The holidays mean parties; in the next few weeks we’ll be digging through our closets for the perfect party outfits.

Luckily, December’s British Vogue’s given us a way to make those outfits better without breaking the bank.

Glitter!

Who doesn’t love a little shine? Instead of a light smattering, makeup artist Lisa Eldridge says that the look should be “bold, simple and beautiful, with the rest of the face kept bare and natural.” This grown-up version of glitter looks best in jewel tones like emerald or cobalt, and in a solid block of color over the eyes instead of shadow or liner. We noticed it on a handful of SS10 runways like Louis Vuitton, Betsey Johnson, and Derek Lam and it works well in liquid liner, glitter eye pencil, or loose glitter pot form.

The weather in New York has taken a turn for the cold and blustery incredibly quickly. It’s making me sad. Except for the fact that I can start busting out my tights on a regular basis.

What I’ve realized I’m lacking is an array of black patterned ones. Every night this week, I’ve seen at least one adorable pair on a girl in a simple outfit that becomes a little less simple with that extra addition.

Unfortunately the Louis Vuitton and Chanel versions aren’t exactly how I should be spending my paycheck right now. Unless of course I decide to give up Christmas presents for the fam. Last night at the hair salon one of the girls (who also happened to be a dead ringer for Rayanne Graff) told me hers were from Urban Outfitters and that she’d just picked up a whole bunch of them.

This Betsey Johnson pair seem to fit my criteria perfectly: black, not so dark as to obscure the pattern, and affordable. Plus they have bows! Even if those aren’t your style, there are tons of others to choose from.

Friday shopping complete. Now if that wind would just die down.

Last night Louis Vuitton debuted their first US lifestyle boutique at Saks in NYC, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, LV’s Daniel Lalonde, and Saks’ Steven Sadove. (Lifestyle boutique = every product category offered at their own stores is now available at Saks. The only other one of its kind is at Harrods.)

The invitation called the party “Le Jardin Louis Vuitton” but for some reason I was still expecting a lovely, but typical, department store event. Um, no. First clue: the entry bracelets were properly LV embossed leather. Second clue: The greenery was out of control in a very awesome way that also smelled amazingly delicious.

Still Going Strong: Indochine celebrated its new book earlier in the week after twenty-five years in business. Give us vintage Kate and Christy any day. {TheMoment}

Oh, Louie Louie: Lara may be fronting the actual spring/summer campaign for Louis Vuitton, but Daisy Lowe’s secured a spot in their “beach-wear lookbook,” whatever that means. She shoots in Miami this weekend. {Grazia}

Get Your Cavalli On: Isabeli Fontana just shot Roberto Cavalli’s spring/summer campaign with Carolyn Murphy. The first makes perfect sense, the second’s still confusing. {Fashionologie}

Catch This Wave: After spending last week in Costa Rica, I still refuse to wear a coat in New York. Thankfully, Vogue’s avoiding reality with me. This week’s Most Wanted appeals to your inner surfer girl. {Vogue}

Louis Vuitton’s re-thinking what exactly its customers aspire to.

On the one hand, Lara Stone’s replacing Madonna as the face of the brand. Madonna’s given Vuitton all the publicity she possibly can and Lara, French Vogue favorite, re-instills a high fashion edge; rotating both pop and fashion stars keeps both audiences interested. Steven Meisel will stay behind the camera.

Meanwhile, Vuitton’s sunglasses ads should make an impression on an even younger, slightly hipper customer. André Saraiva, the graffiti artist and man behind Beatrice, Le Baron etc, shot a group of kids including the Ronsons’ little sister Annabelle Dexter Jones and the not-so-child-like Olivier Zahm at New York’s Standard Hotel.

WWD says he’ll continue shooting the cool kids and their “party-all-night vibe”

I don’t want to speak for everyone here at Fashionista, but I for one just can’t have anything to do with the reincarnation of the fanny pack. I don’t care who makes it or how much it costs. Just no. That’s it for me. And don’t even get me started on the kitten heel.

This Refinery29 story let me traipse back in time without the anger rising up inside of me, thanks to their collection of another kind of pack. Backpacks, I still love you. And we spotted you on the Louis Vuitton runway too.

The ladies at Refinery may have outgrown the sportier models of youth, but I’m not totally opposed to going old school. In fact, I did a couple of years ago while on crutches for three months. That hunter green baby I still had from college was seriously convenient. Hands-free is not a bad way to live, when you’re not using the hands on crutches, that is. Though of course I’m also now drawn to the really expensive leather one from Society for Rational Dress. Sigh.

But more importantly, what about you? Backpacks, fanny packs, no packs?

You already know how much we love the schoolgirl braids and pigtails that made their way down the runways for SS10. But the girly trend didn’t stop there. From flowers at Chanel, bows at Luella and Vuitton, sweet barrettes at Phillip Lim, and pretty headpieces at Peter Som, sweet hair accessories are definitely having a moment too.

We love a low-maintenance way to do a little something extra with the hair. And none of these are too precious or sugar-coated that a grown lady can’t pull them off. Phew.

Alexis Phifer, ex-girlfriend of Kanye West and designer of the label Ghita, sat next to me today at Collette Dinnigan.

And though my job is to watch the clothes, I couldn’t help but notice her nails. They were both shaped into points and French manicured. Not just any French manicure though - she was being whisked away when she agreed to pose for this shot and the light kind of blinds the fact that the tips are actually the lightest shade of pistachio and separated from the rest of the nail with a thin silver line.

I always wondered what pointy nails would look like, and well, now I know. As for the clothes, people started leaving mid-show. And those who didn’t leave mid-show left during the finale, which was quite rude, even if Louis Vuitton was starting on time across the street.

—REBECCA SUHRAWARDI AUSTIN

Everyone’s doing it.

Louis Vuitton just announced that they’ll hop on the live stream bandwagon and broadcast their SS10 show, too.

Burberry did it in their stores, Dolce and Gabanna (and D&G) did it online, but ever the exclusive ones, Louis Vuitton will broadcast it on their Facebook page only. The show will stay up for just twenty-four hours and then slideshows will have to satisfy you.

So pencil in ten minutes in front of a computer next Wednesday, October 7th at 2:30pm in Paris which means 8:30am in New York or way too early in California. And don’t forget the night before, Alexander McQueen’s broadcasting his show, called “Plato Atlantis” at 8:30pm Paris time (which you can translate accordingly).

It all makes the hurt of not actually being in Paris slightly more bearable.

Because Fashion Week brings out the best in them.

Pucci’s Upswing: Anna Dello Russo must’ve made Peter Dundas’s day. She wore his green and white cut-out sequined long sleeve mini, dare we say it, better than a model ever could. And thank you Tommy Ton, for all the angles. {Jak&Jil}

Color Me Crazy: We dare you to read a single post of Garance’s and not want to hug her. She may be the nicest person on the street style circuit (and really they’re all nice), which is why everyone’s smiling and glowing when she snaps. These pictures make us want green, now. {GaranceDoré}

Peeps on the Street: Remember Balenciaga boy? Phil Oh managed to catch him on the only day of London Fashion Week that he wasn’t rocking his Louis Vuitton bunny ears. Yeah, we were jealous. {StreetPeeper}

Louis Vuitton houses master craftsmen at a facility in Asnieres where they have been making all the special order custom luggage and leather goods for 150 years, which is pretty incredible. Aside from the history, I’m still dreaming up what exactly I’d order for myself if I could? (They can even do solar-powered DVD trunks!)

According to WWD, to celebrate this major anniversary they commissioned six luminaries to create their own custom creations to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s on November 17th and benefiting the Red Cross, which also happens to be turning 150 years old.

Earlier today I chanced upon a short post by Cathy Horyn on OTR about a competition for twenty Parsons seniors to restructure looks from the Louis Vuitton archive into new avant-garde creations.

Filled with jealousy and intrigue I investigated further. I soon found out that the competition took place on September 17, with the mind-blowing prize of $2500 and an invite to the Louis Vuitton FW10 show in February 2010.

And it gets crazier: the young designers had only nine hours to complete their garments while working in the gallery windows of the Parsons building on 5th Ave, their creative processes exposed to the streets of Manhattan.

We would have easily lost our cool and panicked Andre style (Project Runway season 2 for all you PR buffs out there), but designers Min Sun Kim and Lydia Kim came out victorious by restructuring a Vuitton trenchcoat and men’s wear pieces into a gorgeous dress with a hand painted hem.

We think Ruffian’s show is always such a hit because, a) everyone loves Claude and Brian, b) the boys know how to cast their models and c) they make cute clothes.

This season, the first two held true while the last one fell a bit short.

Their “Les Demoiselles de Ruffian” collection for Spring 2010 was a little bit Louis Vuitton AW09 - watered down - with a dash of military mixed in. There was layered lace, sheer swiss dot blouses and ruched ruffles at the neck, collar, anywhere. Coats featured tails and gold buttons and the last few looks featured that brightly colored Picasso inspired print.

Meanwhile, the hair and make-up were amazing. The girls—Iekeliene, Irina L., Eniko, Liu, Arlenis—positively glowed. And their colorful, slighty rock n’ roll eyes were balanced by soft pulled up hair.

Otherwise, it could’ve been the weather, but the mood on the way out of Exit Art was pretty gloomy.

photo courtesy wwdMeet Camille Miceli.

She’s the woman responsible for the brilliant plastic, paper chain necklaces on Louis Vuitton’s AW09 runway.

After stints at Alaia and Chanel, she worked in Louis’ PR department right when Marc took over as Creative Director before working her way to the head of costume jewelry collections, a post she’s held since 2003.

But today, WWD announces she’s moving to Dior in October rounding out Bernard Arnault’s all-star cast of John Galliano, Kris Van Assche, and Victoire de Castellane.

While she and Galliano obviously share a funky aesthetic, it’s quite different and it’ll be exciting to see what she whips up for AW10 in such a different environment.

As any fashion lover knows, dressing fashionably and dressing for the opposite sex are usually two very different things.

It’s a long debated argument, just who exactly to dress for, one we’ve even covered a few times, but today’s story in the Daily Mail got us thinking; while broad shoulders and draped bodices are hot trends for AW09, wearing say, a poof-sleeved, leather Louis Vuitton-shaped dress on a Friday night, isn’t the best way to rope in the dude at the bar.

Not that we expect that to be your number one concern, we just wonder how you balance your love of runway fashion with your social life. You probably don’t forego baggy Marc dresses or shredded Current/Elliots or massive Marni platforms just because the girl in low slung jeans and a white tank looks at you like you’re nuts or the guy you’re dating says, “You look like a cake topper,” - (true story) - but you also must shy away from being too fashion forward at some point.

The disconnect between fashionable and sexy can be frustrating, so how do you make it work?

It’s like every morning brings news of a yet another fashion person on film.

While this month’s been devoted to The September Issue and we’re most looking forward to the Sundance debut of Jack & Lazaro’s documentary in two weeks, there’s an entire festival dedicated to Marc Jacobs in between.

It’s in Australia, so we can’t quite make it, but they’ve flown Bryanboy in to kick off each night of screenings on the condition he brings his BB bag (the square, ostrich one Marc made just for him for fall 08) everywhere he goes.

They’ll show, of course, Loïc Prigent’s Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton, but they’ll also screen clips from Andy Warhol’s show, Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (Marc made the luggage), a video compilation of Marc’s runway shows and a few films to set the scene of the old New York in which Marc rose to fashion fame.

The festival runs through September 6th, so if you’re down there soak up all the Marc you can in case they can’t squeeze you into his front-row only show.

SPOTTED: Patrick Demarchelier shooting Lily Donaldson rolling an LV suitcase up and down West Broadway.

Meet Blue Logan, if you haven’t already.

A couple of years ago a friend dragged the soft-spoken Brit to a show at London Fashion Week, Aquascutum he thinks, and he started to draw the models as they walked down the runway. Within a few shows he realized the people in the front row were just as, if not more, interesting.

Now his drawings pop up in Vogues, both UK and American, on Style.com and a bunch of other fashion-loving sites. He’s been in New York this summer preparing his sandwich shop, Cheeky’s, sketching the cool kids in the Hamptons or at the Jane and starting a project he might call, “I’m on the List” about the nature of waiting in lines in New York.

He was in Paris before this and counts India as his favorite place, but he’s in love with New York right now and we’re happy to have him. How he works, after the jump.

The only movie that’s made me laugh harder than The September Issue this year is The Hangover.

Anna Wintour is funny; my mascara is smudged from tears of laughter. The film may start out with Anna saying that fashion’s picked on because people are bitter they aren’t a cool kid, but she only gets more human from there and by the end you might even want to hug her.

Grace Coddington is, as reported, the real star of the movie. Her inner turmoil over the changing industry and her role in Anna’s history plays out on screen and one can’t help but sympathize with her as Anna cancels more and more of her shoots.

The movie travels from New York to Paris for couture to London for a meeting with Mario Testino to Rome for Sienna’s shoot and back to New York to close the issue and present it to Si Newhouse. In Paris, we cringed when Anna shut Stefano Pilati down; in London we laughed at Mario’s grandly cinematic ideas and in Rome we admired Sienna’s energy and Sally Singer’s patience.