The most anticipated show of the spring 2011 season, currently under way in London, is arguably Alexander McQueen. The label's new head designer, Sarah Burton, will present her first full solo runway collection for the label since McQueen took his own life in February. Suzy Menkes, addressing the crowd at McQueen's memorial service in London yesterday, called the late designer "an artist who just happened to work with clothing," whose "work was deeply personal." Anna Wintour acknowledged at the same event how ingenious and influential McQueen was. The last full-blown runway show McQueen put on — a dramatic theatrical event called "Plato's Atlantis" tricked out with moving robotic cameras and some of the dreamiest and most terrifying shoes ever made — would have gone down in the fashion history books whether the designer passed away or not. And now continuing the label and the vision falls on Burton's shoulders. But no pressure or anything!

When it comes to his appeal on the runway, "I don't think anyone will be able to keep up with McQueen," said fashion consultant Robert Burke, president and CEO of Robert Burke Associates. "I think it would probably be best to not try to compete with that." But he added: "Keeping consistency with the brand is really important. Any kind of major departure would not be good."

Burton was McQueen's right-hand woman for years, having worked under him for a total of fourteen. But The Wall Street Journal adds that "as a chief designer, she remains an unknown quantity," and that Gucci Group, which owns the label, declined to make her available for an interview. Continuing labels without top, legendary designers is difficult, but it can be done. Francisco Costa has done a terrific job succeeding Calvin Klein after working under him. Donatella Versace is finding her footing at the label her brother founded. And Lindsay Lohan was finally dismissed from Ungaro, which only restores faith in the universe of founderless high-fashion labels. Burton did a lovely job with McQueen's resort collection. I can't wait to see what she does for spring 2011.

Disney just released what it's calling the "first image" for GNOMEO & JULIET, the greatest love story ever told, starring garden gnomes. Adapted from Shakespeare, directed by Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) with classic and original songs by Elton John, it features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt.

I cannot wait to see this! Adorable animation & one of my favorite plays of all time, I know this is going to be a huge success for Disney!

It’s no secret that I'm obsessed with anything and everything related to Rachel Zoe — and her style director Brad Goreski is no exception. From shirtless photos taken by Terry Richardson, to his spot-on personal style, Goreski is quickly and widely becoming recognized as a style star and perhaps, as The New York Times’ Ben Widdicombe suggests, the zeitgeist of current men’s fashion.

But before the two talked about that, Goreski had to explain the difference between look and lewk, and go over a few other points of vernacular:

“A ‘lewk’ is like, ‘I’m wearing a lewk today,’ it’s something that everybody will notice. It’s like you’re out of the pages of a magazine, that’s a lewk.”

“ ‘Werk’ is a feeling,” he continued, “like you werk your lewk. Like, was it werking? Was it happening, was it going on? A mayjor lewk is, like, above and beyond actual major.”

And as it turns out, there’s a lot Idon’t know about Goreski — and he wants to keep it that way:

Not all about Mr. Goreski’s life is apparent from what is seen on the reality show. He said he moved from his native Port Perry, Ontario, to Los Angeles nine years ago “for love.” And although he is still in that relationship, he declined to give any details about his partner, other than to say the gentleman is from Queens.

Goreski did let Widdicombe and readers in on secrets about his childhood, like what it was like growing up chubby — and how Terry Richardson got him to take his clothes off.

Also, he didn’t always look so good in a fitted blazer and cropped pants. “I was a little chubby, rosy-cheeked kid,” he said of his teenage years. “When you grow up being overweight, sometimes it doesn’t leave you.”

His transition from vulnerable small-town teenager to pop-culture fodder was cemented in May, when pictures of a shirtless Mr. Goreski taken by the art photographer Terry Richardson were splattered across blogs and Tumblr pages. Mr. Richardson, he said, coaxed him in front of the lens while the intended subject of the day’s shoot, Cameron Diaz, was still in hair and make-up.

“He said: ‘You’ve got a really big bicep, I wasn’t expecting that. Take off your shirt,’ ” Mr. Goreski recalled. “From being a chubby kid from Port Perry, Ontario, to having your picture taken shirtless by Terry Richardson is a big, feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway moment.”

Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle, put it this way about Mr. Goreski: “Brad has become a style icon for this entire new generation of young, cool, preppy, dapper guys. Fashion goes in cycles, and there’s so much of a return to this stately elegance that men want to dress like, but not in a stuffy, uptight kind of way. And I think what Brad does is reinterpret it in a very modern way so you can put on a bow tie but not feel old.”

Janie Bryant, the costume designer for “Mad Men,” said Mr. Goreski was a style icon in the mode of designers like Thom Browne and Paul Smith, who triumph proper fitting and tailoring. “In the 1980s men’s stores really lost the knowledge of how to fit a man’s body and sizing, because the styles were oversized, and the culture became more casual,” Ms. Bryant said. “Now men are really thirsting for that knowledge of: ‘What’s my size? What’s a proper fitting shirt? How do I buy a suit?’ ”

Rachel Zoe, who tried to give Mr. Goreski a fashion makeover in a recent episode with limited success, had a similar theory about his stylistic appeal. “I think men today are more interested in well-tailored pieces that are sophisticated and timeless,” Ms. Zoe said, in her read of the male fashion zeitgeist. “Brad has been a champion for the return to very classic, traditional men’s wear.”

For his part, Brad seems to understand that to trumpet his own style influence would be to undermine it. “I feel like because of a lull in men’s fashion and because of the platform to be on the show, it was an immediate way for people to see a style that has been around for a long time.”

Still, he adds, “at the time I was wearing it, it was not really that prevalent.”

“The Rachel Zoe Project,” whose third season concludes Sept. 21, has enjoyed growing ratings in its Tuesday night time slot. According to figures released by Bravo, the second episode of the current season received a series-record viewership of 1.28 million people. This year’s average is a respectable 1.12 million an episode, a 35 percent increase on the season before.

Unusual for reality TV, the show features a cast that actually seems to like one another — at least this season. Ms. Zoe’s previous style director, Taylor Jacobson, injected tension into the first two seasons with her brusque manner, at one point reducing Mr. Goreski, then merely an assistant, to tears. But Ms. Jacobson was dismissed in the hiatus between the second and third seasons, elevating Brad to his current position.

Extra screen time has its privileges. Brad now routinely accompanies Ms. Zoe to major fashion shows both here and in Europe to secure the most promising new red carpet gowns for their paparazzi-bait clients. At the spring 2011 collections, held last week in New York, Brad found that he was famous enough in his own right to command a seat in the front row.

Paris Hilton made her way to court on Monday and rejoined a long line of starlets and socialites who undergo My Fair Lady-esque makeovers in preparation for their hearings. Hilton, who pled guilty to two misdemeanor drug counts and was sentenced to one year probation, donned a low-cut white blouse, black knit, high-waisted wrap skirt, and no shortage of bling for her time before the judge. First of all, I am still angry that she is sitting home, snuggled in her Egyptian cotton sheets, laughing at the court system, instead of scrubbing toilets in prison. She has had so many run-ins with the law, and each time, it's a slap on the wrist. Those 23 days she served a couple years ago apparently weren't enough. Secondly, the car she was the passenger in, in Las Vegas, where the cocaine was found in her purse, wreaked of marijuana and was enough to get the attention of police officers. Obviously she and her new boy toy were under the influence, and driving. How many people are in danger of she and whoeever she hangs out when they are on the road? Innocent people die everyday due to idiots who drive drunk or high. Why is she an exception to this? I don't think paying a fine and community service is justice. I think it's ignorant that community service, which let's face, is given as a punishment, will bring Paris Hilton to your local bedside in a hospital or an animal shelter. Why is helping kids a punishment???? I hope and pray she continues to screw up so she lands in jail for a year. Not to hear her whiney-baby voice for a year will be music to my ears. Ugh. Words can't express my anger.

It’s really hard to take Elle seriously on this. In an industry that rarely celebrates the more conventional beauty of black actresses such as Gabrielle Union, Sanaa Lathan, or Kerry Washington on magazine covers, are we really supposed to believe that they’ve somehow seen the light with Sidibe? Or is it really the fact that Sidibe‘s plus-sized beauty is a nonthreatening beauty? It’s a beauty so completely opposite from the white world’s ideal of attractive that it feels safe to give Sidibe’s all the kudos in the world. Somehow, after one film, Sidibe has so beguiled the fashion and beauty industry that reportedly even mega-makeup artist Bobbi Brown is in discussions with the actress to develop her own makeup line. It’s difficult not to be cynical. Regina King (another wonderful actress who gets little press or fanfare) wrote an article about being mistaken for actress Rutina Wesley from the HBO show True Blood, on the Emmys’ red carpet. Not exactly progress for women of color.