Another English soccer legend is retiring. David Beckham announced his retirement from pro soccer not long after his former coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, made the same announcement.

After two more games, Beckham will be hanging up his cleats, but the star athlete was sure to rack up a few more titles before he cleans out his locker. Thanks to Paris Saint-Germain' s recent win to claim the Ligue 1 title, Beckham is now the only person to have won four national club championships in four different leagues in four different countries. He's also the first English player to score at three consecutive World Cup finals, and he's been honored by the Queen of England. Not a bad rap for a guy that kicks a ball around for a living, but there's a lot more to Beckham's success than what simply lies on the field. 

"If you had told me as a young boy I would have played for and won trophies with my boyhood club Manchester United, proudly captained and played for my country over 100 times and lined up for some of the biggest clubs in the world, I would have told you it was a fantasy," he said, the BBC reports. "I'm fortunate to have realized those dreams."Continue reading...

Greenpeace is doing battle against the fashion world. In the past week, it organized more than 700 volunteers in more than 80 cities in 20 countries to dress up like mannequins and stage “walkouts” of Zara stores as a protest against the company for using any hazardous chemicals in its supply chain.

The “Detox Zara” campaign has spread to include all of fashion; the eco-campaigner's latest video, above, is a manga style trailer called "Detox Fashion" (tagline: "Toxic is so last season.")

The campaign has worked, according to Greenpeace's Tristan Tremschnig: "Zara — the world’s largest retailer — has now committed to clean up their supply chain and Detox following 9 days of intensive pressure from people around the world. This included over 320,000 people joining the campaign online, over 44,000 mentions of Zara and the Detox campaign on Twitter alone, and a reach of over 7.1 million people across Twitter and Weibo. Not forgetting our activities on Facebook, Pinterest and outside the brand’s stores."Continue reading...

Apple seeks to create web radio Pandora rival as TV talks bog down with content companies.

Beyonce-backed House of Dereon fashion label sags.

Bobbi Brown Cosmetics reveals Katie Holmes campaign.

Cablevision refreshes Optimum brand.

Elizabeth Arden launches Nicki Minaj's perfume debut, Pink Friday.

Emporio Armani becomes first brand to partner with Spotify.

Fashion's Night Out brings out global fashionistas.

Ford expands offerings for Europe.

Grand Marnier launches experiential rooftop bubble bar in London.

IHOP partners with PepsiCo's Quaker Oats brand.Continue reading...

Trending on YouTube, and probably in the minds of most guys, is the newest short film by Armani. The unlisted video (teased on Twitter, Facebook and the just relaunched Armani.com) features Rihanna in a parked car in a garage, film noir style, changing her clothes into stylish Armani jeans and underwear.

Rihanna and Armani (let's just call them Rihannarmani already) teamed up with photographer Steven Klein and the director behind some of Madonna's biggest videos, Johan Renck, for the shoot, which was filmed in a garage in New York. The reason for the video? Rihanna is the new face of Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear.Continue reading...

Lauren Bush's FEED USA campaign, which raises money to improve school food programs across America, last crossed our transom when it produced "Made in USA" bags for Gap that turned out to be made in China, and Gap duly apologized for the gaffe.

Now another retailer, Nordstrom, is offering an exclusive FEED bag, to support the activist's (that's her at right) global FEED Projects program, with French beauty brand Clarins on board.

This bag, dubbed FEED 15, is a makeup bag rather than a tote bag, however. It contains Clarins body lotion, hand cream and lip gloss and will be available for $30 starting July 15th at Nordstrom and on the FEED web store and starting August 1st at Clarins.com.

To extend the exclusivity even further, in October, Bloomingdale's will offer a similar FEED 25 bag. The "15" and "25" on the bags indicate the number of children fed around the world with the purchase of each bag, according to WWD.Continue reading...

Emporio Armani released more from its series of short film projects in collaboration with magazine/media creatives for London Fashion Week.

Katie Price's turn as a Hitchcock-inspired damsel in distress has been followed up by a short (above) directed by Jamie Morgan for POP; and after the jump, Irresistible, a dark and edgy short directed by Alex Lindahl for Italy's Muse magazine.Continue reading...

Kelly Brook is a heroine to dye for in A Kind of Blue. The normally brunette glamor model turned tabloid fixture stars in a new short film for Armani that just debuted at London Fashion Week.

The collaboration with UK's Love magazine riffs on Hitchcock's passion for ice-cold blond femme fatales, while Price's heaving bosom shows his clothes aren't just for stick insects, as her fellow Brit Bridget Jones might say.

Another fashion/cinema collaboration pegged to the Autumn/Winter runway shows: a frisky Natalie Portman in an artsy commercial directed by Sofia Coppola for Christian Dior's Miss Dior Cherie perfume —

As expected, Tony Hayward's apologetic appearance in Washington today at a Congressional hearing on the oil spill was met with derision. BP's CEO was accused of stonewalling and being evasive, with the Guardian calling the proceedings "testy."

The New York Times notes the hearing's strangest twist (other than the ouster of a protester): an apology to Hayward over BP's $20 billion escrow fund by Texas legislator Joe Barton, who later retracted his words after fellow Republicans rebuked him. VP Joe Biden addressed Barton's comments, above.

New evidence indicates that BP's drilling problems at the spill site date back to February. BP is also seeking a $5 billion line of credit, two bankers tell Bloomberg News.

New Orleans also scrapped a BP-backed tourism campaign--with the tongue-in-cheek tagline, "This isn't the first time New Orleans has survived the British"--after it was leaked to the Guardian. More news after the jump.Continue reading...