There Are Nude Photos of Miranda Kerr on the Internet [NSFW] [Video]

These nude photographs of Miranda Kerr of unknown vintage have surfaced online. Shot by photographer Laurent Darmon, they were uploaded to his Web site yesterday (and have since been removed). It's not unheard of for nude work from early in a model's career to become the subject of editorial or even tabloid interest later, when that model has made it big: in 2010, Lara Stone successfully sued a photographer who cashed in on her rising fame by selling nude images of her from a 2008 test shoot to French Playboy. Kerr has done her share of nude work, posing for, among others, the Pirelli calendar and the cover of Australian Rolling Stone. Copyright law where photographs of a well-known person are concerned is tricky; photographers are in most nations considered to hold authorship rights over every image they shoot, but public figures also can have rights of publicity over images of themselves, too. [Fashion Copious, Frockwriter]

Chris Burch's new line, C. Wonder, has been criticized by his ex-wife Tory Burch for allegedly being a little too close to her own business idea. But now he's being sued by an artist named Zlatka Paneva who noticed striking similarities between some C. Wonder homewares and her own text-based artworks. [You Thought We Wouldn't Notice] Hugo Boss picked Gwyneth Paltrow to be the face of its new women's perfume. [WWD] Prada models play a human-sized game of full-contact chess, Alexander McQueen-style, in the fall campaign video. [YouTube] J.W. Anderson knocked off a vintage J. Crew sweater that BryanBoy has been wearing on his blog. [Fashionista] Nina Garcia apparently earns so much money that she thinks a Birkin is only "a few weeks' salary." [@NinaGarcia] Happy 20th birthday to Karlie Kloss. And happy 22nd birthday to Jourdan Dunn. The two supermodel friends share a birthday. Dunn, for her part, spent the evening of her birthday in an airport bar. [Facebook, @MissJourdanDunn] Katie Holmes took Suri to J. Crew four times in one week, sparking rumors she is working with the brand in some capacity. Meanwhile, the actress has set a time for her first-ever New York fashion week presentation of Holmes & Yang, the clothing line she designs with stylist Jeanne Yang: it'll be Saturday, September 8th, at 9 p.m. [WWD]Kanye West and Kim Kardashian met for lunch with François Pinault, the billionaire head of luxury retail company PPR. The topic of discussion? A potential shoe line, allegedly. [RadarOnline]Speaking of shoes, Kari Sigerson and Miranda Morrison — who together founded Sigerson Morrison in 1991 — talked to the Times about the contretemps with their financial backer, Marc Fisher, that led to them both being fired from the company last year. A lawsuit between Fisher and the former designers is ongoing. Morrison and Sigerson sold an 80% stake to Fisher, and went from being owners to employees (at $350,000 per year):

The parties professed mutual admiration. "I've always loved the Sigerson Morrison brand and found Kari and Miranda to have a great eye," Mr. Fisher told Women's Wear Daily at the time of the sale. Ms. Morrison added that he "shares our entrepreneurial spirit and respects our DNA." There was talk of new stores, eyeglasses, even fragrances.

But the honeymoon did not last. Ms. Sigerson and Ms. Morrison came to believe that their designs were being knocked off for Marc Fisher's discount line, they would later claim in court papers. (For example, a black-and-silver flat sandal from their 2008 Ikat collection, they contend, looked eerily similar to an orange Marc Fisher model that retailed for $69 the next summer.)

Fisher is the same Marc Fisher who was, along with Guess Inc., successfully sued for over $450,000 by Gucci for knocking off its shoes over a period of years. Marc Fisher also produces Ivanka Trump's licensed shoe line, which everyone knows knocked off a Derek Lam sandal. Oh, and also:

Perhaps most explosive were the designers' claims that Mr. Fisher had sexually harassed the women on numerous occasions and created a hostile workplace. According to court papers, at one meeting Mr. Fisher allegedly stared down the back of Ms. Sigerson's clothes so lewdly that the president of the company, Susan Itzkowitz, wondered aloud whether Mr. Fisher needed sexual harassment training. (Mr. Fisher's lawyer, Jonathan Minsker, called the harassment claims "entirely frivolous.")

Selling an ownership stake in the company you've built is rarely a good idea, even when it doesn't end in sexual harassment, knock-offs of your intellectual property, and your own dismissal. [NYTimes]

For only "a little under $2 million" you, too, could own a 14-carat diamond necklace designed by Waris Ahluwalia. "I will hand-deliver it to whomever buys it," says the jeweler/actor. "That is a promise." [WWD]Ever wonder how Anna Dello Russo galavants around Paris and New York in January with bare legs and sleeveless minidresses, posing for street style photographers? "Rumor has it," says Glamour's Susan Cernek, "that street style supernova Anna Dello Russo puts athletic heat patches onto the small of her back on chilly Fashion Week days so she can sport skimpy designer duds and still stay toasty." [Refinery29]Giorgio Armani says he has sacrificed his life to the fashion industry. "I have sacrificed life. The life of a young man when I first started out and the life of a grown man at the age I am now." [Elle UK]Daffy's has opted for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The chain says it has $37 million in outstanding debts and finished fiscal 2011 $11.4 million in the red (on net sales of $151.3 million). It expects to raise $59 million from liquidation and other asset sales, meaning both secured and unsecured creditors will get paid in full. [WWD]Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy are apparently on the run from French anti-corruption investigators. The couple is said to be staying with wealthy friends in Canada. Meanwhile in a small suburb east of Paris, someone had the bright idea to commission for public display a statue of Bruni posing as a garment worker. The representation of an Italian industrial heiress and First Lady as a woman of the people has, despite the statue's private funding source, ruffled some feathers. [Telegraph]Sophia Kokosalaki is no longer going to design the high-end Diesel Black Gold denim line she has creative-directed since 2009. [WWD]And now, a moment with male model Isaac Ekblad, who was discovered while studying for a philosophy test at Lewis and Clark university. Isaac, what are you reading?

The New Jim Crow. It's kind of about mass-incarceration and the age of color-blindness. It just talks about the prison system today and how it's very racist and locks up people of color. So I'm reading that and Dostoyevsky — The Brothers Karamazov, one of my favorite books. I've read it three times. Dostoyevsky has a pretty crazy past. He got thrown in this Siberian work camp for fifteen years because he was a Socialist and then started writing to support his gambling habit. I don't know his books are just — they really plumb the heart and depths of the human soul. He develops characters that you can really imagine.

[The Cut]

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Teenage Girls Have an Excellent Question: Why Hasn't There Been a Female Presidential Debate Moderator in Decades? [2012 Election]

A woman hasn't moderated a general-election presidential debate since 1992, but three teenage girls from New Jersey are hoping to change that. Last Tuesday, Emma, Sammi, and Elena stormed into the Washington headquarters of the Commission on Presidential Debates with 118,000 signatures backing up their petition for a woman moderator.

"It's necessary that our country sees a woman in this prominent position, being visible on the political stage, asking the questions," 16-year-old Elena Tsemberis told The Daily Beast. "A female moderator would be able to add a new perspective to the debates and touch on topics that are salient for women in this country, like reproductive rights, inequality in the workplace, and how the economy impacts women and their families."

But that's exactly why candidates don't want to shake things up with a woman moderator: old, boring white guys are somewhat exalted in our country and therefore won't remind voters to press Obama and Romney on complicated issues. Maybe that's why the debate commission has completely ignored the girls (and all media requests for comment) thus far; on Tuesday, the teens and their petition were kicked out by building security.

However, debate expert Allan Louden points out that it would make Romney look fantastic if he changed the status quo by suggesting a woman should moderate:

Romney should call for PBS's Gwen Ifill to moderate, suggests Louden. As a black woman, Ifill would of course be "a statement," he says. But because she's a veteran of multiple vice-presidential debates, he adds, she offers much of the security of the status quo. "She's predictable. She's heavily researched. She has a track record."

Just think of what would happen if Romney came out and said, "I'm for her," posits Louden. As political moves go, he notes, it would be "marvelous."

Oh god. Please, Obama, pick a woman moderator first. Then you can sit back and watch Romney awkwardly try to explain how he feels about the Fair Pay Act.

Teenage Girls on Quest for Woman Moderator of Presidential Debates [Daily Beast]

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Someone Think of the Children: Could There Really Be a Fifty Shades of Grey Baby Boom? [Fifty Shades Of Grey]

Jul 31, 2012 6:15 PM   You ladies! Ever since you picked up E.L. James' adult Little Golden Book Fifty Shades of Grey, you can't stop getting it wet. But, seriously, did you ever think that all of your freewheeling fucking might have real life-altering consequences? You know what they tell you in middle school — all it takes is one trip to the Red Room of Pain and you can come back pregnant, which is why, much to the embarrassment of everyone involved, Good Morning America is predicting a Fifty Shades of Grey baby boom in just a matter of months. Dubious? You're right to be. Their only proof is that several babies — or greybies, if you really want to sound like an asshole — could be born in Febuary, which is approximately 9 months after the book series peaked in sales. There are, however, a few pregnant couples willing to admit that it was actually the fan fiction-turned-best seller that motivated them to get crawl back into the sack and get to child-making again, with some even considering naming their unborn children after the novels' main characters Christian and Anastasia. Do this at your own risk, parents — giving your kids the names of characters famed for tampon sex play is like giving carte blanche to CPS to have them taken away. E.L. James' '50 Shades of Grey' Causing New Baby Boom [GMA]

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