While it turns out The Daily was just stirring up smoke with those false Jean Paul Gaultier rumors - he & Hermès look forward to a long and happy life together - the French house still has major problems.

WWD reports their profits have taken a 7% dip in the first half of the year which the house claims is fine, since they plan on evening out their numbers in the second half. While it’s tempting to blame the recession, Bryanboy puts it best when he tweets, “That’s what they get for letting Heidi Montag buy their stuff all the time.”

Meanwhile, on the other end of the retail spectrum, J.Crew’s profits aren’t just staying steady, but actually rising. CEO Mickey Drexler says, “There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned recession to make you run a better business.”

J.Crew’s always been the most-luxury of the high-street brands, which might explain, why, during all of this, they’ve consistently done well. If the woman who buys only designer clothing finally needs to cut back, she’s not going to stop shopping, but she will buy her basics elsewhere. And if she was buying $200 t-shirts, J.Crew’s $88 version is a steal.

Not that they’re perfect (Madewell’s not doing so hot), but they are winning while everyone else is losing.

Recently I’ve been lamenting the loss of my once stellar flea market skills.

And while I vowed to get back in the swing of all things vintage, I am still incredibly grateful to Madewell for making it even easier.

The Manhattan and East Hampton stores will be featuring finds from the Brooklyn Flea starting this Thursday and going until at least Labor Day, though possibly longer.

Fashion Director Gigi Guerra and stylist Lisa Schulner will be scouring the Ft. Greene and Brooklyn Bridge locations for pieces that will complement Madewell’s collections. And everything will be less than $100. I’ve had the pleasure of working with both of these ladies (at Jane and at YM) and I can totally vouch for the fact that they both have extremely keen eyes for hidden treasures.

We can’t wait to see what they dig up. But we still highly recommend you all make a trip to the Flea yourselves too.

Poor Abercrombie’s been having a hell of a time with this whole recession thing.

Last winter they refused to cut prices pre-Christmas which led to devastating losses and now, they’ve announced they’re closing Ruehl. A good friend worked at Abercrombie’s Ohio headquarters while Ruehl launched and here’s why, according to her, it bombed:

“At first their product was awesome, it was so different from anything else on the market. But it didn’t catch on immediately (most new things don’t) and instead of giving it a proper chance, they caved to corporate pressure and turned it into just another A&F. If they’d just stuck to the original idea without conforming to the A&F model, it would have made it through this downturn.

They didn’t differentiate themselves from their umbrella brand and you can’t draw an older, brand new demographic with the same merchandise they wore in high school. You can’t use sex to sell to a 29-year-old woman like you do a 17-year-old. Like look at Madewell. J.Crew’s offshoot does so well because it’s completely different from J.Crew - an original idea as opposed to a recycled version of the same thing.

Not to mention, no one even knew what Ruehl was.”

So there you have it. If you wanted to pay extra for your moose-embossed polo you should probably go now, all twenty-nine stores will be closed by the end of the year.

Girl Crush: We’ve had a major one on Kim Gordon since our days of reading Sassy. Time and this video have only made our hearts grow fonder. {Style}

Winner!: My soccer team won its championship game last week and I took home what I though was a pretty kick ass trophy for Brooklyn co-ed soccer. But it would not impress this art director. {TheMoment}

In Memoriam: Alexander McQueen’s sequined Isabella Blow dress is going for $1098 - it was originally $7390. {Gilt}

I Wanna Be a Supermodel: But I never will be. So if you think you can, you should probably apply to Elite Chicago’s online modeling competition. {Elite}

Catherine Malandrino Logs On: The designer and Make Me a Supermodel judge has a new website. It’s really colorful and pretty, just like her clothes. There’s a shopping section now, too. {CatherineMalandrino}

Ladies, it’s time to summon that inner model that lives within us all.

Groovy J. Crew spinoff Madewell is holding an open casting at their Soho store this Saturday from 2-6 pm.

They’re looking for girls with fab style to shoot for the My Madwell section of their website where you’ll mix in Madewell pieces with your personal faves.

You’ll be snapped by their photog and get a chance to chat up their model caster and head stylist. Just promise not to forget about us little people if you make it big.

I’ve landed post-Topshop opening. It’s barely noon and I’m exhausted. In case you weren’t following my Twitter, here’s what happened:

The line twisted through Soho, up, down, around Broome/Broadway/Crosby. A crowd even assembled across the street just to watch the line. Passerbys asked why crazy people were in line and what the hell Topshop was. Sir Philip Green looked on with his suited buddies and a British TV presenter asked questions like, “Where did you come from?”

I too asked questions. One to a girl camped comfortably on the sidewalk.

“I’m from England,” she answered, in a thick British accent.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “But you live here now, right?”

“No. I’ve flown in for this,” she responded, looking at me like I was nuts.

Pinkberry passed out yogurt, Madewell distributed coffee to welcome their new neighbors and perfectly dressed Brit chicks handed out Topshop gift cards. Around 10:50, the crowd went nuts. Kate Moss appeared for mere seconds and the store opened. It was the most organized fashion event I’ve ever attended - most organized of the crazies that is.

Inside, the crowd asked for leather jackets and Kate Moss’ new collection. They also asked about prices. The thing is, Topshop prices are not H&M prices. If you’ve never actually shopped at Topshop and yet been swept up in its charm, you probably don’t realize that a cotton summer dress will set you back about $100 and a simple tank up to $40 - not exactly cheap. On top of that, the dress I bought in London last month for £45 is $90 here which means I saved almost $25 and they’re apparently not paying much mind to current exchange rates. Not that I didn’t still walk away with this Kate Moss Liberty dress (that I just looked up on Topshop’s site - it’s £65 which is $95 dollars but it’s $135 at the store - ouch).

I made it down the escalator where Christopher Kane stood, calmly letting his roaring gorilla tee do the talking for him and Sir Philip granted more and more interviews - only after telling his staff to lower the music.

Is it worth going later today? Probably - unless you don’t do well with crowds, in which case I’d suggest waiting a week.

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.

This week, Banana Republic launched their Monogram line, which was supposed to be a little more classic but not more pricey than their trend-oriented career wear.

Now, American Eagle is doing sort of the same thing.

They’ve just launched a website called Martin + Osa, which has a bunch of I’m-grown-up-really outfits, that cost basically the same amount as actual AE.

Who is this stuff for?

We’re guessing college kids who have their first jobs - the same college kids who were just wearing their AE Aerie tank tops to early morning lectures.

We have to admit, it seems like a very smart strategy - sort of like Hilary Duff insisting her tween fans will grow with her as she does more adult roles (or ok, at least more adult photo shoots). Guess we’ll see if it works… though we do wonder if it overlaps with Madewell.