Pregnant Carla Bruni (Photo from WENN)

It'll be a petit bebe for French First Lady Carla Bruni.  Amid months of speculation, Ms. Bruni unambiguously  alluded to her pregnancy in an interview with French newspaper Nice Matin.

The interview was about Ms. Bruni's recent meeting with the wives of French Marines stationed in Libya.  Nice Matin asked Ms. Bruni whether or not it is important for President Sarkozy to demonstrate bravery. "My husband is neither a soldier nor a Marine, but as the chief of the French army he is involved when he makes decisions" she said. "Moreover, there are the soldiers on the ground."

Without warning or prodding from the interviewer, Ms. Bruni's response took a dramatic turn. "Beyond all these issues, a happy event will soon be announced that is getting harder and harder to hide."

With the door wide open, the interviewer stepped right in, asking Ms. Bruni why the first couple was so secretive about the news. "Primarily it was to protect me, not to flaunt my private life."

When asked about rumors that she will have a boy (a petit Nicolas, perhaps?) Ms. Bruni claims that even she is unaware of the baby's sex. "There are some things that should remain a secret," she added.

So there you have it. The Midnight in Paris actress is officially with child. The French have suspected as much for months, however. President Sarkozy's father Pal Sarkozy announced the pregnancy on May 17th.  Ms. Bruni's revelation didn't even make headline news today.

The real story, therefore, isn't that President Sarkozy will soon be a proud Papa (for the third time), but why Ms. Bruni decided to confirm her pregnancy in an interview about french soldiers in Libya. Perhaps she was overcome by the Bastille Day spirit.  Or, more likely, perhaps she was just too grosse to avoid the subject any longer.

For the Francophiles among you, here is the link to the original interview with Nice Matin. For the rest, the Huffington Post provides a handy but limited translation of the highlights.

According to Hollywood Wiretap:

The singer, model and lady of the Elysee Palace told Canal Plus' "Grand Journal" news program, "He asked me to be in his next film. I don't know for what role, but I said yes!"

Last June, on a publicity tour in France for "Whatever Works," Allen talked about Bruni-Sarkozy's charisma saying he thought she would be wonderful on the big screen.

High-end LA boutique Tracey Ross, which carried lines like Derek Lam and Thakoon, has shut down. [P6]

Spotted: Scott Schuman, also known as the Sartorialist, shopping at American Apparel. [Racked]

French designer Ted Lapidus died at the age of 79 on Monday. [WWD]

Some mostly positive reactions to Thakoon's new Target line. [Racked]

In an attempt to weather the recession, ready-to-wear designers plan to offer "edited," more practical collections while turning their attention to international markets. [WWD] 

With shoppers deserting Madison Avenue, the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District has set up a by-invitation-only shopping suite at the Hotel Plaza Athénée next weekend, where the selected retailers' most important clients can come shop in private. [WWD] 

Perhaps in an effort to dispel rumors of Anna Wintour's departure, "industry sources" are saying that Vogue was Conde Nast's most profitable title this year.  [P6]  

While it is already known that Barack Obama will be wearing a Hart Schaffner Marx single-button, notch-lapel tuxedo on the evening of the inauguration, designers like Thom Browne, Paul Smith, and Tommy Hilfiger have submitted sketches to Women's Wear Daily of the sort of suits and tuxedos that they think he should wear. [WWD] 

French First Lady Carla Bruni is suing the clothing company Pardon for making a handbag depicting a nude image of her that was taken early in her modeling career. [Vogue UK]  

With their visit came more discussion of their respective wardrobes. Some talked about how Ms. Bruni might have upstaged Catherine Zeta-Jones with her simple royal blue dress and flats at the Elie Wiesel Foundation Humanitarian Awards dinner on Monday. Others made a fuss about Ms. Palin's choice of eyewear and two-tone suits. (Kazuo Kawasaki reported a surge in sales for Ms. Palin’s $375 rimless frames.)

"The most businesslike dresser of the four women on the stump, Palin favors two-tone suits and straight-up black, often pairing her outfits with red Naughty Monkey heels or Soft black pumps—both of which, the press has pointed out, were purchased in her home state," reported Women's Wear Daily on Thursday as Ms. Palin's visit drew to a close.

On Sept. 17, prior to her New York visit, Page Six reported that Ms. Palin has a secret troop of stylists that instruct her about how to both come across fashionable—she wore a $2,500 silk Valentino jacket to the convention!—but maintain her all-American hockey mom image. ("They do not want the American public to know that Palin is using stylists or that she is paying for expensive clothes this early on in the campaign," an unnamed source told Page Six.)

Meanwhile, in September 2007, Ms. Bruni implied in the Guardian that she does not employ a stylist.

"I don't think anyone can teach you to have style though. Either you have it or you don't. I've never really had it. The modeling made me realize that you can't buy style. It's something personal and private," she wrote. "The total head-to-toe designer look is ridiculous. It's the opposite of fashion. A matching bag and shoe and hat makes you look like a Christmas tree. And I would never wear shoulder pads. Or pointy shoes. Or skinny jeans. Or low-waisted trousers. You take away the hips and waist - the best bits!"

"All the fashion made me more simple. I had to deal with all this sophistication every day, and it made me over-relaxed in the evenings. I don't go for heels, I never wear make-up. It only seems to enhance age," she added.

Click above for a slideshow recounting their visit—where they went, who they saw, and what they wore.

Being a pair of regular old tourists in the big city, the two went for a morning jog in Midtown--"Bruni turned heads in a skintight sports top that bared her washboard belly as the seemingly winded president struggled to keep up in an oversized soccer jersey that covered a pair of way-too-short shorts," the Post reported--visited the Guggenheim, and then headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a luncheon for the White House Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy.

At night, the pair dined at Cipriani in Midtown, where Mr. Sarkozy was awarded an Eli Wiesel Foundation Humanitarian Award. (Also present were Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas.)

The couple will reportedly have an equally busy schedule today as the French president speaks at the General Assembly on behalf of the European Union. 

But there's another famous political woman in town this week: Alaskan governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who arrived last night with husband Todd and infant son Trig.

Ms. Palin is scheduled for two days of meetings with world leaders. And while Mr. Sarkozy is not part of her released schedule, might there be a chance that the Palins from Wasilla encounter the Sarkozys from Paris? 

We hope so! We’re picturing it like a scene from Wife Swap where the two sets of spouses are seated across from each other, having a civil discussion until someone inevitably loses their temper and storms off. And while Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy might be tall, beautiful, a singer, and, ahem, a former supermodel, Ms. Palin was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant, eats moose burgers and, she can shoot guns!

Something tells us the husbands might take the back seat in our fantasy. 

Ralph Lauren's show last Friday was the first Fashion Week show ever for LeBron James. [WWD, previously] 

Erin Wasson tells Cory Kennedy that homeless people have the best sense of style. [Nylon TV via The Cut]  

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy wore Christian Dior last week when her husband, French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, greeted Pope Benedict XVI on his first visit to France. [WWD]

Unexpectedly, London fashion shows began on time this year. (Hear that, New York designers?) [Vogue UK] 

Erica Jong made her first Fashion Week appearance at Christian Francis Roth’s show on Friday. “I love Marc Jacobs, Lanvin and Etro,” she told Women's Wear. [WWD] 

The reporter Missy Schwartz had a light-lunch kind of interview with Ms. Bruni, which resulted in lots of explanatory paragraphs and paraphrasing and not many quotations from Ms. Bruni. Here's what she got out of her (in direct quotes, anyway):

But there's also a fun little sidebar about Ms. Bruni's favorite music, in which she discusses Amy Winehouse and... The Clash?

Read on as Ms. Bruni's explains herself and Karl Lagerfeld declares her the most enviable first lady.

On her independence:
“I think it is a major duty for a woman to be independent. Independence was my obsession when I was 20. It was not making money; it was making my own money. Modeling meant I did not have to rely on my parents or a man."

On her past lovers:
“It’s not that I had a lot of lovers. It’s that I never hide them. It’s a different thing. I have not one day of regret. I have a very good relationship with exes. I have a good relationship with all the boyfriends I had. Sometimes I’m the godmother of their children. I’m always good friends with their wives.

On her nude photos:
“I never realized how many nude pictures I did before I met Nicolas. I took him and said, ‘O.K., now I need to show you, because I posed in the nude. But I never did sexy pictures. They’re great artists. Plus, I have a body that would allow me to pose nude without being very provocative.”

On how the French press covered their relationship:
[Nicolas] from our generation. He doesn’t want to lie. He doesn’t want to have a second family somewhere. He never thought that our going to Egypt would make such a fuss. We took three days, and it lasted weeks and weeks [in the press]. It looks like we spent five weeks lying on the beach, and we spent two hours. And for one hour he talked with Bernard Kouchner, because they were working hard. I said, ‘Nicolas, it’s not fair that people think you don’t work just because you’ve been wearing jeans with me.’

Plus: Karl Lagerfeld on Ms. Bruni's new status:
"She’s imaginative, clever, educated. She knows how to behave. She speaks many languages. It must be an embarrassment for the wives of other heads of state to see this beautiful creature who can wear anything and speak like that. They are hunters who met—predators. It’s a good thing. He had seduced many women, and she was a kind of seductress. When two like this meet, it can be good.”

But what exactly is going on? Is the super-skinny trend coming to an end? Are real women—remember back when being naturally curvaceous was good thing?—about to make a giant comeback? Are Michelle Obama’s arms too thick or too thin? Will Angelina Jolie’s womb continue to burst with babies? Is the anorexic-but-busty trend—that ho look against which I inveighed in my most recent book, Eccentric Glamour (Simon and Schuster, $24), finally beating a retreat? So many questions!

Let’s start with the ho trend. All over Manhattan, fashion folk are fizzing in their cubicles over the June issue of Italian Vogue. Yes, I did say cubicles! Calm down! Not everyone in the world of fashion has a giant, sleek chrome and white Ugly Betty office. I myself am the proud occupant of a small, gray modular structure. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Au contraire! Situated prominently in the main hallway of the Barneys office, I enjoy loads of spontaneous encounters with colleagues and visiting dignitaries alike. If I need a little privacy then I simply squirt perfume at any unwanted looky-loos. I keep a selection of fragrances in a little gray drawer for this very purpose.

But I digress. …

As I said, all over Manhattan, style professionals are fighting over this issue of Italian Vogue. There sits ’80s supermodel Linda Evangelista—womanly, more beautiful and fascinating than ever, the very essence of snooty elegance: looking like a cross between socialites CZ Guest and Barbara Hutton. The dignified Steven Meisel photographs of Ms. Evangelista flip the bird at skank style and pay tribute to that long-lost era when women were pampered because they were mysterious and special, and not because they could pole-dance. “Thank God!” hissed a female colleague, who had stopped by my cubicle to try and steal my copy.

The new refinement makes a really refreshing change from the porno chic that has dominated our culture for so long. Apart from being extremely draughty for the wearer, ho style has the unforgivable effect of making all women look the same: see The Real Housewives of Orange County. The bitchy-heiress look offers infinitely more opportunity for eccentricity and personal expression: see Linda with that gorgeous Philip Treacy glove hat plopped on her lovely Canadian head.

Fashion insiders are clearly ready to classy it up a little, but what of the poor whiplashed consumer? One minute she’s being told to rouge her nipples and tattoo her butt crack, the next minute she’s thrust into a Louis chair, surrounded by a gaggle of gassy pug dogs and forced to do her best Duchess of Windsor impersonation. Will she be able to make the transition? The general consensus around my cubicle is that the ordinary woman in the street is more than ready to trade in her teen-hoochie thang for some haughty Evangelista-esque glam.

My cubicle feels strongly that Linda is the gal to lead the charge into a more sane, less youth-centric, more woman-friendly year. Born in 1965, she is living proof that life, and fabulousness in general, begin at 40. Watch for her in the upcoming Prada ads. And watch for her peers Naomi and Christy in various other fall fashion campaigns. The supermodels are back!

Cubicle theories abound regarding the return of this triumvirate. Some say it’s because “Celebs are OVER!” I believe that the reason is more profound: the supes, unlike the fragile, stunned-looking Eastern European teenage chicks who have dominated the runways since the late 1990s, actually have internal organs and are therefore capable of emotions like joy and rage and are therefore more real, i.e., interesting. The naïve dingbat anorexic moment has passed. Super-skinny has lost its resonance. It’s time for

Karl Lagerfeld to pack on a few pounds. Jiggly is about to become the new scrawny.

And what about Mrs. Obama, she of the athletic decidedly unscrawny arms? The fashion flurry around La Obama is deeply amusing to moi. My cubicle visitors keep banging on endlessly about how great it will be to have a Jackie O-ish fashionable presence in the White House, a woman with “great style.” It’s not hard to decode these utterances: “Great style” is clearly a p.c. euphemism for “does not have thick ankles like most politicians’ wives.” Michelle Obama, Jackie O and Carla Bruni Sarkozy are all lauded for their “fabulous sense of fashion.” The reality is that their personal style is non-intrepid. What these gals have in common is not fashion bravado, but rather a distinct lack of cankles. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. The simplicity and tidiness that unites this triumvirate is totally laudable and very much in keeping with the limitations of the office.

Talking of office limitations, my little gray cubicle could really use a bit more storage. Perhaps another shelf or two. And remember, gals! Women are back!

sdoonan@observer.com

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