>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Nicolas Ghesquiere was reportedly in New York this past weekend meeting with models to determine the Balenciaga Spring 2009 multi-girl campaign cast, which promises girls "who barely set foot on anyone's runway this season as well as girls who are riding all those expected covers."  A commenter chimes in, adding that Prada, which is also a multi-girl campaign this upcoming season, "will be very blonde and European." [TI]
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>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Lots of people have their bets on Ymre Stiekema for Prada Spring 2009, but the field just got a lot more interesting: Prada is apparently doing a multiple girl campaign for Spring . . . Balenciaga, too. [TI]

>> Despite all those shoe-induced falls on the Prada runway, the fashion industry's obsession with super-high heels is causing designers to go higher.

Manolo Blahnik, who for over 20 years has gone no higher than five-inch heels — and doesn't do platforms — is increasing his maximum height to six inches this year.  He says it's paying off — the six-inch heels already account for 30 percent of his business.  And Christian Louboutin, who has popularized extreme heels, is seeing his new six- and seven-inch heels sell so well that he has plans to introduce eight-inch platform shoes next Fall: "I hear they can be painful, but women keep asking for them."

Poor economic times mean longer hemlines, but higher heels?  We'll see — a model told reporters after the Prada show: "I was having a panic attack, my hands were shaking. The heels were so high.  Some of the girls were crying backstage they were so scared."  I love my vertiginous heels, but who wants to buy into that . . .
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>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —That mystery Prada campaign Ymre Stiekema was talking about shooting?  It might have been Resort 2009, because here she is, donning those Prada Resort jewels.  Or maybe it was the Spring 2009 campaign, because when she was interviewed less than a month ago — it seems like a quick turnaround for print.  Plus, she's building quite the foundation at Prada — opening the Spring 2009 show as an exclusive, the Linea Rossa campaign . . . [TFS]

>> The third Fashion Week in for the Model.Live girls, and things start to get difficult — for Madeline Kragh and Austria Alcantara, at least.  Austria went to over 30 castings for Milan Fashion Week and got nothing, except a call from a casting director to her agency IMG saying that she wasn't looking her best.  Ouch.  Madeline had the same troubles — she wasn't cast for any shows, and at one point got frustrated enough to tell the cameramen to stop filming.  Both girls, defeated, move on to Paris early.  Cato van Ee, on the other hand, scores Prada for the second season in a row — and does a little impromptu song and dance when she finds out.  Will Paris be a whole new ball game, as the girls are promised?  Next week, we'll find out.

>> The Spring 2009 Prada falls have become a tale of epic proportions, but there's one more video before we can let it rest.  It explains why poor Katie Fogarty — a Prada exclusive, too — ended up just taking her shoes (slash torture devices) off and walking the rest of the runway barefoot.  Oh, and in case you were wondering — the shoes are going to be commercially produced with those slippery socks; Prada is considering fusing the socks to the insoles to prevent slippage.  For their sake, I hope it works . . .

>> ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL —Currently causing confusion this morning: In a newly-published interview with Ymre Stiekema, one of Prada's Spring 2009 exclusives, she divulges that she was in Milan to work on a Prada campaign — this is pre-Spring 2009 Prada show, of course.  Ymre has already appeared in the Fall 2008 Prada Linea Rossa campaign, so is this campaign she's talking about Linea Rossa? Resort 2009? Spring 2009? [V Magazine]