American Apparel is no stranger to controversy over the years, showcasing its "Made in America" (for now?) garments on young models, risqué poses, nudity and other provocative images that have given the brand and its Canadian founder, Dov Charney, a bad reputation — most of all as a businessman, with a lifeline investment by billionaire George Soros making headlines earlier this year.

Whether it's another way to be provocative or at least unexpected, the brand has been expanding its casting calls for models, staging a (disastrous) contest for plus-size models, hiring its first transgender model (in partnership with GLAAD, no less) and now upturning ageism with the new face for its "advanced basic" line: 60-year-old actress Jacky O’Shaughnessy, who was spotted by an AA staffer in New York.Continue reading...

Lancôme has signed its first Muslim model — the 22-year-old gamine-cropped Tunisian, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem — as a global face. The brand features Hanaa, who debuted as a model in Vivienne Westwood's spring 2011 runway show and broke out a few months later after cropping her hair for Givenchy, in the short film above; check out her first campaign work for the makeup brand below.Continue reading...