Wilhelmina Cooper (1939-1980) Before starting her own modeling agency in 1967 (yes, that Wilhelmina), the Dutch-born Cooper appeared on some 300 magazine covers, and still holds the record for most covers of American Vogue: 27. Though Gwyneth Paltrow is slowly sneaking up on her.

Photo: The Fashion Spot

The granddaughter of one of the pillars of Italian couture, Elsa Schiaparelli, Marisa was “invented” by legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland at the age of sixteen, and became one of the most prolific models of the 60s and 70s. She graced every cover from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar to Newsweek and Time and worked with the greatest photographers of the 20th century including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton. Then in the 70s, she embarked on a successful film career, along the way becoming, as Yves Saint Laurent dubbed her, “the girl of the seventies.” Featuring an introduction by aspiring popstar Hamish Bowles and a conversation with BFF for the last four decades or so, Diane von Furstenberg, Marisa Berenson: A Life in Pictures, gives insight into one of the most fabulous women to step in front of a camera lens.

What owning this book says about you: “I like my ‘It’ girls the way I like my drugs: pure, uncut and from the 70s.” Marisa Berenson’s rise to “It” status was pre-destined — glamour is literally in her blood — and she did it so effortlessly and so well that any girls aspiring to “It” today are but pale imitations. I’m looking at you, every socialite/DJ with a fashion fixation.

What will people say?!: “Someone loves them some artistic nudes and/or just loves a good boob shot.” True, Marisa Berenson had no problem flaunting what her mother, The Countess Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor — a.k.a. Gogo — gave her, though her grandmother certainly did. After seeing a nipple-bearing photo by Arnaud de Rosnay, Schiap, according to Berenson, “was so furious that she practically threw me out of the house and disowned me.” But as DVF so astutely pointed out, “to show your tits was not a big deal at the time. To be young in the seventies was quite different.” Different i.e. awesome.

How this book will make your fashion brain grow: Berenson’s dynamic and daring photos offer a master class in brilliant fashion photography and moreover, in brilliant fashion photographers.

If you like this, you’ll love: Death in Venice (1971), Cabaret (1972), Barry Lyndon (1975) and I Am Love (2009) – Marisa’s work as an actress is almost as impressive as her modeling, particularly her first few films from the 70s. And 2009′s I Am Love proved that, even well into her 60s, she’s still an electrifying and stunning presence.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Diana’s granddaughter-in-law, directed the film Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, debuting at the Venice Film Festival September 3rd, as well as wrote the similarly-titled coffee-table book, which hits bookstores October 1st.

Featuring contributions from everyone and their mother, including Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Hubert de Givenchy, Diane von Furstenberg, Richard Avedon, Anjelica Huston and Ali McGraw*, the film is Immordino Vreeland’s first:”As soon as I started research for the book, I said to myself, ‘I should be working on a documentary.’”

Photo: My Fashion Life

Turns out Alaïa is not that big a fan of either Chanel commander Karl Lagerfeld or Vogue‘s bobbed despot Anna Wintour.

About Lagerfeld, the diminutive designer mused:

“Happily, women love me and buy my clothes, unlike Karl who’s never been loved like me! [Laughs.] . . . I don’t like his fashion, his spirit, his attitude. It’s too much caricature. Karl Lagerfeld never touched a pair of scissors in his life. That doesn’t mean that he’s not great, but he’s part of another system. He has capacity. One day he does photography, the next he does advertisements for Coca-Cola. I would rather die than see my face in a car advertisement. We don’t do the same work. And I think that he is not doing a favor to young [designers] who might think it works that way. They’re going to fall before they retire.”

Buuuuurrrnnn. As for Wintour, there’s certainly no love lost there:

“I said it before. She runs the business [of Vogue] very well, but not the fashion part. When I see how she is dressed, I don’t believe in her tastes one second. I can say it loudly! She hasn’t photographed my work in years even if I am a best seller in the US and I have 140 square meters at Barneys. American women love me; I don’t need her support at all. Anna Wintour doesn’t deal with pictures; she is just doing PR and business, and she scares everybody. But when she sees me, she is the scared one. [Laughs.] Other people think like me, but don’t say it because they are afraid that Vogue won’t photograph them. Anyway, who will remember Anna Wintour in the history of fashion? No one. Take Diana Vreeland, she is remembered because she was so chic. What she did with the magazine was great, with Avedon and all the great photographers. Vogue remains while its fashion editors come and go.”

Seriously, that’s the ballsiest thing I’ve ever heard, read or seen. If Azzedine Alaïa wasn’t literally 300 years old and a totally important designer, his head would be mounted above the fireplace of Anna Wintour’s stately country manor. Right next to Sienna Miller. [Fashionologie]

Speaking with the New York Times, Gan said of Gaga:

“She’s got a lot to say. She’s got her own very personal, very special viewpoint that comes from a well-informed place. She is almost Vreeland-esque in her analysis and critique of fashion.”

Diana Vreeland was Vogue‘s editor in chief from 1963-1971 and is more or less responsible for the caped magnificence that is André Leon Talley.

So what does Gaga have to say? Well, in 1,445 words — that apparently did not require a lot of editing — the Lady basically wants to let you know that she knows her shit:

“I myself can look at almost any hemline, silhouette, beadwork or heel architecture and tell you very precisely who designed it first, what French painter they stole it from, how many designers reinvented it after them and what cultural and musical movement parented the birth, death and resurrection of that particular trend.”

She’s like fashion’s Rain Man, which I guess would make Nicola Formichetti her Tom Cruise…? [NYT]

Lauren Hutton is one of fashion’s greatest icons, and she looks absolutely stunning in this photo from the February issue. I can’t wait to read the entire article, but here are some highlights:

On modeling: “I became a model to see the world, to make enough money to travel and experience other cultures,” she says. “I knew I had to get to New York to get to Africa.”

On starring in Tom Ford’s ultra exclusive fashion show: “He said, ‘I’m going back to fashion.’ I said, ‘Oh no, why? I like your work, but I love your movies!’ But, anything for Tom, and he knows that.”

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen asked her to pose for their lookbook in 2008: “I think I was 64 at the time and they were 22,” she says. “I thought that was fantastically hip. I did it, and they paid me in clothes, which is great.”

LINK LOVE: Harper’s Bazaar

Even though Sarah Jessica Parker keeps saying she’s not super into fashion, she still does spreads for the top fashion magazines.  Why not?!

Most recently she posed for Peter Lindbergh for the March 2009 (you know, The Fashion Issue) of Harper’s Bazaar.

I’m generally a fan; and she looks pretty good on the cover, but terrifying in the SJP-as-Diana-Vreeland editorial.

GALLERY: Sarah Jessica Parker for Harper’s Bazaar, March 2009.