Once again the murmurs rose above a whisper: The coming doom of haute couture. As masters of the fashion universe gathered to view the Chanel Spring 2009 presentation inside 47 Rue Cambon, talk tended toward the viability, the relevance of showing haute couture while outside, Paris and the rest of the world was burning.

Nothing like a room of cool kids to get me clicking. The coolest of them all, however, was Zume, a spunky sprite who must've been no more than 8 and was keeping as busy as any photographer there shooting every guest, every model and every moment.

If Gareth Pugh was exhausted following his first-ever all-menswear presentation late Sunday night, it wasn’t evident in the slightest. About an hour after the final boy model marched backstage and Gareth took his bow at the Palais de Tokio, the Sunderland kid was downstairs in the snazzy restaurant, crouching next to our dinner host and his business partner Michele Lamy.

We met this cute teen enroute from Manchester to Paris, where he was off to meet up with some friends for the weekend. My fast snap doesn't quite do justice. But I loved his attention to detail, from the narrow winklepickers to his guitar case covered in faux snakeskin.

Among the battle gear and daily wares filling Tullie House, our museum excursion during our Cumbria visit (hello Pauline and Pops!), were these uber heavy metal accessories. The wee wristlet outweighs even the weightiest of Chloe bags.

We may be missing out on the flurry of chat show talk in the U.S. since Tuesday's inauguration, but we're hardly escaping Obama fever.

Oh happy day. Not only did I get to catch every moment of the Inauguration this morning because our flight to the UK was cancelled last night.

It really didn’t matter how thick I lined my eyes or how high my snakeskin boots arched.
Who could compete with the drag dolls who were out in full-on fabulous force lastnight at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cherokee?

This might as well go down as the day the music died. Again.
L.A.-based radio station 103.1, that bastion of aural pleasure that played like an eclectic iPod with the spirit of someone who still had a pair of steel-toe Doc Martens in her closet is going off the air.

While all doom and gloom about the economy is obviously warranted, I love designer Olivier Theyskens comment to a fashion reporter yesterday morning after showing his pre-fall collection for Nina Ricci in New York:
“When the economy changes, it’s not like you want to start eating bad-tasting chocolate.”

Or, for that matter, be an absolute bore in dress.

MIA? Sort of. Since the bubbly-filled ritual to ring in the new year, I've been hibernating, nose in the laptop as I try to wrap up one manuscript (Fred Hayman book) and move on to another (Dita's yet to be announced beauty how-to).