Rich list
Mulberry has helped its owner Christina Ong to an incredible year, which saw her rise 53 places to number 61 on The Sunday Times Rich List. The Singaporean retailer - who also owns franchises of Emporio Armani, Prada and Donna Karan - made £1.2 billion last year thanks to a 70 per cent growth at Mulberry, according to the list which is sometimes deemed more hype and less truth by the people who are featured upon it.
It's not been such a great year in retail for Sir Philip and Lady Green, who own Arcadia; and George and Galen Weston, who own Selfridges. Green's wealth dropped £900 million this year leaving him at number 17, whilst the Westons lost around £100 million, although still scraped into the top 10 with earnings of £5.9 billion.
The Richest Couples List features several from the style set - including Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell (£665 million), Sir Paul and Lady Smith (£280 million), David and Victoria Beckham(£190 million), and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas (£185 million).
Some more unexpected additions come from the 60 Richest People Under 30 List, which includes Thomas Persson - the London-based 24-year-old who runs his father's company, H&M, with his older brother and holds a 36 per cent stake, giving him earnings of £700 million - as well as a host of actors and actresses. Film franchises are unsurprisingly the route to great wealth - with Robert Pattinson,Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley all featuring - as well as Vogue cover girls Natalia Vodianova, Keira Knightley, Adele, and Florence Welch all featuring
Louboutins on show
Christian Louboutin opens his first ever UK retrospective this evening with a private view and after-party that is expected to be attended by a host of famous fashion names - including Daphne Guinness, Dita Von Teese and Yasmin Le Bon. Von Teese will become one of the showcase's centrepieces the Burlesque dancer will feature as a life-size hologram wearing a pair of the designer's glittering creations as she dances. The display will open to the public tomorrow.
Abbey Lee Kershaw
Abbey Lee Kershaw is about to add acting to her already extensive repertoire. The model and singer - who also has a band called Our Mountain with boyfriend Matthew Hutchinson - has secured a part in the fourth installment of the Mad Maxseries alongside Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, set to start shooting later this month - but the Aussie beauty is no overnight success.
Discovered in a CoverGirl search in her native Australia in 2004, Kershaw made her catwalk debut in 2008 in New York before she was booked as a Gucci exclusive for the autumn/winter 2008-09 show. She featured in campaigns for H&M and Levi's early in her career and was soon the face of Gucci's Flora fragrance; an accolade that opened many more doors.
Tattooed and pierced, Kershaw is no ordinary pretty face; she occupies a model niche of beautiful otherness along with the industry's edgier faces - and bodies - like Freja Beha Erichsen and Erin Wasson, and this has attracted many designer fans.
Following covers for Vogue in Australia, Japan, Korea, Russia, and Germany
Her career hasn't been without its setbacks - a well-managed tumble at the spring/summer 2009 Rodarte show in New York was followed by a fainting spell at Alexander McQueen's show later the same season thanks to a too-tight leather corset,but none of these mishaps deterred designers from using her. And her edgy looks haven't stopped more mainstream brands from booking her: she even appeared in the 2008 Victoria's Secret show, although she may have added a few tattoos since then.
Coco on Karl
Despite Karl Lagerfeld's past protestations that Coco Chanel would have hated his work at the fashion house that she founded, the label's current chairman - Bruno Pavlosky - thinks quite the opposite.
"I think she'd say she is very proud," said Pavlosky. "She should be very satisfied with the way Karl has reinterpreted the things she created."
The Chanel helmer has previously said that Coco failed to keep her brand modern and relevant (she famously dismissed the idea if miniskirts and jeans), a skill Pavlosky believes Lagerfeld has in abundance
"He's amazing. Karl just keeps coming up with new things, and he has an impressive ability to bring together talented people and get them working as a team," Pavlosky told Japanese newspaper The Daily Yomiuri. "He shows no sign of slowing down. That's why the thought of changing our head designer hasn't even crossed my mind. I think the match between Karl and Chanel and our energy has helped us put together new collections and many revolutionary events."
Kris talks Raf
Perhaps surprisingly, Dior Homme creative director Kris Van Assche doesn't know fellow Belgian designer Raf Simons - who is now his womenswear counterpart at Dior - but he is looking forward to working with him.
"I think it's great news. Let's just wait and see how he decides to express himself. We've never been in the same place at the same time so we never got close," he told WWD. "But I hugely admire his work."
But he dismissed comparisons of the two which stem from their shared national heritage: "I think it's a bit of a cliché, no?"
When Poppy met Sienna
Sienna Miller and Poppy Delevingne may be firm friends now - the pair even lived together in New York - but eight years ago Delevingne was one of the legions of girls in thrall of the actress' famously bohemian style.
"I remember when Sienna Miller's first Voguecover came out, just after she was in Alfie and before I knew her. She looked so dreamy in white and she had feathers in her hair and that whole boho thing going on," Delevingne told vogue." She was totally my heroine at the time, I just wanted to emulate her. And now of course we're friends and I'm always telling her how I wanted to be just like her - she probably finds it quite scary."
The BFC young ambassador and Louis Vuitton muse also spilled the beans on what her little sister - model Cara Delevingne - was like as a child.
"Cara was just the sweetest little thing, growing up. She had this gorgeous little face you just wanted to squidge, she was just so adorable,"she said. "She was one of those people that from the day she was born, you just knew she was going to be beautiful. The pictures of her as a child are brilliant."
Chloe Award
Chloe has named Canadian designer Steven Tai as the winner of its inaugural design prize, as part of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography - which took place at the weekend. The prize fund is worth €15,000 (£12,197), and provides valuable exposure to rising talent.
Also at the festival, Finnish design trio Siiri Raasakka, Tiia Siren and Elina Laitenen were awarded the L'Oreal Professionnel-sponsored prize, having impressed a fashion jury - including Yohji Yamamoto and i-D founder Terry Jones - with a rave culture-inspired men's collection.
Iron Lady Exhibit
You can see the costumes worn by Meryl Streep during Oscar-winning film The Iron Lady up close in a new exhibition, opening on Wednesday at the London Film Museum. The showcase, which will open to the public for the next six weeks, will feature outfits seen on both the young and older Margaret Thatcher - including her famous pearls, two-piece skirt suits and prim blouses.
