Fashion News Alert: Kate Moss’ New Cover, Gap Takes a Stand, and Another Factory Fire

One thing you can say about supermodel Kate Moss, she doesn’t rest on her laurels or let moss grow under her feet. And we cannot get enough of her.

Kate’s latest fait accompli is her cover for the double January/February issue of Playboy magazine.  Kate poses in an unprecedented 18-page spread photographed by Mert Alas and Matthew Piggott. A teaser of the photo editorial was released in November with Kate Moss wearing a black strapless leotard with signature bunny ears and tail.

The fire now and possibly next time

On Sunday at least seven people were killed in a Chinese-owned clothing factory in Prato, Italy. Workers were trapped in an improvised dormitory-styled lodging inside the building. Sources say that 11 workers had been accommodated in makeshift, cardboard sleeping compartments above a warehouse in the Macrolotto industrial district of the town, a region known for its large number of garment factories.

“This is a disgrace for all of us, because we have to recognize this reality for what it is: the biggest concentration of illegal employment in northern and central Italy,” said Enrico Rossi, president of the region of Tuscany in a fashionmag.com article.

Prato, which has over 4,000 Chinese-owned businesses, has the largest concentration of Chinese immigrants in Italy.

“No one can say they are surprised at this because everyone has known for years that, in the area between Florence and Prato, hundreds if not thousands of people are living and working in conditions of near-slavery,” Roberto Pistonina, secretary general of the Florence and Prato section of the CISL trade union, said on his Facebook page.

Roberto Cenni, the mayor of Prato is in talks with Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to combat the illegal “parallel district” which had grown up around the factories.

Gap fierceness

The Gap is fighting back. After racist remarks were scrawled on The Gap’s recent “Make Love” ad campaign that features fashion personality Waris Ahluwalia and model Quentin Jones, prompted by the defaced ad on Twitter posted by a senior editor at Islamic MonthIy, the Gap has decided to take a stand.

To counter the scrawls that said “Please Stop Driving Taxis,” and “Make Bombs,” the Gap changed its Twitter and Facebook background to photos of Waris Ahluwalia. The Sikh community in support of Gap has responded positively by tweeting the original ad campaign and images of Gap’s newly changed Facebook and Twitter background.

—William S. Gooch