That look is just so last year! There was embarrassment in the world of fashion "glossies" after an almost-identical cover shot of Carey Mulligan graced the front of three magazines.

The legendary embroidery designer, François Lesage, whose elaborate handiwork has graced the designs of all the grandest couturiers for more than half a century, died in Paris yesterday at the age of 82. As well as providing fanciful surface embellishment to everyone from Cristobal Balenciaga to Yves Saint Laurent and from Christian Dior to Valentino Garavani, as a young man Lesage put the glittering finishing touches to the costumes of Hollywood greats including Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner and Olivia de Havilland, all of whom sparkled both on screen and off in his hands.

Gone are the days of respectful 'life-writings' and long gaps between comparative biographical studies. As yet another Coco Chanel exposé arrives, John Walsh asks, are there still any new facts for writers to uncover?

Peter Philips, creative director of beauty for Chanel, is the most influential make-up artist in the world. It's the ultimate dream job, he tells Susannah Frankel

As her styles have endured, so the career of Coco Chanel has become a catwalk where writers and film-makers galore can strut their stuff.

Leah Capaldi's performance piece involves two actors at a time (one female, one male), who will each be sprayed with a whole bottle of Chanel Allure or Allure Pour Homme. They will walk among visitors at The Tramshed in London, as part of an exhibition of work, by this year's five shortlisted artists for The Catlin Art Prize – taken from The Catlin Guide, an annual survey of the 40 most promising art graduates.

Susannah Frankel

If you ask me...

"Icy, regal, beautiful," said the designer Sarah Burton of her second collection for the house of Alexander McQueen. And it was all of those things. With gleaming armoured heads and delicate, pale faces, models stalked the historic loggias of the Conciergerie, the prison where Marie Antoinette awaited the guillotine, in finely wrought clothing that was as inspired as it was empowering.

The arrival of Vanessa Paradis, partner of Johnny Depp, actress, model and face of Chanel, in Camden Town is an event. As a singer, she's still best known for the 1987 hit "Joe le Taxi", so this was a rare chance to see her music live. The concert was pretty much a run-through of last Christmas's French-only CD Une Nuit à Versailles, a live, orchestrated, acoustic-leaning recasting of her back catalogue. Despite issuing ten albums since 1988, Paradis's oeuvre is slim – one is a "Best of" and four are live sets.

Karl Lagerfeld lived up to his Kaiser credentials yesterday when he showed his biannual haute couture collection for the house of Chanel in Paris.

It's difficult dealing with icons, especially when you're domesticating them. Coco & Igor charts the love affair between designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and composer Igor Stravinsky during his spell at her holiday home outside Paris.

Drum roll please for what might be the chic-est thing the Indy fashion desk have ever seen: Chanel No.5 soap.