Bend it Like the Other Beckham: Heidi Mount plays Posh Spice in this on-line only editorial from V. Though “chasing her kids all day,” really? {V}

Not So Fast: Gen Art, the nonprofit organization known for supporting emerging designers (including at points Zac Posen, Sari Gueron and Phillip Lim) is having serious financial trouble. This tipster says, “Gen Art deserves to die.” {Gawker}

Biba-licious: Biba’s up there with Halston as one of the brands we can’t quite keep track of. It’s just been announced that online retailer Marisot will launch Biba for fall using inspiration from past collection. Um, okay. {VogueUK}

Made Over & Under: Trinny and Susannah, the British makeover artists extraordinaire, are coming to America. Actually, they’re already here, taking Eric Wilson shopping and plucking poor souls out of Times Square and into Zara, including one woman who’d never heard of Elle MacPherson. {NYTimes}

London tabloids are currently in a right uproar - not over Posh, or Lindsay, but yes, Elle MacPherson. And all to do with the look she turned up wearing a couple weeks ago to the new Jaguar launch.

Now dubbed “Queen of the Cougars” (in close contention with Madonna and Kylie Minogue), Elle sent the dailies over the edge when she appeared in a custom made Herve Leger gold dress and Loubie heels.

The irony was, when I first saw the dress, my main concern was whether Elle was ripping off Kate Moss’s gold one shouldered dress from the Met ball. The tabbies were concerned about two different things altogether:

1. Whether a woman pushing 50 should be wearing a teeny tiny gold dress

2. Whether her knees passed muster. (They say not)

I’m 99% sure that’s Miranda Kerr on the left.

But I’m only half way through my coffee and three hours deep into a move from Brooklyn into Manhattan and I could be wrong. So we’ll start with a yes.

Is she even allowed to model other lingerie? For a department store? Even if she’s best friends with Elle MacPherson and actually only wears her bras in real life because they’re a million times better than Victoria’s Secret? VS has pretty iron clad contracts for their girls. Want to walk Givenchy? Fine. Want to model in another catalog? Absolutely not.

And if it’s not her, way to go Bloomingdale’s for finding the only other human being in the world who looks like that.

Meanwhile this looks just like Cat McNeil, but it’s not, is it? The url even reads, “PseudoCat.” I might need another cup of coffee.

It amazes us that Scottish designer Graeme Black isn’t more widely known.

After all, he was senior designer at Armani for years (not to mention the great Giorgio’s boyfriend for much of that time), and before that Creative Director of Ferragamo. He launched his luxe, very tailored, eponymous label a few years ago.

Victoria Beckham’s a major fan; her own line was equal parts inspired by Black as Mouret. His fiercely loyal following also includes Arab princesses, political wives, English (celeb) royalty including Elle MacPherson and Yasmin LeBon, whose daughter walked Graeme’s AW09 runway and so on.

The designer’s been more quietly successful stateside, his new Saks concession is ka-chinging along and he’ll be part of the new ninth floor in September. In London, he’s launching an entirely new retail concept - think a more luxe Colette - this fall.

And why are we talking about him now? Because the Scottish Fashion Awards were kind of irrelevant until Scotland started producing the likes of Alexander McQueen, Louise Gray, Christopher Kane etc. and since Jonathan Saunders was more than expected to take home designer of the year, everyone’s eye has turned toward Black after scooping the award this weekend.

So for now, Black gets to be the Great Scot.

—CHARLEY B.

The latest member of fashion’s TV takeover?

Elle MacPherson.

The supermodel’s signed on to Ashton Kutcher’s CW pilot, A Beautiful Life, the same one for which Mischa Barton’s interrupting those Shakespeare studies.

Elle plays Claudia (so if Claudia Schiffer guest stars, does she get to be Elle?), a supermodel from the 80’s who still happens to be smoking hot. In her spare time, she runs the top New York Model agency, Focus models, “with the efficiency and toughness of a dictator.”

Natalie can’t figure out if this is a genuine drama or a satire on drama because she says you couldn’t possibly cast Mischa Barton on another CW soap if it’s supposed to be taken seriously.

I think it’s reality TV with prettier people and a script.

Everybody’s trying to break into accessories these days.

First, the news was that See by Chloe, Proenza, Hussein Chayalan and Ohne Titel would all be breaking into shoes (and since then, Proenza’s quietly started giving out bags to their friends, which everyone hopes will actually make it to stores.)

Then, Marc announced he’d be expanding into a full line of swimwear for Marc by Marc, while Brian Reyes announced he’d be launching a line of lingerie (ok - swimwear and lingerie are not exactly accessories, but they do fall into that small things/cheaper things category).

Not too long after, Prada announced plans to design costume jewelry, and Yigal said he’d make the shoes from his Spring 09 runway for the stores.

And now? 7 For All Mankind is launching their own shoe range for Spring, retailing between $150 to $350, which may seem too close to their denim price range, but is probably a bit less than most 7 customers usually spend on their shoes.

Clearly, companies are hoping their shoppers will still be out there looking for cute things to acquire, but they know it’ll be with a much smaller budget, so they’re trying to make more things at lower price points so everybody can still get their buzz. Because as Elle MacPherson put it today, her lingerie line is doing better than ever because “when a woman can’t afford a dress in the luxury echelons, she may opt instead to part with £20 on underwear that makes her feel good.”

But the question for all these other high-end brands persists -

Bendon, the New Zealand-based lingerie company, is coming to America. Except, they’re coming via The Limited, which we’re all familiar with via trips to Limited Too in fifth grade. And apparently, when we buy lingerie from Elle MacPherson’s Intimates (a personal favorite) and Stella McCartney (a browsing favorite), we’re really buying Bendon re-packaged and repriced via licensing deals.

There are two interesting points to be taken from these facts.

1. That The Limited’s version of Bendon will retail between $35 and $38 for bras, and $14 to $16 for underwear - less than half the price of Elle’s versions, and nowhere near the price stratosphere of Stella’s - meaning, The Limited might pose some stiff competition in the lingerie department very soon, and this may or may not be related to the fact that The Limited is no longer owned by Limited Brands, the parent company of the very overpriced Victoria’s Secret, and so now they’re free to expand in that market.

2. That The Limited has been around since forever, and just now they’ve decided to put out their own lingerie, right when Brian Reyes has decided to do the same, and right when Marc’s decided to put out his first full swimwear line under Marc by Marc. All new ventures in a decidedly shaky market / economy, all new ventures including itty bitty non-clothes.

Coincidence? Or has everyone decided that true shoppers will find a way to drop at least $50 every couple weeks and have just figured out the best way to truly service the price point?

*Editor’s Note: Sorry! Changed that fact at the end of point 1 - The Limited is no longer owned by Limited Brands!

If Victoria’s Secret knocked off an Elle MacPherson bra, even we probably wouldn’t realize, (until we tried it on, of course).

But if Victoria’s Secret knocks off Marc Jacobs’ Fall 07 runway booties, we notice. Especially when readers email us their own investigative work.

We’re not really sure who buys shoes from Victoria’s Secret in the first place, in fact we kind of forgot they’ve turned themselves into an entire brand empire hawking everything from lipsticks to teddy bears to teddies, but we’d never guess that the girls who do are looking for the perfect grunge ankle bootie to wear with their military socks and PVC leggings or knit tights and velvet coat like Tao Okamoto.

We’d also never guess they’d wait over a year to knock them off, after fashion’s taken a turn for the ladylike and even Marc’s getting ready to show Spring 09.

But we would guess they’d only cost $88 instead of almost $600

“Category: Star Wars, $2,000

Question: Elle MacPherson and Heidi Klum feuded over the use of this nickname.”

[no one knows the answer]

Alex: “And I would have liked to have seen it - The Body.”

- from Friday’s Jeopardy.

(proof after the jump!)

In honor of Fall 2008’s return of the supermodel, we found a fun video for everyone to watch over and over again.

Check out the clip if you want to see some majors from the 90’s do what they do best - walk the runway. There’s no talking in this one, so don’t bother with sound - it’s just smiles and trivia.

It begins icy blonde with Nadja, Karen Mulder and Elle, then come Naomi, Christy, Helena Carla Bruni, and then it finishes with Eva Herzigova doing an impersonation of Marilyn Monroe.

We don’t know if we just described the video, or some kind of culinary dish, but here goes…

Vintage has come back into fashion in more ways than one:

We hear on February 8, old-school supermodel Elle MacPherson will hit the catwalk for an Australian round-up show that includes clothes from Josh Goot, Jayson Brundston, Camilla + Marc, and other Aussie labels. The presentation is designed to raise awareness of Australian fashion in the States, and also quite possibly to pave the way for Myer, a massive Oz department store, to open a New York outlet - they’re the party’s biggest sponsor.

Brands like Sass + Bide and Willow come from Sydney and already show in New York, and Australian models like Catherine McNeil and Tiah Eckhart are also big fixtures in the Tents - so it’s nice to see a shipment of fashion mavens from their home country will come support them.

But February 8 is also the night of the Marc show, which means New York’s modelizers will have to make a hard choice: See the spindly nymphs of MJ glory, or “The Body” Elle MacPherson in all of hers…