In the past French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier has dressed entrants into the kitschiest of all singing contests, Eurovision, in the past but this year he’s taken his involvement to the television screens of the French in a role he’s not quite known for - a television commentator.

Gaultier will be on the screens of French TV channel, France 3, for the finals of Eurovision on May 24. But don’t for a second think he’s doing this for the publicity. He’s a self confession childhood fan of the patriotic singing competition!

“I have watched Eurovision ever since I was a child,” he said. “[Acting as a commentator is] a pleasure and almost a childish dream.”

While the French might not be happy about their contestant, they surely must tune in just to hear Gaultier’s commentary on the fashion, if not the music.

For those who don’t quite know what Eurovision is, think American Idol, but pitting European country representatives against each other in a continent wide competition. To give an example of the kitsch factor, Abba entered one year and won with the song Waterloo.

See below for Eurovision 2006 winner, Anna Vissi’s, performance to get an idea of the kitsch factor - Vissi wore a Gaultier designed outfit for her performance.

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Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in Sex and the City the television series inspired many fashion trends and the upcoming movie is set to make even bigger waves.

Carrie Bradshaw is said to have worn 81 outfits. Yes, eighty-one.

In her upcoming appearance on Oprah, SJP lets slip that she went through many outfit changes, with 200 changes between Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon.

We’ve only seen about 10 different looks on Carrie through paparazzi shots and movie stils, so we’ll have to wait another few weeks before we can see all 81 outfits for ourselves. Let’s just hope we see some amazing combinations unlike this one on the right.

Have you pre-booked your tickets for yourself and your best friends at a cinema near you?

Before she was the girlfriend of Johnny Depp, a 19-year-old Vanessa Paradis was the face of Chanel’s Coco fragrance. The French actress played a whistling exotic black bird swinging in a bird cage in Coco Chanel’s apartment.

Paradis worked with Jean-Paul Goude to create the 30-second commercial in which she had to learn to use a trapeze for her role. The contract was said to be worth £250,000 and helped launch her into the pages of magazines all over the world. Not bad gig early on in your career huh?

If Ksubi wasn’t cool enough already, they’re profile are about to get a little big bigger and cooler thanks to news of their collaboration with Pastelle, Kanye West’s fashion label.

The denim boys will create a sunglasses collection with Pastelle with the collection aptly called, Ksubi for Pastelle, the range is set to launch globally in October. Designed by Ksubi co-founder, George Gorrow, the collections centre piece will be a limited edition pair of sunglasses which will retail for about $2,000 - and according to a news report it has already received orders from Japanese buyers, sight unseen.

“I love the sunnies Ksubi has produced over the years, and it’s an honour to collaborate with them on this first instalment of Pastelle frames,” West said. “George is an incredibly talented designer, and I’ve never met anyone who knew more about sunglasses and other cool stuff.”

“At our first design session at Kanye’s place in LA we spent two days talking and going over shapes,” Gorrow said. “He allowed me to push the design but playing on his aesthetic. He’s not afraid to try new things, and I guess that is why he is where he is.”

The pair first worked together when Ksubi created a collection of eyewear for West to wear in 2006 for a series of music videos for the Grammy award winning artist.

Why do you design when you’ve got your own clothing stores, styled some of today’s most influential women (fashion wise on TV and in movies) and designed a clothing collection for online retailer ASOS? Move on to random things like classic glass Diet Coke bottles.

Selfridges have just released the collection of Diet Coke bottles that Patricia Field created for the Diet Coke for a limited City Collection. Featuring cartoon imagery, the 4 bottles each represent a different part of a woman’s life: gold for career, red for passion, pink for love and turquoise for fashion.

“The designs represent diet Coke as a sexy, sassy brand perfectly compatible with today’s woman,” Field said.

If you want to find out more, Field will be holding a meet-and-greet in Selffridges on Friday May 16 from 12 - 1pm. Buy a bottle and get it signed by the woman who styled the women of Sex and the City.

Field follows in the footsteps of Julian MacDonald, Matthew Williamson, Jonathan Saunders and Manolo Blahnik to create Diet Coke bottles for Coca-Cola Great Britain. Now if only the other Coca-Cola companies would bring the bottles to the rest of the world…

While I deal with a few personal issues here’s some hot fashion news around the traps in the last few days:

• Confirmed, Chanel No.5’s new face is Audrey Tautou. The adorable French actress replaces Nicole Kidman. [FashionWeekDaily]
• Naomi Watt’s is a Thierry Mugler Angel with the actress set to appear in their TV and print advertising this October. [WWD]
• One of our favourite sites, Jezebel, has turned one. Has it been that long? [NY Times]
• Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld rank in Time magazine’s top 10 most influential people [Vogue UK]
• Agyness Deyn lands the cover of another June British Vogue cover – her second consecutive one. [FabSugar UK]

We’ll be back tomorrow with a lot more posts!

In the name of rasining money to raise the profile of the struggle in Darfur, Nadia Plesner, a painter, worked with Designers for Darfur to creat an image of a Darfur child in the style of Paris Hilton - complete with handbag that looks very similar to a Louis Vuitton monogram bag and a little dog.

Needless to say Louis Vuitton is not happy. They asked Plesner to “cease and desist” in February saying: “We cannot help noticing that the design of [your] product includes the reproduction of a bag infringing on LV’s intellectual property rights.”

But she hasn’t ceased and has since been slapped with a lawsuit.

“She used the accessories to show that this is what the world is paying attention to,” argued Malcolm Harris, creator of Designers for Darfur.

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If you thought the top models in Gap’s spring 2008 campaign was quite a coup, check out this list of names who will appear in their Fall 2008 Icons advertising campaign:

• Catalina Moreno (actress)
• Clemence Poesy
• Cecilia Dean (Visionaire founder)
• Chanel Iman
• David Benioff (screenwriter)
• Edgar Ramirez (actor)
• Liv Tyler
• Catalina Moreno (actress)
• Georgina Chapman (Marchesa designer)
• Ginnifer Goodwin
• Hugh Dancy
• Leigh Lezark
• Ryan McGinley (photographer)
• Scott Schuman (the man behind The Sartorialist)

Now, if only we could get some eye candy by getting a look at the Hugh Dancy pictures. Who knew Georgina Chapman would pose for Gap. One would have thought she wouldn’t normally go near the store, unless of course there was something in it for her… like a Marchesa for Gap collection?

One can dream.

She may judge fashion designers on Project Runway, but Heidi Klum has her own line of premium denim with Jordache and popped into Bloomingdales last week to launch the collection. But when the models are looking alarmingly similar to you, pouts, hair and all, wouldn’t you be a bit worried?

The Heidi Klum by Jordache collection is stocked exclusively in Bloomingdales with jeans customized to fit every body type and finished with Heidi’s signature clover emblem, intricate inseam stitching and detailed belt looks. Denim aside the spring summer 2008 collection featuring embellished jeweled tops, silk chamois blouses with rosette appliqués and hand-beaded knits.

The collection is set to retail at the almost-affordable price of $140 to $298.

Question is, what ever happened to the lawsuit Van Cleef & Arpel had against Klum using the clover shape as her “emblem” as the release called it?

[Image supplied]