fashion is affordable to all girls." We agree, and as for the common assumption that her success is thanks to her juice and dairy magnate father Sergei Plastinin, well, nothing could be further from the truth: "People who know me, my friends and my family, know that I work really hard." And if such hard work is rewarded by, say, Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie being paid millions to sit front row at Kira's runway show, what's wrong with that?

♦ Amusing bits from profile of Marc Jacobs from Rolling Stone, which was reprinted in the Sunday Times: He's now up to 30 tattoos and he spends at least two hours a day at the David Barton Gym. As for his ex, Jason Preston, he has this to say: "I've had boyfriends who were media whores... I don't want to make the same mess again." [Times UK]
♦ If you've wondered why Victoria Beckham's collection of dresses looks like the work of Roland Mouret, there's good reason: Mouret served as Posh's "mentor." [Vogue UK]
♦ Inexplicably, Lindsay Lohan's legwear line is "selling like hotcakes." [NYDN]
♦ Anna Wintour really wants to reiterate that she has no plans to leave Vogue: "With so much uncertainty, one thing is certain: Vogue," read the mag's ad in yesterday's New York Times. [Fashionologie]