We are so excited for September.

While the official list won’t be released until August 17th, we just received a huge rundown of events for Fashion’s Night Out, the New York City fashion celebration this September 10th. Over 300 retailers in all five boroughs have already signed up to party from 6pm to 11pm. We’re a little overwhelmed by it…in a good way.

We already told you about Alex Wang at Barney’s. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Also at Barney’s? The Olsen twins (girl crush times two!), Jonathan Adler and Lisa Perry, on hand to teach you how to knit. After you learn, you can knit a square to be included in a blanket to be sold to benefit the September 11th Memorial Fund.

Your mom probably wore one when she played tennis. Or the kid that got made fun of during summer camp. And Eminem was pretty into wearing one backwards in 2001.

That’s right, the visor. There are two basic versions: the sporty, and the beachy.

We’ve seen the sporty one cropping up ironically on your basic hipster. Michael Kors had the beachy sort all over his Spring 09 runway. Now we’re even seeing avant-garde versions.

We’re definitely steering clear of the sporty because irony usually fades after a few weeks and then it’s just plain ugly. As for the beach, we thought Lara wore a nice one for Michael Kors, and there’s a version at Neiman Marcus that we’d even consider calling elegant. But these two mostly just look like hats so…why not just wear a hat?

Is there an appeal to the visor that we’re completely missing?

—AMANDA JEAN BOYLE

Reader Jen found this familiar looking pink and orange dress by a brand called Single on the Cusp website. (In case you don’t live in one of the few cities with a Cusp it’s basically Neiman Marcus’ answer to Barneys Co-op.)

Anyway, since she was so obsessed with the Christian Dior resort original that Eva Mendes wore to the house’s Spring 08 couture show, she placed it immediately.

And since that picture ran everywhere for months, because Eva looked drop dead amazing, it’d be kind of hard for anyone remotely into either fashion or Eva not to realize that it’s a total rip of Galliano’s fitted-on-top, poufy-on-the bottom sherbet creation.

Yes, you’d have a hard time finding the original Dior a year later, but that doesn’t mean you should spend $300 on the copy.

This morning, among emails from people we actually know, our inbox was filled with notes from Abercrombie & Fitch, Barneys, Bergdorf, Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus, Tiffany & Co., and Pottery Barn - and it’s only 9:00.

Is it just us, or do you delete these immediately and move on? We could just click ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of each one, but we let them keep coming with the hope of learning something earth-shattering.

We do occasionally find a golden nugget of goodness in the subject line - free shipping on whatever or amazing new shoes with our name on them. But usually it’s things that we couldn’t care less about like post-collegiate Abercrombie sweatshirts or floral frilly bikinis from Urban Outfitters - all because we bought a t-shirt from them five years ago.

So to those responsible for mass emailing, may we suggest asking our product preferences? Something as simple as are you a boy or a girl? And perhaps a comments section in which we can give a thumbs up or down?

We understand the rationale behind bombarding us with information to see what sticks, but it’s getting ridiculous. We read Net-a-Porter’s Wednesday emails religiously, and look forward to Colette’s monthly newsletters because their content’s worth reading.

If you really need to reach us everyday, why don’t you start a blog?

—BRETT KANE

We might not understand the politics of show seating from city to city, but we do understand the basics.

Press is grouped on one end and buyers on the other. Each divided by country and then prominence - American Vogue on one front row bench, French on the other etc. We’re normally grouped in press (obviously) but were seated behind Neiman Marcus’ Ken Downing and across from Berdgorf’s Linda Fargo and Roopal Patel at Ann Demeulemeester’s show which lent a different perspective.

Whether it’s the nature of buying these days or the usual - they pay incredibly strict attention. Editors take notes, but the buyers write novels, smile, nod and show enthusiasm - at least for Ann’s Fall 09 collection.

The Belgian designer sent out an all black and white collection. Sometimes sheer, often draped and brilliantly corseted with rows and rows of leather belts, her dresses oozed cool. Chunky knits, textured black vests and stiff shouldered coats were topped off with beautiful feathered headdresses.

Squeezing through the door on the way out we heard the words, “brilliant,” “genius,” “the best so far,” and “I want to get married in that.”

Ditto.

To: Tips@Fashionista.com

From: FadeIn@Italy.com

Looks like Dolce & Gabbana are goin’ down. It appears Neiman Marcus is pulling D&G from all of its stores. The troubled company has been on a downward spiral for months now, very quietly. No more fancy showroom on 5th Ave - now unremarkable digs downtown. No more Director of Operations for the NY/US office, with no replacement. Now it looks like they’re getting pulled, and not just at Neiman, but other major/specialty stores in the US. Watch and wait.

xo FC

Um, we’re not totally sure about the above, but if you are, you know what to do. On a side note, is this why they’re launching a controversial ad campaign and $36 eyeshadow? Stay tuned…

We’ve obviously been spending a serious amount of time shopping online.

Margiela and Miu Miu cost less than Michael Kors these days and that, we love.

These booties top our list of discoveries. Booties are our favorite winter shoe - they’re far more practical than pumps, warmth wise, they aren’t as serious as boots and they’re fancy enough to wear out to dinner. Basically, these Miu Miu’s are perfect and not even a little bit boring.

Then we found these same exact booties, minus the real suede, minus the option for purple and plus the unsightly addition of studs.

While studs can be great (thanks Alexander Wang), these look more like an inexpensive attempt to combine this season’s signature Gucci studs and Miu Miu’s simple design without the quality that makes each special in the first place.

So we say, if you’re going to rip something off, stick to one Italian designer at a time and stay away, far away from fake suede.

— ALEXANDRA BEN-GURION

The fashion industry’s been kind of obsessed with this election.

Everyone gasped when Michelle wore Thakoon, then again when she wore J.Crew. Everyone panicked when Palin spent $150,000 at Saks and Neiman’s and everyone cringed when she wore knee-high boots.

Sonia Rykiel and Jean de Castelbjac sent Obama dresses down their Spring runway, Nicole Farhi sprinkled her looks with Obama pins and Stella McCartney left personal notes encouraging her runway audience to “V.O.T.E. Obama.”

And now, with four days to go, Zac Posen’s making his message loud and clear. So far, we love his outfit best.

“Mr. Tansky has projected that the fall season will end up with lower margins and higher leftover inventory than normal. (This did not dissuade Neiman from mailing its Christmas Book last week, an annual exercise in excessiveness that includes a $10 million thoroughbred racing stable in Kentucky alongside a $1,995 Prada lace bag.)” - Eric Wilson in The New York Times.

We saw this Rag & Bone dress at Neiman Marcus last weekend when we were home for the 4th.

We actually kind of loved it, even though we’re generally not crystal fans, but we couldn’t figure out how the kings of elegant workwear ended up making something so sparkly.

But a friend of ours (who sold the crystallized frock to an ubiquitous-come-fashion-week TV actress) took a recent trip to the designers’ studio, and got the official explanation:

As part of Rag & Bone winning the CFDA Swarovski award last year, they were gifted with a serious amount of gems and, not knowing what to do with them, plastered them on the sides of a signature shift.

And there you have it - Only they could make an obligation look so good.