Love it when people and corporations do good with the resources they've got!

It looks like Frida Giannini- creative director for Gucci and author/ illustrator Michael Roberts have collaborated together in a campaign to benefit UNICEF.  They're putting together some original pieces designed by Giannini that will be exclusively sold in Gucci boutiques and on Gucci.com.

The facinating angle is that Giannini has commissioned Michael Roberts to actually write a sequel to his popular children's book- Snowman in Paradise. This book's called Snowman in Africa and don't try Amazon for your copy- it will only be available in Gucci stores and on Gucci.com until December 31, 2009. Generous Gucci is donating every penny you spend on the book to UNICEF.

But the fun part for bag lovers is that Giannini's incorporated Roberts' illustrations on two Gucci Joy bags, some charms, and other small pieces.  You'll also find the illustrations on special gift cards.  A full 25% of the retail price of each one of these exclusive pieces will be donated to UNICEF.  Over the 5 year campaign- Gucci's promised $7 million to UNICEF.

I love that!!!  I mean talk about win- win- win!  Buy an amazing bag, and help educate, supply healthcare and clean water to kids in Africa!!!  Can't wait to get shopping!

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OK, so it won't be a Barbie exactly... but Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Sonia Rykiel, Stella McCartney, Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, and Versace- just to name a few... have all jumped at the opportunity to work with UNICEF in designing a series of dolls for auction.

This is the 60th Anniversary of the Frimousses de Createurs campaign.  The pictures that you see here are dolls that designers have contributed in previous years.

Love it or hate it, the fact is, you aren't going to miss the true stars of Wes Anderson's indie The Darjeeling Limited.

Louis Vuitton/ Marc Jacobs produced 11 pieces of luggage for the film. The MJ/ Wes Anderson connection is an interesting one. You can read more about it in a fascinating LA Times article by Monica Corcoran...

(pic credit: LA Times by Kirk McCoy)

Anderson's brother Eric provided the illustrations for the motif of palm trees, cheetahs, rhinos, zebras and other wildlife. Wes recalled:

"At first, the drawings were silk-screened, but Marc didn't like that... He wanted them embossed, and it made the luggage much better."

It's interesting to see them close-up... The images are deeply embossed- which makes them really rich against the leather background as you can clearly see here:

When asked about the luggage by the Sydney Morning Herald, Adian Brody said:

"I wasn't allowed to have any luggage. Wes has all of that. He has plenty. You should ask him about it."

So they did. Anderson's response?

"Vuitton took it back. They are going to put some in their museum and then auction some off for charity. But there were like 11 pieces, so we ought to be able to get something."

The proceeds of the auction are going to UNICEF and the Rawal Mallinathji Foundation, a medical treatment charity in India.