>> When Cathy Horyn interviewed Riccardo Tisci a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Tisci revealed something something that shocked me: his January couture collection had twenty-nine customers.  Twenty-nine.  I knew that the number of couture clients has always been very small, but I never realized it was that few.  And to think, as he told Ms. Horyn, when he first arrived at the house of Givenchy, there were only five couture clients.   How amazingly lucky that with the money-driven world we live in, couture still lives. 

>> Just to illustrate what I was implying in the previous post about Mr. Newton being on his own plane.  It never ceases to amaze me how timeless his shots are.
Unknown and Kylie Bax, 1996, by Helmut Newton

>>  Dolce & Gabbana announced yesterday that they were pulling this Spring 2007 ad from print.  The reason?  Because it was drawing criticism for condoning violence against women.  The whole thing seems a little bit fishy to me -- this image seems pretty typical D&G fare, so I'm slightly confused about why they decided to step down now. 

And besides, where would fashion be if it didn't push a few buttons here and there?  We sure wouldn't have any of Helmut Newton's iconic images,  famous (or infamous, whichever you prefer) for being threaded with themes of S&M and female fetishism.  Not that I'm really going to compare this ad to a Newton shot (sacrilege!), but you catch my drift.