• Emma Watson is doing a clothing line with ethical fashion company People Tree. We're still waiting for Mischa Barton's collection, Tree People. [Guardian]

• Rachel Zoe, on extra-curricular fashion week activities: "I went to a meeting with a potential book publisher, because I am starting to wrap my head around doing my next book, which I am really excited about. I've gotten a little bit of my creative writing fill with doing the Zoe Report, my daily newsletter, and really remembered how much I love writing." Funny, because I met the Zoe Report's ghost blogger a couple weeks back! (Nice girl.) [Time]
• Jil Sander's line for Uniqlo, +J, starts hitting stores on October 1. The legendary German perfectionist says, "I like the concept of basic clothes in a democratic world. Uniqlo reminds me of Apple computers; fantastic design for everyone. And I like what is Japanese about Uniqlo, a strong sense of tradition, the orderly approach to everything, great know-how and logistics." Uniqlo dreams of taking over the position of Inditex — parent company of Zara — as the world's largest apparel company by 2020. The success of the retail chain's planned expansion will rest in large part on Sander's talents. [Telegraph]
• Journalistic pet peeve #1: Confusing "discrete" for "discreet." Journalistic pet peeve #2: Spending ten minutes reading an article that tediously explains events that happened a year ago. Who doesn't already know that last fall, "upscale department stores...started slashing prices to unload a glut of inventory. Saks fired the first volley, slapping 70%-off signs on luxury designer clothing in early November 2008. Neiman and Barneys frantically followed suit." [Time]
• For some apparel trade news that is actually, you know, news, how about this: apparel sales rose 2.4% from July to August, the biggest month-to-month increase since February. Sales were still down 5% on last August. [NYTimes]
• If more couples are staying home to have sex because of the recession — sex being, as Chip Lambert pointed out in The Corrections, one of the few pleasures in life that's actually free — wouldn't we be buying fewer pajamas, not more? [Telegraph]
• Courtney Love's fashion week highlights, so far: "Me playing at Alexander Wamg. That was certainly the fucking best. And then the second best was me playing at Alexander Wang." Anything else? "The Rodarte bitches were awesome." [The Cut]
• Abercrombie & Fitch has lost its appeal in the discrimination case brought by the family of an autistic girl who was not allowed to go into a changing room with her sister at the Mall of America store. The then-14-year-old was shopping with her then-17-year-old sibling, who notified a sales assistant that her sister had a disability and could not be left alone. In court, Abercrombie trotted out a psychologist as an expert witness who said that, "this experience is best considered to be a desirable outcome of active community involvement." Because having Abercrombie refuse to make a reasonable accommodation "offers the parents the opportunity to model social problem solving and coping skills to their daughter, as they have done so well throughout her life, and thus prepare her for such future natural community experiences." Abercrombie was fined $115,264. [MPR]
• Dan Ariely, the professor who studies branding and behavior and who concludes that wearing counterfeit designer goods makes people more dishonest in their every day life — on the basis of one study, which lacked a control group — is back to explain his nifty ideas in video format. How about this new rule for science: No studies where the scientist explains his methods thus: "We got Chloé to give us sunglasses..." And no studies that are presented at conferences convened by Harper's Bazaar. [BigThink]
• Dan Caten, one half of DSquared, on the brand's new eyewear line: "It's a way that people can buy into the brand. Maybe some people can't afford to buy the clothes or fit in the clothes." Instead of making clothes above a size 10, let's license out some sunglasses! (Average price: $391.) Perfect solution. [WSJ]
• Ann Taylor is holding an in-season runway show tonight in New York, with a real fashion quotient: Kate Young will be styling. It's all part of the retailer's attempt to turn around its dowdy image. (You may have noticed the new ad campaign starring model Cameron Russell.) [WWD]
• Heidi Klum, whom you may have heard of, is taking Cameron's spot for the retailer's holiday ads. But don't expect her at the show, because she's expecting, and can't fly to New York. [NYPost]
• Vogue's publisher, Tom Florio, doesn't want to talk about McKinsey — but he will take a softball on why he goes to fashion shows: "I look for trends in the business. Like the whole idea of luxury at a better price point, which is something Tory Burch is doing. I try to get a sense of the sociological trends which our editors will adapt. It just adds a little context. You need to understand the business trends like global warming and fabrics getting lighter and more transitional pieces in fashion. If you can speak intelligently about these things when you sell ad pages, you can sort of take their [advertisers'] point of view." [NYObs]
• Burberry, which already has around 600,000 Facebook friends, is launching its own social networking site at artofthetrench.com. Christopher Bailey has commissioned Scott Schuman to take pictures of people wearing Burberry trench coats around the world for the site. Users will also be able to send in pictures of themselves wearing Burberry trench coats. [FT]
• The British brand will also stream its Prorsum fashion show live over the Internet. It's scheduled for September 22, 6:30 p.m., London time. [WWD]
• Avon president Elizabeth Smith is leaving the company. No replacement has yet been named. [Crain's]
• French Connection has laid off 50 workers at its head offices and closed its offices in Denmark and Sweden as a response to continued weak sales. [Independent]

For her first foray into Gwyneth-style celebrity direct marketing, the stylist has footwear on the brain. But, lest ye think that these are but ordinary platform pumps, let it be said first and foremost that these platform pumps are made by her friend, Brian Atwood. That kind of typical favor-calling, back-scratching, co-hyping symbiosis is exactly what can make this industry seem like one enormous daisy chain. (Or circle jerk.) To her credit, at least Zoe is upfront about blending her personal and professional relationships.

The $680 Brian Atwood Lola pump, also known as "my sole fantasy" in Zoespeak, available this fall

Zoe's missive begins seriously:

"In observance of my first official Zoe Report, I set my sights on something truly extraordinary."

Did you hear that? These aren't just any regular platform shoes with elastic laces, these are some extraordinary platform shoes! Zoe goes on to say, "Atwood consistently brings my sole fantasies to life," and calls the opportunities presented by the shoe "endless." And in case you fashion plebs don't know what the celeb stylist is driving at when she calls these magic pumps "shooties," the definition is in the footnotes.

In a nod to the fact that the mass audience she's seeking with this newsletter might have neither the funds nor the inclination to spend $700 on even the most "extraordinary" pair of heels, Zoe includes a fast fashion option — though still a pricey one, at $129.95.

In honor of our increasingly celebrity-addled consumer culture — unsatisfied by appearing in ad campaigns, on television hawking stuff, on television wearing clothes that just happen to be catalogued for sale on said television channels' websites, on billboards, in the mall with their signature lines, in magazine editorials, and generally taking jobs from hard-working Eastern European teenagers, they are now in our computers telling us what to buy — let us now inaugurate a new feature, The Zoe Report, By The Numbers:

"I DIE" count: 1
Footnotes of complicated fashion terms: 1
Total cost of shit: $809.95
Running cost of shit: $809.95
Microsoft Word Flesch-Kincaid grade level: 9.7
Transparent-self-promotion/life-as-branding quotient*: 7/10

Happy shopping, ladies. In the meantime, here's the trailer for the premiere of The Rachel Zoe Project"s second season. It just happened to come out today!

*Grading may be subjective

Sign up, and "you'll be the first to know" about Zoe's favorite fashion, beauty and lifestyle finds," according to the site. "It's going to be bananas!"

But as BlackBook points out:

Seeing as the "Editorial Policy" on the site reads, "The chic variety of accessories, apparel, and other items featured in the Zoe Report are carefully chosen by our editorial team of fashion addicts-ahem-experts" ... more likely than not the products and people highlighted might not necessarily chosen by Zoe herself, but rather a trusted editorial team.

In other words, expect Daily Candy-esque e-mails about shoes, handbags and beauty items.

The question is, don't we already know what Rachel Zoe offers? between her TV show, her best-selling book and clients? How many loose, drapey gowns/caftans and oversized sunglasses are there in the word? Wait. Don't answer that: Surely the Zoe Report will let us know.

Rachel Zoe Expands Empire with Fashion Newsletter [BlackBook]