Sophie Dahl

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Marni is gearing up to release its first fragrance, a blend of woody smells, spices, and rose oil named Marni. The perfume's ad campaign stars Raquel Zimmermann shot by Nick Knight, and a 100 ml bottle will go for $105 when it reaches stores next February. "It's a perfume that's quite individual, that doesn't evoke anything in particular," said the brand's creative director Consuelo Castiglioni. [WWD]
  

• Coach just won a lawsuit against a network of 600 websites that sold counterfeit Coach goods. A judge awarded the brand $257 million in damages, the biggest amount of money ever won in a counterfeiting case. [Fashion Etc]
  

• Ralph Lauren announced that it will close its Rugby line, aimed at younger customers, next February "in order to focus resources on higher growth, more scalable global opportunities with the core Ralph Lauren brand." [Fashion Foie Gras]
  

• Jenna Lyons has been named one of Glamour's women of the year. Her boss, Mickey Drexler, told the magazine, "I'm partial, but I think she's a woman of the year every year." [Glamour]
  

• Model Sophie Dahl has confirmed that she and husband Jamie Cullum are going to have a second child. The couple had a daughter named Lyra last March. [Vogue UK]
  

• Mark Badgley and James Mischka were at their house in Long Island when it was struck by a tree blown down by Hurricane Sandy's winds. Luckily, neither designer was hurt. [Page Six]

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Sophie Dahl's 2001 ad for Yves Saint Laurent's fragrance Opium has been named the eighth most offensive ad of all time by the British Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA agreed with some 948 complaints about the image of Dahl's naked body when the ad was released, saying that it was "sexually suggestive and, in an untargeted medium, likely to cause widespread offense." [Vogue UK]
  

• Kim France, the founder and former editor in chief of Lucky who started a blog called Girls of a Certain Age in December 2011, says she's not exactly comfortable with her new job description yet. "It feels very strange to me, the notion of people asking me what I do for a living, and at 48 to say, 'I'm a blogger.'" [The New York Times]
  

• Shopbop has added a feature that allows shoppers to look at sunglasses from all angles. Dragging your cursor across the screen turns the head of a model wearing dark lenses from Elizabeth and James, Matthew Williamson, and Rag & Bone, to name a few. [Shopbop]
  

• Tommy Hilfiger says he's always looked up to Karl Lagerfeld as a designer, who told him that he innovated Chanel by "looking at Coco Chanel's archives" and "making all of her designs relevant for today," he said. "So I wasn't doing anything dissimilar by taking all the American classics and making them relevant for today." [Style.com]

Until this month, I'd never before had or even seen chestnuts. Water chestnuts, yes — but those mythical chestnuts roasting over an open fire? Well, we'd never crossed paths.

The good news is now that I've fallen in love with their slightly waxy texture and their sweet, lingering aftertaste, I can't get enough of them. This week, I put their creaminess to good use in a sherry-and-mushroom soup, blending them in with an immersion blender for another added layer of thickness.

A satisfying bowl of this wasn't complete without a generous sprinkling of parsley for brightness, and a large hunk of country-style levain bread. Enjoy chestnuts in a new way with this recipe.

>> Franca Sozzani is putting her money where her mouth is with Vogue Italia's June 2011 cover. After devoting a special section to "curvy" women on the magazine's website (of those highlighted she recently said: "Why should these women slim down? Many of the women who have a few extra kilos are especially beautiful and also more feminine"), Sozzani has cast a trio of plus-size models for the magazine's latest cover. No Crystal Renn, the current "plus-size" model du jour, in sight — instead, Steven Meisel shot Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine, and Robyn Lawley in black and white, marking the first time plus-size models have graced the magazine's cover since the days of Sophie Dahl, circa 2000. [Models.com]

I've been obsessed with Dungeness crab this year, and although the latest catch has been plentiful, the season's started to wind down in favor of other Spring seafood like shrimp and tuna. So to make the most of what's still around, I've been buying up crab left and right, incorporating its tender meat in various fast and easy dinners. My current fave is this rustic meal, which comes from the cookbook of culinary show host and former model Sophie Dahl. I love how al dente linguine and a paste of garlic, chiles, and lemon zest highlight the crab's succulence and sweet flavor. Keep reading for the recipe.

As a 2011 culinary New Year's resolution, we here at YumSugar have been all about eating more meatless meals; they're not only better for our wallets and our health but also have less of an impact on the environment.

Not ready to commit to vegetarianism full-time? You can still make your mark by partaking in meat-free Mondays or vowing to eat less meat. One of my favorite fast and easy dinners is this hearty meal of grilled halloumi cheese and vegetables, topped simply with a sprinkling of cumin and a squeeze of lemon for a blast of exotic flavor.

If it's too cold outside to grill, you can easily adapt the recipe by oven-roasting the cheese and vegetables. Halloumi is a Cyprus cheese that is easily fried or grilled; if you can't track it down, substitute paneer instead. Go veggie for one night when you read more.

>> Wedding Bells: Catherine McNeil, Maggie Rizer Engaged; Sophie Dahl Married —Catherine McNeil, who's set to make a runway return next month, is reportedly engaged to Australian MTV presenter Ruby Rose — the two are apparently looking into a legal wedding in Canada.  Details are a little fuzzy — but not so with Maggie Rizer, who also got engaged recently — to real estate developer Alex Mehran on her birthday Saturday. As for Sophie Dahl, she and fiance, British jazz singer Jamie Cullum, married Saturday in England at a country mansion. The bride wore a bespoke Temperley London dress. [Daily Telegraph, @maggierizer, Modelinia, Daily Mail, Vogue UK]