The English are coming, the English are coming! Oh—no, wait, it’s the French. Racked reports there are signs of life at Isabel Marant’s (pictured) long-awaited Soho store: A French stick-figure drawing announces progress. [Racked]

And while Marant’s going resolutely 2-D, Burberry’s getting the Avatar treatment—the label is live-casting its upcoming London fashion week show in 3-D. [Fashionologie]

Christie’s will hold a special auction for Earth Day this April, with profits to be divided among four environmental charities. Here’s your chance to snap up a Maya Lin, an Olafur Eliasson, or a special date with Hugh Jackman, all for a good cause! (One guess which one we’re gunning for.) [WWD]

The Times reviews the history of werewolves/wolfmen, perhaps the progenitors of the grizzled beardo look currently in vogue. Team Edward, meh—give us Team Lon Chaney! [NYT]

And if you’ve ever wondered whether models need to look good, have name recognition, and dress stylishly to book jobs, take it from Storm Models founder (and Kate Moss discoverer) Sarah Doukas: They do. [Models Off Duty]

Photo: Niviere / Sipa Press

With the heat of the British Fashion Council’s 25th anniversary and the subsequent return of so many designers (Jonathan Saunders, Clements Ribeiro, Burberry), there are several very good reasons to head to London in September. Well, here’s another: Dover Street Market will be unveiling a redone shop-in-shop (to replace the temporary one currently installed there) for Nicholas Kirkwood on September 10, stocked with exclusive styles from Fall and the stiletto sultan’s first ever (and well timed) flats. Hurry, Kirkwood-ites, get British Airways on the phone, stat.—Meenal Mistry

Photo: Courtesy of Nicholas Kirkwood

Apart from “tube closures” and “swine flu,” what two words can strike fear in a Londoner’s heart like few others? “Postal strike.” That was the talk at last night’s inaugural LFW event, Still, hosted by Poltock & Walsh and photographer Poppy de Villeneuve at the very swish Sanderson hotel. A strike means that tickets for the Christopher Kane, Matthew Williamson, and Burberry shows are—gasp—potentially sitting in a sorting bin somewhere with 20 million other pieces of mail. Let’s just say when the editors arrive at their hotels without their stacks of invites, they won’t be happy. Of course, last-minute plans are in place, like couriers, which is how we found out about the event last night for the cool London designers Poltock & Walsh, whose fans include Alexa Chung and Kate Moss. Poltock & Walsh commissioned de Villeneuve, (whose dad Justin famously discovered Twiggy in the sixties) to photograph their “fave girls,” including Alice Dellal’s socialite mom Andrea, Mick Jones’ daughter Lauren Jones, Jade Parfitt, Jasmine Guinness, and, curiously, Lydia Gifford, a model/circus worker/sculptor, all wearing key looks from 2010. Said de Villeneuve of the portraits, which will be auctioned off in support of the Tibetan charity Ropka: “My favorite was of my mom (the American model Pam de Villeneuve). I don’t get to work with her often, and it’s always interesting photographing people that you are close to, because the dynamic is so different—not that I didn’t make her work for it!”

—Afsun Qureshi

Photo: Courtesy of Poltock & Walsh

Jean Paul Gaultier is the latest designer rumored to be getting the Target treatment. First Rodarte, now the French…what’s next? Maybe a diffusion line of looks from Cristobal Balenciaga’s archives. Sure to have mass appeal. [WWD]

As if the abuse he’s been getting in the blogosphere hasn’t been enough, Kanye West has now been invited to a formal roast. Whatever will they do for material? [Page Six]

You may have heard that Burberry is showing in London this season. More than once. Well, it’s a big deal, OK? So big that Christopher Bailey is documenting the whole thing on his cell phone. [The Moment]

Silence, haters. Victoria Beckham is a real designer. Jennifer Lopez is the latest very-famous-person to wear one of Posh’s dresses, and she wore it, drumroll please, to the White House. This means the likelihood of MObama wearing Beckham just got exponentially higher. [Daily Mail]—Alison Baenen

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Of the bevy of paparazzi darlings—Mary-Kate Olsen, Freida Pinto, Alexa Chung—who turned up at Burberry to close out London fashion week on a high note, few drew the flashbulbs like Victoria Beckham and Emma Watson. The two Brits worked radically different frocks. Posh was prim and ladylike in a black Spring 2010 look from her eponymous collection, while Watson looked every inch the fun-loving college frosh in a shimmery custom Burberry Prorsum minidress. We’re partial to the Harry Potter star’s attire. Not only did she shine (literally), but the festive outfit likely looked just right as the metallic confetti poured from the rafters at the close of the show. What do you think? Is it better to play it cool à la Vicky B., or is Hermione’s sparkle an ideal front-row look?—Romney Leader

Photos: left, Courtesy of Burberry; right, Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Burberry

Some brands are ditching their celebrity faces for tried-and-true models, but not Burberry: The label’s new Spring 2010 campaign, shot by Mario Testino and creative-directed by Christopher Bailey, once again features house favorite Emma Watson. (No surprise, she sat front-row at the Spring show, wearing a Burberry frock that hadn’t even walked yet.) Her co-star? Her younger brother, Alex (left). Good looks evidently run in the family.—Staff

Photo: Courtesy of Burberry

The rumor mill was working overtime this weekend, buzzing with speculation that gallerist Jeffrey Deitch is set to be tapped as the new director of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The official word comes through today. [LAT]

English model Sophie Dahl married her jazz musician boyfriend Jamie Cullum in the U.K. this weekend. In place of our usual quip, we’ll just leave you with a smitten awwww. [Vogue U.K.]

Word on the street is that Emma Watson’s little bro, Alex—last seen co-starring with his sister in Burberry’s Spring campaign—will hit the runway for the label in London later this month. Is some Hogwartian spell behind this? (Well, the family good looks don’t hurt, either…) [Fashionista]

NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is gathering the troops at Macy’s Herald Square tonight to discuss his office’s new, yearlong fashion retail initiative, Fashion NYC 2020. The issues on the table include job creation for the next decade and how to amp up NYC’s presence in the increasingly international world of fashion. Our suggestion: If the inaugural Fashion’s Night Out is any indication, getting the Olsen twins to bartend seems to get people interested. [WWD]

Opening Ceremony and Levi’s have confirmed they’re working on a collaboration (pictured)—first hinted at on Twitter last week—to hit stores next month. The collection will focus on corduroy and launch at OC stores in NYC, L.A., and Tokyo during New York fashion week. [WWD]

Radici—it’s the Italian word for roots. And radici were the big story of the first day of Milan’s fall menswear shows. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their men’s collection this year, Dolce & Gabbana flagged Sicily, the wellspring of their inspiration, by screening clips from Giuseppe Tornatore’s soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated Baari above their catwalk, as groups of models walked in the designers’ versions of classic Sicilian style. One group wearing, the worn-out knits and leggings of farm workers, would be followed by another in black velvet suits to suggest the same lot’s Sunday best. If the echoes of the very first Dolce & Gabbana collection for men were intentional, they also gave this show a real backbone, helped by a ballsy model casting that felt like a riposte to the pigeon-chested man-boys who still rule catwalks here. Break the clothes down to the farmers-vs.-aristocrats face-off that Domenico and Stefano originally borrowed from Luchino Visconti’s Sicilian epic The Leopard and you ended up with sturdy cardigan jackets over henleys and the designers’ artfully distressed signature denims, alongside a laser-sharp three-piece pinstripe suit. The finale offered a horde of stubbled toughs in wifebeaters, just like Massimo Girotti in Visconti’s Ossessione, the inspiration for the first ad campaign the duo ran for their menswear two decades ago. Yes, things have come full circle, and it seemed only appropriate that a return to their roots should produce their best collection in years.

See more pictures of the Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2010 show here.

Same with Burberry, where Christopher Bailey went back a lot further than 20 years, deep into the history of the house that he has reconfigured as one of the 21st century’s major fashion success stories. Thomas Burberry dressed explorers, pioneers and warriors (the trench coat is so named because soldiers wore it on the front line in the first World War) and that was the heritage Bailey utilized for a menswear collection that was his strongest to date. A parade of outerwear offered everything from a brass-buttoned officer’s coat in army green to a petrol blue leather trench and a shearling-lined flight jacket. The odd fashion flop—those brass buttons used as epaulettes on a sweater, for instance—could be forgiven in the light of the master class in precise military-influenced tailoring that Bailey gave us. But it wasn’t academic at all. More exhilarating—a testament to Bailey’s sense of adventure.

See more pictures of the Burberry Fall 2010 show here.

—Tim BlanksPhotos: Marcio Madeira

Sartorially speaking, the thing I’ve noticed here is how this city’s chic set really latches on to a trend: I’ve seen so many Balmain shoulders I sometimes think I’m in a game of kinky, high-heeled touch football. And don’t even get me started about the fur chubbies. I mean, I knew that fur would be big here—but it’s, like, really big here. But just when I was convinced that this town took all its cues from Paris, I discovered it might also have the ability to subversively inspire a few trends of its own. Yesterday, a bunch of us piled onto a bus (I totally called the backseat) for a tour of the city, and a very chic thing happened when Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Byrdie Bell, and Sophia Hesketh tried to get into the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Because Restoin-Roitfeld was in a scandalously tight pair of leggings, Bell’s long hair was down, and Hesketh dared to expose her legs, all three had to nick their friends’ scarves—which naturally happened to be cashmere and from Vuitton or Burberry—and whip their legs and hair into looks that were both orthodox and surprisingly fashion-forward. That’s them outside the church in their layered glory. So the question is: After slap bracelets, will these ladies bring back the sarong? The more I think about it, the more I realize how appropriate a multitasking, two-in-one scarf skirt is for times like these. What’s more, it being mere days before HBO’s Grey Gardens premieres, there couldn’t be a better tribute to Little Edie, whose odd circumstances encouraged her to make convertible skirts of her own.

—Derek Blasberg

Photo: Courtesy of Derek Blasberg

Mayor Bloomberg is calling Thursday “Burberry Day” in New York, but it feels like that today in London, where the young designer community woke up to breaking news that the label’s Spring 2010 women’s show will bolster London fashion week in September. Christopher Bailey is promising “a big, sophisticated show” staged at a venue in the Westminster area near the company’s spanking-new headquarters in Horseferry Road, along with “a large after-party for many attendees who haven’t been seen in town for several seasons.” The move from Milan to London (for only one season, so far) is timed to coincide with London fashion week’s 25th anniversary. “It just feels right,” says Bailey. “There’s such great momentum and energy here within the brand.” Apart from underlining the essential Britishness of all things Burberry, Bailey explains, “We’d love to get more people in to see some of the other shows. London’s a great place for nurturing young talent, and—who knows—they might be the big brands of tomorrow.” The show will bring in a caliber of models, press, and buyers from which London designers can only benefit. “It’s really good for all of us,” says Christopher Kane. “The injection of attention again is great. Hopefully, they’ll come, and then come back again.” Meanwhile, Bailey is on the first flight out of London to JFK tomorrow to play his central role in the hoopla around the switching on of the illuminated Burberry logo above the brand’s new Manhattan headquarters at 444 Madison. “It’s going to be part of the Manhattan skyline—you’re going to be able to see it from all the boroughs!” Thursday will begin with Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts ringing the opening bell on Wall Street and end with a party deejayed by London’s sweetheart Alexa Chung at the New York Palace Hotel. Like the Chanel show in Venice, it’s another case of big-brand confidence writ large—in Burberry’s case, literally.—Sarah Mower

Photo: Greg Kessler