As the Oscars were being announced Tuesday morning, we waited breathlessly for our favorite category: best costume design. After all, how could Jeff Bridges have pulled off the Rooster Cogburn character without the right clothes, much less Colin Firth have made a convincing King George VI without the royal look? Sure enough, both "True Grit" (Mary Zophres) and "The King's Speech" (Jenny Beavan) were among the nominees. The others were “Alice in Wonderland” (Colleen Atwood), "I Am Love" (Antonella Cannarozzi) and "The Tempest" (Sandy Powell). But there was no Oscar costume design love for "Black Swan," which had received a lot of pre-Oscar attention because some of the costumes were by L.A.-based designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte. [LAT]

Five American designers trumped their French counterparts in a legendary showdown at the Palace of Versailles in 1973, and the Americans are still celebrating. The competition's two surviving U.S. designers, Steven Burrows and Oscar de la Renta, hosted a luncheon Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to toast the models who helped them to victory. "It wasn't the designers; it was the girls in this room," said Donna Karan (who worked the original event as a dresser for Anne Klein) of the eight original models who attended: Billie Blair, Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, Norma Jean Darden, Charlene Dash, Bethann Hardison, China Machado and Amina Warsuma. [WWD]

Designers' spring couture shows are underway in Paris [TheCut], and Chanel's biggest fans turned out in force for Karl Lagerfeld's couture show. Current and former brand ambassadors Inès de la Fressange, Diane Kruger, Vanessa Paradis, Anna Mouglalis, Baptiste Giabiconi and Gaspard Ulliel joined celebrity guests including Jerry Hall, Pedro Almodovar, Kirsten Dunst, Alexa Chung, Karen Elson and Janelle Monae. [WWD]

Meanwhile, John Galliano was in fine feather with his mesmerizing Christian Dior show, where the word "clothes" may have been too mundane to apply to what walked down the runway. [WWD] (Subscription required.) 

Vivienne Westwood is getting ready to open on Melrose in Los Angeles. [Mondette]

And New York-based hairstylist Sally Hershberger is planning a Feb. 1 opening for her new salon in the SLS Hotel's Ciel Spa in West Hollywood. She's also expanding her existing salon here. [Mondette]

Seattle-based Butter London is issuing a nail polish in honor of Kate Middleton. The name of the gray-blue shade? "No More Waity, Katie," a reference to the princess-to-be's cheeky pre-engagement nickname in British tabloids. [StyleList]

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife in "The King's Speech." Credit: Laurie Sparham / The Weinstein Company

Not that we're keeping track or anything but it took precisely three weeks for one of the trends we forecast for 2011 to manifest itself on the fashion runway.

That would be the upcoming royal marriage, which not only inspired Vivienne Westwood to ditch the pirate costumes and theatrics and send a platoon of well-dressed young men down the runway, but also seems to have brought out a bit of the romantic in her.

"With royal marriage in the air, who would you choose to be your bridegroom?" She asked in her show notes.

Westwood served up a runway full of intellectual/student types, albeit ones sporting bright red lipstick (the better to smooch you with, my dear). Some wore three-piece suits in solid colors (including brown,  black and sky blue), some with tightly knotted ties, others in turtlenecks, all with hair coiffed into perfect waves, belts cinched and vests buttoned.

There were a few extra-wide stripes -- and even a subtle skull and crossbones or two -- but most of the patterns were crisp tartans, including one standout look that consisted of a bold green and blue plaid military-style suit with a perfect row of six brass buttons down the front.).

Some of the collections' visual motifs underscored the notion of romantic union, including a pair of love birds nestling beak to beak -- which appears on sweaters and shirts -- and a lion and a unicorn frolicking on the arms of jackets and flanking the Westwood logo on a cardigan sweater.

There were some pieces that didn't seem to fit neatly in the clean-cut, eligible-bachelor mold -- the orange head-to-toe ensemble that looked for all the world ike a prison jumpsuit and the distressed, muddied denim-on-denim outfit that looked as if it had been worn while panning for gold.

But then again, people have been known to do some crazy things for love.

-- Adam Tschorn, reporting from Milan, Italy

Photos: Looks from the Vivienne Westwood Man runway presentation on Jan.16, during Milan Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times

The glam gals of the Golden Globes weren't the only ones in the green zone this week. The runways of Milan turned out to be chock full of verdant hues too -- solid shades of bottle, hunter and emerald green at labels like Salvatore Ferragamo, Moncler Gamme Bleu and Roberto Cavalli; smart green and purple tartans at Vivienne Westwood; and light-catching Lurex V-neck pullovers at Prada.

What's behind the oasis of greenery in the midst of the Fall and Winter 2011 collections? Maybe, as the economy finally turns a corner, it's the fashion community's subconscious yearning for an altogether different sort of green -- as in cash money.

-- Adam Tschorn in Milan, Italy

More coverage of Milan Fashion Week

Photos: Guys in green garb were on the runway at (from left) Prada, Vivienne Westwood Man, Salvatore Ferragamo and Moncler Gamme Bleu. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For the Los Angeles Times

You gotta love Helena Bonham Carter, she's fearless. She's wearing two different shoes -- red and green -- with her Vivienne Westwood metallic dress. Way to get 'em Tweeting Helena.

-- Booth Moore

Photo: Helena Bonham Carter. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images. 

Lady Gaga got serious Monday and dressed for political success at a rally in Maine. No "meat" dresses, lobster-claw shoes or cockscomb of feathers towering from her head. Instead, she wore a conservative suit and polka-dot tie with large smart-girl glasses perched on her nose. She argued before a crowd estimated at 2,000 that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy should be struck down, to allow gay servicemen and women to be open about their sexuality. She has long been a supporter of gay rights and went to Maine because the state's two senators might prove key in a vote on a bill pending in Congress that could repeal the policy. [Los Angeles Times] 

"L'Amour Fou," the documentary love story about the relationship between couturier Yves Saint Laurent and businessman Pierre Berge that won accolades at the Toronto Film Festival, premiered in Paris and will open in French cinemas on Wednesday. [WWD]

Marc Jacobs launched a playful e-commerce website. [WWD] (Subscription required.)

Vivienne Westwood's packed show at London Fashion Week revealed fun, young clothes for spring, while Sienna Miller's collection drew from the 1950s. [Wall Street Journal]

Graffiti artist Claw Money has designed a line of tees, sweats and leggings called Clawmingdale's, a lighthearted spoof of Bloomingdale's (think of its iconic brown bag made into sweat pants.) [FabSugar]

Stella McCartney, prepping to design gear for the 2012 Olympics, launched her first menswear collection, with Adidas. [Vogue UK]

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Lady Gaga addresses the Maine rally.  Credit: Joel Page / Reuters

Reporting from Milan -- Two back-to-back shows on Sunday served up wildly different takes on the gaucho.

It's not surprising in and of itself; it's one of those instantly recognizable silhouettes -- kind of like riffing on the cowboy. The most interesting part was how the vastly different labels go to the same place.

The Ferragamo show started to the sound of clip-clopping of horse shoes and explicitly referenced the "adventure loving gaucho" roaming the grassy plains of the South American pampas in poncho-sized cardigan sweaters, shearling jackets and toggle-button blanket coats, accessorized with sturdy leather riding boots, high-crown hats and scarves -- some voluminous knits, others in lightweight silk with fringed edges.

Jackets in paisley printed velvet and tartan, as well as wide-striped trousers lent some looks a dandy flair, almost as if the gauchos had been on a Carnaby Street holiday and brought some of the flair back home.

Reporting from Milan -- So far, Milan Fashion Week has been a bust celebrity-wise (at least American ones -- Dolce & Gabbana had a laundry list of boldface names I didn't recognize). The sole exception so far seems to be Chris Brown, who has popped up in a couple of different places, including a private Missoni dinner on Friday night, and in the front row at Costume National Homme, where he obligingly posed for photos both for press and fans -- by my count some six or seven groups of people approached and asked if they could get their picture taken with him.

I recall seeing him during at least one previous men's fashion week, and when I crossed paths with him briefly exiting the Missoni event, he said he was attending a handful of shows this season both here and in Paris. "I might check out some of the couture shows in Paris too," he told me. (The couture shows in Paris currently follow the men's fashion week there.)

The Spring/Summer 2010 Vivienne Westwood Man collection on Sunday was ostensibly inspired by 1920s Hollywood and the early voyages of luxury ocean liners, but the show was only one eye-patch deep before it was clear Westwood was working a pirate vibe.

Not just pirates mind you; there were turban-wrapped ne'er-do-wells, men in Zorro masks and a cad or two that bore an uncanny resemblance to Heath Ledger's Joker character from "The Dark Knight," complete with red grimace-enhancing face paint.

They were the latest in this season's emerging crop of mercenary men, selfish sartorialists, guys in it for themselves, bucking the system and breaking the laws. But it didn't click for me until the end of the day when the Versace collection drew inspiration from the Foreign Legion (a term which simply refers to troops who serve in the armed forces of foreign nations but conjures up the notion of operating primarily with self interest).