Jean Charles De Castlebajac (try saying that five times fast) is launching a diffusion line this fall at London Fashion Week. (Not too surprising given the habit of big designers looking to make money a little more quickly and easily.) What is surprising, however, is the fact that he’s not casting the show from the same crop of 200 or so lovely, skinny ladies who crawl the catwalks for pretty much every show around. Instead, he’s holding an open model search for “real” girls and boys 16 to 25.

So if you’ve always harbored a semi-secret desire to be a model, send a picture to rsvpcasting@jc-de-castelbajac.com before September 7th and keep those fingers crossed. [Elle UK]

“She’s been doing this for so long, surrounded by men. [...] There’s absolutely a feminist aspect to her. I think a lot of the attacks against her are misogynist. Men in business are totally cutthroat and nobody says bad things about them for it.”

—Model Elettra Wiedemann on “feminist hero,” Vogue editor-in-chief, and “The September Issue” star Anna Wintour [The Cut]

Earlier this week, Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive wrote a blog post about a photo in the magazine’s September issue that has caused her inbox to overflow. The 3-by-3-inch photo on page 194 of the magazine is of 20-year-old model Lizzi Miller in a practically non-existent pair of underwear. What got Glamour readers so excited was how normal Miller looks. She’s a size 12 to 14, and has a little pudge on her stomach.

Leive suggests readers toast Miller and “the spectacular sexiness of owning who you are,” and goes on to say that Glamour is listening, and asks what kinds of images women would like to see in the magazine. If this is the kind of image that gets women excited, why don’t magazines print more like it?

Iconic New York City boutique, Henri Bendel is embracing the future. Instead of the standard slim mannequins draped in high end gear, the Fifth Avenue store has hired live models for their display windows. These girls are not posing for your viewing pleasure, instead, they are Facebooking. (And you thought it was tough working at Hollister...) How to participate and win a Bendel’s shopping spree, after the jump…

If you can’t tell already, the theme emerging here in The Frisky style section today is models suffering for their “art.” And lest you think photo shoots are all pampering facials and kicky jumps in the air, check out this extremely gruesome, The Cure soundtrack-appropriate, behind-the-scenes V magazine cover shoot, if you dare. Mwah-ha-ha... [Fashion Copious]

The new season of “Project Runway” premieres tomorrow night on Lifetime. So, as a stunt, they sent all the models with the Naked Cowboy around Times Square riding atop a double decker bus. While we thought leaving Bravo was backwards, now we’re wondering why did they get a dude who runs around nearly nude to promote a show about clothes? Hmm, I smell a challenge, designers. [New York City, 8/19/09]

Supermodel Lara Stone has made a big splash for her curvy figure, and her appeal is all wrapped up in that whole Brigitte Bardot blonde bombshell thing. (That “thing” never gets old, now does it?) That’s why it’s sort of surprising that she’s gone a more demure brunette for her second big French Vogue cover. Personally, I have a bit of a girl crush, so I’ll take Lara whether it’s blonde, brown or blue. Which do you prefer?

Today the Daily Mail reports that Kate Moss, presumably horrified by the recent unflattering photos of her looking a bit un-supermodel-like on vacay in St Tropez, is going on a health kick. “A source said: ‘Kate didn’t like seeing pictures of the state of her skin while she was on holiday. She knows it’s down to her lifestyle, so she is deciding to try a particular health plan to help regain a fresh look.’” The idea is to take 10 years off. Perhaps she’ll consult GOOP for fasting regimens?

Seriously though, here’s why this kind of sucks.

If you love to watch old runway videos as much as I do, has Betsey Johnson got a treat for us today! The designer just posted her runway archives, which, even if you’re not a huge fan of hers, are amazing for the following reasons: a.) They are a fascinating glimpse back at some crazy shows before Fashion Week became this colossal commercial entity; b.) They remind us that her dresses were what all the cool girls were wearing during the ‘80s; and c.) Her sense of fun and whimsy hasn’t changed over the years. You won’t see stompy, sad-eyed models moping down a Betsey catwalk, and to this day the designer still does a cartwheel at the end of the presentation. Can’t imagine her colleague, Carolina Herrera, doing that—ya know? Enjoy the vid above, which starts out with the amazing, groundbreaking-back-in-the-day black supermodel Pat Cleveland freakin’ working it. Watch the rest here.

Hello gorgeous! There’s a new group of models strutting their way down the internet catwalk. While most of us tremble at the strict standards for high fashion models, these gals won’t let a missing limb stop them from booking a professional photo shoot. They are bad to the bone!

Amputee World is a site devoted to showing off young and beautiful women who happen to be missing a limb. The money raised by their webzine subscribers goes to giving girls a modeling photo portfolio to launch their career and fitting them with expensive prosthetic limbs. While they have a “no nudity” policy (respect!), dudes have been swooning over these glamazons. And who can blame them? These ladies are confident babes! Dang, I may not be missing a limb, but I wish I had the rad attitude these amazing women have.

Kate Moss is hotter than ever these days. She’s killing it in new Prada and Just Cavalli campaigns, gracing the September covers of W and Russian Vogue, and recent business dealings with Simon Cowell and Philip Green indicate that the model-turned-designer is also entering into entertainment mogul territory. But the Daily Mail, one of the UK’s most entertaining and trashtastic papers, is always ready to cut a celeb down to size, and they love their Kate pot shots. This time, however, they’ve gone too far.

Hopping on the au natural, no-makeup trend that French Elle popularized, Harper’s Bazaar features bare-faced supermodels in its September issue. In an eight-page spread, Peter Lindbergh captured iconic models like Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, and Helena Christensen in black and white photos wearing simple tanks and shirts and naturally styled hair, as if they had just rolled out of bed. (If only we normals could look that incredible first thing.) Also included: Amber Valletta, Shalom Harlow, Kristen McMenamy, Nadja Auermann, and Tatjana Patitz. Gorgeous. [Models.com]

Oh. Dear. God. Today’s news from the fashion cosmos? It’s the beginning of Fashion Week—in Baltimore. I wish I were kidding. Just like we had a few ideas about how to make the New York shows better, I have a thought on all of these regional fashion weeks: Stop putting them on! Sure, I sort of see the reasons behind a Los Angeles Fashion Week (well, I do if Lauren Conrad and every celeb “designer” in the world isn’t invited to show), a Sao Paulo Week (hot Brazilians in swimsuits!) and, of course, the less-commercial London one (Temperley, Jonathan Saunders, Matthew Williamson are all headed back to their geographic roots next season), but, come on, Baltimore Fashion Week? Apparently, twenty-eight designers have signed up. The week’s schedule: eco-friendly apparel on Monday (today), ready-to-wear on Tuesday, punk/gothic/dark on Wednesday, avant-garde on Thursday, and couture on Friday. On the other hand, if I were a fashion-obsessed Maryland resident, I’d be really stoked. Are you sick of too many Fashion Weeks or do you wish there was one in your city? [Baltimore Fashion Week and The Examiner]

Crazy cat lady? More like sexy catwoman with panache. Lanvin’s new Fall/Winter 2009 campaign stars these pretty kitties alongside model Kristen McMenamy. Clearly not one to fear superstition, photographer Steven Meisel’s cat-styling (put bluntly) and dramatic lighting brings out the vixen vibe of the collection. We can already tell that Lanvin’s fall designs will be stunners with oversized necklaces, über-chic tailored cocktail dresses and daring booties. We have to hand it to the fashion label for doing well with this ad series—it’s high fashion, but also discreetly humorous with those curious wide-eyed felines. Click through to see the rest of the photos from the campaign after the jump! [ViewonFashion.com]

Back in March, Annika posted about a robot supermodel walking the catwalk who was threatening to take jobs away from the ranks of sniveling supermodels. Now that robot, otherwise known as HRP-4C, has gone bridal. The bride bot, who was created by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, made her blushing debut in an Osaka fashion show and wore a princess bride creation by designer Yumi Katsura. She didn’t exactly speed down the runway, but she did slowly glide down the catwalk, casting sidelong glances at the audience to the tune of Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean.” After the jump, check out the video of the fembot bride and her glow-in-the-dark wedding dress. [Tokyo Mango]

By now you may have heard that over the weekend, Naomi Sims, the first black model to grace the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in November 1968, muse to many, and a successful designer of wigs and cosmetics for black women, died in Newark at the age of 61. While everyone knows the name of say, Christie Brinkley, Sims may not have been as famous, but she was certainly far more influential when it comes changing the fashion model status quo.

It seems like Twiggy will never go out of style, and as the years pass, her iconic stature only seems to gain importance. To wit: The National Portrait Gallery in London is paying tribute to the model with an exhibition of her best work. Of course, “Twiggy: A Life in Photographs” owes its constitution largely to the photographers known for making her a household name, such as Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, and Annie Leibovitz, to name a few. Twiggy, who still models (!) commented on the exhibition, underlining the reason why we’d want to see it: “It’s really interesting to see how fashion photography and portraiture have evolved throughout my career.”

We already know that models like to blog like us, but here’s a home tour we can really relate to as well. The Selby, this is not. Downtown photographer Kathy Lo snapped equally downtown-dwelling model, Hanne Gaby Odiele, in her messy, normal gal-looking apartment. See how the fashionable half lives—when they don’t pay someone to clean up after them! Computer cords littering the floor, cardboard boxes that have probably been there since she moved in, wine cork-screws left lying around ... I sort of love it. It’s reality. (Especially when you are never at home and didn’t employ an interior designer, like so many un-supermodel models.) [Refinery 29]