Rick Owens’s Not-So-Cozy Home: WSJ. Magazine got a sneak peek inside the Parisian living quarters of dark fashion design star, designer Rick Owens, and the rooms are expectedly haunting. The rustic space, which formerly served as the headquarters of the French Socialist Party, is furnished with a taxidermic monkey and minimalist furniture designed by Owens himself, including Alchemist chairs, a pine plywood bed, and a concrete sink. [WSJ]

Ryan Lochte’s Faux Perfume: Ryan Lochte is breaking into the beauty market--on the Internet at least. In a new sketch for comedy website Funny or Die, the Olympic swimmer "promotes" a fake perfume called “Pool Water,” which allows those who wear it to smell just like he does in the pool. Lochte even hints at a “special ingredient” in the product, referencing his confession to Ryan Seacrest that he urinates in pools. “They don’t call it eau de toilette for nothing,” he says with a wink. [Funny or Die]

The Return of Mom Jeans: Mom jeans are back, according to Fashionista’s recent shopping trip to TopShop. It’s there that one of the site’s writers discovered that the store is stocking a new pair of high-waisted, loose-fitting, tapered jeans called the ‘MOM.’ [Fashionista]

Victoria Beckham In Vogue Talks?: Victoria Beckham is reportedly in talks to land her first solo US Vogue cover. Sources tell UK tabloid The Daily Star “Posh is in talks about an upcoming cover and a feature where she’ll talk about leaving Los Angeles, David’s move to Paris, and her new daughter. It’s a big deal, and she wants it. Editor in chief Anna Wintour enjoys making people work for it.” This would not be Beckham’s first Vogue cover appearance. She appeared alongside her Spice Girls band mates on the front of publication’s January 1998 issue. [Daily Star]

Kate Middleton bowed to the inevitable last night, wearing a maternity dress in public for the first time.

Still, at somewhere between six and seven months pregnant, she can hardly be accused of not holding out as long as possible.

The last place you’d expect Anna Wintour to hire from? The Democratic National Committee. On Wednesday Vogue announced Hildy Kuryk, the DNC’s former finance director, as its new director of communications, a job that also includes the responsibility of acting as Wintour’s personal spokesperson.

News of Kuryk’s hire follows weeks of speculation that Wintour would pick her new communications head from within the political arena. While it’s unclear how Wintour and Kuryk met, it’s a safe bet that the two worked together during one, if not both, of President Obama’s election campaigns, in which Wintour was an active supporter.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s goofily named e-commerce website and blog, Goop, recently featured bikinis for girls 4 to 8 years old. Paltrow collaborated with designer Melissa Odabash to design a mini-version of Odabash’s adult swimwear. It’s a simple navy two-piece with ruffles on the top and bottom. The British charity Kidscape, whose mission is to prevent bullying and child sexual abuse, took one look at the dour blonde child model donning the Odabash bikini on Goop and cried outrage.

Sofia Vergara Takes on Spanx: Sofia Vergara is launching a “fun and cute” shapewear line at Kmart. The nine-piece collection includes bodysuits, bustiers, and “waist-shaping briefs and boyshorts,” writes WWD. The items will join Vergara’s successful apparel line at the mass retailer when they hit stores in June. [WWD]

Christian Lacroix Talks Schiaparelli: Christian Lacroix has opened up about his short-term appointment at Schiaparelli. He explained to Dazed Digital that he feels a definitive kinship with the legendary designer: “I don’t want to sound pretentious but this seems natural to me, almost obvious. I do feel a link with her through many signs since I was a child. In my approach I will for sure not do a caricature of her work, but will create a reflection about how the past and the future are connected in the present.” [Dazed Digital]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Teeny Bikinis: The Daily Mail has accused Gwyneth Paltrow of sexualizing children by selling an exclusive range of little girls’ bikinis on her lifestyle website, Goop. The bikinis, created by established designer Melissa Odabash, come in sizes for girls aged four to eight years old. According to The Daily Mail, Goop describes the design as “perfect or little girls who want to match their mothers.” The paper attributed the controversy to a single quote from Claude Knight of British child abuse foundation Knightscape in which he explained, "We remain very opposed to the sexualisation of children and of childhood. The dangers have been discussed at length, so it is a great pity that such trends continue and that they carry celebrity endorsement." Goop is also selling the bikini’s adult version. Paltrow's rep labeled the claims "absurd" explaining that "two-piece bathing suits have been worn by young girls for decades." [Daily Mail]

Reed Krakoff to Depart Coach: Designer Reed Krakoff is stepping down as the as president and executive director of Coach in June 2014 to focus on his own namesake label. Krakoff has worked for the brand for sixteen years. According to WWD, shake up in the brand’s executive structure (chairman and chief executive Lew Frankfort is also expected to exit) will have Krakoff acting “more as an adviser to Coach than creative director” until the time of his departure. The brand is already looking for a replacement. [WWD]

The ongoing ’90s revival has already brought back Birkenstocks, bindis, crop tops, harem pants, and slap bracelets. But now, there’s one more to add to the list: Spice Girl sneakers.

Platform sneakers—a hallmark of the Spice Girls’s inimitable wardrobes—have returned in a diverse array of styles whose references range from Hot Topic punk to tennis-y whites. While Baby Spice Emma Bunton’s shoes may have leveled out at up to six inches (worn with pigtails and tiny flounce dresses), the new platform sneaks clock in at a more modest inch to inch and a half. “It’s elegant and not as clunky as the Spice Girls’s shoes,” explained Zina Zegans, fashion director at Superga US. The Italian sneaker brand (whose US license is owned by Steve Madden with creative direction from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen stateside) recently reissued its platform sneakers stateside—a style it initially released in 1996. Zegans elaborated: “If you remember back in the ’90s, they were a little higher, a little clunkier, and the toes were rounder. Now the platforms aren’t as high as they used to be, which is better because more people can wear them.”

It’s no secret that the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have a long and bitter rivalry, which has spawned tons of merchandise like the Red Sox’s “Yankees Suck” t-shirts and Yankees’s “Fack Bawston” memorabilia. But one commemorative shirt created by Nike is now being briskly pulled from outlet store shelves in the wake of last week’s Boston Marathon bombing.

The t-shirts, which read “Boston Massacre” in bloodied letters, were produced long before last Monday’s attack. In fact, they reference a late-season sweep by the Yankees of the Red Sox in 1978 -- which culminated in a World Series championship for the Yankees.

Viktor & Rolf’s Couture Comeback: Amsterdam-based fashion label Viktor & Rolf will return to the Paris haute couture calendar this July following a 13-year absence. The design duo was deemed eligible for readmission to the event at an April 19 meeting held by the Chambre Syndicale, France's governing body of haute couture. [WWD]

One woman holds the reins at Gucci.

Behind the walls of the storied Italian fashion house, creative director Frida Giannini quietly controls all aspects of the label, from discovering—and rediscovering—fabrics to casting models for its runway shows. An up-close portrait of her artistic process is the focus of a new documentary, The Director, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday night.