PARIS, France — Yesterday, Chanel launched its long awaited Chanel No.5 short film Train de Nuit, featuring Audrey Tautou, who is no stranger to the storied French couture brand. Often compared to Mademoiselle Chanel herself, Tautou has now twice taken on the role of the famous coutourière, most recently in Coco Avant Chanel, a film exploring her early life and times.

Within seconds of seeing the opening shot of the 2 minute short film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who previously worked with Tautou on the award-winning film Amélie, the viewer is struck by Tautou’s alluring presence, as she rushes to catch the Orient Express which takes her from 1955 Paris to modern-day Istanbul in mere seconds. This is the Internet after all, so things have to happen quickly before patience wears thin and viewers click away.

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LONDON, United Kingdom — Blanket media coverage over the weekend reported that a British woman named Susan Doyle has become one of the biggest Youtube sensations ever, registering more than 47 million views across the world, in less than one week. That’s more than the George Bush shoe-throwing incident, more than Tina Fey’s satire of Sarah Palin, and even surpasses views of Barack Obama’s victory speech. More than 150,000 comments have been registered on the YouTube page where the video appears. The numbers place the Susan Boyle video amongst the fastest spreading internet memes ever.

Boyle’s overnight international stardom holds a few interesting lessons for the fashion industry.

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PARIS, France — My favourite part of the recently released documentary on Carine Roitfeld is when the French Vogue editrix describes the level and degree of preparation for  a shoot with photographer Patrick Demarchelier. The shoot takes place in an agricultural show, contrasting haute couture with farm animals. As she explains, every shot had been imagined in her mind beforehand and everything had been meticulously planned to keep up with the photographer’s quick pace. And yet, they executed with a small team to achieve what Roitfeld calls a very French photograph.

In another segment, Marc Jacobs explains the thinking behind the low key approach to showing his signature collection this year, when he went without the elaborate sets and 2000 person mega event of New York Fashion Week. He says that it just didn’t feel right this time and so they put the money (and focus) into the clothes.

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NEW YORK, United States – Quoting Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, saying the format of showing the Fall 2009 collections this February is the “number one item on everyone’s agenda right now,” The Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Runway blog recently asked the question: “Will fashion shows survive the economy?”

To answer this question, it’s important to consider how fashion shows function in today’s media landscape. Increasingly, images and video from runway shows, captured by the established media, as well as a new generation of fashion bloggers wielding video-enabled camera phones, reach a global audience of fashion consumers, in close to realtime, on Style.com, YouTube and fashion blogs around the world.

As a result, today’s shows are not simply aimed at editors, buyers and other industry insiders. They have become remarkable vehicles for conjuring and transmitting the energy of a brand to end consumers.

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LONDON, United Kingdom – Yesterday evening’s British Fashion Awards ceremony was a wonderful occasion to celebrate the best in British Fashion Talent. There was a very impressive list of awards categories and an even more impressive list of winners, but I couldn’t fight this nagging feeling that something was missing.

Then, I realised that there was not even one award to acknowledge the various talented business people who also make their own kind of fashion magic, and are an essential part of the British fashion eco-system.

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Mickey Drexler is probably the most famous merchandiser in the fashion world. Merchandisers are known for their magical ability to combine art and science, analytics and gut feel, experience and predictive skills.

Over twenty years, Drexler built the Gap into a bonafide worldwide business from a struggling 400-store regional chain, using his product and merchandising skills and a 20-piece wardrobe that he kept on a list in his drawer while middling it out in other roles that didn’t inspire him.

I came across this conversation from earlier this year between Mr. Drexler and Charlie Rose, one of America’s most respected and talented interviewers. Charlie Rose says he “wants to go to school” on Drexler’s experience — which exactly what he does, getting underneath the mystery of merchandising through a series of stories and examples from Drexler’s career.