We love Housing Works not only because you can always find the best stuff there, but because of all the good work they do.

Their sixth annual Fashion for Action charity event is coming up and they just announced the details. The event, which raises money for homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS, will be co-chaired by Derek Lam and sponsored by Essence magazine.

The four-day affair kicks off with an opening night benefit at the Rubin Museum of Art and continues with a huge public sample sale at the Housing Works Thrift Shop in Chelsea. Over 150 designers have donated $1 million worth of merchandise to be sold at 50-70 percent off retail prices. Hooray! A bunch of new names have been added to the list this year like Acne, Band of Outsiders, Bottega Veneta, Lanvin, and Karl Lagerfeld.

All the details about how you can take part after the jump!

I need Style.com like I need my morning coffee.

But I’ve been clicking on Vogue.com more and more lately, in part because I’m anxiously awaiting obvious changes and excited for Condé Nast to really truly enter the digital age (I’d never actually say that out loud), but also because it lets you see a totally different side of Vogue’s editors.

Hamish has his sphere and Candy has her cast, but some features, like Meredith Melling Burke’s Most Wanted, feature a rotating cast of Vogue-ettes listing their current favorite things.

Sometimes there’s a theme, like Devon Schuster’s wedding or Jane Aldridge’s shoes and sometimes there’s not. Like this week’s list, from features associate Stephanie LaCava, is basically because she has ridiculously great style. She’s mixed Proenza shorts with Topshop boots and a Band of Outsiders toggle coat; it’s fun to see the thought process behind style we consistently admire.

Surprisingly, Vogue.com’s the best place to go if you ever forget that even the most major fashion people have a sense of humor.

The first solid details on the tentatively titled MAC at Milk shows we’ve been talking about since the cosmetics company decided to end its partnership with IMG leaving Maybelline to jump in as the official makeup sponsor at Bryant Park.

And the initial list of designers signed on for events at Milk Studios is very, very strong: Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, Peter Som, Threeasfour, Vena Cava, Band of Outsiders, Adam Lippes, Altuzarra, Barbara Tfank, Costello Tagliapietra, Erin Fetherston, Pamela Love, Preen and Temperley London.

And bloggers take one more step up the fashion food chain.

Holt Renfrew, the Canadian department store, will pay tribute to a handful of fashion’s most famous online personalities including The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman, BryanBoy and Jak & Jil’s Tommy Ton in their new window displays.

Creative director John Gerhardt’s orchestrated the entire thing without any input from the bloggers themselves - just inspiration from their sites and their voice. So we’re guessing layered prep a la Band of Outsiders with a bright scarf for Scott (and a bike of course), an explosion of Balmain and Givenchy for Tommy and just something major for BryanBoy.

We can’t wait to see the windows come Friday (because someone will send us pictures, right?) and we probably would buy anything straight out of one of Scott or Tommy’s gorgeous images, but we can’t help but wish Gerhardt had actually enlisted the bloggers’ help with the project.

Who won big last night at the CFDAs? Here’s the full list:

Womenswear Designer of the Year: Rodarte’s Laura and Kate Mulleavy
Menswear Designer of the Year (tie): Calvin Klein’s Italo Zucchelli and Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg
Accessory Designer of the Year: Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez
Swarovski Award for Womenswear: Alexander Wang
Swarovski Award for Menswear: Tim Hamilton
Swarovski Award for Accessory Design: Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry
International Award: Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton
Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award: Anna Sui
Eugenia Sheppard Award: Women’s Wear Daily editor-in-chief Ed Nardoza
Eleanor Lambert Award: GQ’s Jim Moore
Board of Director’s Special Tribute: First Lady Michelle Obama

We’ll sum up the Miss Sixty show quickly - Stam opened, Coco sat front row next to Mischa Barton, Karlie death-walked, Sasha’s hair looked dirty, there were denim jumpsuits, Pretty Woman hats, slogan tees and this one red coat we really loved - because we need to talk about what American Express is doing to Fashion Week.

Let me preface this by saying that if I wasn’t lucky enough to be invited to fashion shows and had the money to buy my way in, I probably would. But the divide between those in the industry and those looking for a party in the tents is widening and making it increasingly frustrating for those needing to do their jobs.

Chelsea’s the indie version of the tents. Its small venues have housed Vena Cava, Band of Outsiders, Ohne Titel, Preen - all shows mostly attended by those who work in fashion (plus Kanye). Despite lines and small entrances, there is no pushing (ok, Rag & Bone doesn’t count), no grabbing, and no yelling because everyone will get inside, everyone will see the clothes and everyone will politely and graciously do their jobs.

In comparision, the tents are a battlefield. Just getting in line is a nightmare full of groping, shoving, attitude and foot stomping. At Erin Fetherston, we witnessed a girl try to scare an editor out of his seat by screaming, “I paid good money for this seat!” We’ve overheard AmEx customers speak to the frazzled PR girls like they’re twelve when unhappy with their $200 seats. The girls behind me at Herve (their bought tickets were a gift) laughed obnoxiously at the falling models. And if you dare block the elite skybox in the big tent, which cuts down the standing section considerably, you risk being escorted out by security.

It’s easy to forget that Fashion Week is, essentially, just a semi-glamorous convention. Everyone within a very small industry convenes in one place to discuss its changing nature and see what’s new. It is both exhausting and rewarding work made that much harder by those looking for a Devil Wears Prada moment.

Should AmEx stop their support of fashion week? No, but they should probably include an etiquette book with their ticket package.

To: Tips@Fashionista.com

From: LineSyp@Fall09.com

I was standing in line for Preen, when Kanye asked/had to ask Scott to shoot him and his entourage.

So they went outside and Scott shot them and then they went back in and exchanged numbers.

Thought you might like to know.

D

We witnessed a small exchange between Kanye and Scott outside of Band of Outsiders earlier today. Kanye strutting up to Scott, Scott not caring, then Kanye tapping Scott on the stomach like old friends. Still, no shot. For the record, Kanye was carrying a large camo duffel bag.

Before I got to the Band of Outsiders presentation, Kanye West got a little silly and started posing with some of the models.

Even though I wasn’t there, we still have this photo as proof (well, sort of, this was taken right after Kanye got up from that bench), thanks to an FIT student named David who desperately wanted to share this with the class GG style.

Thanks, David.

And now, we’re about to be late to Jeremy Laing.

Talk soon.

The first person I saw while climbing the stairs to the Band of Outsiders presentation was Garance Dore (she’s like the female Scott Schuman, basically). Then, I saw Glenn O’Brien, Editorial Director of Interview, and Lauren Santo Domingo, and realized that Band has somehow upped its buzz in the past couple seasons.

And it’s understandable. The clothes are both precious and wearable, a balance everybody wants but few designers seem to get, and the collaboration with Manolo Blahnik for shoes was incredible - think boxing sneakers manipulated into open-toe stilettos that actually work, especially with thick, cable knit socks.

Of course, it was hard to pay attention to the adorable presentation - models posed in fake telephone booths, on bare mattresses, with a rope ladder leading to nowhere, etc - with Kanye West quietly perusing the space with a relentless reporter shadowing his every move (this guy even waited for him when he tried to cut off the conversation by using the restroom).

But we guess it isn’t a Band of Outsiders presentation without some kind of celebrity presence.

We used to love comparing all the Fashion Week invitations that come in right before the big Month, but that’s gotten a lot harder this season because of one tiny detail - A lot of designers aren’t sending out invitations in the mail anymore.

So far, Behnaz Sarafpour, Costello Tagliapietra and (our usual invite favorite - at left is their Spring 09) Band of Outsiders have all opted for e-mail only invitations this season, surely a sign of the economic times but also what the upcoming Fashion Week is looking like (fewer parties and cardstock invitations - probably less drink.)

On the bright side, this could be taken as an exercise in green - we’re just waiting for a clever e-vite, and then we’ll believe that’s the case.

Ever dreamed of the day when buying one of your favorite designers’ bags actually helped to make the world a better place?

Well, thanks to Glamour, this day has come. The magazine, through their Fashion Gives Back program, has asked Doo.Ri, Loeffler Randall, Subversive, Band of Outsiders, Chris Benz, and 3.1 Phillip Lim to each design a unique tote bag made of 100% organic cotton, and of course the best part is, 75% of all profits will go to Global Green USA.

We can’t imagine a better way to give to charity than by treating ourselves to a new book bag. And can you think of a cuter way to pick out your lettuce than with Phillip Lim’s kissy face? And I believe Band of Outsiders’ design is actually based on the inside of my purse, hair clips and all.

If this sounds like the cutest route to philanthropy, head to Henri Bendel some time tomorrow or this week - we have a feeling these will sell out quick!

—HAYLEY PHELAN

Because of their Fall ad campaign, we were kind of hoping for some Michelle Williams action at the Band of Outsiders presentation, partly because of that adorable profile of her in the Times, but also because we really needed a pick-me-up after fighting with our cab driver about dropping us off on the closer side of the street since, you know, there was kind of a hurricane outside.

But we digress - Once we made it up to the penthouse (which was quite a journey - it seems everybody decided to take shelter at the BOO presentation, and they’d only let fifteen people at a time on the elevator creating a crush like it was a U2 concert on the lobby floor) it was kind of like being in a really quiet, cute store.

First, we were greeted by a huge projection of Kirsten Dunst on the walls, trying on the clothes and sometimes swinging it around. The rest of the collection was in person, strewn around, so you could touch, ogle and maybe even try things on if you were feeling brazen, which was nice - the sweaters were soft, the tops were cute, and we especially liked the backlit white blocks to really show the sheerness of the shirts.

Now if only we hadn’t been sopping wet, we might have actually tried to snag that tight mini - so random yet so right.

We almost had a heart attack when the first Fashion Week invite arrived in our mailbox last week.

It can’t be that time, can it?

It is, in fact, almost September, and while we’ve gotten our fair share of heavy cardstock invites, leave it to Band of Outsiders to make us giggle with their white cotton glove.

They get the award for best invite so far, just like last time.

Balmain’s last runway was inspired by Michael Jackson’s glittery socks - is Scott Sternberg taking direction from his infamous glove?

As long as there’s glitter, we don’t care.

Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg just finished shooting his Fall ad campaign.

He might be a little behind everyone else but his ads feature Michelle Williams, so who cares.

WWD reports the two spent last Thursday holed up in interior designer Paul Fortune’s house with just seven outfit changes, no hair, no make-up and a stylist on hand only in case of emergency. The designer’s laid back attitude will continue into Fall - he’ll show his Spring 09 collection in film form instead of a more traditional presentation (which is weird, because he’s totally on the schedule for September 6th at 6pm).

Sternberg says “I’m doing a totally alternative thing because I can’t bring myself to do a runway show. I don’t make runway clothes. These are clothes you wear on the street, so I’m just super-uncomfortable with it. It puts it in totally the wrong context — I want to do something closer to where the clothes are, and let people actually touch and feel them as opposed to seeing them on a 14-year-old anorexic model.”

That might be the most sound statement we’ve heard from a designer in a very long time.

Here’s hoping he picks Michelle to star.

Back before the Fashion Week madness, we reported that runway favorite ThreeAsFour was doing a capsule collection for Gap as part of the deal that Gap struck with the CFDA/Vogue fashion fund after a hefty donation.

Now WWD fills in the rest reporting that 3.1 Phillip Lim, Band of Outsiders, Michael Bastian and Philip Crangi will also design limited-edition collections (all having to do with the white shirt) for the mass brand this year.

The clothes hit stores next month, but you might have to do some hunting for some of it - as of right now, it looks like only Phillip Lim’s designs will be available in most Gap stores (including Gap Canada, UK and Japan.) So if distribution is decided by popularity or name recognition, we’re not sure where ThreeAsFour will land - but we’re hoping right on Broadway so we can just swing by on our way to work.

In the meantime, we’ll be sure to put up the ad as soon as possible, featuring guest appearances by Chanel Iman, Jessica Stam, Lily Donaldson, Du Juan, Catherine McNeil, Anja Rubik, Doutzen Kroes and Irina Lazareanu.

Forget Mary-Kate, this season Band of Outsiders, Adam Lippes, Obedient Daughters, Derek Lam, and Preen are channeling Elmer Fudd. So you can show off your purple dresses at the Box but I’ll be hunting wabbits in my long johns and duck boots. Shhhhh, be vewwwy, vewwwy quiet.

—BRETT KANE

By time we climbed five flights of stairs to the Band of Outsiders show yesterday, we were shamelessly out of breath and had literally run into Amy Astley on her way down.

Once there, we weren’t sure if we were in a Chelsea gallery or the English countryside. Scott Sternberg’s presentation was a little bit haunted and a lot preppy.

There was a sea of skinny blazers, high-waisted wide-leg trousers, fur hats and penny loafers, complete with pennies in them. The plaid, sharply tailored clothes were J.Crew meets vintage Ralph Lauren accessorized with plenty of fingerless gloves.

The boys and girls’ clothes barely differed, aside from a black and red plaid dress and a mini underneath a camel peacoat, which makes us think Sternberg’s still getting used to designing his new women’s line.

The clothes looked cozy and comfortable, and isn’t that what every girl wants come winter?

The Fashion Week invitations have been rolling in the past week, and one of our great office pastimes is to proclaim each of them “adorable!” or “boring” or something in between.

We know it’s a little bit early, but we already have a favorite:

The grade school-esque origami fortune teller from Band of Outsiders.

So much better than the standard hard rectangle, or the totally unexciting e-mail print-out.

Informative and cute - does it get any better?

Which is your favorite invite?