• Is Barneys headed for bankruptcy? Once again, some are suggesting the retailer may go bust, or at least be forced to partner with another company. And once again, Barneys' owner, Dubai-based Istithmar, is reiterating that it remains "fully committed" to the chain. [BN, AP]
• Every other celebrity has a clothing line. Now news personalities are getting in on the action: Al Roker is reportedly in talks with Weatherproof to start up a line of "rain jackets, coats, footwear and cold weather accessories." [WWD]
• A PR agency staffer is accused of ripping off nearly $100K in jewelry. [NYP]

• Matthew Williamson's H&M line goes on sale tomorrow at 9AM. Prepare for a mob scene! [NYM]
• Lauren Conrad is teaming up with Kohl's to introduce "a casual California-inspired clothing line for young women." And she was kind enough to make a video about it, too. [NYT, Racked]
• It's official: Peter Copping is the new artistic director at Nina Ricci, where he'll have the unenviable task of filling the void left by Olivier Theyskens. [WWD, Style.com]
• André Leon Talley's "custom Obama tribute pin" is awfully chic, don't you agree? [FWD]

• Retailers in Soho who were expecting to see a boost in sales thanks to the opening of Topshop were greatly disappointed this week. [Crains, photo via Flickr]
• Some fashion insiders are a bit miffed that Michelle Obama has shown "zero interest in the big guns of American fashion" in favor of the "new and niche." [WWD]
• Daisy Lowe is getting her own show on MTV. [Pipeline]
• Victoria's Secret has signed up Christian Siriano to do makeup. [Fashionista]
• Nina Ricci's new designer will probably be Peter Copping. [FWD]
• A day in the life of Thakoon Panichgul. In Hong Kong. [Style.com]
• The beauty brand Stila may have gone bankrupt. [Fashionista]

Magnus Berger and Tenzin Wild's The Last Magazine threw a party last night to celebrate its second issue and the end of Fashion Week. Guests included Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, Richard Chai, Michael Stipe, Gabi Asfour, Byrdie Bell, Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld, Zoe Kravitz, Daisy Lowe, Stavros Niarchos, Natasha Poly, Derek Blasberg, Julia Stegner, designer Robert Geller, PC Valmorbida, Justin Portman, and Jamie Burke. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG, SF]

♦ For his spring campaigns, Marc Jacobs is eschewing celeb-muses like Meg White and Posh Spice: He's cast Israeli model Raquel Zimmerman for his Collection ads, British model Daisy Lowe for Marc by Marc, and Ryan McGinley for men's. [WWD]
♦ Are you a pregnant Project Runway fan? Then march (or waddle) over to the West Village tomorrow to meet Christian Siriano when he unveils his maternity line, Fierce Mamas. [The Cut]
♦ Plans for a Barneys store in the meatpacking district are definitely underway. The most likely location is on West 13th Street. [The Daily]

♦ Milan Fashion Week's climax was yesterday's Dolce and Gabbana show attended by Jennifer Lopez, Dita Von Teese, Petra Nemcova, Eva Herzigova, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, who relapsed slightly from her recent all sweetness to yell at paparazzi: "Leave me alone!" [WWD]
♦ Norma Kamali has designed a collection for Wal-Mart: Nothing will be more than $20 and you can catch an early look at the T-shirts, dresses and skirts at Kamali's West 56th Street store. [NYDN]
♦ The CW has released contestants' bios in advance of the October debut of Stylista. One lucky winner will get an apartment, an editorial job at Elle, and a clothing allowance at H&M. A lifetime of therapy to get over the public humilation? Not provided. [The Cut]

♦ Rachel Zoe is "a pox on humanity—exploiting an aesthetic of dissipation, invading our collective consciousness and spraying it with dummy dust," says Ginia Bellafante in the Times, who clearly needs to get in touch with her feelings more. [NYT]
♦ So what are luxury brands supposed to do now that their rich customers are distinctly fewer in number? Market themselves like religions, according to brand strategist Lucian James. [JC Report]
♦ The CEO and president of Gucci, Mark Lee, is stepping down, and will be replaced by Bottega Veneta's Patrizio di Marco. [WWD]

• Jennifer Lopez competed in a triathalon in Malibu, then flew to New York to throw Marc Anthony a birthday party at the Bowery Hotel. It's unclear, though, if she ever had an injured foot, which was the reason she gave for pulling out of the Project Runway finale last week and now some are wondering if a fight with Harvey Weinstein over a movie role was the real reason she cancelled. [People, NYDN, MSNBC]

• Drama abounded at DKNY's show yesterday: PETA protestors burst onto the runway, shouting and brandishing placards—to the apparent amusement of André Leon Talley—while Petra Nemcova's new bangs rendered her unrecognizable and therefore unmolested by the media. Meanwhile the rather random celebrity trio of Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci, and Nicole Richie were regaled with "combinations of electric blue and black, neon pink and yellow anorak dresses, parachute pants and color-blocked knits" and a finale led by Donna Karan's five-year-old granddaughter Stefania. [The Cut, Fashionologie, NYDN, Telegraph]
  
  

• The Obama campaign is marshalling the full power of the fashion industry to get ahead: A long list of designers—definitely including Derek Lam, Isaac Mizrahi, Tracy Reese, and Diane von Furstenberg and possibly including Beyoncé, Russell Simmons, and Vera Wang—will be creating official merchandise like totes and t-shirts. [WaPo]

Another day, another young celeb's indiscreet and gently ambisexual set of pics find their way into the public eye. This time it's the turn of 19-year-old British model Daisy Lowe—Mark Ronson's current girlfriend and Gavin Rossdale's long-lost love child—who's also regaled readers of GQ with her impressions of what passes for romance in New York. [The Sun]