Oh fashion, you're an international, multibillion dollar industry, but sometimes, you can be a little bit ridiculous. Maybe it is because all the Americans are off giving thanks, or perhaps its just that almost-summer itch, but for some reason the fashion news cycle this week felt extra, A-grade silly.

Let's start over in the UK, where a Miu Miu advertisement featuring Hailee Steinfeld wearing an outfit that I would like to own in its entirety was banned. Why? Because Steinfeld was sitting on a train track. This apparently constitutes "depicting a child in dangerous situation". Which, um… okay. The advertisement was deemed "irresponsible", and originally garnered complaints because some felt Steinfeld was glamourising suicide. Though Prada claimed reasonably that this was not the case (I sure don't read 'suicidal' from the image), the train tracks meant the ad was still condemned.  Possible solutions for avoiding banned advertisements in the future, like not using children to sell clothing to grown-ass women, will probably remain undiscussed, nevertheless, this image did seem unproblematic to me. Also banned was Marc Jacobs' latest fragrance campaign for 'Oh Lola' for being too suggestive. This makes a little more sense, since the ad may as well have been a DPS that read (in 36 point, bold, hot pink font): "WE'D LIKE YOU TO THINK ABOUT DAKOTA FANNING'S VAGINA".

Speaking of controversial advertising, Benetton unveiled a campaign last week that featured world leaders, including the Pope, kissing on the mouth. Then tried to pretend it had ambitions loftier than a cheap publicity grab by calling it an 'unhate' campaign. The idea of involving imagery of a human rights violator on the scale Kim Jong Il in a campaign that is supposed to be about tolerance makes me want to vom all over everything. Like, that dude is the reasons millions of people are starving to death right now, and you are using that fact to try and sell teeshirts? What the actual. Also, just putting it out there, if I kissed everything I didn't hate on the mouth, I'd never get anywhere, and would probably be pretty germy. You can check out the campaign imagery and a different perspective on its message here.

Vivienne Westwood - who has also made headlines lately for stopping by the Occupy protests -  created a dress for Katy Perry featuring Chinese calligraphy that read "Green Economy". This would be fine, as environmental change is an issue Westwood is passionate about, except that the phrase has been bandied about by the Chinese Government, and is widely recognised to be a scrap of hollow rhetoric. The dress is indicative of fashion's broader attitudes towards China, which run towards the vague-understanding-clouded-by-a-total-lack-of-cultural-nuance end of the spectrum. Desperate for Chinese dollars, brands are increasingly making Orientalist overtures, but, like Westwood's attempt, they tend to ring a little false against the actual Chinese lived experience. Amy Odell has written a great piece about it where she basically calls luxury brands a bunch of racists.

Not exactly fashion news, but Julia Gillard is going to be inducting Kylie Minogue into the Aria Hall of Fame. I only mention this because, if our extremely talented graphic designer was not on leave this week, right now you'd be clicking through a gallery of Gillard's head photoshopped onto Kylie's most famous outfits instead of reading my bitching.

Karl Lagerfeld will kick off Metro's coverage of fashion week by guest editing an issue of the daily newspaper come February. Karl Lagerfeld taking on yet another project isn't so much silly as standard. What is really ridiculous is the fact that Metro are running a competition to win a job as the Kaiser's assistant for a day. I'm getting stress-tremors just thinking about what that man would be like to work for. There's no way I'd want to win that lava-baptism.

Finally, Net-A-Porter are selling a dress near identical to the one Pippa Middleton wore to the royal wedding. It's real deal McQueen, and retails for the (relatively modest, given everything) price of £2,118. What is ridiculous is the idea that anyone would buy the floor length white number when you can get the same frock, short and in BRIGHT THE HELL RED.