Giambattista Valli has just been elected as guest of the French Chambre Syndicale, the organization in charge of the haute couture shows.

In what is an unusual move for the notoriously exclusive committee consisting of design houses such as Armani, Valentino and Elie Saab, a young and independent designer has been granted a spot on the official schedule for the July shows.

According to the calendar, his show will take place at the Galerie de la Madeleine where his new store and atelier are based.

Celebrities including Vanessa Paradis, Blake Lively, and Rachel Bilson looked on as Karl Lagerfeld showed his annual Croisière collection at the Hotel du Cap in Antibes on the French Riviera on May 9.

For anyone whose invitation to Chanel’s resort show in the South of France on May 9 got lost in the mail, its creative head Karl Lagerfeld will release a new short film, showcasing the cruise collection in a dramatic surrounding.

A teaser released May 5 depicts “friends of the House” including French actress Anna Mouglalis, American model Kristen McMenamy, fashion empress Amanda Harlech, models Freja Beha Erichsen, Bianca Balti and Baptiste Giabiconi.

All are putting their best acting skills forward in this new trailer that seems to revolve around a dysfunctional, affluent family whiling away their time in chic casinos.

British fashion house Burberry  is taking its runway presentations to new heights in Beijing April 13.

The fashion-meets-technology extravaganza staged at the Beijing Television Center will feature British band Keane’s first performance in China, “life-like” holograms, and of course lots of coats on lots of top models.

A teaser released on YouTube also states that the event will be a celebration of British weather, which probably means that there will be artificial rain or snow involved, as seen at Burberry‘s show during London’s past fashion week.

Marc Jacobs spends a lot of time on the road, so what better theme for his fall-winter collection for Louis Vuitton than the goings-on inside a grand old hotel?

To the sound of elevators arriving, uniformed bellboys opened wrought-iron doors for models stepping out in tongue-and-cheek outfits inspired by, among other things, porn films from the 1940s.

“I spend a good part of my life in hotels and I like watching their secret lives, especially the ballet between call girls, mistresses and wives,” said Jacobs, 47, on the final day of Paris fashion week.

Karl Lagerfeld sent a volcanic chill of autumn swirling through the Grand Palais on Tuesday as he presented a tomboyish Chanel fall-winter collection.

In a deliberate contrast from the Parisian garden theme that framed the spring-summer show, Lagerfeld sent darker, looser looks down a wooden boardwalk the length of a venue carpeted with volcanic dust that crunched underfoot.

The soundtrack – “A Forest” by The Cure, about a man who goes looking for a woman in, well, a forest – set the tone, even if there wasn’t a tree in sight.