From Alexander Wang to Miu Miu, we’ve been obsessing about the latest incarnations of the super long braid since September.

Karlie Kloss’ S/S ad for Hermès left Kate and me just a tad breathless when we first saw it. The only thing better than a gloriously pretty braid is one with an Hermès scarf woven into it. (The warm ocean setting sure doesn’t hurt either.)

Blake Lively, please take note. This would look fantastic on you as opposed to that tight, high Emmy nightmare we’re still trying to forget.

Of course, any scarf will do but one thing is certain you will be seeing lots of this look on the two of us as soon as our hair gets a bit longer. What about you?

Everyone’s Talkin’ About: Vogue Italia’s always up to something new. This month, Steven Meisel’s coordinated a Twitter cover for the magazine. The girls: Christy, Gisele, Natalia, Lara and Kasia, took the pictures of themselves. And, it’s Kasia’s first Vogue Italia cover. {Models}

Better Late Than Never: In case you, like us, missed it, Net-a-Porter’s gone on sale. Miu Miu’s goat hair collar is now just $245. But seriously, please help us find a reason to need this Stella dress. {Net-a-Porter}

Ew, Love: All things Chris Benz make us pretty happy. Especially his sparkly dresses…and personality, of course. Also, CB, we’re dying to see the color-coordinated bookcase! {Fashion Informer }

Ummmmm: Pam Anderson and Richie Rich are now collaborating on a pop song. About high fashion. Yeah, so that’s happening. Also we feel this is the moment for a random sidebar: Did you watch Jersey Shore last night? How freakin’ amazing is that show? {OK}

Blog-alicious: Meet Caroline. She’s guest blogging for Lucky (how we found her), but she’s actually a textile designer with her own blog full of illustrations, both fashion and otherwise, and other very pretty things. {ItLooksGoodToMe}

Oscar & Valentino: The designer’s doc is on the short-list for an Oscar nom. Sadly, The September Issue is not. But we’re still pulling for a fashion victory. Also, we couldn’t be more excited for Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host. {Vogue UK}

Thigh High: The kids over at Nylon sound like they had a grand old time recreating Miuccia’s super festive socks and they’re letting us in on the scheme. Just in time for party season. Hooray! {Nylon}

This is the End: They may be denying it, but sources say there’s a major brawl going down between executives at Ungaro over what else? La Lohan. Let’s hope the best man wins. {Page Six}

The bleaching of models’ brows was all the rage for S/S 2010 (and actually was fairly popular the season before at Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu). We’ve been fascinated as to how all the girls’ eyebrows didn’t fall out by the end of Paris Fashion Week.

Today, we went to a Cover Girl lunch with the amazing (and always fun) Pat McGrath and got some answers.

First of all, we had no idea that Pat has had a hair colorist on her team for years. While he does many other things as well, brows often fall to him. Very cool. And considering the lady does around 30 shows a season (not to mention countless editorials and covers), it makes a lot of sense to have everyone you may need at the ready.

She told us that she suggested to the models that they not go through the bleaching process more than twice. Instead, the makeup teams would just color in darker versions when necessary. “Of course some girls insisted on always changing back, but what are you gonna do?” said Pat. We’re sure those ladies are regretting those decisions right about now.

We almost forgot about fall given the SS10 hysteria.

Now that it’s freezing outside, we’re digging to the bottom of our closets to find the ball of tights that gets us through every winter, but plain black tights are significantly less satisfying than usual.

For FW09 designers showed a range of patterned and embellished tights that left us longing for something more exciting. From Marc Jacobs 80’s neon paisley to McQueen’s optical houndstooth, tights stopped being just something to keep warm, and started being a crucial accessory with which to liven your outfit.

Wouldn’t you rather brighten your fall wardrobe with some sparkle tights a la Anna Sui or some bejeweled Miu Mius? And if you still feel for black, try the sheer dotted tights seen at Balenciaga, which are perfect for adding a detail to a simple outfit.

We say ditch the black tights and start walking in technicolor!

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

LOVED:

—More side braids. Hooray!!

—The sturdiness meets quirkiness of the shoes, especially these and these.

—The fact that so many women will be embracing the pantsuit again. Those things were sexier than expected.

HATED:

—The cat situation. Even through Miuccia’s lens I’m struggling with this and I’ve heard from other non-cat people that I am far from alone. Also, the kitties led in no small part to this Style.com story which includes a picture that might haunt me for the rest of my life.

—That girls with any sort of boobs of the non-concave variety are going to have some serious issues with many of those cut-out and appliqued tops. Bummer.

This headpiece, from Paris based Maison Michel, went on sale on Net-a-Porter this morning.

The site suggests pairing “this opulent accessory with your favorite LBD to bring bygone beauty to a modern cut.” We suggest:

1. Wearing it as a necklace and perhaps layering with other pearls in homage to McQueen’s sea theme, or The Little Mermaid.

2. Double wrapping it around your ankle to achieve some of that ankle/shoe fringe we’ve seen - and loved - on the Spring/Summer 2010 runways.

3. Putting your $2,195 toward a pair of Brian Atwoods and this adorable ombre Miu Miu clutch. In total, you’ll spend an extra couple of hundred, but hey, it’s worth it.

4. Jumping for joy because the recession must be over.

Reed Krakoff’s starting his own fashion house.

The President and Creative Director of Coach (and Vice President of the CFDA) is ready to do his own thing in tandem with his responsibilities at the mega-brand. The project, however, is entirely funded by Coach which gives him the unique advantage of being able to launch his line for AW10 with ready-to-wear, bags, shoes and jewelry - not your average sixteen piece start-up collection. In fact, he’s already talking to WWD about men’s clothes, furniture and fragrances.

“It’s about a new craftsmanship,” he said, citing brands like Miu Miu and Balenciaga as inspiration, though he talks more about brand building than design and sounds more like a sound businessman than a passionate artist.

The only peek we have so far is the fluffy black organza dress Reed’s wife Delphine wore to the CFDAs in June (at left) - it’s from the upcoming line and so far, we like it. You have to be crazy to launch “the next great American fashion house” right now and crazy makes for good design.

I took a fashion road trip this weekend—after three years in New York, I finally made my way to the much lauded Woodbury Commons.

I’m not a shopping in a group kind of girl and I’m not an outlet kind of girl because it’s generally too much effort, but this was like walking through a living archive of legendary runway looks that had me squealing up and down the aisles. Plus at this point in the summer I’ll get out of the city any which way I can.

It started at Prada which currently houses an entire rack of AW09 lace priced around $2000—black dresses, gold skirt, blue tops. Anna’s favorite floral prints are on the clearance rack for about $400, along with the red and blue checked skirt, a single Harlequin Miu Miu mini and a lone black turban.

Balenciaga’s packed with SS08’s structured florals—skirts, dresses, jackets—priced under $1000, but it was the riding hats from AW06 that really made me gasp. Alas, they were low on shoes, though I found these at the Neiman Marcus outlet for $200 (along with the pink fur stole from Chris Benz’s AW08).

Camille, 22, intern

Got Her: Walking down Prince on her way to lunch.

Stalked Her: The lace lured us in.

Shot Her: Her light pink dress with its black lace overlay had us yearning to revive our lace addiction. When we got closer we noticed her super cute Miu Miu flats and layered pearls. We love how she managed to look fresh and young while combining such classics.

She Said: “I like a little bit of everything, and I’ve been super into pearls lately.”

We Say: Antique chic. Nice.

—MELISSA ELLIOTT

Last year, V named Amanda Laine their model search winner.

Since then, the Canadian’s walked everything from Alex Wang to McQueen, Miu Miu to Vuitton. She’s been in V (obviously), Interview, POP, Numero, W, Bazaar and more. Needless to say, Stephen Gan’s eye for runway potential has a one up on Tyra’s.

So now the mag’s teamed up with Ford Models and thrown Alexander Wang onto their judging panel to find the next superstar. They’ve already received over 6000 online entries, but you have until June 29th to submit your profile on their site.

Finalists will be announced July 3rd and from there the winner gets an editorial in V and a contract with Ford, which is kind of priceless. Gan wants to, “unearth the next classic female beauty with a twist.”

If that’s you, you better get a move on.

“Miu Miu’s spring collection had an overt bread-line chic to it. Not since the Great Depression has the stuff of feed bags been recycled with such imagination …” —Karin Nelson in The New York Times.

Natalie Massenet’s much-anticipated The Outnet finally launched this morning.

The site’s as easy to navigate, though not quite as pretty, as Net-a-Porter and stocks about 200 brands right now. You can search by designer, by category and by percentage off or click on Dress Me where they’ve sorted product by occasion. Also, they’re doing seventy-two hour pop-up sales on rotating items.

There’s a note on the site that Marc Jacobs will be in next week and we’ve spotted some amazing finds like this Derek Lam grecian dress, this cream Zac Posen bag and this awesome Mulberry jacket.

But remember that part about how it wasn’t going to be all recycled Net-a-Porter product? True, we probably spend an inordinate amount of time on the mother site but we’ve seen all of this before, this Chloe dress, these Marc shoes and this 3.1 Phillip Lim shift - all at the exact same prices - except for these sequined Miu Miu’s which are $100 less at Barneys right now.

There’s a gem of a Burberry trench, some beautiful pieces from Nina Ricci and we spy the Louboutin zipper heels. It’ll be swell to have a Net-a-Porter sale year round, but let us know when there’s something we haven’t seen.

Way back in Fall 07, Miu Miu became the ringleader of the circus-y trend with their Harlequin collection, which reverberated across the fashion board, all the way from Topshop to Phillip Lim.

This season, the circus look was full-on at Erin Fetherston, Manish Arora and Diesel, making a certain pop princess look especially prescient.

—CARSON GRIFFITH—

To: Tips@ Fashionista.com

From: TheCats@Meow.com

Hey Fashionista!

This bag by Jessica Simpson looks a whole lot like the bags Miu Miu did in Spring 2006.

I know her career is in total shreds but did she really think no one would notice?

The first image from Miu Miu’s Spring 09 campaign with Katie Holmes is out - thanks to Vogue UK - and ready for the tribunal.

While some might go the “feline” description route, we’re struck by how much she looks like Joey Potter giving Dawson a disapproving face (probably because he’s giving her shit for wearing a designer dress, but anyway).

Still to come are the rest of the images, featuring the gaggle of models hired to flank Mrs. Cruise, including Imogen Morris Clarke, Katie Fogarty, Darya Kurovska, Myf Shepherd, Sophie Srej, Tilda Lindstam, and Elena Lomkova.