Glamwire

Naomi Campbell has been charged with assaulting two police officers during a “luggage rage” incident at Heathrow Airport, her lawyer and prosecutors said Thursday.

The 38-year-old supermodel was charged when she reported to Heathrow police station to answer bail over the April 3 fracas, lawyer Simon Nicholls said.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Campbell faced five charges _ three counts of assaulting a constable, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior to the crew of the airplane. Police said the assault charges related to two officers.

Campbell was ordered to appear at a west London magistrates’ court June 20.

Witnesses said Campbell was aboard a British Airways plane due to take off for Los Angeles when she became involved in a dispute over her luggage. Tens of thousands of bags had been separated from their owners at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 after its chaotic opening in late March.

Campbell was removed from the plane and held for eight hours at the airport police station before being released on bail.

She arrived at the police station Thursday in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. She left without speaking, but her lawyer said the supermodel was “bitterly disappointed” that she had been charged.

“Prosecutors in this case have decided she needs to be prosecuted in the magistrates court. She respects that decision and she hopes this matter is dealt with expeditiously,” Nicholls said.

The assault charges carry a maximum sentence of six months in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000. The other charges are punishable by a fine.

Campbell has a history of assaulting assistants and employees.

In 2000, she pleaded guilty in Toronto to an assault charge for beating an assistant while making a film in Canada in 1998. Under an agreement with prosecutors, Campbell expressed remorse and was released without punishment or a criminal record.

In January 2007, Campbell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in New York for throwing her cell phone at her maid in a dispute over a missing pair of jeans. She was ordered to do community service and attend a two-day anger-management program.

Claudia Schiffer on a recent cover of Russian Vogue

PARIS ? To paraphrase Douglas MacArthur, old supermodels never die, they just fade away for a while. And then they come back again.

Although celebrities have hijacked hordes of fashion ads in recent years, Nineties-era supermodels ? displaying formidable powers of longevity ? have returned with a vengeance in many of fall’s fashion campaigns.

That Linda Evangelista is starring in Prada, Naomi Campbell in Yves Saint Laurent, Claudia Schiffer in Chanel and Salvatore Ferragamo, Eva Herzigova in Louis Vuitton and Christy Turlington in Escada suggests these industry thoroughbreds remain as bankable and fascinating as Hollywood’s best beauties.

In fact, models in general ? from newbies to veterans ? dominate the lion’s share of European designer campaigns for next season, from Daria Werbowy in Christian Dior and Raquel Zimmerman in Fendi to Angela Lindvall in Jimmy Choo and Kate Moss in Stella McCartney. Notable exceptions to the celebrity-free ad zone include Charlotte Gainsbourg for Balenciaga and Vanessa Paradis for Miu Miu ? while many American brands also are sticking to the celeb road, such as Calvin Klein’s multiple use of Eva Mendes.

Karl Lagerfeld ? who has tapped Schiffer for three consecutive Chanel fashion campaigns, not forgetting Turlington, who appears in this season’s Chanel eyewear and handbag spots ? asserted that iconic Nineties supermodels are celebrities themselves, as easy for people to identify as any movie star.

“Time makes them sometimes even more interesting,” Lagerfeld said. “I work with them because they are great and right even for this moment. They are still young women with nice faces and great personal, modern style. They are, and stay, irreplaceable.”

Schiffer, who is also doing an encore in Ferragamo’s campaign, is “better than ever,” according to Lagerfeld.

Donatella Versace credits her late brother Gianni for fueling the supermodel phenomenon by sending all the top girls down the runway together in 1991.

“He made the models into celebrities as he understood that the more famous they became, the better it would be for him,” she said. “I don’t really make a distinction between working with celebrities and working with models as I think girls like Christy Turlington and, more recently, Kate Moss and Gisele [B?n] are celebrities, just as well-known as many actors and musicians.”

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Edward Lampert is determined to prove to Wall Street he’s a retailer after all.

The Sears Holdings Corp. chairman and his team are making some long-awaited merchandising moves in the hedge fund billionaire’s retail empire in an attempt to reenergize Sears’ apparel offering, stimulate traffic and generate some buzz. And key among them is taking the well-trodden path of launching a celebrity label, albeit with an unexpected partner: rapper LL Cool J.

Sears has teamed up with the hip-hop veteran to launch a brand calledLL Cool J for Sears. The collection of casualwear for juniors, young men’s, girls’ and boys’ will roll out to 450 of Sears’ 900 stores in September and could generate as much as $100 million to $150 million in its first year, sources said.

If it succeeds, the brand could go a long way toward easing some of the growing skepticism over Lampert’s strategy for Sears Holdings, which combines Sears and Kmart, and whether the conglomerate is more of a financial play than a retail one. If all goes as planned, the LL Cool J brand would be a boost for the store’s “softer side,” said Irv Neger, Sears’ senior vice president of apparel, serving an urban consumer the retailer hasn’t been addressing. “We know this [urban] customer is in the store, but it’s a customer we weren’t reaching. With this brand, we see tremendous growth opportunity.”

As for what LL Cool J knows about women’s apparel, the hip-hop artist insists he’s had plenty of experience. “I was raised by a matriarch, I have a wife and three daughters, so I know what women are looking for when they shop for clothes,” he said. “My main concern with juniors is to make sure the fit is right. The fabrics have to feel nice on a woman’s body, but sizing and fit are very important. I know that if she comes in, puts it on and it doesn’t fit, she won’t come back. Clothes have to make a woman feel good, relaxed and sexy. We are going to be constantly looking at fine-tuning the fit and we’ll get it right.”

But Sears is going against the grain by tapping the 40-year-old rapper. Retailers seem to be launching celebrity lines as quickly as they’re marking down in these tough economic circumstances, but most lately have been signing younger, fresher faces ? Avril Lavigne will soon launch at Kohl’s and Rachel Bilson is doing a line for DKNY Jeans.

Compagnie Financi? Richemont SA, the world’s second-largest luxury goods group, on Thursday reported an 18 percent rise in net profits to 1.57 billion euros, or $2.22 billion, on a 10 percent increase in sales to 5.3 billion euros, or $7.51 billion, for the year ending March 31.

The increases were driven by strong growth in Richemont’s jewelry and specialist watch businesses, which include Cartier, IWC, Piaget, Baume & Mercier and Panerai. Chloe, its main women’s wear business, saw relatively flat sales, however.

The results compare with profits of 1.33 billion euros, or $1.7 billion, on sales of 4.83 billion euros, or $6.19 billion, the previous year. All currency exchanges have been made at average exchange rates for the respective periods.

Johann Rupert, Richemont’s chairman, expressed caution over the current year, but was optimistic the group could weather the current economic downturn. “Despite turbulent times, sales during the first quarter of 2008 showed growth of 11 percent at actual exchange rates and that pattern has been repeated in the month of April, with sales growth of 16 percent at actual exchange rates and 24 percent in local currency terms,” he said.

“Over the first 20 years of its existence, we have positioned Richemont well to face the challenges of the global economy. The group has no net debt and a strong balance sheet and we have invested our surplus funds prudently,” he said.