Pretty Babies: Chanel and Jourdan are on the new Teen Vogue cover, looking beyond adorable. Yay! And the mag put together some of their most fabulous runway moments. {Teen Vogue}

It’s Official: Renzo Rossi finally confirms the long-believed rumor that Martin Margiela is not designing for the Maison. Apparently he’s “here but not here” which sounds to have just the right amount of mystery. {Vogue UK}

Back in Plaid: These shoes mark the return of the Burberry plaid. Are you ready for it, or is it still too soon for you? {Nylon}

The Season of the Nail: We haven’t seen this much chatter about nails in quite a few seasons. But we like it, because what’s easier or more fun to change than your nails. Plus for all you West Coasters there’s a rundown of great mani/pedi places in LA, including one of my personal faves, Recess. {LA Times}

“But it was less a revival than a remix — in the way that postmodern artists like Rei Kawakubo and Martin Margiela have done so well and that Marc Jacobs makes so palatable: mixing those historical references like samples of songs that you know well to create something new and surprising out of the predictable.” —Stefano Tonchi’s brilliant, and articulate, summation of London Fashion Week on The Moment.

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.

POP This: Here’s your first peek at Dasha Zhukova’s POP. Looks good so far, and love anything that pairs “Margiela with Westwood, McQueen against Watanabe’s padded extravagance,” though she should stop defending herself. {Fashionologie & Interview}

Fall, For Serious: Candy & her team at Style just released their fall trend report. We’ll avoid Party Like It’s 1983 since we just barely missed that the first time around, but fully embrace Boudoir Crossing and Biker Brigade. {Style}

Rad Rad: If you’re not yet familiar with Rad Hourani, get thee to a lookbook. The dude’s going to be major. {Jak&Jil}

Biggie, Biggie, Biggie: Just how many of these bracelets on one arm would be too many? We can’t make it past the jewelry counter at J.Crew lately. Seriously, someone is doing their job very, very well. {J.Crew}

Model Citizen: Meet Damaris Lewis. She’s from Brooklyn, she’s eighteen, she’s the face of YSL and after watching this, you’ll want to eat pizza with her. {NylonTV}

We’d gotten so used to waking up every morning to the news that yet another designer would be returning home to London for Spring 09 that we don’t know what to do with the news that Giles will be showing in Paris.

First, we should congratulate him for winning the ANDAM award, the same €160,000 endowment that sent Gareth Pugh to Paris one year ago. The prize, given by France’s National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts has been previously bestowed upon designers like Margiela and Viktor & Rolf putting Giles in even higher company.

But really we’re kind of devastated. His clothes and spirit are so thoroughly British that the grand celebrations of the BFC’s 25th Anniversary will be lacking without his presence, not to mention that despite the crazy fun that is British Fashion Week there really are just a handful of internationally known designers in town - Luella, Westwood’s Red Label, Chris Kane and now probably Marios Schwab which makes Giles’ show one of LFW’s stars.

Meanwhile, we are excited to see how or if his designs change for such a different atmosphere and probably audience. Can we expect Anna’s presence?

We just got back from the Decades Two pop-up shop in Soho, above the Kiki de Montparnasse store and we’re still trying to catch our breath.

The Los Angeles location has a beloved, loyal following of fashion obsessives on both coasts. New Yorkers upon arriving LA have been known to stop by the store before even checking into their hotels.

And it’s easy to see why. Walking in the doors was like entering an other-worldly paradise where only beautiful things reside.

We spotted Natalie Portman’s black and blue Rodarte, the pink Oscar dress Carrie pulls out of Baryshnikov’s box, nude Louboutins and navy Lanvin pumps, perfectly worn in Balenciaga motorcycle bags, a mint green Valli gown, a McQueen caftan, Westwood bustiers and an entire rack of Chanel tweed.

Niiiiice: Ikram just ordered a sold out white Margiela tux, allegedly for the first lady, which might push poor Oscar De La Renta over the edge. {FlyPaper}

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Just in case you weren’t going to watch Gossip Girl tonight, on top of the prom there’s an 80’s flashback or two. One costume includes the Givenchy pumps we want, um, now. {WWD}

Smell This: One of the reasons we avoid 5th avenue like the plague is our impatience with super slow tourists. The other? You smell like Abercrombie cologne from like a mile away. So this is just awesome. {Racked}

Stolen Crush: Karl gets all the cool girls — now he’s directing a short film with Lara Stone and we’re super jealous. {Fashionologie}

Linda Dresner, the legendary Park Avenue boutique, will shutter next month.

While magazines go out with a bang, the city’s retail gems - this year’s seen the demise of Leontine and Dernier Cri along with others - quietly close their doors in the face of still-skyrocketing rents, invisible shoppers and major department store sales they’d never dream of competing with.

Dresner, who brought the greats - Yamamoto, Demeulemeester, Margiela, Jil Sander, Commes des Garcons - to the Upper East Side more than twenty years ago sums it up best, “There’s too much of everything right now. Would I open a store in New York today? No. Retailing has to be reconsidered. It’s become a commodity that’s less creative. There’s too many stores selling the same kind of merchandise and it’s not as beautifully chosen. It’s ruined the enthusiasm for fashion.”

Basically, the retail market, especially in New York, is totally oversaturated. You try on a pair of jeans in one store and they don’t have your size? Skip down the block, and if they don’t have them there, you might have to go three whole subway stops to yet another store carrying the same brand. It’s as easy to buy a pair of Sevens in this city as it is a grande latte.

Staying alive in this economy will be rough. Small boutiques will have to carry things the big stores don’t, whether that means different lines or just a different buy, because they just can’t mark things down the way Barneys can. Customers will need incentives - buy this, get that - they’ll need motivation and they’ll need, most of all, encouragement because even those who have the money to shop right now are terrified.

It won’t be easy, it will require patience and creativity and a passionate love of the game, but please, little stores, don’t close your doors!

Have you ever seen Martin Margiela?

Have you ever seen a current picture of him?

Have you ever met anyone who could at least accurately describe what he looks like at this moment?

If you can say “yes” to any of the above, try Dani Stahl’s contest, which should really be called something like, “Searching for Martin Margiela”.

If you win, you win her jewelry.

All of it.

Go…?

To make up for the incredibly boring eight days that was New York Fashion Week, the rumors from Paris Fashion Week are piling up just as the ceremonies are getting under way:

First up, Martin Margiela may - finally and actually - be giving up fashion for good, the rumor coming in from everybody everywhere, and with some astutely pointing out that Martin Margiela himself does not even work on the line, so a replacement would be that much easier (though since Raf’s been counted out due to his newly signed three year contract with Jil Sander, who else is supposedly up for the job?) Supposedly, he’ll announce his retirement from fashion sometime soon…

Next: Alessandra Facchinetti, whose collection for Valentino this coming Thursday will be only her second, and already the Daily reports that it’s her last chance, her future at the house resting completely in the hands of the editors and buyers in the front row. And there’s more - the supposed replacement? Giambattista Valli, who some supposedly feel could bring more innovation to the line, maybe because he’s French, maybe because he’s older…

Guess we’ll know where everybody stands by next week - kind of makes the rumors on Gossip Girl tonight seem a little passé, mais non?

We never listen to the radio, not even during those rare times we’re in a car, but we think we’ll have to at least start listening to online radio come Fashion Week -

Kelly Mills (right), of Black % White PR, has started her own hour-long fashion/comedy radio show called Fashionably Yours.

Each Monday night, starting September 8th, she and Mari J. Brooklyn (left) will broadcast live from DUMBO, when their show will be available for download on PNC Radio.

The shows will include great guests in fashion, the lineup filled with fashion figures like Andre J and apparently Martin Margiela is mentioned more times than we mention F21 - in fact, we think they should try super, super hard to get him on the show. Maybe they could give him his own slot, like Fireside Chats.

What else can we call this but the perfect nightcap to Gossip Girl?

Megan, native Australian, Fashion Stylist

Got Her: Chatting with a friend on Mulberry St. in front of Ruby’s (how Aussie appropriate)

Stalked Her: Because she was swimming in layers…in the best way possible.

Shot her: Because the dress is a great combo of hippie meets space age, like if Margiela and Erin Fetherston had a baby. Plus, we really love her subtle accessories and sleek bun to balance it out.

She Says: “I had a job interview this morning.”

We Say: Isn’t V in this neighborhood?

—ALEXANDRA BEN-GURION

Our latest glossy crush is Intersection magazine, an art book that fuses industrial design with fashion. We’ve never really been into cars and planes, but seeing a photo spread of Louis Vuitton accessories shot through the windows of a chopper pretty much had us sold.

Now Intersection announces a new project where designers around the world are making them car seats, to be unveiled in their Spring issue.

Those who’ve enlisted include the denim wunderboys from Ksubi, the chic French misfits at Bless, and Maison Martin Margiela, the enigmatic fashion house that caused the biggest stampede we’ve ever seen at Paris Fashion Week.

As to where to put those designer car seats - maybe they could go in the Eddie Bauer Landrover, the Betsey Johnson corvette, or the Gap Vespa, which could be the cutest vehicle we’ve ever seen.

Starrett, publicist.

Got Her: Outside the Maison Martin Margiela show in Southern Paris.

Stalked Her: Because it’s tough to pull off a rainbow print without looking like you’re in a Gay Pride parade. She did it.

Shot Her: We’re also a huge fan of purple and black, ensemble.

She Says: “This is old, old Sonia Rykiel. It’s easy to throw over something plain and create an outfit.”

We Say: Crayola, c’est moi.

We’re not really into Maison Martin Margiela, but we certainly get the appeal.

The designer himself is the ultimate enigma, removing all signs from his boutiques and his studio (which goes notoriously unmarked, right down to his doorbell).

Meanwhile, his fashion shows are often like puzzles, with various clues strewn about, waiting for Cathy or Suzy or someone to punch them the right way and spill out the light.

Margiela also has a perverse sense of humor, as we discovered yesterday, when the designer beckoned his entire flock to the Bercy Sports Stadium – a monolith of ‘70s architecture that can only be described this way:

What if Mayans built a sun temple while high on Coca Cola and disco music?

Et voila, there we were.

You should have seen various fashion fixtures attempting to get up the pyramid steps, with their pyramid-studded Burberry heels in the way. It was amazing. And the publicists all wore white lab coats, with backstage passes dangling like stethoscopes. When they denied entry to half the audience – and kept us waiting outside for an hour – it felt a little like a death sentence.

As for the actual show, there were some square shouldered jackets and a series of jeans so destroyed, they looked like they’d been through nuclear waste. “Apocalypse denim� we scrawled, and still think that’s a pretty good name for a brand.

When we ambled outside, we saw the LA Times fashion editor, Booth Moore.

“How’d you like it?� she asked.

“We didn’t get it,â€? we replied, perhaps too honestly, “So that must mean it’s really brilliant.”

Yesterday, we learned from a salesman at Barneys about a problem with shoplifiting in the shoe department.

Except, the thieves aren’t taking the whole shoe. They’re just taking the ankle straps.

Why?

To wear them as bracelets.

Of course, we deplore the actions of those sneaking off with the straps, and leaving Barneys with a beautiful pair of Lanvins that they can’t sell…and that we can’t buy.

But we have to give them credit for having a pretty good idea.

This morning we attached two of the ankle straps from our pair of silver Gucci sandals together, and wound them around our wrist. The result looks a lot like the double-tour bracelet that Martin Margiela designed for Hermes.

Just promise us one thing:

That you’ll use your own shoe straps to DIY this trend.

Because, you know, we really wanted those Lanvins…

—ANNA FIELDING GRIGGS