>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Now that Louis Vuitton Journeys face Sofia Coppola has moved on to designing shoes and handbags for the brand, it's time for the campaign to have some new blood.  That order is filled by Sean Connery, whose Anne Leibovitz-lensed ad debuts later this month, featuring the original James Bond lounging on a dock in the Bahamas next to the requisite Vuitton luggage. [WWD]

>> It's always a treat to see Kate Moss talk — since she doesn't log much on camera time, with the exception of all those Rimmel commercials — and it's even better when she's making silly faces, telling stories about catching girls in her Topshop line, and being all around cheeky.  Last night, she did just that on the new BBC series British Style Genius, which for a few minutes follows Kate as she purrs and paws her way through Topshop meetings about her Fall 2008 line.  If you're in the UK, you can watch the whole episode here, but we boiled all the good Kate parts into one for all below.

>> THE MODELIZER —Post-runway show, some designers give the models the clothes or shoes they wore down the catwalk, others gift handbags or jewelry, but Alexander McQueen?  He opts for a t-shirt.  This season, it was black with spattered ivory and lime paint and a purple heart — as seen on Alyona Osmanova — and "the girls hold onto them like treasure, wearing them season in and season out." [Go Backstage]

>> The shakeups at Elle just keep on coming.  Ever since creative director Joe Zee joined the team in January 2007, former longtime creative director Gilles Bensimon has seen his role at the magazine majorly diminished — his title changed to international creative director, his name moved from top of the masthead to the bottom.

He usually sits with the Elle team during Fashion Month, but during New York Fashion Week, he was a no-show due to a "top-secret project" in Paris.  He also didn't show at Elle's Women in Hollywood Awards Monday, and he has only photographed three out of the eleven Elle cover stories this year — compared to going twelve for twelve last year.

It comes as no surprised that Gilles would want to get out — and Nina Garcia may be just the woman to help him.  His contract with Elle expires at the end of the year, so it's the perfect time for him to make his move.  Rumors started flying when he arrived at the Chanel show last week in a towncar with Nina, his former colleague, who is now trying to increase fashion coverage in her new position as fashion director at Marie Claire.  Is Nina wooing Gilles, who used to be Elle's go-to celebrity photographer, to Marie Claire?  That is the allegation . . .
*image: source

Our level of burnout is reaching toxic levels and we don't leave for Miami for another week for our much needed vacation, thankfully we have an enormous dose of must reads today just because we need a little pick me up like that.

Trend De La Creme continues to prove her impressive ingenuity by rounding up jewelry that she calls wearable destinations.

Beauty is Within has a report on San Diego Fashion Week.

Girl Woman Beauty Brains cracks us up with her post on life after fake nails.

Beauty Secrets revealed has natural cures for roscacea.

Style...A Work In Progress thinks it may be time to admit she isn't the Neiman Marcus demographic and get rid of their credit card.

The Fashion-y Blog talks about fashion, politics and America.

Shopping's My Cardio has discovered what may be the coolest scarf in the world.

>> INSIDER WIRE —Did she do it as a show of her power?  A sign of disrespect?  Because it surely wasn't ignorance that Anna Wintour displayed when she wore a fur scarf last week to Stella McCartney's show.  Stella, who famously refuses to work with leather or fur, can't have been pleased . . . [The Cut]

Of all the random trends to crop up during New York Fashion Week, the red shoe and light colored garment combination was a welcomed surprise. We forget where we first saw it because these things happen like osmosis, but we can remember, for sure, seeing it at the Behnaz Sarafpour show and then later at Phillip Lim. That was when things took a serious turn for us and we became obsessed with finding it from other designers (and the stylists who likely made that happen)--funny thing was, we did.

For instance, Proenza Schouler (left) showed strapped red heels as part of their now-in house accessories line, and paired them with a mint green and patent trouser look. We also discovered the combination in the Marc Jacobs show, a decided effort on his part as the monochromatic light outfits to come down the runway were few and far between--the red shoes made a strong point here. Finally, it cropped up at Preen (right), acting in compliment to the red frocks that came before and after.

With a set of designers like that all showing the same micro trend in the same season we're pretty sure it won't be long before the whole thing takes flight. Such a thing might happen so fast that we forget all about it when the clothing finally delivers.