[**Note: We’ve only got one pair, in one size, so the first correct answer wins! If nobody gets this (which Jazzi is seriously doubting anyone will) we’ll give you a new letter every day until you do. Ok, Ready… Go!]

Update: OK wow, contest over. Reader Chris will be getting them!

“All the boxes (of clothes) are sitting in my mom’s living room at the moment. So we’ve got to get them out soon or she’ll just burn them or take them down to church.” - M.I.A., on the line she designed but hasn’t yet promoted.

Who: Bulga, maker of that Butterfly bag seen on every Soho shoulder circa 2005

What: Sample sale, 35% - 60% off retail - Any and all bags

Where: 214 West 39th St, between 7th and 8th, Ste 704

When: Today and tomorrow, 9am - 7pm

Why: You might be able to snag the Marquis! (at left)

Cash, credit, whatever, just be there.

—KYLE HAYES

Back when I was a beauty intern, I noticed something curious: the number one gifts to send to beauty editors are always the same - Picnic baskets, fluffy robes and flip-flops.

So we knew it was only a matter of time before somebody came up with this newest designer (makeup, that is) collaboration.

Trish McEvoy, Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier have all just designed their own pair of limited-edition Havaianas. They’ll be available at Saks the entire month of June, and all proceeds from each sale benefit charity: water.

The one at top is Laura Mercier’s design - click through to check out Bobbi Brown’s and and Trish McEvoy’s.

(We kind of wish these were coming with neon nail polish, but whatever.)

Steve Madden knows that everybody on the planet is going to see Sex and the City - The Movie this weekend. He also knows that whatever is seen on the foot of Carrie Bradshaw is retail gold.

So he’s done his research.

At left, the Dior shoe that Carrie will wear while wandering the city and pondering her relationship with Big for the 8-millionth time. At right, Steve Madden’s copy.

He’s so accommodating, he’s even made a more sales-friendly version, with a lower, slimmer heel and lesser ankle strap.

How thoughtful.

As anyone with a MySpace account can tell you, previews for The Strangers are running everywhere.

The movie that stars Liv Tyler and features Gemma Ward in her first American movie has also launched their new website, and it’s sort of a kick:

Besides playing creepy noises every time you move your mouse, the site also features a biography section where you can read about the cast.

Liv Tyler’s bio includes her fifteen years of film roles, and takes about a minute to read.

Meanwhile, Gemma Ward’s bio is a monolithic scroll that lists every single designer she’s ever modeled for.

Ever.

Clearly, the marketing department at Universal is chock-stocked with Style.com refugees, because, wow.

During a transitional period of my life, I enjoyed a brief stint as a wardrobe stylist for Playboy magazine - also known as the most ironic job ever.

It was probably the most fun job I’ve ever had - deciding which frilly pieces of lace went with which table top, kitchen counter, couch, pool table… you get the idea.

Believe it or not, naked girls have been popular since long before Dita - but they haven’t always been “in fashion.” But now I can name a handful of lingerie designers (it’s funny to think that Kiki didn’t even exist three years ago) who one-up plenty of designers on the runway, and even mega-store Sephora now has a pin-up campaign.

Lingerie’s been on the mainstream mind since Marc’s Spring 08 show, since burlesque took over the LES, since Kate Moss for AP, since that Playboy France cover shot by Karl - but I’ve been taking notes since puberty.

So that’s why I’m so excited to see lingerie and pin-up get their due with a real-life fashion model - continue after the jump to see Anouck Lepere, and witness just why Playboy France might soon be getting more fashion props than Vogue.

— JAZZI McGILBERT

Elise Øverland’s presentation is always a favorite of Fashion Week -

You show up, you crash into Hope Atherton / Arden Wohl / Taylor Momsen, you walk around the solid block of impossibly cool and stylish women dressed like Nordic Warriors, you take a few photos, you drink, you kiss-kiss, you run to the Marc Jacobs show.

But last night, Elise revealed she might be changing things up a little bit:

“We need some guys!” she said. “Guys change the energy of everything! It would make things better!”

We’re not going to disagree there, especially since Elise got her start by designing for guys - Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and his crew, when he needed tour costumes.

It would be cool to see some of that action in the collection - and definitely in the party!

As I was packing my bag to come to the office today, my roommate stopped me on my way out the door and asked an all too familiar question: “Is that a woman’s bag?”

Sure. It’s a black leather Marc by Marc tote with a little bit of shine to it. I got it on Bleecker and I’ve seen it carried everywhere around the city - mostly by women. But is that a bad thing?

I see fashionable men carry totes of all sizes all the time, but at what point along the bag spectrum (think of say, a briefcase on one end and a pink Juicy pouchette on the other, with a carryall from American Apparel in the middle) are men supposed to stop?

It’s funny how I’d carry a Muse, the rigid structure has a masculine appeal to it, though I’d never carry a Stam - even I’d make fun of the kiss lock closure.

So I’m wondering, where do all of you stand on this? Can a man embrace the functionality and cuteness of a woman’s bag without coming off as totally silly?

Better yet: Do bags really have a gender?

—KYLE HAYES

(almost forgot - image from the Sartorialist!)

Overheard in an elevator last night:

A young designer (we won’t mention your name, though we know it), babbling to a friend about how most investment banks won’t put money into a fashion label until it’s made $10 million.

The exception, she said, was Theory, whose president, Andrew Rosen, is meeting with emerging designers, she said, to invest in smaller brands, she said.

The only catch?

If your label is successful, Theory will always get a percentage of your sales - she said.

It’s a cool story if it’s true, but if you’re silly enough to talk loudly in a crowded elevator about your secret business meetings, maybe you’re also silly enough to get your facts wrong…

This may only matter to Refinery 29 staffers, but here goes:

Last night at the Men.Style.com party (or should we call it Lohan-gate?), designer Alison Lewis said she’d split with her design partner, Rachel Antonoff.

The two 26-year-olds were the chicks behind Mooka Kinney, the indie jumper label best known for getting a romper on Lily Donaldson during a summer paparazzi shoot.

They also have a dress on Carrie Bradshaw in the upcoming Sex and the City movie, which we’re seeing tonight at a screening (we’ll let you know…).

Alison will be merging with jewelry designer Samantha House on her new label, called Lewis + House.

Today’s WWD had a long article on what they’re calling the ‘return of the supermodel”.

We’ve sensed for a while that there’s definitely been a shift back to the unique women of the 90’s rather than models that we can sometimes barely tell apart.

But the article brings up something of note: that the design houses giving these women (“girls” just doesn’t seem quite right here) are mostly European with the exception (so far) of DSquared, which is designed by two brothers from Canada.

Do we have a problem with older women in America?

Try not to laugh at that.

(For an extra dose of fun, click through to see some of the upcoming ads for Fall, and a full list of which supe is posing for which brand.)

Reader Bridget sent in a follow up to an old Adventures - seems that Forever 21 let Steve Madden take the first jab at this Miu Miu, and came up with their own version only recently.

Honestly, we’re not so into any of the three, though the Forever 21 version definitely look the cheapest thanks to the addition of black, which just makes the other colors look like big mistakes.

But can any of you tell which is which (without clicking on the links first!)?

“Burberry, the British luxury fashion brand, is riding out the credit crunch with £450 wellies, an £11,000 alligator skin handbag and a £3,000 chevron coat worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City - the Movie.” - Steve Hawkes, in the London Times

“Sometimes I’ll walk past a store and see that [$500 flip-flops], or see rubber boots for $500, and it disgusts me. I know what it costs to make them.” - Robert Duffy, in the New York Times.

There was a fun little fact tucked in at the end of a longer story in WWD today:

Purple, everybody’s favorite magazine, is opening its first office in New York.

Olivier Zahm has announced that it will open in September, so we expect every 2008 grad to promptly freak out and try to land their first job / internship with the good people that put out images like these to make us all giggle in the middle of the work day.

Maybe that’s why we spotted him right in our neighborhood recently… will the office be in Soho?

Good luck!