Rachel Bilson’s in the new Flaunt (which is amazing by the way, more to come) looking pretty damn fashion-y.

Bilson might be one the of the few starlets we’d rather just abandon Hollywood and movie-making altogether, admit her love for fashion overpowers any other interest and take those leather Phillip Lim gloves from editorial to real life.

She says:

“New York is more inspiring, I think, than L.A. And you’re definitely closer to the fashion pulse. You see girls walking down the street, and they look amazing. They’re not afraid. No one gives a fuck.”

“Like, I love trees. I notice trees. It’s a weird thing for me because L.A.’s my home, but now I represent something very different, so it’s bizarre.”

“She [Diana Vreeland] was so cool and innovative, and at her time, what she did with Harper’s and what she wore, her columns and everything were so unique.”

You already know how much we love the schoolgirl braids and pigtails that made their way down the runways for SS10. But the girly trend didn’t stop there. From flowers at Chanel, bows at Luella and Vuitton, sweet barrettes at Phillip Lim, and pretty headpieces at Peter Som, sweet hair accessories are definitely having a moment too.

We love a low-maintenance way to do a little something extra with the hair. And none of these are too precious or sugar-coated that a grown lady can’t pull them off. Phew.

Last March, a few designers embraced the one off ad.

Ads are expensive, and if you’ve got the momentum of a Rodarte or a Phillip Lim, unnecessary (for now). Unless of course the economy tanks.

One of the designers who gave the idea a shot, Zac Posen, shot this ad just for Fanzine 137, but the buzz must’ve been worth it because now he’s done it again.

This time around he hired a superstar model, and good friend, Coco Rocha, and Ellen Von Unwerth to shoot two different, very stylized ads to run in the same magazine next month. The ads - luxe, colorful, fun - pretty much sum up the Zac Posen brand and Coco looks perfect, as usual.

This season’s all about the leather pants - a wonderful change from last season’s wannabe leather liquid leggings - but it looks like next season’ll welcome the leather top.

In New York, Phillip Lim showed leather tanks and tees over slouchy pants and tucked into little skirts. In Paris, Phoebe Philo showed more structured leather tees in both black and brown and Daria Werbowy poured herself into Christophe Decarnin’s studded leather top at Balmain.

I squeezed Frankie’s Alexander Wang look into that graphic because, though there is leather on top, it fits the trend of turning a total basic - t-shirt, sweatshirt, legging - into a luxury item; a successful runway idea that always earns the “comfortable chic” label. But practically speaking, leather tops sound miserably uncomfortable and unflattering unless made out of the absolute best leather.

We’re praying to the high street gods to leave this one alone.

Ed. note: We’re backpedaling for a moment, to the last night of New York, before heading back to London.

When I said things couldn’t get better than my night with Narciso, I meant it.

But I was wrong. Last night, Linda Fargo and Andre Leon Talley (in a black eyelet robe) hosted a repeat performance of Phillip Lim’s SS10 collection for American Express card holders.

Prior to the presentation, I was escorted backstage to interview Phillip, slightly better than sneaking past security guards, and snooped around backstage area checking out the sky-high Louboutins and gorgeous clothes up very very close. (And no, I didn’t walk away with the sequin pants I had my eye on. I may be sneaky, but not sneaky enough to swipe the clothes right off the models backs just yet.)

Inspired by Picasso’s collages, Phillip wanted to create a collection that collaged the life of the modern woman. From his opening look, a red “New Suit” made of a techno-poly that can be machine washed but still feels and looks luxe to his closing “cubist” dresses that offer a different view from every angle, he wanted a collection that any woman could see herself in.

AmEx and Bergdorf Goodman hoped that the event would educate consumers about New York Fashion Week and inspire them to hit the stores. And based on the post-show conversation and excitement, it definitely worked. I don’t think I’m the only one headed to BG tomorrow.

The great thing about a Phillip Lim show is that you know you’ll love whatever comes down the runway.

It might not be revolutionary, but it’s cute, comfortable, flattering, easy to wear and pretty, which is probably why Leighton Meester sat front row bobbing her head to the music, laughing with Hamish and waving to Alexa Chung across the aisle - Lim has that effect.

Along with, at least yesterday, a “Woah, what’s going on” effect when he sent out five dresses that might as well have had Rodarte labels sewn into the neck. A quick scan of the front row’s eyeballs made it clear how blatant the ‘inspiration’ was.

But other than that there were sequins and sequins and more sequins, an adorable red patent trench and, I’m sorry to say, a handful of crop tops. No pants I can do, but crop tops will never happen (for me I mean).

The gold sequin romper Hanne wore toward the end though? That will most definitely happen.

—PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY KOST

The only thing more daunting that Fashion Week is turning out to be Fashion’s Night Out.

We’ve probably received fifteen to twenty emails per day since July telling us what’s up, who’s coming, where’s happening Thursday night and after much deliberation we’ve come up with a game plan.

Given there are really only two of us, splitting up’s the only way to cover the most ground without exhausting ourselves before the week actually even begins (and without spending all of our money before Christopher Kane hits Topshop).

I’ll run home for dinner after work which strategically puts me on Bleecker Street to start. I’ll kick off the night with Teen Vogue’s Bleecker Street party then swing by Intermix to glimpse the Miller sisters (and to actually buy a couple of tank tops I’ll need for the week) before swinging around the corner to Rag & Bone on Christopher Street where Jessica Stam’ll be at the cash register and Guinness will flow.

Six Scents, the fragrance collaboration spearheaded by Givaudan and Metaproject and curated by Seven New York’s Joseph Quartana, is ready to launch series two.

This year’s designers are Henry Holland, Phillip Lim, Richard Nicoll, Damir Doma, Henrik Vibskov and Toga, each of whom paired with an individual perfumer to create their perfect scent. I spent this morning with three of the noses and they discussed the collaboration process. Henry wanted something cheeky; he imagined a big purple couch, made of velour, for all his friends to hang out on surrounded by puppies. When his perfumer, Stephen Nilsen thought about making it unisex, Henry said, “Just lots of sex.”

Bend it Like the Other Beckham: Heidi Mount plays Posh Spice in this on-line only editorial from V. Though “chasing her kids all day,” really? {V}

Not So Fast: Gen Art, the nonprofit organization known for supporting emerging designers (including at points Zac Posen, Sari Gueron and Phillip Lim) is having serious financial trouble. This tipster says, “Gen Art deserves to die.” {Gawker}

Biba-licious: Biba’s up there with Halston as one of the brands we can’t quite keep track of. It’s just been announced that online retailer Marisot will launch Biba for fall using inspiration from past collection. Um, okay. {VogueUK}

Made Over & Under: Trinny and Susannah, the British makeover artists extraordinaire, are coming to America. Actually, they’re already here, taking Eric Wilson shopping and plucking poor souls out of Times Square and into Zara, including one woman who’d never heard of Elle MacPherson. {NYTimes}

I’ve been meaning to tell you guys about this all week.

Last Sunday, while I splashed in mud at All Points West, a friend did some Back to School (minus the school part) shopping in Soho.

She was trying on the Mongolian fur vest, the one Iris Strubegger rocked down the AW09 runway, at Phillip Lim, when Lim himself popped out onto the floor to spend some quality time with his customers, most of whom had no idea who he was.

He argued with my friend about which size to get, she wanted six, he wanted four, and built a few outfits onto different women until a group of girls, “who looked like they stepped out of Teen Vogue” came in the store and blew his cover. He stuck around though, offering advice and chatting up customers. As if the man could be more perfect.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of his West Hollywood store, Phillip Lim will head west to make a personal appearance this Saturday.

Grab some brunch at Newsroom and then head over to meet the designer. While shopping the current collection offerings, you’ll also be able to pre-order from Holiday and Resort. We highly suggest this look.

Bonus features: the event benefits The Art of Elysium which we just wrote about yesterday. And the first hundred guests that buy themselves a little something nice will get an exclusive Lim tote filled with goodies from NARS and Fekkai.

Oh, and there’s wine and valet too. Perfection. All the details after the jump.

Come summer, we’re obsessed with all things gingham.

And while we’re waiting for the rack of gingham we’ve been eying at Phillip Lim to go on sale, we’re going to run around Montauk in this red & white gingham top from Fred Flare.

It’s poufy and has a bow, but somehow, when paired with cherished old Levi’s, is not too girly.

And it only set us back about $40, we won’t have a heart attack when we spill beer and ketchup down the front like we would if we were wearing this.

Now if we could just find the perfect straw hat, we’d be set.

W Magazine hosted a conference on luxury this morning - what’s going on with it, who’s hurting, who’s winning, when will it come back?

They conducted a series of polls with their readers, dubbed “Fashion Passionates,” and compared them to the more generally affluent, as in still-rich people who don’t devote their extra money to Givenchy and McQueen.

What’d they learn? This is the first time in recorded history that the luxury market has been hit harder than retail in general. Aspirational customers (those who save up for that one big purchase or consistently live beyond their means) are totally gone and not likely to return anytime soon. Even the best luxury customers are spending on average 50% less.

—PHOTOGRAHY BY JEREMY KOST

Hogan, Tod’s cooler, younger sister, is closing its downtown New York store in June.

The lifestyle brand says it wants to move uptown and the current economic climate has finally given them access to the kind of space they need.

A spokesperson told WWD that Hogan’s the largest growing brand within the Tod’s family and that they need to move uptown to launch their new retail concept and solidify their customer base.

What it doesn’t say is that the line was supposed to be downtown’s answer to Tod’s, that making Leigh Lezark and Elettra Wiedemann the face of the brand was a very calculated move to attract a customer whose eye is more focused on the Phillip Lims of the world and that it’s not quite working so they’re heading uptown where people actually wear Tod’s loafers and actually look like Gwyneth Paltrow.

So our question is, who gets to star in the new ads?

We miss Natalie for a lot of reasons, one of which was her innate knack for tracking down the best food at even the most anorexic fashion party.

Which is why we started waxing nostalgic when we saw this retro video for BabyCakes, the Lower East Side vegan, gluten-free bakery. Owner Erin McKenna make the go-to sweets for the Zac Posens, Phillip Lims and Elise Overlands of the world and she’s finally launching a cookbook, which means we can have our fashion food at home, too.

We have the biggest sweet tooth in the fashion universe and these cupcakes are actually delicious. And since we want to fit into one of these retro suits come summer, a batch of sugarless baked goods is probably the right alternative to the Ben & Jerry’s in our freezer.

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.

Last year, LVMH succesfully sued eBay for failing to police counterfeit sellers.

Now they, and more specifically Louis Vuitton, have sued Google for allegedly courting advertisers with the search word “Vuitton”. Stores, whether they sell counterfeit product or not, pay Google to be the first link on the page post-search which is why things like Bergdorf and Nordstrom are above the actual Phillip Lim site when you search his name.

It’s true that a year ago, or the last time we remember Googling Louis Vuitton, every possible fake in cyber existence popped up. The highlighted clutter is gone now (probably because they’re in court), making it much easier for the consumer to find the legitimate Vuitton sites. (Though the third search down still boasts “Designer Handbag Cloning Master for the past six years.”)

But Google says that they get their money after the ad link is clicked and since it’s the searcher who chooses which link to follow, they’re not doing anything wrong.

If LVMH wins, Google’s inability to sell brand names to advertisers means a hefty chunk of their profit is gone. And even if they don’t win, we can’t imagine Louis Vuitton’s war against those who aid and abet counterfeiters will end in the near future.