“First of all, if you lived in New York at that time, there was no way you could not meet Andy Warhol. He was everywhere; he was like parsley.” —DVF tells students at Oxford, via WWD.

I’m always desperate to land in the Cash Cab, but scooting into the backseat of a Diane von Furstenburg driven taxi would work, too. She’s launching eyewear today, a collection of sunglasses in homage to her most famous dress silhouettes (we’re not sure how that works, but it’s what they say), and in honor of the debut, Diane’s filmed this Taxi TV commercial.

You can enter to win a pair of glasses, or even an entire resort look, on the DvF Facebook page right now. If you win the pink ones, or get in the Cash Cab, we’ll be jealous.

The sales team over at Diane von Furstenberg is looking for a few good interns to start ASAP. If you’re into the business side of the industry, we can’t think of a better place to learn as DvF really has the best accounts.

It’s a bit of a commitment, however. They need you 4-5 days a week for at least four months and you can receive school credit, but recent grads are welcome too. There will be a stipend of $20/day which you can think of as your commute/lunch money.

A few month’s ago, Net-a-Porter finally ditched mannequins in favor of actual models, albeit headless ones, but now they’ve gone a step further and captured their girls on camera.

The ‘video’ option’s only available on a few items so far, like the Marc Jacobs skirt at left, an Anna Sui tunic and a DvF cocktail dress.

There’s not much to it, the girl walks out wearing the item and spins around a few times before walking off the white stage. You don’t see her head, which is slightly creepy, and I’m not sure it brings anything new to the item (though if ever a dress drapes particularly well, it might).

Does this fill a gaping hole in your online shopping experience? Is the movement of Marc’s sequins enough to make you click buy?

Thanks to the magic of television, I’ve seen Rachel Zoe die after Diane von Furstenberg told her “she’d become the woman she’d always wanted to be,” and watched Whitney Port stare blankly as the fashion icon dished out invaluable career and relationship advice. Now, thanks to Teen Vogue’s Fashion University, I’ve heard DVF for myself.

As the program’s keynote speaker, Diane walked out to so many flashbulbs that she had to tell her overly-eager audience to cut it out and listen. Here are some highlights of her lively, inspirational speech.

1. She takes pride in understanding women. Diane believes that clothes should be like close friends: “When you’re standing in front of the closet in the morning, and you feel like shit, you should go for the reliable one that makes you feel good.”

2. She always has a camera with her. Her close-ups of leaves, bark, or anything else she finds beautiful in nature can end up a pattern in one of her collections.

O-Style: For anyone who wants to truly follow Michelle Obama’s style choices there’s been one go-to site, Mrs-O.org. Now, blogger Mary Tomer’s got her own book on the First Lady that looks to be equally well-done. Also, we love the Alaia in this first official family portrait. {StyleFile}

Hands off our DvF: For shame, criminals of Madrid. Diane von Furstenberg was mugged this weekend in the Spanish city. Though we’re sure AmEx hooked her up with some new cards really quickly. {Jaunted}

Phew! Sesame Street is not, repeat not, collaborating with Amercian Apparel. Thank god, because we don’t want to imagine what Dov was dreaming up for the ad campaign. Shudder. {Stylelist}

Shop Talk: If the credit card machine arrives in time, Philip Crangi’s first store just might open this weekend in the Meatpacking. Shopping for some new jewelry and lunching at Pastis sounds like a pretty perfect Saturday to us. {StyleFile}

Triangulations: When we first read about this Alex von Furstenberg/Ali Kay/Reggie Miller situation over the summer, we didn’t know quite what to think, other than random and huh? Now, it’s gotten even stranger. We can’t imagine DvF is pleased about this at all. {Page Six}

TV on TV: In reality television news, Teen Vogue might be making its way back to the small screen but in what capacity, we’re not sure. Ah, remember the good old Lisa Love days on The Hills? {Fashionologie via Jazzi McG}

Across the Pond: Much like soccer, Cheryl Cole has never really caught on here in the States. But boy do those Brits loooove her. Will she ever become a crossover hit? {Vogue UK}

1. Security guards at the tents are meaner than ever this season.

2. This season’s cadre of Diane admirers included Blake Lively, Tina Brown, Candice Bergen, and every editor on the planet.

3. Diane needs a bigger venue and I have some serious personal space issues.

4. Safari prints and crochet will be worn this spring by many, many twenty-something girls investing in perhaps their first pieces by a proper designer.

5. DvF’s grandkids are ridiculously cute (seated between both their parents) and jumped up to give her a hug and flowers as she made her walk. I am dying to know what they call her, because you know it’s not Grandma.

6. My runway pictures were not so good—get thee to Style.com to see the clothes, but click through to see the models play with their hair for Jeremy.

— PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

So here we are, unofficial day one of Fashion Week.

We’re heading out to catch Jenni Kayne, Rachel Antonoff, shop Anna Sui for Target and celebrate Preen at the Soho Grand, but first, our second batch of creative invites.

Shipley & Halmos took the video route, too. Theirs featured a typewriter actually typing out each invitation and then someone stuffing and addressing the envelopes which makes us expect, um, something old fashioned?

DvF’s postcard invite features palm trees and the desert while Rag & Bone’s crinkly invite is leather we wish we could wear and we kind of want to put Jen Kao’s on our wall.

Not sure if anything beats the hot pink bracelet invitation you have to wear to get into the Marc/Gaga party though.

Each season a different reality TV show descends upon New York Fashion Week making things ten times crazier.

We must say, The Rachel Zoe Project was a huge improvement over Make Me a Supermodel and we kind of hope it’s Rachel and Brad again, (though if Joe Zee rolls up with The City’s camera crew in tow, we won’t really mind).

Anyway, on tonight’s show we finally see what the camera captured during the shitshow that was Rag & Bone AW09. They also explain why Taylor headed back to LA before the week was out (which maybe explains why I was sitting next to Brad at Chanel instead of next to Rachel’s first assistant). And there’s a close up of DvF’s nomad collection pre-show. A sneak peek, above.

Don’t get me wrong, New York is the best city in the world as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I had to move back after a couple of years in SoCal. But Los Angeles has things like temperate weather, hiking Runyon and Topanga, ridiculous Mexican food, Coffee Bean, and In-N-Out that I miss on a regular basis.

They also have Jenn Ripley’s Archive Agency - basically a fashion lover’s mecca in the heart of Larchmont Village. Jenn puts together an amazing collection of designer pieces (often exclusive, based on her industry relationships with showrooms, designers, and even factories) that she sells out of her loft. She often holds weekend sales open to anyone, but her most frequent visitors during the week are stylists (personal and wardrobe), professional shoppers and agency types searching for the perfect item for a client.

The CFDA held a ‘town hall’ meeting yesterday to talk about all the issues the fashion industry’s facing as we enter SS10 Fashion Week.

We like to think there was yelling and hand raising and a chalkboard and a gavel, but really it sounds like Diane von Furstenberg did her best to calm everyone’s nerves and focus on one problem at a time while Anna Wintour made silly statements like, “We have friends in the White House now,” while proposing something illegal.

The general consensus is that the root of the problem (aside from the obvious economic woes) is the customer’s confusion. And as anyone who’s ever worked in retail can attest, it is in fact baffling for most customers to face a fur coat in July and a bikini in January. Why would they buy it then when they can wait until it’s actually cold (or hot) outside and buy it for 70% less? The Pres repeatedly advocated shipping wear-now product, something Elie Tahari says he’s been doing very successfully.

“She recalls a recent dinner with a male fashion designer where, she says, he commented: ‘Us men designers, we make costumes. Women designers make clothes.’ ”

—Diane von Furstenberg in The New York Times. As for the man, guesses?

About Bloody Time: The NY Times finally caught on to the whole vampire obsession. Phew, now we can believe it’s real. However I do thank them for giving me an excuse to run a picture of Edward Cullen, er, Robert Pattinson. {NY Times}

Say It Ain’t So: Isn’t it bad enough that Christian Audigier has basically taken over entire blocks of Los Angeles? Now he’s threatening to show in Paris. {FWD via Vogue UK}

DC Style: Of the non-Obama variety, that is. Check out what the kids are wearing on Dupont Circle. {Washington Post}

Heaven On Earth: Coco Rocha discovers the utter beauty that is the “beauty closet”, especially the one at Vogue. {VogueDaily}

It’s New York’s 400th birthday next week.

Which makes us feel wonderfully young and makes designers, including Elizabeth and James, Michael Kors, Tibi, Tory Burch and DvF feel like making one-off designs in honor of the city they love.

The pieces will sell at the two Bloomingdales in New York (where a purchase also gets you two tickets to the Museum of the City of New York) and online.

Everything’s under $128, including jeans from Seven for All Mankind, a scarf from BCBG, a Michael Stars tee and a Kate Spade tote.

It launches on Monday, but if you’re feeling patriotic today, Gerard Butler’s been filming a 4th of July parade on my street all week.

For this year’s CFDA Journal portraits of the nominees, models and muses were replaced by the designers themselves.

DvF told the creative team she wanted something “fabulous” and from what we’ve seen so far, she should be very pleased.

WWD has a few of the photographs, including this one of Marc wearing his LV bunny ears and one of Jason Wu donning a gown over his suit.

Craig McDean photographed the nominees and in perhaps the most prophetic shot, captured the Proenza Schouler boys wearing their handbags as boxing gloves.

If only they’d been armed that fateful night when Kiefer Sutherland went on the attack.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

See this rather large rabbit. He’s actually a five foot tall trash receptacle designed by Paul Smith as part of London’s Super Contemporary Commissions Show.

He, along with his bunny friends, will today become part of the Covent Garden and Holland Park neighborhoods. When you throw trash in him, his ears literally light up.

How cool is that? Don’t you think that will make kids and adults alike more excited about throwing away their trash?

We know you love beautifying this fair city of ours. So how about enlisting Marc, DvF, Donna, Oscar and the crew to design some chic garbage bins of our very own? And let’s not limit it to just Manhattan. Let’s take this project to every borough.

We know times are tough and budgets are tight. But we bet the CFDA would get involved. And some environmental groups too.

If there can be lounge chairs in the middle of Times Square, there can be fashion-forward trash bins, right?

xo,

F

The 37th Annual Lighthouse International sale starts a week from today.

So just in case you planned on shopping this weekend, we’d suggest saving a few bucks for the charity - Jason Wu, Christian Lacroix, Alexander McQueen, Burberry, DVF, Hermes, Lanvin, Marc Jacobs, Prada, YSL, Zac Posen, and pretty much everyone else has donated to the sale. There’s a Chanel tweed jacket for $150, a wool Stella coat for $350, a $300 Marchesa gown and even a Dior wedding dress.

There are samples, vintage and slightly worn pieces from more recent runways - including Kim Cattrall’s green Jimmy Choos or her gold Valentinos at left.

The sale takes place at 110 East 60th Street between Park and Lex from Thursday, May 14 to Saturday, May 16, 11am to 7pm and Sunday May 17th from 11am to 5pm. A one day pass is only $10, four days is $30 and you can buy tickets here.

Nothing like Chanel for a cause.

If last year’s Met Ball is just a hazy memory, and you never bothered to check out DVF’s Wonder Woman line anyway, here’s another chance to get in on the never-dying comic trend:

Marvel, one of the biggest names behind comic books, is pushing further into the women’s fashion market with a full-on line of clothes, bags, accessories and makeup for 2009.

Obviously, we’re most interested in the makeup, and the fact that they definitely won’t advertise, even though we think Stam would make a great Sue Storm (left). Just imagine a pink lip balm called “Stam Bomb”. Oh yeah, we went there.