Scene: I’m walking through the National Hall, looking for my stadium seat at Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label Show.

I have to make my way through a rabid pack of people who are not paparazzi. I’m not sure what they’re doing, or why they’re banded together, or why they’re all young girls.

Suddenly, I realize they’ve descended upon Lily Cole, not you know who, and they’re asking for her autograph.

If, or when, you meet your favorite model, or any model for that matter - would you ask for his or her autograph? We’ve never really understood the concept of an autograph anyway, but it seems all the stranger when applied to models. No one in the office would ever ask anyone to sign a piece of paper, though Natalie can understand asking someone like Kate Moss, who’s more rock star than model anyway and Carson (our new intern!) would just want to talk. When I met Kate, I kind of whimpered hello, and when I saw Doutzen I just gaped - they’re my favorites and yet I never thought about asking for their signature.

So if you’ve got anyone from Stephanie Seymour to Ali Michael in front of you, what do you do?

The next Fashion Week rumor will be a good one, we swear,

Because we just got word that Ali Michael’s sitting this one out, too and next to Marc’s cutbacks and Abbey’s knees and Alex’s lack of parties, well, this is just depressing.

Lucky for Ali there’s no surgery on the horizon. In fact, if we had to guess/hope what’ll keep the major model off this season’s runways we’d bet on a cosmetics contract or something equally exciting.

Is it too much to hope she makes a cameo at Luella? Because Ali and Luella go together like peanut butter and marshmallow fluff…

It is with excitement and delight that we report the following news:

18-year-old Ali Michael is the new face of Coach.

The Texan shot their Fall ‘09 campaign last week, with a salary reported at around $50,000 for a day’s worth of work.

That’s about 150 Coach bags, or like 1500 if you buy them on Canal Street (but obviously, you shouldn’t do that).

Ali follows Lisa Cant, Caroline Winberg, and Mandy Moore as previous faces of Coach.

But… you know… much, much cooler.

In need of model news?

Check out this interview with Ali Michael and Karlie Kloss, so you too can know that Karlie loves her “gram’s ginger snaps”, and that Ali can’t get anyone in her family to try her “vegan treats”.

Happy holiday weekend!

To be perfectly honest, the thought of runways kind of makes me nauseous.

I’ve spent the past four days perfectly Fashion Week free - but I can’t get sheer pants out of my head.

Out of all the transparent whatevers this season - dresses, tops, head gear, etc. - barely-there pants might be the thing that kills the trend dead in its tracks, or they might be the one thing we’re still semi-interested since everything on the racks requires specific underpinnings anyway.

But you can’t just throw a slip underneath, or a cardigan on top, and call it a day. Do you wear boy-shorts like at Erin Fetherston? A bodysuit a la Ali Michael at Paul Smith? Nude Hanky Pankys from Temperley?

I’m not sure what Angela Lindvall wore under her jumpsuit at Stella, but I do remember thinking how strange it was that the jumpsuit started out solid on top and became sheer on the bottom.

So we want to know, if you could wear sheer pants without looking like Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie, would you?

Henry Holland’s show started about an hour late. But when the lights finally went down, the 90210 theme song blared from the speakers, so we couldn’t be mad.

The models, starting with Agyness of course and including Chanel, Julia Dunstall and some handsome British boys, pranced out of an archway built of gorgeous fresh hydrangeas. Henry’s family sat in the front row, which was maybe the cutest thing we’ve ever seen at a runway show, while Christopher Bailey perched on the back window, (actually, he might be the cutest thing we’ve ever seen at a show).

Henry’s House of Holland collection was playful, spandexy, colorful and even plain silly at times. But out of nowhere came a couple of well-constructed, totally wearable party dresses, including the baby blue petaled one worn by Ali Michael and the purple pouf Agyness wore to close the show. We wish we could have the yellow skirt Vlada wore for Vivienne Westwood tonight, or even the polka dot poufs from the end, but we’ll have to wait for spring.

Can we have Chris in the meantime?

Reasons why Luella Bartley’s show wasn’t just special, but one of the best this season:

1. Breakfast and glitter and the fact that it was in The Crystal Palace. See Teen Vogue for details.

2. Models. It was the first time I’d seen Raquel Zimmermann walk a show. A little birdie told me it’s because Luella’s making a Raquel bag for next season. Also, Ali Michael and Jourdan Dunn got to wear pink and purple prom dresses and well, that’s brilliant.

3. The PR girls. In New York they all wear black, which means the sight of that H&M or Zara dress makes you sick by the end of the week. At Luella, they all wear Luella, which makes you want to listen to all their silly orders.

4. The clothes. The shoes. The bags. The hats. Whoa. Everything was so Luella. There were florals and ruffles and bows and hearts and yet, it was all a little bit punk rock. We need it all - and we’ll be DIYing those head pieces the minute we find a fabric store in Marylebone.

5. The crowd. It was a party the way Charlotte Ronson was a party. There was cheering, sitting on laps, oohing, aahing and a general lust pulsing through the benches.

We all fell in love, and it’s only Day Two.

Doubtless you’ve seen the model pins floating around during Fashion Week, created by an emerging website called Modelinia that hasn’t yet launched but already hired the super-cool Sophie Laffont from French Vogue.

The badges are brilliant, and you wouldn’t believe the skirmish to get them - the VOTE STAM ones caused a bit of a fight during the Elise Overland presentation!

But even though COCO ‘08 is pinned to our bag right this second, our real favorite button reads UP THE TALLY FOR ALI. Like, hell yeah!

Faran found Ali backstage at Marc by Marc, and gave up her button to its namesake - a bit like releasing a baby bird back into the wild, you know?

But that’s okay - we’ll always be Team Ali Michael on the inside. And it looks like a lot of other designers are, too - now that she’s 18, she can be a little more vamp (as seen at yesterday’s excellent and electric Doo.Ri show…).

SPOTTED: Ali Michael at the Whole Foods on Bowery, browsing the beans and rice section!

And it’s not even Fashion Week yet…

Spotted: Ali Michael, all over New York the past couple days.

ps. Like her new Sportmax ad?

Looks like Ali Michael isn’t the only model speaking out against the intense pressure to be thin in the the modeling industry -

The CFDA’s holding a panel discussion at Milk Studios next Tuesday, where Coco, Diane von Furstenberg, and Michael Kors will lead a discussion called “The Beauty of Health”.

We’re glad another model besides Ali has decided to speak up about what really goes on behind the scenes. We think, the more that do, the less we can all ignore it.

And considering Coco walked in nearly ever major show last Fashion Week, there shouldn’t be any useless criticism claiming models only come forward after suffering lackluster show seasons.

We’ll admit, we were a little nervous when Ali Michael slammed fashion’s body issues in The Wall Street Journal and on The Today Show because her agency, DNA, is notoriously strict about… well, about everything.

But it seems her bookers support her as much as we do:

Miss Michael, now 18, has been bumped from DNA’s New Faces board to the very hardcore Women’s Board, sharing a space there with Karen Elson, Natalia Vodianova, and - ironically - Snejana Onopka, the Ukrainian beauty wisp whose look has been both heralded and denounced as iconic of the industry’s refugee-camp proportions.

It should be noted that Snejana has gained a few carbs of weight, and is something of a superstar, at least in terms of runway bookings.

And now, a word from Faran…

I woke up early to see Ali Michael on The Today Show this morning, and her appearance confirmed what we’ve been heralding for months:

Team Ali Michael!

And yet, it was also quite sad.

As Ali told her story, she mentioned she’d stopped eating around age sixteen, which led to her hair falling out, her period stopping, and her energy and focus depleting. I felt gross and guilty when Ali said that, because it’s when I first met her, and I would never have known she was ill. In fact, backstage during New York and London Fashion Weeks, I thought she was one of the most articulate, confident, intelligent, and genuinely cool girls working in the industry.

She is still all those things, but -

Faran got an email from Ali Michael last night (yay!) saying she’d be on The Today Show tomorrow with Amy Astley from Teen Vogue to discuss models and body image.

The segment will air sometime between 8 and 9 am, so if you can’t camp out for Ali’s big appearance, set your DVRs to record the little fashion superstar in action.

Ali is also featured in an upcoming Teen Vogue article about her recent experiences getting cut from runway shows after gaining 5 lbs.

Faran wants her to intern for NYLON this summer, but she’ll probably be too busy.

Meanwhile, did you know that Jourdan Dunn is in town getting fitted for a Vogue fashion shoot?

Keep your eyes out!

While we put the finishing touches on our “Team Ali” t-shirts, here’s some more news about our favorite young model:

She’ll appear on The Today Show in June, supposedly with Teen Vogue’s Amy Astley, to discuss body image and fashion.

The segment will focus on an upcoming Teen Vogue shoot with the Texas model, where she discusses her experiences in Paris and how they varied when she went from 100 lbs to 105 lbs.

Some of our friends in the industry pointed out that several other girls were also excluded from many runway shows because of their size, but Ali is the only one who’s been vocal about it.

It’s a tricky issue, especially since the majority of Americans have health issues because of obesity, not because of skinny models. And yet, the standards set by the fashion industry have huge ramifications on the rest of pop culture, and therefore the rest of youth culture.

Thankfully, Ali seems smart enough to discuss the whole thing gracefully. Good luck, babe.

Another one for the model trackers:

Ali Michael was spotted at Blue Ribbon Sushi in Brooklyn this weekend with three friends and her mom, MaryAnn.

Does that mean our favorite brunette is back on the campaign trail?

We really hope so -

After deciding to cut her Paris trip short instead of wilting herself down to willow standards, Ali (along with Erin O’Connor) has become something of a poster girl for healthy models in the fashion world. It would be neat if she could transcend that status and become an actual poster girl for big brands like Calvin Klein or Nina Ricci, too.

Good luck, Ali!

Style.com just came out with their seasonal list of It models. While we definitely concur, we thought we’d share our picks including an AusNTM alum, some relative newcomers, and some faces we’ve all seen for a while now - but that we just don’t think have reached their pinnacle (yet).

— JAZZI McGILBERT

“Sure high fashion clothes look better on tall and slender figures, and there is the fantasy and artistic aspect to fashion that asks us to suspend reality. And of course fashion should be taken and interpreted individually. But these models are real 16 year-old girls, who are not only still physically growing, but emotionally, too. Is it fair to ask them to keep off that extra five pounds? Absolutely not. I would love to see a popular designer take a stand and have their models be sizes 6 or 8.” - Reader shinyredthermos.

“The fact that she was sent home over five pounds makes me so mad! After all the stink last season about the underweight models, then they turn around and send Ali home, but it seems Lily Donaldson’s new bobble-head look is all the rage this season!” - Reader leia.

“This is disgraceful. I had finally warmed up to Ali Michael’s look this season, she was positively glowing. If that healthy beauty comes with five pounds, then screw anyone who would tell her she somehow failed as a model. French designers are officially dead to me.” - Anonymous reader.

All from yesterday’s story on Ali Michael.

“If you look at the girls, they are not beautiful like models were 20 years ago…The girls are thin, they have strange faces… At first, you look at them and you’re not sure if they’re beautiful or disgusting.” - Jimmy Pihet, Spokesman for the Federation Française de la Couture, in the Wall Street Journal, in relation to Ali Michael being sent home from Paris for having gained five pounds.