1.) 105-year-old celebrates birthday at male revue

Love her. I also love her door-knocker earrings, purple nails, and Baby Phat track suit.

2.) Glassy-eyed Fanilow
Paula Abdul attended a Barry Manilow concert, where Entertainment Tonight caught up with her backstage.

3.) Hailey Glassman
Jon Gosselin's girlfriend was on The Insider this week to discuss how hard it is being famous. In this clip, she pays Kate Gosselin a compliment, then insults her, then goes into detail about when Jon first stuck his ween in her.

4.) Boys don't cry.
Mary Hart tried her damnedest—during her exclusive interview with Chaz Bono regarding his sex reassignment process—to get Chaz to break down and cry over how horrible all of this must've been for him. Chaz wouldn't bite. It's kinda great watching him kind of get off on being withholding.

5.) Big-ass joint
In the History Channel's docu-drama Manson, the reenactment of Dennis Wilson getting high with the Family seemed cartoonish.

6.) Man down, code 10!
Keyshia Cole's mom Frankie hosted BET's Red Carpet pre-show for the Hip Hop Awards.

7.) Babs!
She was in rare form this week.

Really rare.

8.) Holly Montag
Who would've thought that Heidi's sister would turn out to spike the punch of The Hills with her dance "fights."

9.) "Nuptial Decadence"
Why does that term sound so delicious?

10.) Ew.
I don't know which is more disturbing: the fact that the woman in this commercial is afraid of her husband, or the fact that frozen mussels actually exist.

• A match made...somewhere. Miss USA contestants will be sporting barely-there bikinis from the Jessica Simpson collection. [NYDN]
• The nebbish-weight cage match between Woody and Dov continues, as Allen decries the jersey-meister's "rep-tarnish" tactics. [NYP]

• Moschino pulls new marketing director. [WWD]
• Quoth Amber Valletta: "As much as I love fashion and as much as it has supported me, I see how extreme and extravagant it is." Her line will, presumably, be both cautious and frugal? [Fashionista]
• "We have so much in common," says Charlotte Ronson of bff-collaborator Shoshonna Lonstein Gruss. Well...you're both super-rich and make girly clothes...[WWD]
• Eileen Fisher's cracking down on department store's deep discounting by renting out her own space on their floors. Your mom will pay full price for that linen sack and like it! [WSJ]
• Speaking of protecting one's neck: Seven jeans is suing Oleg Cassini and InDesign Apparel for trademark and copyright infringement due to overly similar ass embellishment. [CityFile]
• A new, Catherine Deneuve-endorsed handbag line is made by, and benefits, female Lebanese prisoners. The bags are embroidered with inspirational Arabic phrases. [BBC]
• Word is, Kimora is getting into maternity. The evidence? "A black T-shirt bearing the Baby Phat logo with an arrow pointing to her bump." All we're saying is, you then waive the right to get pissed if random strangers touch your belly.[WWD]
• When Models Tweet: "IN London Shooting a MAJOR SURPRISE COVER!!!!Its top secret can't give it away!!" [Fashionologie]
• Aww! Groovy purple-lovin' cool chick Anna Sui is receiving this year's CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. Stevie Nicks is, allegedly, stoked.[WWD]
• We like Ike! (Mizrahi.) "I am really a slob. It takes a lot of effort for me to look this put together. If I had my way, I would sit on the couch all day and eat ice cream and go to pieces with my dogs because that is the ultimate luxury to sit and watch TV with one's dogs." [Factio via New York]
• Jay-Z's Rocawear pop-shop 18-wheeler (subtle!) is hitting New York. And, presumably, causing gridlock. [Racked]
• We can't vouch for Nanette Lepore's literary tastes, but if they're anything like her tastes in suits? Give her pick - Idanna Pucci's new book Brazza in Congo: A Life and Legacy - a spin. [The Daily Beast]
• Struggling M&S brings back professional eccentric and designer Zandra Rhodes. [Daily Mail]
• What would Jason Wu tell Michelle Obama? "Thank you for changing my life. But more than me, they've really brought optimism to the country, which is really great." [USA Today]
• Want to see an appalling bathing suit? [VogueUK]

• Sienna Miller is going to be the face of a new Hugo Boss fragrance. When was the last time you remember Sienna Miller actually acting? [WWD]

• In further crossover tales, newly minted TV host Coco Rocha, who's jumping between walking in shows and filming them for an E! Canada documentary this week, says she's glad she doesn't have to talk to celebrities because, unlike industry people, they don't know who she is. Also, she thinks her red hair makes people treat her differently. "I think people are more scared of me. They think I'm evil." [The Cut]
• The Costume Institute's spring exhibit will be all about the model as a fashion muse and the evolution of beauty standards for women. [Guardian]
• Event co-host Kate Moss's muse status has already translated to the art world: a set of Banksy portraits of the model, done in the style of Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe silkscreens, are going to be auctioned in London. [Telegraph]
• Speaking of model muses, Japanese model Tao Okamoto's haircut inspired Philip Lim's runway hairstyle. She shot his look book and he was taken with her. [Elle]
• Meanwhile, Michelle Obama inspired the hair and makeup look at Baby Phat. [WWD]
• If you're taking any New York taxis this week, the video screen of asinine weather and real estate information ("Buy A West Village Condo For Eleventy Million Dollars! Someone From Corcoran Explains Why!") you immediately poke at furiously to turn off may contain images of Cynthia Rowley's fall collection. [WWD]
• Male model Cole Mohr shot a fashion week video for New York. He goes backstage and tells fellow model Tyler Riggs, "Say something meaningful! We're on film!" Riggs pulls a face and replies, "It's better to destroy than create what is meaningless." Then he thinks a second, lights a match, and says, "I am why the ozone layer is fucked up." And this is why I cannot hang out with male models. [The Cut]
• The New York Times has been to the tents and sees only Doom and Gloom (with sides of Sturm and Drang). Representative line about a drag queen: "Having spent two decades capitalizing on the froth thrown off by both boom and bust economies, he was also well acquainted with the uses of sobriety." And Twitters about Marc Jacobs' hair get at something existential. [NY Times]
• PPR, the megaconglomerate whose luxury holdings include Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Bottega Veneta, saw flat revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008. But luxury sales for this year have grown by 8.1% on last January. Emerging markets like China saw Gucci sales increase 42% in 2008. [Financial Times]
• Also weathering the downturn passably is Uniqlo chairman and CEO Tadashi Yanai, whom Forbes just named Japan's richest man. $6.1 billion is a lot of $30 cashmere sweaters. [WWD]
• The Italian apparel sector has formally requested aid from the government. Auto makers and homewares manufacturers were included in a stimulus package approved last month, but not fashion or textile companies. One large company, IT Holdings SpA, has already seen its luxury division (owner of the brands Gianfranco Ferre and Malo, as well as licenses for Cavalli Sport) teeter into bankruptcy. [Reuters]
• Dress Barn projects a second quarter loss. [WWD]
• PETA supporter Tim Gunn says designers "Hhve a responsibility to know about [ethical issues surrounding fur]. If you're going to use fur, you at least need to know which sources are less abusive than others...I would never use anything from China. What people don't tell you is that it's most likely dog. And they call it something else and they make it look like something else." Fur cannot be used in the Project Runway final collections, interestingly. [Reuters]
• Even Anne Slowey's dog is fasting this fashion week. [Elle]
• However, this story about how Slowey missed the first few days of shows because her 85-year-old mother in Indiana needed help converting her analog TV for digital signal is very sweet. [Observer]
• UK Vogue features editor Harriet Quick says Posh's new dress collection is good. (It's hard to imagine how a set of Roland Mouret rip-offs could be bad, exactly...) As if to highlight her unoriginality, the story is illustrated with pictures of Posh's dress presentation side-by-side with pictures of Posh wearing similar outfits in years past. [Daily Mail]
• Luckily, she wasn't taking inspiration from Cartier: the French jeweler is suing QVC over the similarity of several watch designs in their Joan Rivers collection. [WWD]
• American Vogue's fashion news and features editor, Sally Singer, is a Berkeley- and Yale-educated former book editor who certainly reads more contemporary fiction than you do. She also skipped several grades, wrote a letter to Andy Warhol when she was 12 asking for a job at Interview, and has sewn her own clothes since she was in middle school, because her family's budget didn't stretch to the kinds of garments she saw in the fashion magazines she scoured growing up. She seems friendly, well-adjusted, and entirely non-sociopathic. It is a heartbreaking paradox of this industry that some of the smartest, funniest, and most culturally engaged women you could ever meet, somehow, once they get together, are responsible for creating the lobotomized morass that is the women's media. [Mediabistro]

When Moe and I went to the Baby Phat/KLS show in 2007, it was held at Roseland ballroom, a venue with a capacity for 3500 people. Of course it wasn't filled, but it was a huge presentation. Last night's show at Gotham Hall (capacity: 800) was a much, much, smaller affair. Still, since Baby Phat is known for a blingy, over-the-top aesthetic, the organizers tried to keep the dream alive: The black-on-black invitation had a giant fake plastic gem on it, and the clothes did their very best to be optimistic; they were conservative, but some with glitter and glam thrown in.

Here are the notes I wrote last night:
7:49 pm
A waterfall of blonde hair, and then Ice T. Must be Coco. I'm in section F, which is farthest from where the models come out, and row 10, which is the last row. But at least I have a seat.
7:56 pm
Just spotted Bonnie Fuller and daughter.
7:57 pm
Whitney from America's Next Top Model is here. If she is "plus sized" then I am a pterodactyl.
8:01pm
Tinsley Mortimer in a hot blood red orange satin number and updo. She is like a blade of grass. The old skool R&B is making me sleepy. There is lots and lots of security. Eevryone has an earpiece with a spiral cord. Everyone.
8:05
I think that is Aubrey O'Day in a skin-tight leopard print dress but who knows.
8:11
R&B star Mario in front row. Show was supposed to start promptly at 8.
8:13
Danyel Smith, editor of Vibe, in front row. Oh! Flame-haired Patricia Field in the house!
8:15
It's freezing in here.
8: 23
Spotted Bethann Hardison wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Love her.
8:33
Jamaican model Stacey McKenzie in the front row.
8:41
The lights go out. The first look is lace and blue denim.
Here are the pix:

Compared to the befeathered, bedazzled, short-short ensembles Baby Phat produced in the past, this is positively nun-like.

Demure, refined. Gossip Girl-esque?

The bling on the pants and the shoes keep things from being too restrained.

This young lady was working the runway. She would walk up to the cameras and pose like she was doing someone a huge favor. Major attitude. The crowd loved it.

More lace, more ruffles. Positively lady-like.

Gossip Girl coat.

You wouldn't call any of this "original."

Are these plus-fours? Plus-fours are trying to come back, you know.

Gossip Girl coat.

Meh.

Why yes, this is a silver glitter knicker jumpsuit. That's the kind of thing you'd expect from KLS.

Work it, girl! That dress is pretty.

Something about this feels like "going through the motions."

Bored yet? Nothing was really a stand-out.

The mens' wear was fairly predictable.

Trenchcoats are not exactly groundbreaking. But they probably sell.

Coco and Ice T!

When, pray tell, is this ever appropriate?

A gray peacoat with jeans. Nothing to write home about.

Whitney Thompson, of America's Next Top Model. A wee bit more fabric would be nice.

Coco and Ice T, again.

Monica and Mario. Her hair is adorable.

Oh yes, pregnant Kimora and daughters came out at the end.

Djimon Hounsou was there, of course.

Here are the contents of my gift bag:
1 copy of Interview magazine with Lindsay Lohan on the cover
1 copy of Interview's Patrick McMullan supplement
1 eleven-ounce bottle of Fiji Water
1 bottle of nail polish by Creative Nail Designs, color: Scorch (hot pinky-purple)
1 black faux croc vinyl business card holder
1 pink vinyl business card holder
1 $200 laser hair removal gift certificate

• Jessica Simpson is launching a line of luggage. Because that's the image of America we want to project when we travel abroad! [People]

• Jennifer Aniston wants a beauty deal. Join the club, sister. [WWD]
• When Kimora's slashing fabulosity budgets, you know things are bad! On her subdued Baby Phat show, "Now's not the time to be running all over and flaunting the money that we don't have." [WSJ]
• Ex Russell Simmons would seem to agree: he's launching a line at Wal-Mart. [Business Week]
• Remember how last week Rachel Zoe said that designer Christopher Sauvé couldn't sell those "Bananas/I Die" tees due to trademark infringement? He's having none of it! He's starting a "free the fruit" campaign to return bananas to the people. [New York]
• Should you have a Michelle fetish and a few grand to spare, check out Jason Wu's truly lovely offerings on Net-a-Porter. [Fashionista]
• Liz Claiborne exec: "Isaac Mizrahi is a nuclear weapon." Is that...a good thing? For the flailing company's sake, we hope so! [New York Times]
• A big spread in O Magazine can't hurt: "A spokeswoman for Liz Claiborne said the brand chose O because it reaches its demographic. In the issue, more than 50 pieces will be modeled by a mix of "real" women, models and celebrities, including Veronica Webb, Becki Newton of "Ugly Betty" and fashion icon Iris Barrel Apfel. The designer has included plus and petite sizes in his collection and has kept it budget conscious. To finish each look, Liz Claiborne is selling coordinated shoes, bags, jewelry and lingerie."[WWD]
• David Gandy is as modest as he is beautiful. Quoth the British model, "Why would anybody want to look at my body?...How can a man be pretty? Flowers and women are pretty. Men are not". We respectfully disagree. [Fashionista]
• Wal-Mart's move to New York could screw some of their vendors. Good plan, though: we're sure the cost of living is way cheaper here than in Bentonville, Arkansas! [Business Week]
• We're not sure how psyched we are about the Jay McCarroll Fashion Week documentary. On the one hand: his last doc was a bit sad, what with Heidi blowing him off and everything. On the other: it's as much Runway as we're getting! [Reuters]
• Jenna Lyons, the creative director of J. Crew, obviously has great timing and a lot of skill. But...we're confused by the deliberate hole in the knee of the jeans she's pictured wearing. [Observer]
• The new Zappos ads: "Underpants-clad customers are pictured either standing in a Zappos box or walking into one. Putting on their best Vanna Whites for the camera, they either reveal their purchases or lift the box over themselves — at which point they are suddenly transformed into fully-dressed Citizens of Society." Hehe. Underpants. [AdRants]
• Speaking of skivvies: OMG the Herry Hall Cherie-inspired Chanel ads are out and are they rad! (We're assuming they're ignoring the sequel in which Cherie commits suicide.) [New York]
• Meanwhile, Chanel's mastermind, Karl Lagerfeld, doesn't dig the internet. Quoth the Kaiser, the web doesn't project "the unique feel and sophistication of luxury materials, refined tailoring and extraordinary attention to detail found in luxury fashion." But can luxury fashion show Christian Bale ranting?! [WSJ]
• THE BARBIE COUTURE IS HERE. Okay, sketches, but still. [AP]
• Anna Sui: "It's survival of the fittest at this point." We'll back the iconic iconoclast in any Darwinian struggle! [NYT]
• Says the head of struggling label Five Four, "I want to create our generation's Polo. You can't be a megabrand in the U.S. today if you're selling a woven shirt for $200...I think the concept of luxury is passé." [WSJ]
• Rachel Roy's current motto? "Strength and courage." [Glam.com]

Why hello there, dear. The words that come to mind immediately are "exquisite corpse." Yeah, it means something else, but damn. She is dead in the eyes. The lip gloss is purty, though! And positioning her mouth thusly doesn't make me think of swollen labia, no, not at all!!

Okay, so the copy claims that this product is "the end of overprocessed blonde," but over there on the right, Ms. Johansson's hair looks sorta overprocessed. To me. I know it's in the light, but is it supposed to look like cotton candy? Or is she imagining better tresses, hence the title "Dream Blonde"? Also, L'Oreal, You Have Taken The Title Case Thing Too Far, Methinks.

Look, I have no idea what the hell goes on under the hood of a car, but I do know that you don't need sunglasses to check out an engine. It's like they're trying to be pro-woman with a bad-ass chick mechanic, but from the way she's holding that wrench to the faux grease on her arms, it's clear she doesn't know what the fuck she's doing. "Genuine since 1937." Really? Also, this whole image is very Herb Ritts circa 1990, when Carre Otis was hot. Show me something new.

Guess what? If my birth control method fails I am not going to "Be Calm." I am going to freak the fuck out. Then I'm gonna read that thing Moe wrote about Plan B and throw up.

You know what else makes me freak out? When someone suggests that "we girls" should freak out less. We make less money than men, are expected to be thin and hairless and we have the crampy bleeds every 26 days. A body wash solves nothing. Fuck off.

Correct me if I am wrong, but waxing is not an orgasmic, kick up your heels, throw-your-head-back-in-ecstasy experience as illustrated here, is it?

The copy reads, "Unleash the enchantment of Brazil," and there's some sort of kudzu emerging from her crotch.

As a rule, if you have to put the word "SEXY" in electric lights behind you, then you are not sexy. And this is no exception. These ladies, none of whom are wearing pants, want me to believe that "big hair is sexy," and they appear to be in possession of yards and yards of extensions. And the bedraggled, voluminous crazytown hair, frankly, looks like crap. Try to count the number of times the word "sexy" appears, then ask yourself: Why is there so much going on in an ad for hairspray?

Pinocchio's sister dreams that someday, Diet Coke will turn her into a real girl. And cure migraines.

Haha, wow, OMG you guys, not having cellulite looks like SO MUCH FUN!

Aww, nostalgia! These happy white people have been in this same Newport ad since I was a kid. There's another one with happy black people. The greatest thing about Newport ads is how white everyone's teeth are. Smoking other cigarettes may discolor and rot your gums and give you oral cancer, but Newports are basically Crest White Strips!

(Click on any image in galleries to begin the show)
BCBG:



Nicole Miller:



Erin Fetherston:



Baby Phat:



Abaete:



Alexandre Herchkovitch:



Sass & Bide:



Rock & Republic:



Herve Leger:



DKNY:



Tracy Reese:



Diane Von Furstenberg:



Miss Sixty:

• You may not recall this inconsequential blip on the screen of recent fashion history, but chronically-late designer Marc Jacobs showed up more than two hours late for his September New York fashion show, and a handful of people were annoyed, and so now Marc has apparently thought up a solution: taking an earlier slot next Fashion Week , when the Marc Jacobs show is slated to begin at 7 p.m. [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Meanwhile, Marc Jacobs on the holidays: "I'm not really a Hanukkah person and I'm only a part-time Christmas person. We try to have a non-denominational holiday window every year." [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Isaac Mizrahi, though, loves the Hanukkah! "My boyfriend got a Jack Russell-Beagle mix named Deano over the summer and he's very difficult to find presents for. So for Hanukkah I'll be getting Deano a Kosher bone, a Star of David sweater and a Dreidel chew toy." [WWD, 2nd item]

• Matthew McConaughey on his new relationship (professional, of course!) with the Dolce & Gabbana boys: "I talked to Stefano briefly before shooting the campaign in Paris and Domenico and I just bonded over a restaurant meal a few days ago, when we met for the first time. They've hooked me up with some tailored suits and great shoes—what man could object?"" Ha ha, we know a few straight men who maybe could. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Eva Mendes: First she went "naked" in the last issue of Jane magazine, now she's disrobing for PETA. Girl just can't keep her clothes on. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Yves Saint Laurent is issuing a limited edition coffee table book. Yours for only $800! Um, please tell me there is still some actual, like, clothing item or accessory I could still get from YSL for that price? [Fashion Week Daily]
• Paris Hilton's Swedish Tourist Pizza Boy Alex Vaggo is officially a hanger-on-slash-"model"! He shot a campaign for Alexander McQueen's McQ line. They use his cash to blow the coke she buys with hers. [TMZ]
• American Eagle financials: meh. [Reuters]
• Ew, we don't think we want to know the origins of lipstick. [BellaSugar]
• Want to buy Luther Vandross' wardrobe at auction? Ummmm. [Times of London]

• Victoria Beckham's latest professional endeavor is a makeup line called "V-Sculpt," which is supposed to give its users finer features. It launches today in Tokyo. Because Asia is known for its coarse, exaggerated features? Also: what? [WWD, 1st item]
  
• Kate Moss had 18 advertising contracts last year; now she has 11. DO WE SMELL A DOWNFALL??? [The Sun]
  
• Andre 3000 is launching a clothing label! Dandy! (Heh.) Menswear comes first, to be followed by lady wear. [WWD, 2nd item]
  
• Italian cabdrivers share Anna and Moe's sentiments regarding the fashion industry. [GlamChic]
  
• Le SportSac's creative director on how she envisions her company's bags: "I want them to be like your friend who helps solve your problems!" Ha ha ha, like all that excess money in your pocket [Fashion Week Daily]

• Russell Simmons is clearly a more evolved person than us, and only has nice things to safe about his crazyass ex: On appointing her creative director for all the Phat Farm labels, Simmons says, "Kimora has watched me do it for 15 years and she has already come to me with some great ideas for the men's lines." Zen Master Jay! [WWD, sub req'd]
• Christina Aguilera goes nude in fragrance ad: Evaluate here. [Sassybella]
• Claudia Schiffer "not really into acting." [WWD, 3rd item]
• H&M profits are up 25% in the second quarter. Which gives us pause because we feel like we haven't seen anything good there in OMG forever. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Our girl-crush on Gucci creative director Frida Giannini deepens: she was behind the pairing of David Lynch and Blondie for first television commercial for Gucci. Seriously, we think we're in love. [Vogue UK]
• Fashion photographer Mario Testino is auctioning off a signed photo he took of Princess Diana, with proceeds, as Kathy Griffin would say, "for the children." [Vogue UK]
• Paint manufacturer-discount retailer collaborations are the new designer-discount retailer collaborations! Uniqlo and Pantone are collaborating on a series of cashmere sweaters together. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Oscar de la Renta: Now designing men's shirts! [Fashion Week Daily]

Vera Wang
"painterly colors", "patterns like cloud prints on satin", "inspired by togas", "deep insets of organza", "heavy for a spring collection", "use[d] indecisiveness to an advantage." — Cathy Horyn, NY Times

"...most intellectual of American designers", "finely wrought", "elegant, asymmetrical", "limpid...soft, washed crepe de chine", "vibrant colors", "romantic best". — Nicole Phelps, Style.com

"Another sojourn to the land of artsy chic", "scaling back obvious intricacy", "air of wistful mystery", "deft and beautiful balancing act", "nonchalant elegance", "each one a graceful knockout", "carefully placed bullion embroideries", "stellar". — WWD

"owns the artsy look", "didn't neatly fit into any emerging trends", "a silhouette that is loose but not unwieldy". — Samatha Critchell, Washington Post

Proenza Schouler
"rough, homespun looking fabrics", "military interpretation", "Balenciaga in the proportions","nags me". — Cathy Horyn, NY Times

"decidedly body conscious", "all about the waist and the legs", "a vaguely military air", "tribal feel", "less posh and more street", "explore[d] the idea of contrasts", "as luxe as it gets". — Nicole Phelps, Style.com

"chic military-majorette motif", "big-buttoned structure", "almost-frothy, very leggy", "sophisticated cheekiness", "folkloric tweeds", "retained a hint of the street", "the collection felt wanting". — WWD

"palette of natural neutrals", "menswear details", "shorter length silhouette", "well-edited", "slight military edge". — Samantha Critchell, Washington Post

"took to the fashion frontline in military mode", "crisp, rigorously tailored", "scissored to the body with strategic precision", "a female warrior-fantasy element", "global melange", "Ikat-like embroideries", "superb", "attention to detail was meticulous". — Hilary Alexander, Daily Telegraph

Catherine Malandrino
"craft touches", "beading in hefty grape clusters", "massive blouson sleeves, voluminous palazzo pants, and linebacker shoulder ruffles", "all got a bit much, actually". — Meenal Mistry, Style.com

"highly sophisticated and oh-so-French", "for grown-up ladies", "wonderful stacked heels", "a few overwrought pieces", "on a whole très chic". — WWD

"works that fine line between the intriguing and the wearable", "subtlety is in the fabric", "organza whipped like egg whites into soft shapes", "joyful combinations of pattern and color", "glow of geranium" "tracery of jasmine", "romantic feel of summer in a sophisticated way". — Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

"garden's variety of looks", "evoke peacefulness", "mastery of handicraft", "showed her sense of humor", "crossed the line into too avant garde". — Samantha Critchell, Washington Post

Preen
"grow[n] in sophistication and surprise", "fresh interpretation", "sexy looseness", "crinkled drawstring jumpsuits", "[the models had no] upstaging the coolness of the look". — Cathy Horyn, NY Times

"Versace territory", "graphic body-con sillouettes", "slouchy", "sensual", "Saint Tropez palatte", "active-sport touches", "best is a mash-up of classics". — Laird Borrelli-Persson, Style.com

"sexy tough-chic", "worked on layers", "skin tight, body-conscious", "taut, see-through lace bodices", "tight as a bandage". — Hilary Alexander, Daily Telegraph

Cynthia Rowley
"conjuring a sporty but stylish tomboy', "mined this vein of sportif chic effectively", "clutter[ed]", "misplaced scarves and belts confused the message". — Joanna Rodger, Style.com

"living la vie sportive — '70s style", "a refreshing take", "slouchily cool", "in the vein of a latter-day Annie Hall", "done without those overly fringed dresses", "made one want to take a pair of scissors to them". — WWD

Rebecca Taylor
"up to her usual tricks","feminine, delicate stuff", "teetered into too-cutesy territory", "balanced things out with a tomboyish motif", "prim", "glitzy", "slouchy, structured or military inspired", "color choices were refreshing". — WWD

"sophisticated, muter color palate", "ageless looks", "a bit dressy", "abstract peony design...a common thread". — Samantha Critchell, Washington Post

Baby Phat
"minus the never-to-be-seen-in-stores fantasy wear", "commercial doesn't mean boring", "gobstopper-sized crystals", "leave little to the imagination", "flashy, at times even trashy" [Say what? - Ed] — WWD

"sophisticated", "asymmetrical", "a lot of draping", "flashy, sexy, and urban", "hints of preppiness", "[crowd was] happiest seeing some skin". — Samantha Critchell, Washington Post

• Kimora Lee Simmons's five and seven-year-old daughters are the latest celebrity "designers." Because they mastered the art of coloring within the lines, like, months ago! But they're not taking all the credit: Their party planner helped. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Fast Retailing Co., Ltd (which also owns Uniqlo) offered to buy the department store chain Barney's for $900 million in cash late yesterday. We cannot imagine what a billion dollars in cash looks like, especially when they have to exchange it all from Japanese yen. [WWD, sub req'd]
  
• Following in the rugged dirt trail blazed by the Eddie Bauer Jeep and the Roxy Land Cruisers, J.Crew is selling Land Rovers now. Maybe Polo and Urban Outfitters will get in on this and save General Motors once and for all. [WWD, sub req'd]

• Playboy continues to expand its brand through a bevvy of clothing licensing deals. And whomever wrote about this for WWD clearly has never seen an episode of The Girls Next Door, as Hef is described as being in the company of "two buxom blondes" (Hello! That means they were probably Holly and Bridget since Kendra was probably off doing body shots!) and that there were "centerfolds squeezed into jewel-toned Playboy Bunny uniforms (Hello! A centerfold is not the same as a bunny! Didn't you hear Holly explain the difference in the episode "Rabbit Tales"???). It's called 'research,' people. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Anna Wintour? Smiling? This can't be real. [Sassybella]
• Donatella Versace's camp is denying her costuming the Spice Girls for their upcoming tour???? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Something. Designers. Googling. We're sorta intrigued, but as members of the Google generation, uh, a little too A.D.D. to really pay attention. [GlamChic]