Year in Review: The Best of Buzz

A Karl Lagerfeld candid schooled us on the true nature of the Kaiser's face: he wasn't born wearing sunglasses, it turns out, but he sure looks tragic without them.

The most shocking ANTM finale of all time outraged viewers (and us) by disqualifying Angelea Preston and sweeping it under the rug. We're still working night and day to get to the bottom of it.

Karl Lagerfeld might have championed Blake Lively as the face of Chanel, but the brand's staffers weren't happy with their leader's choice: their polarizing claim that Blake Lively was too down-market for the storied French fashion house delighted some of us, but outraged Lively's loyal fans.

Editor Franca Sozzani made the tasteful decision to show plus-size models hovering over bowls of pasta on the cover for Vogue Italia's plus-size issue.

Designer Donatella Versace's H&M collaboration received tons of well-deserved hype, but only a lucky few got their hands on pieces from the collection.

Missoni's massive capsule collection for Target crashed the retailer's servers and caused pandemonium in the stores, proving that more than just a select few care about good design.

The September 2012 fashion week schedule is still an open question: will Milan and New York have overlapping runway shows? Will New York eliminate days from its fashion week? Will Conde editors turn their backs on any Milan catwalks that dare to compete with New York? Will Paris manage to get its clothing to production on time? Will the fashion industry players finally agree to work out the drama in real-time, in a boxing ring, for all the world to see?

Lanvin's awkward dancing video for their Fall 2011 campaign starred Karen Elson and Raquel Zimmerman, and included a cameo with the great Alber Elbaz himself. Their moves were so good that the video went viral in a major way, the we all started itching to dance the night away.

Kanye West showed a tragic collection at Paris Fashion Week and did not handle the criticism very well—no surprise. But at least he got to have a short-term fling at the end of it, with the cloying media striver Chanel Iman.

This was insane. You know the score: John Galliano got drunk a few times, went on a bunch of racist and anti-Semitic rants, was caught on video, fired from Dior, and sent over to rehab. The search for his replacement persists: for awhile, we thought Marc Jacobs would be taking the position, but the Louis Vuitton designer turned the offer down. Last we heard, Raf Simons was rumored to be in the final stages of negotiation with execs from Dior. This saga will extend into 2012: we've almost given up on this, but someone *will* be confirmed as the Head Designer and we can't wait to see who it'll be and what they'll dream up. And we also can't wait to see whether the disgraced John Galliano manages to revive his career or if he's seen his end as a designer.