The Advocates: Lesbian Gaze

Fall fashion campaigns shoot and score with sapphic ads.

The masterminds behind fall 2009 high fashion campaigns have Sappho on the brain. Chanel's sizzling ads--shot at designer Karl Lagerfeld's home on Vermont's Lake Champlain--pay homage to the legendary love affair between British society lesbians Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West, whose scandalous love affair inspired Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography. The new campaign for accessories and shoes designer Cesare Paciotti features it-girl models Constance Jablonski and Eniko Mihalik in positively tantric positions. For Prada, famed photographer Steven Meisel shot butch models with frizzy, disheveled hair who wouldn't be out of place on an oil rig against a pool of black petroleum. Meanwhile, the styling of the Gucci campaign has an urban L Word vibe to it. While most displays of girl-on-girl advertising are done to titillate straight men, we love that these ads are selling femme fashion, aiming gorgeous displays of lady lust at women.

Chic Kickers
Functional footwear gets a fashionable reboot,

This season's butch boot is classic--a brown leather American utility lace-up. The vintage style is finding a foothold in many collections this year, including the Red Wing Shoe Company, which collaborated with J. Crew to bring back the vintage Irish Setter Boot style ($325, above). Rapper Jay-Z designed his own Americana boot with a similar wedge sole for Rocawear ($200). Hip Japanese brand Sophnet partnered with Portland, Ore.-based Danner Shoe Mfg. Company to create the Light Boot ($1,175), while Gucci takes up the working-class trend in a dark brown luxury version of the boot--for a not-so-proletarian $695.

Holiday Gift Guide: Monograms

Monograms on hats, cardigans, and oxford shirts personalize an otherwise ordinary gift--especially one bought and shipped from timesaving online retailers. Even if shoppers can't touch the products, the monogram shows that the gift was selected specifically for the recipient. Rugby, Ralph Lauren's varsity-themed clothing brand, offers custom monograms and patches on select apparel that will keep you penalty-free this season. Rugby.com.