Giles Deacon up and left London Fashion Week last season while everyone else was heading in the opposite direction.

Thanks to his ANDAM award, he had the opportunity to show in Paris, he did, and now he’s not coming back to London.

As if you could say no to Paris.

Despite the fact that the Giles show was always at the top, the Marc Jacobs of London Fashion Week if you will, and the fact that Giles’ Paris show was alone on the very last day of fashion month, he said, “Sales were up 42 per cent for the spring collection, and a lot of new buyers came to the show. I work in London, employ people here, but I need to look at the bigger picture.”

If showing in Paris means more dinosaurs, we’ll happily jump on the bandwagon.

photo courtesy WWD
Katie Hillier, the creative genius, or accessories designer, behind first Luella, Giles, Stella and then Marc by Marc Jacobs has finally launched something of her own.

It’s the bunny necklace at left, yes she’s really only launched one thing, and it goes on sale at Dover Street Market and Colette this week.

The bunny, whose bottom half is basically a fancy safety pin, is made from 18-karat gold with a diamond eye and retails for $1,325 - probably three or four times the amount her “Daddy, I want a pony” belt sold for ten years ago so here’s hoping for a Katie by Katie Hillier line very soon.

Giles Deacon’s illustrated the cover of Threads, a novel by Sophia Bennet.

The story, ‘a fashion fairytale’, was made for a teenage audience, but like so many books right now appears to have attracted quite the mature following.

Whether the readers are wearing Giles or not, who knows, but designer sketches never grow old since they do seem like a closer look into their creative mind than what you see on the runway. Sketches are their stream of consciousness, and though Giles’ illustrations for the book have probably been retouched and enhanced, it’s nothing like what happens to a dress from the mind to paper to runway to store.

Anyway, you can buy the book in UK stores, or check www.threadsthebook.com to get it stateside.

Last night, while half the world lived it up at yet another September Issue screening and the rest of us ate cotton candy and danced to The Rumble Strips at Charlotte Ronson’s JC Penney bash, The Daily reported that Jean Paul Gaultier might be stepping down from his role as Creative Director of Hermes.

He’s been running the storied French house since Martin Margiela left in 2003 and done quite the successful job of maintaining Hermes’ status while increasing its high fashion credibility, not to mention profitability. They announced that their second quarter sales were up 12% this year, a good amount, a great amount given the economic climate. And Hermes has a stake in Gaultier’s own line which means the break will probably be amicable, or at least less messy than the recent Cortazar/Ungaro debacle.

So now the fun part, if it’s true and he goes on his way, who will take his spot? In our wildest dreams someone with a purely rock n’ roll aesthetic would take on the classics. Christophe Decarnin? Giles? Chris Kane? We know it’ll never happen, but the imaginary results are awesome.

We’d gotten so used to waking up every morning to the news that yet another designer would be returning home to London for Spring 09 that we don’t know what to do with the news that Giles will be showing in Paris.

First, we should congratulate him for winning the ANDAM award, the same €160,000 endowment that sent Gareth Pugh to Paris one year ago. The prize, given by France’s National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts has been previously bestowed upon designers like Margiela and Viktor & Rolf putting Giles in even higher company.

But really we’re kind of devastated. His clothes and spirit are so thoroughly British that the grand celebrations of the BFC’s 25th Anniversary will be lacking without his presence, not to mention that despite the crazy fun that is British Fashion Week there really are just a handful of internationally known designers in town - Luella, Westwood’s Red Label, Chris Kane and now probably Marios Schwab which makes Giles’ show one of LFW’s stars.

Meanwhile, we are excited to see how or if his designs change for such a different atmosphere and probably audience. Can we expect Anna’s presence?

Divorce, Supermodel Style: Peter Brant’s security folks allegedly got a little hands-y with Stephanie Seymour this weekend. It’s all very War of the Roses. But are the only ones secretly hoping this leads to a reunion with Axl? {E!}

Even More Drama: Peter Brant is not having a good week. Things aren’t going so well with Glenn O’Brien over at Interview either. {WWD}

My Girl Wants to Party All the Time: Steven Meisel gets up in the club, ’80s style for Vogue Italia. {Models}

Going Swimmingly: Giles Deacon is launching swim. He researched the collection by hanging out poolside at the Chateau Marmont. Somehow he forgot to invite us to come along. {Vogue UK}

‘Tis the season of honorary degrees and while ASU may have caused a stir by not handing one to the President, the University of the Arts London made the International Herald Tribune’s Suzy Menkes a doctor last night.

And Giles Deacon was awarded a professorship!

We realize these are honorary and not actual. But wouldn’t you just love to have Dr. Menkes or Professor Deacon leading your lectures or giving a commencement address?

What fashion folks would you deem worthy of an honorary degree at your alma mater?

We produce models as fast as we can, given the fact that you guys steal them away within months.`

We’ve recently lost Agyness, Daisy, Alexa and Karen, so thank goodness our model machine keeps churning out new faces.

Meet Amber Le Bon, daughter of Yasmin and Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon. The combination of her mum’s legs and her dad’s rock star appeal is thoroughly British. And she’s still too young to leave us. It’s no wonder she’s just signed contracts with high street store River Island and Myla, the lingerie brand whose recent ads starred your Lydia Hearst.

Thanks in no small part to her mum’s enviable Alaia collection, she stood out at last night’s Hogan party, even while surrounded by the likes of Beth Ditto, Giles Deacon, Savannah Miller, Lily Cole and Katie Grand.

—CHARLEY B.

Good news from the Giles Deacon camp!

This morning WWD reports that the beloved Brit designer is entering into a new deal with Italian manufacturer and distributor Castor Srl that will expand(!) his business.

The company (which used to produce and distribute 6267) will take over production for 90% of the runway collection. But not to fret, Castor is a small operation that produces much of its work by hand, so we shouldn’t see a drop in quality.

Translation: distribution is going to go up from 38 doors to between 120-140, and hopefully quadruple the sales.

Sounds like a good idea to us. We support any plan that brings the clothes the way Giles likes ‘em to more people.

Please, economy, send more happy expansion stories our way. There are only so many store closings and layoff stories a girl can take.

Any savvy shopper can spot Selfridges’ bright yellow bag from a mile away and the British department store has embraced their love of all things bright in honor of their 100th Anniversary.

They’ve launched a pop-up shop, open from today until the end of the month, full of fancy designer goods accented in Pantone 109.

The Christian Louboutin pumps at left might be our favorite. We admit, we would have loved to see a hot yellow sole and heel. But the compromise, a bright toe, is quite cool and unexpected. They’ve made very limited quantities, as in just a few pairs per size, and you can only get them at the pop-up shop.

There’s also a rubber ducky yellow dress by Giles, a special edition Marc Jacobs Stam, and some neon yellow Converse.

Happy Birthday Selfridges!

—CHARLEY B.

A while back I said I want to be the kind of woman who wears Bottega Veneta when she grows up. For now, I wish I was the kind of girl who wears Giles Deacon.

Yes, I know, few people actually wear Giles, but those who do are really fucking lucky - the man is a genius. Which must be why the security was prison-tight. At the door:

“Hack. Jefferson Hack.”

“I’m sorry sir. What did you say your surname was?”

And then I heard this:

“I’m his sister! I don’t need an invite!”

“Everyone needs an invitation, ma’am.”

“But I’m Giles’ sister!! Look, here’s our Mum!”

Once in, I stood atop a platform in the darkened, ridiculously small, overly packed, green-tinted venue to try and take better pictures (I’m working on it, I swear) and watched one of the best collections I’ve ever seen walk down a runway.

Fresh, stellar, amazing doesn’t begin to describe it. The clothes - chunky knit ball skirts with corseted tops, violently studded and spiked shift dresses, massively jeweled t-shirts, stiff strapless dresses in gold silk and grey wool - were unreal. The energy was through the roof, and though I’ll admit the furry hot dog outfit kind of threw me for a loop, everything from the Stephen Jones hats atop the models’ heads to the slouchy platform boots on their feet was perfect.

I know I’m gushing. But really, it was brilliant.

So, you think we’re obsessed with LOVE?

Maybe.

But only because we’ve been obsessed with POP since we went to London sophomore year of college and spent too much money on mind-blowing magazines.

Since then, we love all things Katie Grand. And while we can’t wait for LOVE’s debut, it’s with great sadness that we mull over her final, Drew Barrymore-covered issue of POP.

Her last letter from the editor, in which she talks beginnings, highlights and ends, after the jump.

Aside from the candy canes and the ice skating and the bright colorful lights everywhere and excessive amounts of sweets, holiday cards are our favorite - because getting mail is always fun.

So far, Giles Deacon’s is our favorite. Though if we’re being honest, they haven’t even been sent out yet, we just got a sneak peek. And while we half expected a PacMan disguised as Frosty, we’re not shocked that Giles equates the holidays with a Swarovski crystal eyeball.

Chris Benz’ cute postcard features twisted red wire hangers and the British twins behind Felder Felder, Daniela and Annette, sent out a holiday sketch of dresses we wish we had for our holiday party tonight.

Now cards that included dresses - that would make for ridiculously happy holidays.

Katie Grand’s LOVE magazine is a beacon of hope for the dying magazine industry and its dwindling fashion counterpart.

Basically, we can’t fucking wait to see what happens when she and her brilliant team get access to Condé Nast’s money.

In the meantime, we’ll have to make do with their secret blog. It’s been flying under the radar since early October, when we first started getting e-mails about it, but we didn’t actually believe it was associated with the mag until we matched the names on the masthead with the names in the captions - and until we saw pictures of Giles making goofy faces at the camera.

So far, they talk about eggs and snap pics with David Walliams (if you don’t know who that is, Netflix Little Britain stat).

Can’t wait til they meet Anna.

All boys in England should be celebrating. For the first time ever, the super talented Mr. Giles Deacon has launched his very own collaboration with highstreet store New Look Men (he’s done several womenswear collections for them already) and it’s available now.

The 25-piece collection is made up of tees, jeans, jackets and shirts with his signature craziness of gold chains and neon. He also included covetable accessories like these Giles Geo plimsolls that should be everywhere this Spring.

The official statement via New Look’s menswear director: “New Look are delighted to be partners in this venture with Giles, which not only sees the launch of his first menswear collection with us, but also his first menswear collection full stop.”

The best par about it? It’s fun but cheap, prices start at £6, so all you London boys can run to your nearest New Look, while everyone else can buy online.

PS It’s all about the gold Bat T-shirt (left)!

—BR(IT) BOY

Photography by Matthew Kristall - from an upcoming NYLON

It seems Mr. Deacon isn’t the only one enamored with our favorite 1980s video game - behold these leggings, at left, from Topshop.

They may not be the most flattering - horizontal bands of graphics, “POW!”, and “BANG!” don’t help anyone’s thighs - but they are pretty fun. Natalie’s totally into it, but more so in sweater form.

First thought: Wow, icons of yesteryear are totally making a comeback - think DVF and Wonder Woman, Lego at Castelbajac, Monopoly and Reebok, and the return of Christian Francis Roth.

But also: Why Pac-Man and not Ms? Pink and black would be so much less jarring and girls will be the ones wearing them..

But wait: Wasn’t Alice McCall supposed to do an Atari-inspired line for Topshop..?

—ALEXANDRA BEN-GURION