A self-portrait of supermodel Kate Moss has fetched £33,600 at an auction by Lyon & Turnball of Edinburgh.
   The painting was done in lipstick and has writing in blood from her former boyfriend, Pete Doherty. It was done while the two were still in a relationship.
   Doherty’s words read, ‘Who needs blood when you’ve got lipstick?’
   Its certificate of authenticity was written on a napkin by Moss.
   Lyon & Turnball said the painting failed to reach the reserve price and was bought by an unnamed private collector.—Press Association, agencies

Left: It’s not even that good a quality (the technical aspects, not the subject) but this is one of the more regularly pirated shots of Samantha Powell online. Some blogging services have been kindly getting it removed from around the web on our behalf—one had this shot and another one of Jennifer Hawkins from this website, but thought they both were of Sam! Here’s hoping Doug’s ones tomorrow won’t wind up plastered everywhere illegally.

You have to wonder about the unpredictable weather here in Wellington, with Miss New Zealand Samantha Powell’s shoot tomorrow. It’s looking mighty cold, despite our apparently having started daylight saving (not that there was much media coverage about that). Doug, the photographer, is being reminded of why he moved to Sydney: the weather. We have a contingency plan but input is still being sought—especially as the issue comes out in the summer and grey skies in the background might not be that appropriate.
   I haven’t led a shoot for some years so this is an interesting experience being put into that role, but it’s a reunion of sorts and I really wanted to work with Doug on this one. It’s also a good chance to work first-hand with the reigning Miss Wellington, make-up artist Rebecca Connor, who will do Sam’s make-up. (Doug and I met Rebecca at the same party.) It’s all a bit of a journey down memory lane.

What better way to commemorate the centenary of the Ford Model T than with a test drive of the modern-day equivalent, the basic Ford Focus hatchback? This appears on Lucire today, and the text link to the free supplement on the home page has now been fixed—so you can download pages from the print edition plus some exclusive features for free.

A New York court has agreed with NBC Universal’s preliminary injunction application, preventing the shifting of the reality TV show Project Runway to Lifetime. The application alleged that NBC Universal’s right of first refusal was violated.
   Project Runway current airs on NBC Universal’s Bravo cable channel in the US, but Lifetime had announced a $150 million deal earlier this year saying it had secured the next five seasons of the show.
   NBC Universal has also filed a breach of contract lawsuit with the Weinstein Co., which produces the show. A motion to dismiss the suit was denied.
   Lifetime has been ordered by the court to cease ‘promotion, marketing and exhibition’ of the show.
   The show was originally planned to air in November, but Lifetime had announced that that had been postponed to January.

We’re preparing to shoot Samantha Powell, Miss Universe New Zealand 2008, on Tuesday. Photographer Doug Rimington is flying in from Sydney tonight and I collect him at the airport in a BMW 120i Cabriolet that the company has lent to me; and the Tissot Fabulous Garden watch has arrived, delivered personally by Griffiths McKay & Buckleigh’s Lynette Kopu. Our one is prettier than the one featured in Lucire this month: it has a gold face, and the watch is nicer in the metal, but the price is the same (NZ$775). No word from the press person at an Auckland label whom I called last week, so it looks like Starfish (our first choice) will be supplying both dresses for Sam.
   Not that I know what the photos will look like, but there is a good chance the next New Zealand-edition cover will be shot by a Kiwi.

[Cross-posted] Not directly about fashion, but possibly still of interest to those in to blogging and social media, particularly their relevance to modern business. My friend Tim Kitchin (left) has an excellent video series, Window Cleaning, on his company’s website. Tim leads the first video on social communication (a very fitting introduction), while Johnnie Moore follows up with an interview about the benefits of social media and their raison d’être and their limitations. Nicholas Ind, author of Living the Brand, has a video interview on what makes Patagonia (where there may be lessons for fashion labels) the perfect role model for social communications. This does make it very Medinge Group-heavy, so Alan Knight does contribute a piece on the use of a wiki at AccountAbility. This is the best video series I have ever seen on these topics, especially from a brand point-of-view—surf there through this link.

We had an unusual call from Hayley Dryland earlier today about New Zealand’s biggest toast on record to launch this year’s 20th anniversary Montana World of Wearable Art (WOW) show.
   Katherine Thomson, currently interning with us, and I drove down to Civic Square to see a targeted 500 people raise their glasses of Montana Reserve Brut Cuvée to launch the event. Ultimately, 430 were captured on camera raising their plastic flutes, standing in position to form the letters WOW, as seen from the air. And the 500 who participated (all over 18) were given a voucher for a bottle of the Montana bubbly for their trouble, redeemed at Capital City Wines on Waring Taylor Street.
   Both WOW artistic director Suzie Moncrieff (above left, after coming down from the platform) and Montana sponsorship manager Glen Candy—a long-standing friend of this magazine—were present. Below is a video edited during the day from Spark’s team, plus a few camera–cellphone images we captured of the preparations.

A lot of effort went in to making the WOW letters look right. Official photographers and cameramen went up the platform.

We can assure readers that these folks are holding glasses in the final photograph and not saluting something politically incorrect.

Folks, I have had to turn down, in the interests of balance, an advertising campaign from the Obama for America people. This is not the first time we have had to opt out of advertising, no matter how much money was on offer. (Interestingly, it is usually the Democrats who are keen to advertise online; even Howard Dean approached us in 2004 during the primaries.) If the Republican Party also had a web campaign, then I will, of course, reconsider the Obama campaign, and allow the advertising space on this site to be a bit more of a battleground. For me, I believe in a balanced political process and I feel uncomfortable with allowing one major party to gain an advantage over another using this title.
   If I deem it appropriate (e.g. the principles are in line with this magazine’s), I might consider giving a minor party an airing though—simply because one never hears their views through the mainstream media. It is less likely to happen as there is less money involved.
   Did I do the right thing? Comments from either side of the spectrum are welcome.

Left: On your newsstands, Lucire no. 26, with cover by Kelly Thompson. Below left: The cover to the downloadable free supplement, with cover by Morand/Zwirner Photography (the full shoot appears in the newsstand edition).

Issue 26 of Lucire is on the newsstands, but we realize some readers overseas mightn’t want to order it online if they can’t get it in their countries. Plus our regular readers might want a few extra articles. Therefore, you can download, once again, the Lucire supplement, featuring articles that go beyond the regular print edition. Jack Yan talks about the passing of Yves Saint Laurent, Nathan Gray reports from Beijing, Tiago Espirito Santo looks at Moda Lisboa, and Gordana Sermek photographs Croatia’s Cro-à-Porter fashion show.
   You can download the supplement as a 150 dpi edition (under 29 Mbyte) or a 72 dpi one (11 Mbyte) as a free PDF.

Steve Leon at Springtv and his team ventured to Starfish’s store reopening at the end of August and have some great footage of the event, plus they get to ask the host, Laurie Foon, and some of the guests there (myself included) what we’re wearing. Here are the two videos from Lucire TV—the first of many under this brand. For the article about the reopening, click here. Thanks, Steve, Simon and Clare! (You can also catch these clips on YouTube.)