Fashion Wire Daily - Gucci took its cruise 2009 collection to the top of Rome's highest hill, the Gianicolo, on Tuesday night, where under umbrella pines and before an audience of Hollywood, politico honchos and coolly haughty Italian aristos, designer Frida Giannini staged probably her best show to date for the house.

Reuters - Rome's new right-wing mayor says he wants to turn the ancient city into a modern hub for budding fashion designers, dismissing criticism that the city's rich art and culture credentials will take a beating under his command.

Reuters - Billowy summer dresses pinned with gold shells and flared trousers from a bygone era of languid glamour dominated Gucci's pre-spring show at a 17th century hilltop villa in designer Frida Giannini's native Rome.

Reuters - British designer Katharine Hamnett is relishing a comeback now that the fashion world has finally caught up with her campaigning notions about clothes.

Fashion Wire Daily - Next time somebody tells you there is a dearth of young design ideas in Italian fashion, tell them to head to Rome for the Franca Sozzani driven talent showcase Who Is On Next, which this weekend unearthed some quirky and cool new designers whose names won't be unknown for much more.

Fashion Wire Daily - Half the passages in this week's haute couture show by Jean Paul Gaultier had birds' names; several were simply entitled cage, befitting a collection where many of fashion's most beautiful models hit the runway bound in wire traps or metal frames.

Fashion Wire Daily - Valentino's creative director Alessandra Facchinetti faced trial by jury Wednesday at 6.30 PM in Paris.

Fashion Wire Daily - Givenchy couture took a tour of the Andes this week in Paris, as the house's creative director Riccardo Tisci sent out a phalanx of models in alpaca en route on a motorbike tour of Peru.

AP - Designer Alessandra Facchinetti on Wednesday dispelled any doubts about her ability to fill legendary designer Valentino's shoes, drawing warm applause for her first-ever haute couture collection for the Italian label.

Fashion Wire Daily - The giant, faux aluminum grain silos practically touched the glass roof of the Grand Palais Tuesday, as the haute collection created by Karl Lagerfeld similarly soared to new heights of chic and levels of aesthetic fancy.

Fashion Wire Daily - Giorgio Armani calls his haute couture collection Armani Prive, but maybe he might consider renaming it Armani Red Carpet.

AP - The history of Russian fashion label Irfe reads like a rollicking bestseller, but for designer Olga Sorokina, it's a fairytale come true.

Fashion Wire Daily - Christian Dior: Lisa Fonssagrives Lives Godfrey Deeny June 30th, 2008 @ 3:56 PM - Paris Beauty as an ethereal phenomena that makes the viewer feel, even be, better from seeing it was the real message at the thoroughly excellent Christian Dior haute couture collection staged Monday in Paris, a requiem for arguably the most iconic model of them all, Lisa Fonssagrives.