Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• A notorious group of "gem raiders" hit the Cartier in Cannes yesterday and made off with more than $20 million in merchandise. What probably should have been a tip-off that something was amiss: the robbers were all clad in Hawaiian shirts. [Telegraph, Sun]
• Balmain may be getting into the handbag biz. [WWD]
• Big things are planned for Fashion's Night Out, the extravaganza that takes place this September and is designed to get people shopping again. Anna Wintour's brainchild will "involve a cornucopia of in-store events, from parties to personal appearances by designers and celebrities, live music, fashion shows, freebies, charity tie-ins, and extended shopping hours." [WWD]More

Happy Birthday | Designer Vivienne Westwood turns 68 today. Patricia Arquette is turning 41. Robin Wright Penn is 43. Legendary journalist and New Yorker contributor Sy Hersh is turning 72. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is 71. Former State Senator Joe Bruno is 80. Disgraced ex-congressman Tom DeLay is turning 62. Betty Ford is 91. Julian Lennon turns 46. The rapper Biz Markie is 45. Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki is 62. And Richard Hatch, the first winner of Survivor who is currently in prison for tax evasion, is 48 today.

• Pamela Anderson hit the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's show in Paris today. Her boob popped out of her dress at the very end, which was totally an accident, you can rest assured. [SW, HP]
• Reports from various shows at Paris Fashion Week. [WSJ, NYM, T, Telegraph] 
• You can credit/blame Barack Obama's inauguration in January for the recent resurgence in fur. [WSJ]
• Michelle Obama is wearing Michael Kors for her new O cover. [Fashionista]
• Ikram Goldman, Michelle's fashion guru, is in Paris for the shows. [FWD]
• Madonna is teaming up with Ed Hardy on a new clothing line. [Mirror]
• What's it like to be Bernard Arnault, France's richest man and "arguably the most influential tastemaker in the world of luxury"? Quite nice, actually. [WSJ]
• Try not to fall out of your chair—we'd hate you to get hurt—but Esquire has named Prince Charles the "best dressed man in the world." [Guardian]

• More on the clothes and behind-the-scenes drama at Milan Fashion Week. [IHT, Reuters, Telegraph]
• Pop magazine has a new editor: Dasha Zhukova (left), Russian fashion/art "It" girl and girlfriend of billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich. The new editorial board includes the likes of Julia Restoin Roitfeld and Daphne Guinness. [Guardian]
• Oscar dress knockoffs are headed your way, naturally. [NYP]
• Pamela Anderson, who stars in Vivienne Westwood's new ad campaign, will walk the catwalk for her in Paris next week. [Vogue UK]
• McQueen for Target doesn't appear to be selling all that well. [Racked]
• The woman believed to be the highest-grossing saleswoman in Saks' history is now on trial and is facing up to 25 years in prison. [NYT]
• Anna Wintour smiled in Milan today. Really. [FWD]

• Olivier Theyskens is, in fact, parting ways with Nina Ricci. [Grazia, FWD]
• The couture shows in Paris began today and they're as over-the-top as ever. [NYM]
• Brioni just launched a line of suits that cost as much as $43,000 apiece. "The timing was not fortunate for us," says Brioni's CEO. Go figure. [WSJ]
• Tom Ford has introduced a line of men's jeans that retail for $990. They're the same jeans that Ford wears, and the button is plated with 18-karat gold, though, so it's totally worth it. [WWD]
• Vivienne Westwood's ads featuring Pam Anderson have debuted. [Pipeline]
• Hartmarx, Barack Obama's "favorite tailor," has gone bust. [WWD]
• Saks fashion director Michael Fink has left the company. [NYM]
• What do retail employees do during a recession? Try to look busy. [NYT]

• Vivienne Westwood may have designed Carrie's wedding dress for the first Sex and the City movie, but she'd like to write the script for the sequel, and she's even written to Sarah Jessica Parker to make her case. [Telegraph]
• Tracy Feith is the latest designer who has been tapped to do a line for Target. [WWD]
• Fern Mallis says IMG has confirmed 52 designers— including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Michael Kors—for Fashion Week in February. [WSJ]
• Marchesa will be showing, too. [Fashionista]
• Photos of Isaac Mizrahi's new collection for Liz Claiborne. [Pipeline]
• Go alert your mom: Carolina Herrera says long hair after 40 is "out" in her book. "Women need to learn how to age gracefully." [Times UK]

♦ Condé Nast is denying rumors that Si Newhouse plans to replace Anna Wintour at Vogue. "The silliest rumor I ever heard," says a rep. [NYO, WSJ, WWD]
♦ Julia Restoin Roitfeld's response to the suggestion her mom might be taking over for Anna: "She loves Paris too much—she'd never leave." [The Cut]
♦ Zac Posen is working on a new diffusion line. [FWD]
♦ Londoners will get their first taste of Posh Spice's new fashion line tomorrow. [Times UK]
♦ Love Saves the Day, the iconic store in the East Village, is closing. [Racked]
♦ Will fashion shows survive the recession? Some may not. [WSJ]
♦ Bridal designer Gabriella Risatti is making copies of Carrie's Vivienne Westwood wedding dress from the Sex and the City for $15,000. [NYP]

♦  Did you attempt to get your hands on some Comme des Garçons for H&M today? You're braver than us. [Racked]
♦  Cathy Horyn provides a clear-eyed assessment of Barack Obama's sartorial style, pointing out that "his jeans are the loose, jingle-the-change-in-your-pocket type. He belts them at the waist, and when he wears them with white sneakers and a windbreaker, one could almost say he had stolen the look from Jerry Seinfeld's character on the television series." [NYT]
♦  At Diane von Furstenberg's party for Financial Times editor Vanessa Friedman, André Leon Talley broadcast his delight over Obama's victory in the most appropriate way: The back of his coat was emblazoned with "The New American Dream" in crystals. [WWD]
♦  Also gushing about the Obamas? Donna Karan, who says: "I'm hoping to get to work with them—it would be my dream. They are so committed to ideals that are much in alignment with mine." [WWD]More

♦  Diane von Furstenberg has not only designed a collection inspired by Wonder Woman, she's also authored a comic book featuring superheroines Diva, Viva and Fifa. [WWD, DVF]
♦  Backstage at Marc Jacobs' Louis Vuitton Paris show, the models flipped up their skirts to show Cathy Horyn an important detail: lace underwear monogrammed with LV. [On the Runway]
♦  Jessica Stam's East Village apartment, designed by Rafael de Cardenas, is sickeningly fabulous for a 22-year-old. [Jezebel]
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♦  Whitney Port's clothing line is now available! Needless to say, it's overpriced and underdesigned. [FabSugar]
♦  A juicy bit of gossip from Vivienne Westwood's Paris show last night: Kate Winslet is in the running to play the legendary designer in a Universal Pictures biopic. [SassyBella]
♦  Polygamist bouffants are now très chic, if we're to believe W and Vogue, which have the bizarre hairstyles on Linda Evangelista and Isabeli Fontana, respectively. But what's Tim Gunn going to say? [NYO] More

♦  Model Coco Rocha has been filming a series for Style.com called the "Insider's Guide to Backstage." Her invaluable tips include how to steal shoes from runway shows and how to dodge cameras. [Fashionologie]
♦  Could Marc Jacobs be opening a store in the East Village? That's the rumor. [Fashionista]
♦  Norwegian designer Peter Dundas is taking over from Matthew Williamson as the artistic director for Pucci. [WWD]
♦  Vivienne Westwood's show was the event of London Fashion Week, with Dita Von Teese, Pamela Anderson, Emma Watson, Kate Moss, Mischa Barton, and Tilda Swinton front row. [Daily Mail]
♦  By the end of the night, however, Moss was snapped looking completely wrecked as she emerged from a nightclub with Allegra Versace, who isn't keeping the best company for a recovering anorexic. [Mirror]

The public face of PETA, Dan Mathews, has been flying around the world as usual, but instead of focusing solely on orchestrating wacky animal rights stunts, he's promoting his book, Committed: a Rabble-Rouser's Memoir, in which he describes PETA's public enemy no. 1, Anna Wintour, as looking "like she has constant, painful gas." Attacks on the Vogue editor have created some of the biggest headlines for PETA, but she remains intransigent in the face of gay ex-model Mathew's inventive campaigns:

In 1992, the group invaded and occupied her offices. In 1997, her Manhattan town house was daubed with blood-coloured paw prints and the slogan 'fur hag'. During lunch at the Four Seasons a woman threw a dead racoon onto her plate with the cry, 'This is for the animals!' In response Wintour has increased the amount of fur on her pages, encouraged young designers to use it, refused to run anti-fur ads, and displayed an icy disdain: hit full-face with a tofu cream pie outside a Parisian fashion show, her only response was, 'Tofu is very good for the skin.'

Other fashion figures, Mathew tells journalist Alix Sharkey, are a bit more susceptible to his persuasion:More