“It’s very casual with the whole family and a few friends like Jason Wu, BJ Blum, and the gallery owner John McWinnie. Typically we sit down post swim, so the dress code is bathing suits under a light summer dress like Tracy Feith or Philip Lim. We decorate the table with a mix of roses, hydrangeas, and irises picked from the garden. The table is dressed with a large hand-embroidered tablecloth inherited from my grandmother, a mix of white French linen napkins, and vintage plates found at a local antiques fair. We pull up a wood bench with big cushions to squeeze in more people and protect ourselves from the sun with large parasols and straw hats from Anne Moore. The meal is a colorful, flavorful mix from local farms and purveyors such as Round Swamp Farm for delicious salads and homemade raspberry pie, Lucy’s Whey for cheese, Iacono farm for organic, free-range chicken, and pick-yourself strawberries from the farm down the road.” —Olivia Chantecaille to Vogue on her “casual” holiday weekend lunch. We’re sticking to burgers and dogs on the grill, thank you very much.

The Boyfriend’s Back: Suzy Menkes says the 80’s are back in the shape of boyfriend suits. Does your boyfriend dress like this? {The New York Times}

Boys for Boys: Henry Holland, Philip Lim & Richard Chai make the perfect white tees for Topshop. We pout because they are for boys but realize we’ll probably buy them anyway {Refinery29}

Pretty Hair: If this is the season we finally relent and embrace pretty hair accessories, we will choose these, please. {Starworks}

The City Breaks: Whitney left DVF to go back to work for Kelly because Olivia got promoted/sent to London and she didn’t so now Joe Zee gets a bigger role on The City? Is it too much to hope it just ends? {New York Post}

Topless in Topshop: Someone got so excited to get to Topshop she forgot to put on her shirt! {Imaginary Socialite}

There’s been a mid-season scramble for interns.

As magazines crash and editorial teams fall by the wayside, you might get to do some extra cool stuff as an intern in Lucky’s fashion closet.

So, if you’re motivated, dedicated, obsessed with fashion, hard working, dying to get into the fashion industry/get your hands on the Louboutin for Philip Lim ruffled shoes and learn just how clothes get from designer to magazine, this is the opportunity for you.

You will also steam and invoice and perform general fashion closet intern tasks. They need you from now until mid-May and can, of course, give you school credit if you need it.

Also, as our own personal side note - interning at a major magazine is nothing like Running in Heels would have you think. Being a positive, upbeat, team player is essential to the job.

So, if you can handle that, if you’re dying for that, email luckyfashioncloset[at]gmail.com.

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—

Holiday shopping this year will either be really fun, because everything’s on sale, or really gloomy, because everyone’s still broke.

Regardless of whether you’re spending your few extra pennies on yourself or someone else, we’d suggest spending at least some of them at the Phillip Lim store on Mercer Street.

Why?

Because you’ll walk away with serious credit card charges, pretty dresses, flouncy skirts, amazing boy cardigans and a totally free, totally Phillip Lim tote bag.

And if later, you freak out and have to return your pretty things because you have no money left to spend on Mom and Dad, you’ll still have your tote bag.

When we think of Spring, we don’t usually think black and white. But given the Spring 09 collections, this might be about to change. An overwhelming amount of designers showed black and white outfits and many had entire shows based on the shades. The graphic above is just the short list. We swear. We had to leave out Dries Van Noten, Balenciaga, Prada, Versace, Christopher Kane, Rag & Bone, Rock & Republic, YSL, Stella McCartney, Giambattista Valli, Cynthia Rowley, Band of Outsider, Philip Lim.. And we have a feeling the list could go on..

On a side note, this black and white thing could be well used as a background to some neon pieces you might have purchased for Spring 08, no?

— HAYLEY PHELAN

*editor’s note: the dress in the top row, labeled Sonia Rykiel, was actually designed by Michael Kors for Sonia Rykiel.

Ever dreamed of the day when buying one of your favorite designers’ bags actually helped to make the world a better place?

Well, thanks to Glamour, this day has come. The magazine, through their Fashion Gives Back program, has asked Doo.Ri, Loeffler Randall, Subversive, Band of Outsiders, Chris Benz, and 3.1 Phillip Lim to each design a unique tote bag made of 100% organic cotton, and of course the best part is, 75% of all profits will go to Global Green USA.

We can’t imagine a better way to give to charity than by treating ourselves to a new book bag. And can you think of a cuter way to pick out your lettuce than with Phillip Lim’s kissy face? And I believe Band of Outsiders’ design is actually based on the inside of my purse, hair clips and all.

If this sounds like the cutest route to philanthropy, head to Henri Bendel some time tomorrow or this week - we have a feeling these will sell out quick!

—HAYLEY PHELAN

I’d love to tell you about the clothes at Phillip Lim, but I’m still dreaming about the shoes.

Christian Louboutin partnered with Lim to make the most extraordinary, lust-inducing stiletto platforms I’ve ever seen.

They also come in flats, which are more realistic, but who wants realism on a runway, or actually, who wants realistic shoes ever?

I’ll indulge you on the clothes for just a minute: they’re significantly less librarian than Lim’s past collections. The dresses and skirts are pretty, with lots of ruffles (very Spring 09). There are sequins, because you need sequins to get into Bryant Park these days, and there are brown leather man bags in the shape of giant envelopes that I need to have.

The clothes will be a huge hit and sell out everywhere because aside from one or two gowns, they will look good, and look cool, on almost everyone.

But I’m saving all my pennies for those shoes.

It happens like clock work every year - right when we vow to save our pennies for Fall, Spring sales get especially juicy.

So we’ve decided the trick is, if we’re going to let ourselves buy from the past season, we have to make sure we can wear it for the next.

Which means we’re allowed to get excited that ShopJake is marking everything down 70%.

A pair of grey tights, chunky boots and a granpda cardigan will make this floral Philip Lim perfect for fall. A long sleeve striped tee slipped under this Erin Fetherston is a brilliant justification for buying a feather light dress for October. And the important thing to remember is that shoes never need to make seasonal sense.

Don’t you love our rules?

If you didn’t get your hands on those cute Chris Benz glasses last week, don’t worry.

Try Modo.

They’ve just opened an eponymous store in Manhattan, as well as an online shopping site, selling frames from Phillip Lim to Fabien Baron. So whether you want to look like a sexy librarian, or a good old-fashioned sex pot, you should be set.

They also have their own line of half hipster, half retro shades, including the Valentina, left.

Also, for every pair you buy, whether in the store or online, they’ll plant a tree. And that’s probably the best free gift we’ve ever heard of.