“And new-millennium Balmain has definitely caught the fashion moment, as well as the attention of a whole wide world of bloggers, Tweeters and cyberspace image makers. They see in Mr. Decarnin the vibe of the moment: love it, grab it, own it, have fun with it. MySpace is his space.” —Suzy Menkes in her interesting IHT article that cites Balmain and Christophe Decarnin getting twice the Tweets and Google results of the superior, in her opinion, Nicolas Ghesquière and Balenciaga.

“Balenciaga has become my second home,” Charlotte Gainsbourg told WWD.

Gainsbourg - actress, French music royalty and (official) face of the brand for the past year - is working on a fragrance with Nicolas Ghesquiere and Coty. Executives were quick to point out that she was chosen based on her almost indivisible ties to the brand and a deep rooted friendship with the designer, not for her continually rising fame.

The pair are in Los Angeles today to shoot the perfume’s ad campaign and throw a party in honor of the announcement. No word on the actual scent. We always envisioned the Balenciaga girl to be too cool for perfume, though their investors obviously don’t agree. If we had to guess, we’d predict something quite rich and musky, no?

Honestly, one of the things that we found most revealing from Anna’s long-awaited 60 Minutes interview is that Morley Safer seems to be a bit of a hater.

Not of Anna, per se, but the fashion world in general.

We understand this is not his normal beat. But sit downs with the likes of Nicolas, Karl, and Galliano are not handed out lightly…and should be respected, Mr. Safer.

His voice-overs were way snarky. Deriding Karl for choosing what he called the “Dracula look” this season and stating that Galliano looks like he needs a better tailor!

Morley, what did the fash flock do to make you so surly?

On a separate note, from now on we will rather enjoy thinking of Anna as a doctor doling out stoic medical analysis at 4 Times Square, per Andre’s comparison. Hanging up layouts like x-rays and slicing up stories, hiding all personal emotion from her scared patients, er, editors.

What did you guys think of the piece?

We love Kelly Wearstler, the adorable interior designer who’s quickly becoming her own lifestyle brand, especially since she shows up in Vogue in odd Marni pieces and the really editorial Marc stuff.

And we love her Domino cover, especially because her shoes are shiny and gold like her incredibly expensive bric-a-brac at Bergdorf, and she’s smiling in a big way.

But while flipping through the issue this weekend (don’t ask), the credits page kind of took us aback, like:

- Why is it “Justin Guinta”, when we all know it’s really Subversive? Does he design a separate line we’ve never heard of? Or is this like when credits read “Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga”, which bugs us to no end?

- Why is Kelly wearing $451 jeans and $2,300 worth of jewelry? Really? In a magazine that’s about style and smart design, we would much rather see something more realistic. It’s so great to see a cover girl in jeans, but it would be way more inspiring for Lauren Goodman to accessorize with something like this cuff (as seen in Editors’ Cravings, page 38), which we’re dying over, but could actually afford. We’re all for investment pieces, but this seems a little ridiculous.

- Why no credit for the shoes? They’re arguably the best part, even though they’re untied…

—BRETT KANE

Here’s an exciting rumor:

Balenciaga’s been calling in models to Paris for castings. Male models.

Yes.

We don’t know if this means a full line of menswear or just boys in drag, but keep your eyes peeled, especially since his next show is just next week.

Obviously, we really want to see if Nicolas can do for menswear what he’s been doing so successfully for women’s wear.

Will he make feminine boy clothes to complement the way he’s kicked wide open the door for masculine women’s wear? Will he take the futuristic direction that he’s planted in the minds of so many other designers to another exponential level? Does this make Nicolas the new Hedi?

Stay tuned…

—LEAH MELTZER

Hedi Slimane doing jeans for Diesel might not be the most shocking rumor out there, but it does leave us wondering when denim lines became the new Target.

Though rumors of a Slimane/Diesel collaboration have been circulating for a while, WWD sounds confident the project will materialize soon. Apparently, Diesel owner Renzo Rosso aims to court an even more exclusive customer with the new Red Collection.

We hope the collection includes jeans for girls, too - and that they’re not so skinny we can’t wiggle our way into them.

So now, Alber’s at Acne, Hedi’s at Deisel, and Marc’s already done Wrangler - how about Luella for 18th Amendment?

The Albright girls from the Albright NYC Fashion Library.

Got Them: At the Free Arts auction at Milk Studios last night.

Stalked Them: Well, actually, we were stalking Clive Owen but he was nowhere to be found.

Shot Them: Because they stood out among the Chuck Closes and Marilyn Minters hanging on the walls. Oh, also because we’ve never seen real girls rock Balenciaga, and it was kind of amazing.

They Say: “Real girls should wear Balenciaga! It’s actually depressing how much they dumb down the collection from the runway to the racks. I mean, the poufy sleeves have like a quarter the volume they’re supposed to! Can you believe their shape was actually held by styrofoam?!”

We Say: Only Nicolas could make styrofoam work.

WWD reports rapidly circulating rumors of Charlotte Gainsbourg for Balenciaga AW’08.

Did Jennifer Connelly set a celebrity precedent for Nicolas Ghesquière?

Because we were really hoping the brand would return to the good old days of real models and launch more girls like Hilary, Coco and Suvi.

We love Charlotte as much as the next francophile, fashion obsessed girl, but try as we might we just can’t picture her wearing those razor sharp black dresses.

Maybe Carine can give her lessons in dominatrix like dressing?