Reader Jen found this familiar looking pink and orange dress by a brand called Single on the Cusp website. (In case you don’t live in one of the few cities with a Cusp it’s basically Neiman Marcus’ answer to Barneys Co-op.)

Anyway, since she was so obsessed with the Christian Dior resort original that Eva Mendes wore to the house’s Spring 08 couture show, she placed it immediately.

And since that picture ran everywhere for months, because Eva looked drop dead amazing, it’d be kind of hard for anyone remotely into either fashion or Eva not to realize that it’s a total rip of Galliano’s fitted-on-top, poufy-on-the bottom sherbet creation.

Yes, you’d have a hard time finding the original Dior a year later, but that doesn’t mean you should spend $300 on the copy.

The Hills has been lacking fashion lately, and with the elusiveness of labels and editors comes a sharp sense of anything with stitches - sort of the way you can smell anything when you’re hungry.

So when Lo says to Audrina, “are we wearing the same pants?”

We were immediately like, “Why yes, you are, and they’re Loomstate, and they’re from Barney’s Co-op, and they’re $79 on sale, but you can find similar ones at Urban Outfitters and also at Madewell.”

And that is when we decided that we will probably not watch The Hills anymore.

But even so, the pants are quite cute.

Also made from organic cotton, which we like - but not as much as we liked The Hills when it actually took place (or at least looked like it took place) inside a Conde Nast building.

Sigh.

When Rogan Gregory was announced as Target’s new Go! International designer, the timing was rather suspect.

It was like a week after Rogan took the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund award, and since Proenza Schouler had recently launched their own Target collection, everyone was like, “Oh, Anna Wintour waved her wand.”

But in fact, things happened a little differently.

“We were offered a partnership with Target about two years ago,” Rogan told us at last night’s Sundance Channel bash at Barneys, “But we told them we wouldn’t do it, because they couldn’t produce the clothes in a sustainable, ecologically respectful way. It took us two years of working with them to get it together, but Target pulled through and they did it. This is the first Target collection that can say it’s really green friendly, so it was worth waiting.”

The collection hits shelves in about two weeks, and you can get it at Target and - psych! - Barneys Co-Op, where you can also drop off your old t-shirts for recycling!

I’ve been begging Natalie and Britt to do a “Would You Wear Leather Pants?” for a month now, but Natalie always says, “Over my dead body.”

But today, I finally got the ultimate vindication: during a field strip to the meatpacking district, we spotted Blake Lively on set (Spice Market! They’re probably still there!) walking in head to toe black and leather pants.

[Side note: We also saw a very poorly styled Michelle Trachtenberg - guess she’s not going to be a lovable character after all.]

But back to Blake’s pants - I first started thinking about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer staple again (oddly enough, another Michelle vehicle) after Alexander Wang’s Fall 2007 80’s supermodel homage collection, which included leather pants just like his Fall 2008 (at left.)

Then, a friend brought back from home a pair of CK’s circa 1997 - terrible, but just the idea that she was thinking about them had my mind reeling.

Cut to Barneys CO-OP in Soho last week where a Rag & Bone pair (for women, let me say here that no man should attempt this look lest he should resemble Bret Michaels) caught my eye. And I mean, if the denim gods at Rag & Bone are sewing their label into slinky leather non-leggings, we should take note.

I just feel like as we move away from Lolita-inflected dresses of seasons past to fall’s body conscious sportswear, it seems right again to see women embracing that ultimate body conscious staple; a literal second skin.

Right?

—BRETT KANE