Brtitish artist and sculptor Marc Quinn indeed thinks model Kate Moss is a golden girl and has created a 50 kilogram solid gold statue of her to prove it. The Moss statue, in all of its golden glory (pardon the pun), was unveiled to the public in London on August 28. The artist's statue of Kate is the largest statue created since ancient Egyptian times and will premier at the British Museum as part of the 'Statuephilia: Contemporary Sculptors at the British Museum' on October 4, 2008.

Quinn is an artist that is used to pushing the artistic controversial line and is most famous for his very pregnant, armless, Thalidomide victim statue that resided in Trafalgar Square from 2005-2007. During the press conference for the unveiling, Marc told reporters: "I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment. But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image."

Clearly, at the moment he conceived the idea for the statue and created it, Kate did indeed live up to that image. But then again, even Kate Moss has been reported as saying, 'it is hard being that Kate Moss' all the time.

The Couture team admires many fabulous fashionistas and fashionistos here at Zappos.com. We love spotting a well put together outfit that looks as though it were just thrown on without much effort but is fashionably fabulous nonetheless. So we decided to share some of our favorite 'style stars' with you. This week's pick is the lovely Ms. Mica.

Maverick designer Rei Kawakubo, of Comme des Garcons, that sought-after label of coolness, has signed on to design a line of evening bags for the luxury label Louis Vuitton. As we all know, Marc Jacobs, the designer for Louis Vuitton, has a wonderful eye for picking the right guest designer and/or artist to design handbags for the company. Just think of the Murikami handbags and pop-up concept shops, or the Stephen Sprouse grafitti logo handbags from a few years ago.

But getting Rei was a true coo, after all, the designer herself eschews labeled bags and only carries a plain black tote for a night out on the town. Known for her avant garde style, one can only anticipate the cutting edge designs that she will produce for Vuitton. My style bets are on lots of LBBs (little black bags), some futuristic materials and interesting shapes. Um, note to all, get on the waiting list. If these bags sell like the previous guest collections, they will be sold out before they ever hit a store.

Have you ever wanted to bling out like Diddy or 50 (Fiddy)? Nostalgic for a little Run DMC heavy rope chains to jangle a tune to? Has one of your life’s desires been to own a piece of the hip hop dynasty? If so, get your paddle out and be prepared to bid with the best of them for pieces of the iconic jewels up for auction on October 1, by Phillips de Pury & Company for hip hop’s finest. Imagine a little Kanye around your neck, or a little 50 Cent ice lighting your wrist. Perhaps your tastes harks back to a more refined time and you paddle up for a little Tupac on your ear or Biggie on your knuckles. But like the man himself, if major bling and ice are your thing, do bid on Diddy’s princess and baguette cut diamond and platinum bracelet or be N.E.R.D. cool and snatch up Pharrell’s Gucci link necklace dipped in multicolored pave diamonds. Funky fresh!

And in case securing your favorite rapper’s jewels are not enough incentive to bid, the auction’s proceeds will benefit the following three foundations: Russell Simmon’s Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides disadvantaged youth with access to art; the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, which preserves the cultural relevance of Hip-Hop music to serve as a catalyst for education advocacy; and the Diamond Empowerment Fund, established to raise money for the development and empowerment of the people and communities in Africa where diamonds are a natural resource.

Criss Angel, the magician of Mindfreak fame, will work with Dussault Apparel to produce clothing and accessories for Angel's new line, MF13. No one knows what MF13 stands for just yet, but doesn't it sound like yet another Terminator movie? My bet is that it likely stands for Mindfreak 13, but who knows.

Judging from Angel's style, we should probably expect skulls, leather and patterned fedoras. Dussault will also design and produce T-shirts for Angel's Cirque du Soleil production showing at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas October 10th. Spiky hair and eyeliner optional.

Play peekaboo with your well-manicured toes in a pair of chic, comfortable, open-toed flats. Bright-colored ones, like these red Sigerson Morrison flats, punch up a gray jumper or black slacks.

We here at Couture have often scoffed at celebrities designing clothing lines. Truly, shouldn’t clothes be designed by people who have it in their blood from the embyro stage, or at the very least dressing paper dolls since preschool? Harsh I know, but we also have given kudos to a few who do it well, namely Jovovich-Hawk. Milla Jovovich and her design partner/model Carmen Hawk were spot-on with their fabrications, drape and that ‘I’m fabulously dressed but couldn’t be bothered making an effort’ elan. How sad are we here at Couture to report that Milla dropped the bomb in the September issue of Lucky magazine that her divine fashion line will be no more. “When one door closes... she mused.” Come on, how does one close a successful line sold in all of the best stores? Is this because of her little cherub? Is this because of the man that she had the cherub with? Well whatever the reason, I’m disappointed, no mad. Where will the Couture team get our silky boudoir ‘20s inspired dresses, our tiered daisy design spaghetti strap summer dresses, our silk faille tap pant shorts and belle short sleeve jackets (okay this one is a stretch)? Darn it woman, have you no feelings? Well, one can only hope and pray that the next door/window that does open will be a fashionable one. Well that and begin scouring the online and
offline universe for any Jovovich-Hawk creation you can find.

Flats are fabulous, especially now that we're transitioning into fall. As with any transition, seasonal or otherwise, what does one do when it is getting to cool to wear one thing, but it's a bit warm for another? The answer, fabulous flats. We here at Couture picked out our favorites, each with their own little something - a buckle, bright color, or bows, for instance - to help you stand out.

1.) Elie Tahari driving shoe 2.) Moschino velvet flats 3.) Taryn Rose Branda flats 4.) Kate Spade Bedelia flats 5.) Marc by Marc Jacobs Red Kid flats 6.) Michael Kors Hanna flats 7.) Belle by Sigerson Morrison flats 8.) Emilio Pucci navy/ivory patent flats 9.) Juicy Couture Ever yellow flats

Fans of Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms Shoes — a company that donates a pair of shoes to children for every pair of shoes sold — will be excited to hear that the company has joined the world’s green initiave and is creating an eco-friendly shoe line. Toms has partnered with Whole Foods Market to design an exclusive line of vegan shoes which will be sold at Whole Foods Markets around the country. This new style of the alpargata is made of organic cotton, non-leather interior, and recycled rubber from tires for the sole.

The collaboration with the organic foods giant will help to broaden Toms consumer market, as well as further educate the consumer about Toms Shoes mission to help shod impoverished children in third world countries around the globe. Mycoskie told FashionWeekDaily and Blogger, “I wanted to find a way for more people to be able to truly understand the core of Toms Shoes. With the launch of the eco-friendly collection, and our partnership with Whole Foods market, we will be able to reach even more people, and ultimately give more children their first pair of shoes.”

Toms Shoes are the perfect trifecta for the fashionable folk, they are comfortable to wear, a relaxed fashionable style and now, socially-aware. Its a win-win for everyone.

Somehow it seems more than fitting that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs' new men’s scent is named I Am King. After all, he reigns over an impressive empire comprised of restaurants, clothing lines, retail stores, recording artists, vodka and reality shows; he dresses in bespoke jackets and suits; he carries himself in the manner of a Casino Royal movie with private jets, stately manors, luscious locales, beautiful jet-set beauties. But perhaps the best example is what Diddy thinks of himself. He is a very confident and driven man who only wants the best, and believes he is a true descendant of royalty. “I Am King is a statement about all men,” Combs said during his interview with WWD as reported in their August 8 edition. “We are all descendants of royalty — and if we carry ourselves and respect ourselves in that manner and believe in ourselves, then we are all kings.”

The scent, developed by Estee Lauder Companies and Combs, in cooperation with International Flavors & Fragrances, has top notes of tangerine zest, juicy orange, cranberry and a proprietary Imperial French berry note; middle notes of kir royal, crème de cassis, premium champagne (my personal favorite) and cooling Mediterranean water accord; with base notes of key lime pie, lemon cream, rich labdanum extract, cedarwood, vetiver and white moss with powdery undertones. Of course the ad campaign for the scent, commercials and print, would not be true Diddy fashion, if it was not an over-the-top production, in this case very James Bond. The ads show Diddy on jetskis speeding around St. Tropez and Monaco in a tuxedo, in a Casino Royal setting playing the tables at Casino de Paris in Monte Carlo, stepping out of his private helicopter with the beautiful models Bar Rafaeli and Ana Paul never far behind. Ah yes, true Diddy style.

The I Am King collection will include a 1.7 oz and 3.4 oz eau de toilette, aftershave balm, shower gel and deodorant. The collection will bow at Macy’s in the U.S. and Debenhams in the United Kingdom. And as for the reign of the female scent, the I Am Queen coronation will be in the Fall of 2009.

Giddy am I that Alexander Wang, the East Village wunderkind of edgy downtown fashions, is premiering his first shoe line along side a diffusion line this fall. These lust-worthy, towering, textured platforms and sky-high heels will premier alongside his Spring 2009 fashion collection during New York Fashion Week. The collection of shoes will start small with a launch of just five styles that have a sigh-inducing (in a good way) price point of $125 to $250. The styles will include an open toe, thong sky-high heel platform, a perforated leather bootie and a stiletto high-heel with fringe around the ankle. Of course, this good news comes on the high heels (pardon the pun) of his popular capsule collection for Uniqlo, the Japanese version of TopShop, which featured his grunge aesthetic of lived-in T-shirts with their stretched necklines and lowered armholes, tank tops and T-shirt dresses. I’m not sure yet what his Spring 2009 collection will bring, but if it picks up where his fall collection off, I am already smitten.

Fringe reminds some of days in the Ol' West, clearly designers drew inspiration from those days for Fall 2008. Fringe, seen on scarves and bags, above, seems to be making a comeback. What do our readers think? Is this trend too cowgirl? Or do you love the boho chic about it? Tell us, we'd love to know.

My favorite 'retailer to the masses' is that red bull’s-eye logo behemoth, Target. I love the wide aisles, the clean, efficient design and the plethora of designers that bring an upscale creed to their offerings. But what I'm currently loving about Target is its new environmental approach. The retailer continues to roll-out their environmental ‘green’ concept with their newest store, the 137,000-square-foot store in Stafford Township on the Jersey Shore. The store, built on two former landfills, is situated in a new open air retail strip, which meets the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building rating system.

The unit features an 8-foot beauty section filled with eco-friendly lines like Bare Escentuals, Burt’s Bees and Dr. Bronner’s, recycled shopping carts, organic foods in an expanded market section and the expansion of bamboo items in their domestic section. Although Target’s competitors — Kmart and Wal-Mart — are nearby, there is no need for Target to be worried, the competitor stores are older store formats and lack the latest product offerings and the environmental friendly format that the new super Target offers. I’m all for saving the remaining ozone layer, helping Mother Nature and living green, but the landfill thing, not so much.

Does anyone remember the mood rings from the ‘70s? You know, the stone that changed colors as you changed moods. The color black showed a cauldron of anxiety and irritation brewing, turquoise was the color of peace and tranquility, dark blue meant love and joyfulness and that pea soup yellow-green color spelled trouble. Well, now you can relive those days of emoting on your hand with electronics firm Phillips new SKIN research project “emotion-sensitive dress” prototype. The dress is made up of two layers: the inner layer contains biometric sensors (their term, not mine) that picks up a person’s emotions and projects them in color and light onto the second, outer layer. So, can you walk down the street and be green with envy and show it? Check. Show the world that you are feeling joy and love? Check. Now, although the technology behind it sounds fascinating, do I really want the world to know my every emotion? Um, not!

Should Coco, Jourdan, Chanel, Jessica, Natasha, Siri, Freja and the rest of the top-paid models be worried? Yes and no. For the second season in a row, Ennio Capasa, Cofounder and Designer of C’N’C Costume National, has taken to cyberspace for the latest, freshest faces to front the Fall/Winter 2008 C’N’C campaign. The online model webcast to find Taylor, Mengly, Lissy, Oscar and the rest, was conducted via MySpace.com. Now we all know that sites such as MySpace or Facebook are an effective method for getting to know young people and how they relate to culture, fashion and the world. However the use of non-models to front campaigns is not a new idea, but incorporating the social networking aspect is. Costume National’s forward thinking and cutting edge approach to their campaign is a business model that more and more companies will surely start to adopt.

Ennio himself put out the casting call on his MySpace page and personally selected his favorites. The result, six females and five males chosen from varying countries and cultures, giving the C’N’C Plug Generation Campaign the visual voice of encounters with iconic personalities, varying styles and embraced differences. So the next time you are on MySpace or any other social networking site, scout for webcasting calls, play up your edgy individuality and always give good face!

I, for one, am a fan of art and commerce, so how excited was I to learn that one of my favorite pop-artist icons, Warhol (well, his foundation), is premiering a new perfume? Um, very! The bespectacled, white-haired iconic artist Andy Warhol was quoted saying years ago, “Another way to take up more space is with perfume. I really love wearing perfume,” so how prophetic is it that on Warhol’s eightieth birthday, today, August 6, niche fragrance maker Bond 09, will launch the Lexington Avenue fragrance. The fragrance is a nod to the artist’s former residences in Murray Hill (notably number 242) in New York City and his illustration career. The parfum breaks new ground as it brings together two of a woman’s favorite loves: shoes and parfum. The bottle design for the fragrance is also new ground, as it features colorful collages that were inspired by and reminiscent of Warhol’s early shoe sketches, reminding many of a successful career prior to the pop-art period of Campbell Soup cans and celebrity collages.

The fragrance’s juice, described as a floral-woody chypre (a fresh citrus), is composed of top notes of blue cypress, fennel, roasted almonds and cardamom; middle notes of pink peony, Florentine orris, Crème Brûlée and pimento berry; with base notes of patchouli and sandalwood. The scent is available in two sizes, a 100-ml bottle for $195 and a 50-ml size for $135, and will be available stateside at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bond 09’s New York City stores and museum gift shops nationwide. So ladies if you love art, shoes and fragrance, get your bottle fast, this is bound to be a bestseller and sell out fast.

There is a fast building trend in the air and it is catching on like a true fashion fire. The last few weeks have been abuzz with news of recklessly edgy sneaker companies pairing with equally edgy, funky store outposts around the country to carry their lines exclusively, as well as big game companies like Nine West collaborating with innovator New Balance, to refine their fashion-comfort offerings.

Bling king sneaker maker Supra, will have their Skytops, a favorite of Jay-Z and worn in Rihanna’s Umbrella video, carried at Oak, the new impossibly hip store in New York City. Nike, in honor of the Beijing Olympics, will premier their limited-edition metallic Nike Air Max 1 and Nike LunaRacer at Opening Ceremony, another über boutique in NYC and LA, by an initial invitation only event on August 8, with all remaining pairs being made availabe to the public at a later date. Nine West decided to get comfy and put an extra spring in your pump enhanced step with their latest design collaboration with New Balance. Women will have to cross their toes and dream of fashionably shod sugar plum fairies dancing around in their heads in anticipation of the new Nine West styles that will surely include exquisite ballerina flats, kitten heels and fabulous pumps that premier for Spring 2009.

Italian manufacturer Superga — the maker of uber cool kicks — has designed a limited-edition pair of kicks that will give you a little piece of your native or adopted country, even if you won’t be visiting them any time soon. They have designed triple-tone sneakers in the colors of the flags of Italy, France, South Africa, Spain, England and the USA. So if you are feeling very patriotic, whether it be due to the upcoming elections here in the States, the Euro Cup for Spain, Anglomania for England, etc... these are the perfect accessory to show your country pride. The sneakers will be sold in the coming weeks on the company’s website, superga-usa.com. National anthem ringtone optional!