The only thing more daunting that Fashion Week is turning out to be Fashion’s Night Out.

We’ve probably received fifteen to twenty emails per day since July telling us what’s up, who’s coming, where’s happening Thursday night and after much deliberation we’ve come up with a game plan.

Given there are really only two of us, splitting up’s the only way to cover the most ground without exhausting ourselves before the week actually even begins (and without spending all of our money before Christopher Kane hits Topshop).

I’ll run home for dinner after work which strategically puts me on Bleecker Street to start. I’ll kick off the night with Teen Vogue’s Bleecker Street party then swing by Intermix to glimpse the Miller sisters (and to actually buy a couple of tank tops I’ll need for the week) before swinging around the corner to Rag & Bone on Christopher Street where Jessica Stam’ll be at the cash register and Guinness will flow.

Henry Holland for Topshop?

We wish. Instead he’s heading to their stateside flagship to celebrate the launch of his brilliant new tights collection, or so we hear.

The legwear, launched in collaboration with Pretty Polly, launched at Dover Street Market last week, though we’ve already seen them on Agyness and the Geldofs. The tights go for about $15 and mimic the pastel stripes of his AW09 collection.

We’d love Henry to be here for Fashion Week.

In fact, we think he’d fit into Intermix’s Fashion’s Night Out party, hosted by Sienna and Savannah Miller, quite well.

Intermix has been busy.

They threw a party the other night to let the world know they’re stocking Rag & Bone, but everyone left talking about Jessica Stam instead. The model’s been spending extra time with the boys, David Neville and Marcus Wainwright, helping design bit parts of their spring collection.

But the store itself has a collaboration in the works. They’ve paired with current fashion darling Marilyn Minter on a limited edition tote.

The bag features a still from Minter’s “Green Pink Caviar” - the same video playing on Madonna’ Sticky and Sweet tour - which means you can have Minter and Intermix for just $48. Plus, the project’s in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month which means sales benefit the nonprofit group Bright Pink.

We just got back from lunch with Misha Nonoo and Deborah Lyons, two best friends whose first capsule collection of eight extremely tailored coats and jackets is hitting stores right now. Takashimaya already has Nonoo Lyons pieces on the floor with Intermix (and its website) and Henri Bendel following suit over the next week or so.

The girls are just as lovely as their menswear-inspired pieces. They decided to focus on jackets as they found them to be a staple in their wardrobe, but one that was never just right.

All of the fabrics are classically European, but every piece, down to metalwork details, is produced in Manhattan.

Hi girls!

My name’s Angel and I’m an avid fan.

I was surfing the net, pre-pulling for a stylist when I found a funny little something at Intermix. Just thought I’d send it along.

So here you go!

Best, Angel.

This morning’s inbox is flooded with sale announcements.

While no one’s hit 75% off quite yet, except for Selfridges which sadly we can’t make, spring prices are being slashed left and right.

Saks just announced 25% off all women’s denim (on top of their already 40% off sale), for two days you can take an extra 20% off sale at Shopbop and Barneys added inventory to their sale while knocking everything down another 25%, too.

J.Crew’s having a ‘secret’ sale - enter SECRET at checkout for 20% purchases over $175 and Net-a-Porter’s sale section’s already disappeared which means we expect it to be further discounted on the Outnet sooner than later.

And, someone emailed yesterday to ask why in the world Intermix is selling spring Rag & Bone for full price when it’s 50% off on Bergdorf’s 5th floor - we don’t know why, but we do think you’d like to know that if you have your heart set on that perfect romper at left you should probably head to 5th instead of Madison Avenue.

Happy shopping!

We’ve been running around Soho today - interviewing Life Withs and looking at apartments - and there’s major fashion action on this sticky sweaty day.

Scott Schuman’s shooting for a foreign Vogue on Greene Street between Prince and Spring. The models are looking rather goth, one’s even carrying a skull and the other has an umbrella atop her head and Chanel bag in hand. No sign of Garance, though we know she’s in town for tonight’s Women in Style party (which we’re actually really excited for).

Meanwhile, Rachel Zoe’s teetering around. We spotted her leaving Intermix in the widest pair of bell bottoms we’ve ever seen, a cropped patent leather biker jacket and major black frames.

That is all.

Dear Intermix,

We love you. We spent almost an hour in your store yesterday trying to find the perfect dress to wear to a very important wedding and we’ve narrowed it down to three. So don’t worry, we’ll be back.

But we do have a merchandising question. When one rack looks like this: black Balmain jacket, Balmain jeans, ripped-off Balmain jacket by a brand called Marley and the next rack looks like this: white Balmain jacket, leather Balmain pants and white ripped-off Balmain jacket again by Marley, what exactly are you going for?

Because as a customer (probably your target customer, less the desired clothing budget), we’re torn. It’d be hard to drop $5,000 on a jacket when you see something for $400 a mere foot away. But on the other hand, no one wants to buy the $400 version because the quality looks on par with Forever 21 when it’s sitting next to actual Balmain.

Do tell. Did we miss a retail secret along the way?

xo
F

We’re big t-shirt people here at Fashionista.

We wear them to work, to shows, to parties - we might’ve even tried to pull off a white tee at a black tie event, which means we’re always in search of the perfect one.

And yet we’re not willing to pay $300 for The Row, no matter how Olsen-obsessed we may be. But yesterday, we finally checked out the new A.L.C. - that stands for Andrea Lieberman Collection. She’s the super stylist who had a hand in L.A.M.B and guest-designed for jewelry company Mouawad before starting her own line last season.

Anyway, we loved the tartan coats and skinny tux pants and spent a few too many seconds touching the cropped leather jackets but the t-shirts were really amazing. We wanted to nuzzle into the rack of super soft, almost sheer jersey and never leave.

You can find them at Intermix and Barneys but if you think $147 is too much for a t-shirt don’t even think about touching them or they’ll be in your closet before you know it.

We shipped Natalie off on an Egyptian vacation last week and though I’ve spent a fair portion of my life there, she only wanted to know about shopping.

So I told her, “Bargain. Almost everything costs less than half of what you’re told and everything is negotiable - absolutely no exceptions.”

But that’s in the Khan el-Khalili, not in the West Village where according to this article in Bloomberg shoppers have actually started negotiating printed prices.

While major department stores and even mass boutiques like Scoop and Intermix can afford severe markdowns, the smaller stores carrying the same brands just can’t. Which means shoppers are either bypassing them entirely, asking them to match department store prices or lying about how much the same pair of shoes cost down the block to guilt the sales team into lowering prices.

One boutique owner says a woman offered to pay $400 in cash for a $700 bag. Another salesperson says that once negotiating becomes customary no one will want to pay full price again and another is just “really amazed” that people are ballsy enough to ask in the first place.

While I’m always game to bargain at outdoor markets, whether in Cairo or Paris, I could never negotiate my way into a pair of Louboutins.

Are you trying? And more importantly, is it working?

Once upon a time, I fell in love with a blazer. It had feathers (my very favorite trend that never runs its course), and adequately achieved a menswear-inspired look du jour - but with a feminine twist I actually wanted to pull off.

Yet as the story so often goes, the price tag on this Elizabeth & James blazer - $765 - offended my eyes, so I had to look away. Luckily, like a lot of Olsen-wear, the look was easily re-created - and with a more figure-flattering (for me, anyway) blazer and downsized, removable, plumage.

What You’ll Need:
- Feather trim, about $10/yd anywhere but Mood
- Blazer - any will do, my favorite is from H&M
- Velcro strip (black), $1 store
- optional: needle & thread

—JAZZI McGILBERT

Fashion junkies around the city had one big question after reading Emily Nussbaum’s Sex and the City article in New York this week:

Who was the crazy denim publicist who stalked SJP through the West Village to hand her a pair of really cute jeans?

We had our suspicions, and now they’re confirmed:

The Blue Jean Baby was Misty Twigg, the senior publicist for MiH Jeans, which are actually our favorite ones ever.

Just as Misty told SJP, four times, you can buy them at Intermix.

Giggle giggle giggle.

Friends in New York and LA send constant complaints about the cost of “keeping up,” but as any 10th grader at an affluent school can tell you, it happens in the suburbs too.

Witness the latest proof:

A slew of new boutiques from Intermix set to open in Orlando and Charlotte - cosmopolitan, sure, but hardly places where one immediately thinks “fashion” - in fact, in both cases, our first thought is “air conditioning.”

So what can we learn from this?

That because of the internet and fashion’s pervasive “reality” on TV, more Americans in cities without visible fashion industries are getting obsessed with labels?

Sure.

That if you’re visiting cousins in Winter Park, you can now snag a Chloe bag out of boredom?

Definitely.

But also this: That despite the “crashing” economy, women are still really excited to shop. This is especially odd considering a full tank of gas now costs the name as a Marc dress, but it’s definitely something to notice.

Who knew Victoria Beckham could actually move clothes?

Last season, she deigned to wear an Herve Leger dress to the Marc Jacobs show, but Marc didn’t seem to mind since he cast the Soccer Mom in his latest ad campaign (next season, Kate Moss? We’re still waiting).

Anyway, now the Posh Dress has finally hit stores, and it seems to have caused an internet shopping frenzy.

Despite retailing for $1375, the bandage gown has essentially crashed the Intermix server - click on the dress, and get a lot of maddening code instead of an easy way to buy it.

One more observation: The dress sells for $25 more than any other Leger dress, despite the fact that it’s got the same construction as all the others.

$25 seems trifling in the face of $1300, but still - we can’t help wondering whether the Posh effect has boosted the price for everyone.