"Dinner with a Designer" has never been a particular ambition of ours - maybe a "fitting" with a designer - but, judging by the turnout at "the Council of Fashion Designers of America Celebrate Brian Atwood," the stars disagree!

Marie Claire tries, it really does. Unlike other women's magazines of its kind, it features affordable clothes and accessories. It acknowledges that there's a world beyond the 9,800,000 square kilometers between the coast of California and the coast of Massachusetts. And it has more of a love-to-hate relationship with…