Yves Saint Laurent Dead at Age 71

Forbes runs down the luxury brands we most desire

(NEWSER) - Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates may actually buy the most designer goods, but when money is no object, we’ve all got expensive tastes. One research group asked 25,000 consumers to forget about price tags and name the luxury brand they covet most. Forbes runs down the top 10:

1. Gucci
2. Chanel (tied)

Designer handed a suspended sentence

(NEWSER) - He managed to escape the six months in jail he was facing, but John Galliano didn't manage to escape a guilty verdict. A Paris court today convicted the former Christian Dior designer for making "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race, or ethnicity." He was given a suspended sentence of $8,400 in fines, though he will not have to pay it, reports the AP . Galliano blamed the incidents , which he said he couldn't recall, on booze and drugs. (In related news, it looks like he still has one fan ...) More»

Booted fashion whiz testifies today in Paris

(NEWSER) - Fashion whiz John Galliano will blame drugs and claim amnesia today at his Paris trial for an anti-Semitic tirade against a Jewish customer in a local bar. The axed Dior creative director had a "triple addiction to alcohol, Valium, and sleeping pills," his attorney told Reuters . “The combined effect of these drugs is a state of complete and utter abandon." Galliano, 50, was "baffled" when he saw video of himself last year praising Hitler and blasting invectives at a museum curator sitting next to him in the bar, said the lawyer. More»

1800s rule prohibits ladies from 'dressing like men'

(NEWSER) - Turns out fashion-forward Paris has some rather retro regulations. Namely, a ban on women wearing pants. It's the type of law associated with the Sudan, not the Champs-Elysées, but more than 200 years after it was enacted by the city's police chief, the law stands. But today's cops may have a tough time enforcing it: Trousers are mandatory for policewomen. More»

Fashion Week's underwear looks leave a lot to be desired for real women

(NEWSER) - The lingerie-inspired looks currently abounding on the Paris runways make a person wonder: What woman would really leave the house wearing “micro miniskirts, transparent blouses, pointy Mad Men bras, and panties worn as shorts”? The looks “reveal how hard the industry is struggling to grab shoppers' attention,” Christina Binkley writes in the Wall Street Journal—but will that work for the average shopper? More»