There were a few feathers in February, mostly of the rock n’ roll variety.

Black and brown ones peppered Ann Sofie Back’s collection while William Rast decorated his punky cowboy jeans with white. They were used best in Ann Demeulemeester’s elaborate headdresses. Meanwhile, they’ve translated rather funny for fall.

We embrace feathers in general - they’re both sexy and we imagine comfortable. But the idea’s not being executed properly off the runway. Why, for example, is this Haute Hippie long vest made in bubble gum pink? The woman who will spend $695 on an over-sized boa doesn’t want it in pink. This Cavalli top, though just printed with feathers, looks like a pair of massive wings. And this beaded, feathered hair piece from Urban Outfitters would make Ann weep.

If we want to wear feathers this fall, and we do, should we be starting our most elaborate DIY yet, or have you seen some more promising feathered accessories?

Ann Demeulemeester’s lace-up sandal booties are the shoe of the summer.

During the resort shows, we spotted three different Vogue editors in the brown and others in black, Sea of Shoes is obsessed and given our neighborhood we see an inordinate amount of models on a daily basis and wearing only these of late.

But we never really expected it to translate to the masses, it’s a Fashion with a capital “F” shoe which isn’t snobby, just fact - like a Balmain shoulder or a Chris Kane gorilla dress - that probably won’t rein in big bucks on Broadway.

Though Urban Outfitters’ Free People is taking a chance anyway. A reader sent in this link to their $198 copy. Pretty ballsy considering the Ann D’s were on sale for just over $300 a few weeks ago.

Dear Rihanna,

I don’t know much about your music. Mostly because I tend to pick up on music from the boys in my life and yours aren’t exactly their go-to tunes. But you’re on my radar (because I don’t live under a rock) and I’m digging your sartorial choices.

I know you have a red carpet/video/tour stylist, but I’m pretty sure when you walk out of the house in something like the Chris Kane dress at left, you’ve thrown it on all by yourself. Between that and your Stella sailor cardigan, the slouchy bag with which you dressed down that Alex Wang dress, your Balmain touches and this necklace you’re rocking all over NYC, we’re impressed.

So please wear more Chris Kane, check out Charles Anastase and maybe grab one of Marios Schwab’s 3D dresses? Also Ann D’s ribcage belt probably has your name etched along the spine and we’d love to see you in some Rodarte knits.

In closing, thank you for branching out where so many wear faded white tees and leggings - you’re like Michelle Obama for the Hollywood set and we kind of love you for it.

Oscar De La Renta showed his resort collection this morning.

On Park Avenue, naturally, in a pretty small, light room with an organ at the end of the runway and a balcony wrapping around. Vogue took up three rows - Andre Leon Talley wore a dusty pink alligator trench, at least two girls rocked Ann Demeulemeester’s brown lace-up sandals, one lounged in Alex Wang’s grey sweatpants and when Anna tried to sit down Bee squealed, “Mom, that’s my seat!” to which Anna laughed and promptly switched to her proper seat beside Grace Coddington.

The first half of the collection - white and navy boucle tweed suits, shifts, newsboy - screamed Chanel, especially when set to French tunes. The fantastical cocktail dresses built from lace, jewels and what looked like a fabric interpretation of chocolate shavings are exactly what we’d wear if we decided to be a lady who lunched for Halloween (if the costume came with a check).

Karlie opened and closed the show while Aminata, Daiane, Kasia, Hanne, Arlenis, Liu and Ubah also walked. I couldn’t help but think of all the nasty comments Oscar’s made regarding the First Lady’s fashion choices and wonder if this was him desperately trying to land in her closet.

Meanwhile, we just heard Vogue has swine flu. Great. My morning just got significantly less glamorous.

Our guesses were off, neither Wang nor Proenza are forging ahead with ad campaigns in these tough economic times - but Raf Simons is.

His first ever ad, following the likes of Zac Posen, Rodarte and Derek Lam, will debut in magazines this fall and showcase his eponymous menswear line.

He’ll also be opening two more stores and working on a furniture collection with the Belgian firm that previously collaborated with Ann Demeulemeester. Simons pretty much answers our earlier ad question saying that, “It’s another way to communicate with your audience. Fashion shows can only do so much.”

In other ad news - remember that epic OP for Wal-mart campaign from last year? Well they’ve done it again with a cast of 90210 meets reality stars at a Good Charlotte concert and added Solange Knowles to the bunch.

After sitting front row at shows from Gareth Pugh to Tracy Reese this past year, we kind of expected more.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the return of the semi-oldies-but-goodies to the catwalk (Angela Lindvall, Maggie Rizer, Frankie Rayder), though no one seems to mention the one we find most impressive: Jamie Bochert.

If you didn’t remember her from a few years ago, her surprise appearance on the Spring 09 Marc runway - she opened the show - had a lot of people asking, “Who is that woman?” Turned out, she’d been working as Marc’s fittings model for quite some time, after she left modeling in 2006 to focus on her music career.

Since then, she’s stalked a steady stream of runways including Ann Demeulemeester, Rodarte and Lanvin, and shows no signs of stopping.

So our Best Comeback award goes to Jamie - even though we’ll always hate her a little for making Marc’s dresses so ridiculously long.

We might not understand the politics of show seating from city to city, but we do understand the basics.

Press is grouped on one end and buyers on the other. Each divided by country and then prominence - American Vogue on one front row bench, French on the other etc. We’re normally grouped in press (obviously) but were seated behind Neiman Marcus’ Ken Downing and across from Berdgorf’s Linda Fargo and Roopal Patel at Ann Demeulemeester’s show which lent a different perspective.

Whether it’s the nature of buying these days or the usual - they pay incredibly strict attention. Editors take notes, but the buyers write novels, smile, nod and show enthusiasm - at least for Ann’s Fall 09 collection.

The Belgian designer sent out an all black and white collection. Sometimes sheer, often draped and brilliantly corseted with rows and rows of leather belts, her dresses oozed cool. Chunky knits, textured black vests and stiff shouldered coats were topped off with beautiful feathered headdresses.

Squeezing through the door on the way out we heard the words, “brilliant,” “genius,” “the best so far,” and “I want to get married in that.”

Ditto.

Linda Dresner, the legendary Park Avenue boutique, will shutter next month.

While magazines go out with a bang, the city’s retail gems - this year’s seen the demise of Leontine and Dernier Cri along with others - quietly close their doors in the face of still-skyrocketing rents, invisible shoppers and major department store sales they’d never dream of competing with.

Dresner, who brought the greats - Yamamoto, Demeulemeester, Margiela, Jil Sander, Commes des Garcons - to the Upper East Side more than twenty years ago sums it up best, “There’s too much of everything right now. Would I open a store in New York today? No. Retailing has to be reconsidered. It’s become a commodity that’s less creative. There’s too many stores selling the same kind of merchandise and it’s not as beautifully chosen. It’s ruined the enthusiasm for fashion.”

Basically, the retail market, especially in New York, is totally oversaturated. You try on a pair of jeans in one store and they don’t have your size? Skip down the block, and if they don’t have them there, you might have to go three whole subway stops to yet another store carrying the same brand. It’s as easy to buy a pair of Sevens in this city as it is a grande latte.

Staying alive in this economy will be rough. Small boutiques will have to carry things the big stores don’t, whether that means different lines or just a different buy, because they just can’t mark things down the way Barneys can. Customers will need incentives - buy this, get that - they’ll need motivation and they’ll need, most of all, encouragement because even those who have the money to shop right now are terrified.

It won’t be easy, it will require patience and creativity and a passionate love of the game, but please, little stores, don’t close your doors!

And now, a note from Faran…

Last season, Ann Demeulemeester made some pins inspired by Kara Walker silhouettes (without the racial subtext or the fury or the brilliance, of course).

This season, Cynthia Rowley is going one step further, introducing a holiday cocktail dress inspired by the artist’s work.

It’s actually a pretty great dress, and if it were sold with a different name - the Shadow Dress, maybe - I’d love it. But my stomach gets knocked sideways when you say, “Look, it’s the Kara Walker dress,” because it’s not even subversive, or funny. It just seems hollow and kind of misinformed.

Kara Walker is an artist whose work is so beautiful that it clashes directly with her subject matter - hate, oppression, victimization, blame, poverty, shame, rape, madness. It’s so complicated that I still haven’t decided how I feel about it, but I do know this:

It feels really oblivious and pretty wrong to make a holiday party frock, and without an ounce of humor, to proclaim it your Kara Walker dress.

But maybe I’m just overreacting - I get worked up when I don’t get to see the Chloe show in person, you see…

Love you guys, xo.

What is up with the funky runways?

Models are tired, shoes are too high, and zig-zag walking formations are not the best idea.

Yesterday alone featured a double up and down walk at Tsumori. Then at Marithé et François Girbaud, there were benches full of editors and buyers woven throughout the floor and the models walked up the runway, then down the middle before swinging left, then right, then back up to the pit and down again.

At Issey Miyake the girls covered a giant space three times, walking in between fringed curtains that made us, inappropriately we’re sure, think of Boogie Nights. And then at Ann Demeulemeester, which was held in a half dungeon / half church space in St. Germain, the models again wove in and out of audience members.

The problem? The models can’t remember where to go, which in most cases means photographers throw a temper tantrum over the music, the audience laughs and when it’s really bad there’s a model traffic jam on the runway where three end up in the same corner at once or turn and walk into each other head on.

We’re tired, we’re cranky, let’s stick to straightforward runways.

We’ve taken to walking from show to show. Nothing in Paris starts more than an hour after the time on the invitation and everything’s relatively close - but our general lack of direction means we never know when we’ll arrive at our destination.

Which means we got to Ann Demeulemeester a bit early. We talked to Scott Schuman about how amazing the fall weather is, while standing in the rain admiring the women who actually wear all of Ann’s clothes.

We’ve never seen so many people wear head to toe looks from the designer whose show they’re attending as we have in Paris. Devoted fans turn out in droves for a glimpse of their favorite runways in outfits that answer the question my parents always ask when confronted with editorial looks, “Who actually wears this stuff?”

Maybe it’s the crazy Paris fashions talking, but we’d actually wear everything on Ann’s Spring runway. The fluffy, tied-up dresses will work on someone not-model sized, us, and those chained, rhinestone decorated minis manage to walk cooler than expected. Even the lace up shoes looked do-able.

Though not on our show-to-show treks, of course.

Scene: The Tudor premiere party. Peter O’Toole dances by piano. Jonathan Rhys Meyers huddles with girlfriend. Wine flows like it did in Henry’s court.

Tracey Ullman: Darling, don’t you want to ask us what we’re wearing?

Britt: Um, sure.

Bruce Wagner: Ahh! This is my favorite coat! It’s by Ann D-d-d-d - what’s her name?!

Tracey: Demeulemeester - meulemeester - meulemeester!!!.