Breaking into the industry is always hard, (unless, of course you’ve got a famous Mom and Pop and some modelesque looks, but we digress.) So when an opportunity as amazing as Talenthouse comes along, we have to share it.

Talenthouse gives anyone the opportunity to work with professionals in fashion, film, music, art and photography. And we’re not talking about people so indie even the most hip of hipsters hasn’t heard of them. We mean big names like Naomi Campbell, Dr. Dre, Nokia, and Adidas.

The site works so that professionals can post “Creative Invites” and anyone can submit their work. Talenthouse protects the artist’s creativity and makes no claims over the work submitted (a tricky loophole, whereas most contests claim some ownership over work submitted.) Your friends can vote for your work, and the host will select one winner to collaborate with.

Start getting creative! Naomi Campbell has posted two invites: one for a photographer and one for a model. There’s also a ski goggle design contest for Adidas, a viral video for Dr. Dre, and a ton of other options that will stimulate all your creative processes.

Add A Slash: As in model/actress. Next up is Agyness who’s shooting a short film with the guy who plays the ADA on Law & Order. Also we now have “Celebrity Skin” running through our heads, which is not a bad thing at all. {Page Six}

Is Adidas the New Target: They’ve had Jeremy Scott and Stella McCartney, but now they’re onto British brand PPQ. Here’s your first look at their stripe-y, Catwoman-y collection. {Nylon}

Rita Hayworth Gave Good Face: Lindsay Lohan does not. God love (or hate) the Daily Mail for pointing out what we also witnessed last night, some seriously weird expressions that did nothing but age the girl in a major way. {Daily Mail}

We’ve become frequent visitors to Need Supply Co. this summer, and we’ve just spotted the cutest pair of sneakers.

I love high top sneakers, but often when I see a pair I like, they’re kind of puffy, for lack of a better word, and I feel like they’re overwhelming my tiny feet. So the Jackie, made by Zuriick, calls out to me with with its sporty sleekness.

Can you tell we’re in a very shoe state of mind here at the office today? We can’t stop!

While Abby’s contemplating Birks, I’m feeling a very different shoe: the Adidas’ SLVR 106.

The mesh wedge sneaker has been around for a few months and getting a fair amount of attention. Both Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style and Elizabeth of White Lightning have written them up. But even these two fashion forward ladies are skeptical in their admiration.

Personally, I love them. They’re fun and a nice combination (I think) of my two different favorite shoe looks - sneakers and heels. The wedge is orange, a color I’m loving right now. And it’s 4 1/2 inches high - perfect for a tiny girl like me. Plus (according to the website) they offer support and as some of us have foot problems, support with a heel could be a major plus.

Ed note from Abby: I fear looking like Victoria Beckham throwing out the first pitch of that Dodgers’ game on her show. But I fully support Amanda giving these a go.

For me, Queen Michelle put it best: “it’s OK to not be pretty, dammit!” Pretty can be boring, and safe, and these are, if nothing else, interesting.

So what say you?

—AMANDA JEAN BOYLE

Gap is making kids’ clothes with Stella McCartney.

Aside from their CFDA initiatives, the San Francisco-based company has avoided the designer collaboration craze as much as Stella’s wholeheartedly embraced it.

The Brit’s done a one-off for H&M, an exclusive for Net-a-Porter (which included a few children’s pieces), and designs for Adidas and LeSportsac. The collection, which also includes baby clothes, launches at the end of this year.

She told WWD, “I believe that this one-off collaboration will be a great way for customers to be able to participate in the Stella McCartney brand. I believe that kids’ clothing should be more accessibly priced, which is particularly important at the moment, given the current climate.”

We predict a massive line of petite women shoving their bodies into size 14 t-shirts at Gap Kids come the debut.

If you have to announce you’re closing a New York office - the morning the world’s talking about Jason Wu might be the best time to do it.

Yohji Yamamoto’s closing his thirteen-year-old stateside press office at the end of this month. One person will stick around until March - probably to help the Adidas team with February’s Fall 09 Y-3 show and make sure all press operations are smoothly transferred to Japan.

Unlike a lot of designers making strategic changes, the Japanese brand has no qualms attributing the close to the rough economy, blaming “the economic situation in the U.S.”

Not to worry though - as of today, Yamamoto’s still planning his Paris shows, and the celebrity extravaganza Y-3 show in New York is definitely still on.

Getting to the gym is a kind of universal New Year’s resolution, but if there was ever a year to forego a $100/month membership, it’s this one.

So Equinox is coming to you, assuming that in the midst of all this you’re still hanging out at Saks. This weekend, the fancy gym is sticking masseuses and personal trainers on the sales floor, handing out over 20,000 guest passes in goodie bags and e-mailing their current members a 15% discount code for Saks.

If you’re a SaksFirst customer (which we’re not so we can’t tell you what it means other than spending a lot of money), Equinox will waive their hefty initiation fee and give you free Pilates class.

And if you’re super into this idea, there will be yogis striking poses in the 5th Ave. Saks windows for four hours this weekend, so grab your Stella for Adidas gear and head uptown.

We, on the other hand, would rather cozy up with hot chocolate and POP’s ‘last’ issue. But, to each her own.

Pringle of Scotland’s recruited Daisy Lowe, Pixie Geldof and Lydia Hearst to pose in their Fabien Baron-directed Spring ad campaign.

Someone’s having an identity crisis.

The “troika” of It-girls, (and never has “it” meant nothing more than the sum of daddy’s money), star with two actual models in the black and white, sixties style spread shot by Steven Meisel.

Pringle says, “We were looking at iconic faces and Pixie Geldof had been on our radar for a little while, and then we started looking at the friends she hangs with….I liked the feeling of reality…it’s not just pulled together for an ad campaign.”

We say, “If you’re revamping your image to appeal to a younger demographic, just say it. Please don’t call Pixie Geldof’s face iconic. Please don’t assume Lydia Hearst hangs out with Pixie just because they’re both rich and please don’t pretend your carefully calculated ads are snapshots of reality. And please continue to use models.”

On another note, Adidas is adding Jeremy Scott to its list of “celebrity faces” fronting the Spring 09 ad campaign which begs the very important question, do actual real-life customers even know who people like Jeremy Scott, Pixie Geldof, Harley Viera Newton, etc, are?

Because companies are shelling out way more dollars for these people than they would for unknown and gorgeous models, and we’re dying to know - is it worth it?

Adidas is launching a new line for spring according to WWD.

The brand, called SLVR, will come complete with its own stores, Mark Segal shot ad campaigns and international fashion week debuts.

SLVR will offer shoes, accessories and sportswear, (not sportswear for sports but sportswear for looking cute), meant to fill the niche, and the price range, between traditional Adidas gear and the brand’s higher end collaborations with Y-3 and Stella McCartney.

They’re also taking the environment into consideration. The line includes products like the “zero waste T” which is cut from a single piece of fabric and hand-stitched, instead of glued, shoes.

But it’s not just a new line, it’s meant to be an entirely new business model, with new advertising techniques, a completely different product theme and totally different retail plans according to an Adidas spokesman. Which means, it’s totally insane in this economic climate and will have to face a seriously uphill battle toward survival.

We wish it luck!

Today’s news in WWD was all about the shoes:

Not only do they report that Jeremy Scott’s designed a wacky sneaker mini-line for Adidas to arrive in stores by February (with a sneak peek during the Paris shows next week), but also that See by Chloe is officially branching into shoes, too.

The sure-to-include-wedges line debuts this Spring, and according to WWD, it’s “color-soaked” and includes a range of “jelly shoes” that we sincerely hope are on the shallow end of the $120 - $500 range.

Other designers announcing full-on shoe ranges to go with their clothes in recent days include Proenza, Hussein Chayalan, and Ohne Titel for Cesare Paciotti.

Are shoes the new way into the hearts of buyers with increasingly high standards for parting with their money?

Something tells us the Topshop dress / $800 shoe combo will be as popular as ever come Spring…

We walked to school early this morning.

Or through school and toward the gym, for Stella McCartney’s presentation of her newest Adidas collection.

We might walk by the Adidas store on Houston every morning, and we might love the Stella clothes in the window, but we’ve never seen them in action - until we saw them on Olympic athletes today.

In the time it took us to drink three cups of coffee, (we’re severely jet lagged), models ran on treadmills in one corner, gymnasts flipped on balance beams in another, yoga professionals did strange things with ribbons in the other and more models, I think, played tennis against a wall. The best part? A giant trampoline set up in the middle of the room on which two girls did the most insane flips, twists, and jumps we’ve ever seen.

We don’t know if it was the coffee or the adrenaline that woke us up, but we made it to the next show on time. Thanks Stella!

We’ve never been huge fans of LeSportsac. We’re a little too girly and we never really understood the price point.

But we previewed their new line by Stella McCartney, master of mass-market collaborations, and it’s surprisingly cute.

The color palette is pure Stella; deep purples matched with dusty rose and silver hardware. For a minute we thought we’d accidently stumbled into her Adidas showroom, but the bags manage to be both sporty and practical without actually reaching “athletic”. The shapes are traditional LeSportsac, from toiletry cases to full blown luggage.

But the real reason we’re into the line? The rabbit backpack. It’s the same shape as the Jeff Koons jewelry with which Stella accessorized her Spring ‘06 collection, and the playful pattern is going to match perfectly with our own bright and solid color plans for spring. The bag was initially designed for kids, but Stella smartly decided to include it in the main collection.

We’ll be doing the same.

Since we always read our magazines back to front, the first thing we saw when we opened the new Vogue this weekend, was the $5,500 color-me-mine Fendi.

We stared. We were confused. The limited edition baguette comes with a logo embossed box filled with Pantone markers. Why? Because you’re supposed to color it in yourself.

Some things to think about:

1. A set of 48 Pantone markers costs around $120, and a wooden box maybe $50, which puts the clutch, (made of canvas, mind you), at $5,330.

2. What happens if you screw up? Smudges are inevitable unless you’re a pro, but on a designer bag? Can you use white out on a Fendi baguette? What about a Clorox Bleach Pen?

3. Vogue suggests having an artist friend or family member do the honors. Because everyone has an “artist friend,” right? Maybe Meredith Melling Burke can call Richard Prince or Rubin Toledo for her Fendi coloring bag, but the only artist we know is an ex boyfriend.

4. We actually bought the white heart bag from Erin Fetherston for Target with the intention of doing just this. When it comes in the mail, (hopefully today!), we’re scribbling the lyrics to our favorite Serge Gainsbourg song across the front, and sticking our vintage brooch from Portobello Road on the handle. But we spent $25 on it. If we’d shelled out over five grand, we’d probably just sit and stare at it in fear.