»Alexander Wang has gotten inspiration at Wal-Mart, doesn't get hangovers [TFI]

»New details on Steven Alan's line for Urban Outfitters [The Cut]

»A clip from BET's documentary on the absence of black models, Fashion Blackout — funny that they didn't spell Andre Leon Talley's name right [Jezebel]

»Naomi Campbell is going bald, having a baby?! (Grain.  Salt.  Take it.) [NYDN, Daily Mail]

»A good round up of all the designers who got product placement in Sex and the City [VF Daily]

»Maggie Rizer did undercover research in preparation for her dog club, which is opening by the end of this year [FWD]

»Peeks at the Zac Posen, ADAM Adam Lippes, and Chris Benz Resort 2009 collections [WWD, WWD, WWD]

>> Just a month after Kate Moss' campaign for Agent Provocateur's bridal line debuted, rumors are already floating around that she's been dropped by the brand (again) in favor of London girl-about-town, sometime-Westwood-model Alice Dellal. 

Given that Agent Provocateur is constantly surrounded with bubblings about its latest face, it's no surprise that a spokesperson already denied the reports:

Kate has been signed for a one year contract as the face of our bridal collection, White Wedding.  We are one month into the campaign and it has proved the most successful campaign we have ever done.

The spokeswoman also revealed, however, that the mainline campaign is already being developed, and will launch in September:

We recently shot a series of images that will feature a whole host of British and international beauties.

Supposedly, the September ads are the ones that Alice will appear in — she's already done a test shoot.

*images: source

As the fashion world mourns the loss of one of its most talented and influential icons, our network partners pay tribute with an outpouring of content. Their reflections, retrospectives, and photos of the designer, his work, and the women who wore it are wrapped up for you below. Whether or not you've ever worn Yves Saint Laurent yourself, most of us can agree that his designs heralded a change in direction that was both liberating and revolutionary, and the effects of which were felt from Paris to mass market retailers.

Ma Petite Chou and Fashion Projects tip us off to a YSL retrospective exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which will run through September 28.

The Shoe Goddess offers a timeline of important events and milestones in the designer's life and career, and We Are the Market nicely summarizes his most significant achievements.

The Coveted reflects on the YSL paper doll collection that was among her earliest fashion influences.

Hope Robertson finds YSL pieces at Bluefly.

From the fragrance camp, The Scented Salamander reminds us that his reach extended beyond fashion, as the cult following that developed around his luxury perfumes can attest, as well as the groundbreaking marketing tactics used in his ad campaigns.

Shoe Blog rounds up YSL footwear finds and feels that his work is now more relevant that ever.

Debutante Clothing points out that YSL's talents lay not only in his sartorial skills, but also in his ability to understand and interpret Ready-to-Wear from a business perspective and in terms of customers' needs.

Style Bubble revisits the book The Beautiful Fall, which chronicles a friendship between the designer and Karl Largerfeld that turned into a fierce rivalry, and questions what YSL's death will mean in those terms.

Chic Alert and Cult of Couture have a great black and white video from 1962, in which his collection is being hotly discussed. It offers glimpses of the designer backstage as he prepares the looks, as well as famous persons of the era anticipating the show.

The Business of Fashion points out the many ways in which YSL was an innovator, from being the first to use black models on the runway to being the first to license his name to other businesses.

SlamxHype and Poetic and Chic both have a great black and white photo of the designer standing in his storefront wearing one of his safari jackets, a style he invented.

Q: What [style] do you see on the streets that just drives you crazy?
Lazaro: "Ummm . . . " Makes a face, turns to Jack.
Jack: Scrunches his brow. "Pretty much everything . . . "

For the full effect, watch live at 1:34 in:

The wider fashion press is likely to spend most of today memorializing one of fashion's true greats. Yves Saint Laurent died at his home in Paris late Sunday at 71 after a long, undisclosed illness. We here at Coutorture feel a great burden upon us as we discuss this life, for after all what can we say that you cannot hear elsewhere in the news media?

We do not doubt that all of the blogosphere will be buzzing for days to come. We wish we knew in our sadness over this passing what it is we should say. Should we focus on a straight obituary? Published biographies recounting the lives of those who have recently died have value no doubt. But certainly you can learn just as much from a wikipedia page.

Perhaps a eulogy would be more appropriate? We come here not to bury Yves Saint Laurent but to praise him? There is much to be said about Yves's incredible innovations, his work in the acceptance of ready to wear as a viable form of fashion for instance, his smoking jackets, his ever ingenious ability with menswear as womenswear, and yet we must assume that our readers are well aware of these praise worthy facts.

We imagine then perhaps our musings are more on the line of an elegy. The term "elegy" was originally used for a type of poetic metre (Elegiac metre), but is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos, a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally. We cannot say we are much for poetry but we are certainly musing.

And so we have decided to leave you with another last form writing on death. The funeral oration is a storied tradition in classicism given by many a great leader. The true original oration came from one Pericles of Athens after the first year of the Peloponnesian War. In it, as Pericles mourns Athen's war dead, a vision of the Athenian people is given. Should you choose, you can read it in its entirety here. Pericles proposes to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang."

Thus you can see why an ancient Greek funeral oration may have some use to grieving fashion lovers. Yves Saint Laurent embodies much of modern fashion history. Fashion today exists from the road laid by this great designer. Eulogies, obituaries, and even elegies are essentially the orations of our collective media painting a picture of who we are as fashion lovers and where we came from. Like Pericles, we may be mourning the passing of Yves Saint Laurent but we are also seeing our own fashion lineage and preparing for our fashion future.

Yves Saint Laurent once said "I tried to show that fashion is an art. For that, I followed the counsel of my master Christian Dior and the imperishable lesson of Mademoiselle Chanel. I created for my era and I tried to foresee what tomorrow would be." (1983)

We saw these faux-python sandals on three different women this weekend. No kidding. When we heard they were Jeffrey Campbell we knew exactly why. These deep brown slip-on sandals are a mere seventy dollars and look great in person. If you want to escape the confines of Dolce Vita (and, gasp, Steve Madden), but are limited to the 'Under 100' shoe budget, this brand is your best bet (try also, Matiko). This sandal is attractive because it touches on the gladiator trend, without making the same statement that the knee-high versions do, and, just like heels and boots, having a simple brown and black sandal in your wardrobe, will free-up your styling options. Seventy dollars for a conservative take on a trend, in a basic color that will do your wardrobe wonders, is worth the investment in our book. More Jeffrey Campbell options below.