>> Last month, when asked who he would like to see succeed him at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld replied: "At the moment I'd say Haider Ackermann." Ackermann, who already said that he was "honored" at the mention, explained Thursday: “I think Mr. Lagerfeld said something that was a really nice compliment. But I think people should take it as he took it: a compliment. No more, no less. And the man is still there, and he’s not retiring. Trust me on that one.  We know each other and we really respect each other. I spent last Saturday with him, and it’s a pleasure to be with such a person, because he is so very generous, and he’s got so many things to tell you. You can only just absorb and observe.” [DFR]

• Riccardo Tisci is following up his Fall 2010 campaign featuring the transsexual model Lea T. with a Spring 2011 ad campaign featuring albino model Stephen Thompson, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott in black and white alongside Mariacarla Boscono, Daphne Groeneveld and Iris Strubegger; the idea came from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo of an alabaster Roman bust juxtaposed against leopard print fabric [WWD]
• 39-year-old David Lauren and 26-year-old Lauren Bush, who met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala six years ago, got engaged Friday at the museum; she Tweeted today: "Thanks for everyone's warm wishes about our engagement! I am so happy, and really enjoying every minute of it! I am truly a lucky lady!" [NY Post, @LaurenBushTweet]
• Conde Nast looks to be in shopping mode: its parent company just raised $500 million for mergers and acquisitions [All Things Digital]
• Karolina Kurkova posted a teaser photo of her and androgynous model Andrej Pejic on the set of Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2011 ad campaign [Frockwriter]
• Before The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman stops someone to ask to take their picture, he says, "I pretty much know where I'm going to stand, where I'm going to place them in relationship to the light, where in the street . . . so as soon as they say, 'Okay,' I'm pretty much ready to go." He continues: "I'm not much of a people person, I don't push to find out that much more [about his subjects]. I want to shoot them the way that I see them; as opposed to really creating a true essence of who they are, it's my idea of who they are." [NY Times]
• Christian Louboutin, on how extremes have changed in his twenty years in the business: "When I started, I remember people saying, ‘Oh my God, I can’t walk in that!’ It was like, three inches — they look like kitten heels now. The low cleavage I was doing was considered too sexy, but now what I call a low cleavage is much lower. It’s really very much a mental shift. I remember doing very pointy lasts. People would say, ‘I like the shoe, but it’s too pointy.’ And then the year after, it’s fine." [Style File]
• Marc Jacobs may bring his legendary holiday costume party — which hasn't happened since 2007 — back next year [The Cut]
• Anna Dello Russo is evasive on how she affords her two apartments and thousands' worth of designer clothing; her only response: "Of course, I am journalist! Then I have discount, I am privileged!" [Guardian UK]
• Peep Zac Posen's Pre-Fall 2011 lookbook, featuring "Zac-ettes" — his words (“They’re all women who have been significant for me this year”) — Hilary Rhoda, Crystal Renn, Anna Cleveland, and Leigh Lezark [Vogue]
• Reiss is planning on reissuing the dress Kate Middleton wore in her engagement photos as part of their Spring 2011 collection [The Cut]
• Former WWD Eye editor Emily Holt has been named fashion news editor at Vogue; she started last Monday [DFR]
• Leighton Meester is rumored to be the new face of Missoni [InTouch]
• Christian Lacroix is art directing and selecting the 150 Middle Eastern pieces to be featured in the Musee du Quai Branly's "The Orient of Women" exhibition, opening Feb. 8 [WWD]

>> We're ringing in the holiday season with our first ever giveaway, starting today and featuring two of our favorite pieces from The Row: the luxe Bamton Dress and a matching pair of cateye sunglasses — just add boots of your own! If you can't get enough freebie possibilities with just The Row, check out what our sister sites have up for grabs: PopSugar's got a $2,500 spree from Shopbop up, FabSugar's offering up a nude patent leather Jimmy Choo bag, and CasaSugar has two $500 gift cards to Design Within Reach to give away.

To enter, all you have to do is "Like" Fashionologie and The Row on Facebook, and then comment on Fashionologie's Facebook wall telling us what your wish list item from The Row is this holiday season. Check out the official rules here, and the giveaway is only open for a week, so act now! Good luck and happy holidays!

>> At the end of last week, Puerto Rican-born model Joan Smalls became the third new model signed by Estee Lauder this year; she joins Constance Jablonski and Liu Wen, who were welcomed by the brand in April, and long-term Lauder faces Carolyn Murphy, Hilary Rhoda, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Elizabeth Hurley.

Last Monday and Tuesday, Smalls, Jablonski, and Wen filmed a television commercial for Lauder in New York — Vogue has a couple of pictures on set. Smalls is the first black face of the brand since Liya Kebede's contract ended in 2008, and her global campaigns debut in May 2011. She told Vogue: “When I found out, I was in my hotel room in Milan during Fashion Week. I started jumping on the bed like a little girl. The hardest part was keeping it secret — even from my parents.”