Milan Fashion Scoops

(MILAN) FUMING IN THE RAIN: Pouring, pouring rain deluged Milan overnight and continued straight through the Alberta Ferretti show and dinner. At Gucci's show at Piazza Oberdan, traffic came to a standstill for miles in every direction as editors, refusing to get out until they needed to for fear of ruining their shoes and hairdos, clogged up the near-flooded streets and the blaring of police sirens and whistles was never-ending. Joanna Coles, for one, was not having it. The Marie Claire editor in chief, not to mention feisty Brit, left her Four Seasons-loaned umbrella by the wayside and stormed towards the venue in her Roger Vivier Belle du Jour flats to gain entrance to the 6:30 p.m. show just as most of the 5:30 p.m. show guests had left. Stopped by the security men, Coles was infuriated, pulling one down to her eye level and saying to him in a strict tone of voice (whether he could understand it or not was another question), "You need to let me in. You need to let us all in. I'm from Marie Claire in the U.S. Do you know how many credits we give Gucci every year? This is unacceptable!" Finally, Daniella Vitale, Gucci's North American president, spotted the beleaguered editor and led her in. Coles, in turn, motioned for her publisher, Susan D. Plagemann, to run in. Two minutes later, the doors opened to everyone else. An hour after the show was scheduled to start, Vanity Fair's Elizabeth Saltzman appeared to have been one of the victims of the city's horrendous rain-meets-rush hour fiasco. She scampered down to an available second row seat after a handful of looks had already passed.

GUCCI'S LYNCH MOB: Gucci's been worn by Hollywood legends of both the big and small screen for decades, so to return the favor, creative director Frida Giannini presented a preview screening of the video for her new Gucci by Gucci fragrance directed by David Lynch prior to the start of the show. The mini film is the first television ad campaign in the company's history. Set to Blondie's "Heart of Glass," it depicts models Raquel Zimmerman, Natasha Poly, and Freja Beha Erichsen in a series of sultry poses and sensual movements. "Eyes closed. Just feel it," Lynch said at one point during the video, which was captured in Paris at the Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and will air in Europe at the end of October and worldwide in early 2008. Unfortunately, Lynch was filming in Los Angeles and couldn't attend the show to see the fruit of his work alongside the fashion elite.
JIM SHI