In addition to featuring a Who's Who — including The Who — of British music (Annie Lennox, Ray Davies, the Spice Girls, George Michael, Madness, Blur), the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games paid tribute to British fashion brands.

The models hitting the Union Jack-shaped stage: Kate Moss (above) and Naomi Campbell in Alexander McQueen, Lily Donaldson wearing Vivienne Westwood, Stella Tennant in Christopher Kane, model/singer Karen Elson in Burberry, Lily Cole sporting Erdem, Georgia May Jagger (the offspring of fashion/music royalty Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall) wearing Victoria Beckham (a double brandcameo for the Spice Girl turned designer), Jourdan Dunn (Jonathan Saunders with headwear by milliner Stephen Jones) and David Gandy wearing Paul Smith.

The soundtrack: David Bowie's Fashion, of course. Bowie couldn't be included in the musical portion from the ceremony as he hasn't performed live since 2006.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...

ABC dismisses rumors of Pan Am's demise.

Amazon continues being coy about Kindle sales.

Apple's Siri can handle Viagra but not abortions.

AT&T disturbed by FCC report.

Audi finds success with youthful marketing.

BBC web redesign goes live in the UK.

Carlsberg acquires Vietnamese brewer.

Google and Facebook ordered to de-index counterfeit domains.

Jack Daniel's holiday campaign celebrates brand's Lynchburg, Tenn. roots.

Janet Jackson teams up with Blackglama to design luxury fur line.

Microsoft Office is reportedly coming to the iPad as Windows tablet hopes fade.Continue reading...

Now that New York Fashion Week is a wrap, the spotlight turns today to London, where British designers are showcasing at their Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Up and comers including the designing duo behind Preen, above, whose spring 2012 collection features high-tech lace and pixelated pastels inspired by Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set.

Burberry will once again live-stream its show (taking place Monday) at Burberry.com, where anyone can buy fashions directly from the runway. Not hitting the runway, however: Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, along with some models who feel LFW doesn't pay well enough to merit their time. (Click here for the full LFW schedule.)

There's hope that McQueen and McCartney will return to London Fashion Week in the spring, ahead of the London 2012 pre-Olympics buzz. The British Fashion Council, meanwhile, this week announced that Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen will participate in an arts-based collaboration, Britain Creates, part of the London 2012 cultural program.Continue reading...

AOL struggles in first quarter, while display advertising business grew.

Chipotle hiring probe expands.

ConAgra (maker of Chef Boyardee, Slim Jim) increases bid for Post cereal owner Ralcorp.

American Airlines offers in-flight streaming to personal devices.

Apple's iPhone 5 faces delay as app revenue projected to hit $3 billion.

Applied Materials to buy Varian Semiconductor.

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile scrap "Isis" payment platform for mobile wallet.Continue reading...

Charlie Sheen attracts 500 new followers per second as he gets ready to bring the crazy to Twitter. Update: he tweeted! And uploaded a twitpic in his first tweet, no less. No word on how Naked Juice and Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy chocolate milk feel about being Sheen's "choose your vice" stand-ins.

In other celebranding news:

Bono swoops in to address Spider-Man on Broadway woes.

Bristol Palin is writing a book.

Christina Hendricks pitches Vivienne Westwood.

Emma Watson used as lure for Facebook "clickjacking" scam.Continue reading...

Western fashion brands are looking to expand in mainland China, with Vivienne Westwood planning an additional 20 boutiques throughout the mainland, Burberry slated to add a whopping 66 new stores, Coach opening another 20 locations and Ferragamo planning 10 new stores, according to Alisa Gould-Simon at The Guardian.

That top fashion houses are salvaging the remains of declining international sales by catering to China’s growing population of nouveau riche is not news. But recent expansion plans may indicate an attempt by these fashion icons to expand into China’s second and third-tier cities, widely seen as the next, and potentially highly profitable, frontier for Western brands who have managed to gain a share of the market in Beijing and Shanghai.

The numbers certainly look promising. “It is estimated that the Chinese bought $7.5bn worth of luxury products last year. "We estimate retail sales will grow 16-18% this year," says Jessica Lo, of the China Market Research Group. A report published by McKinsey last autumn predicts that consumption will double in China's 100 biggest cities between 2008 and 2015.Continue reading...