These past few weeks we’ve seen a resurgence of all things juvenile. From pigtails at Prada to side braids at Wang, girlish hairstyles are a go for spring, but it doesn’t stop at the head.

Tao, Moschino, YSL and Ungaro embraced the youthful phenomenon in their Spring collections. Each designer topped their ready-to-wear with prints that would make any little girl giddy. Tao and YSL chose strawberries while Moschino opted for cherries (as did Anna Dello Russo on her feet all week). The playful prints are charming and romantic, stopping just short of saccharine, but the reviews weren’t, to put it mildly, nearly as positive at Ungaro.

The only movie that’s made me laugh harder than The September Issue this year is The Hangover.

Anna Wintour is funny; my mascara is smudged from tears of laughter. The film may start out with Anna saying that fashion’s picked on because people are bitter they aren’t a cool kid, but she only gets more human from there and by the end you might even want to hug her.

Grace Coddington is, as reported, the real star of the movie. Her inner turmoil over the changing industry and her role in Anna’s history plays out on screen and one can’t help but sympathize with her as Anna cancels more and more of her shoots.

The movie travels from New York to Paris for couture to London for a meeting with Mario Testino to Rome for Sienna’s shoot and back to New York to close the issue and present it to Si Newhouse. In Paris, we cringed when Anna shut Stefano Pilati down; in London we laughed at Mario’s grandly cinematic ideas and in Rome we admired Sienna’s energy and Sally Singer’s patience.

For this, the fifth edition of the YSL Manifesto, the brand has finally decided to take things online.

In preparation they’ve launched both a Facebook page and a Twitter account to increase their online social networking presence and prepare their fans for the launch of a ‘microsite’ on September 1st which will store archives of past manifestos, a manifesto blog monitor, links to their new online sites and eventually a downloadable copy of the manifesto.

But before you get your hands on the actual publication, you’ll have the chance to watch the behind the scenes video of Inez & Vinoodh’s shoot with Christy Turlington. And then finally, on September 12th, you can snag a copy of the manifesto mid-Fashion Week. Though honestly, we still haven’t figured out their favorite corners.

Vogue UK has just reported that YSL’s Stefano Pilati will be making an appearance at LFW - in his role as Creative Director for the label Veryta.

The line is actually designed by fashion illustrator Tanya Ling and uses fabrics by Pilati BFF Filipo Binaghi. The Vogue eds say that the collection is incredibly easy to wear and romantic and filled with separates you just want to touch. Unfortunately there aren’t any preview pictures available.

It’s unclear exactly how big a hand Stefano had in guiding Tanya’s designs, but it sounds like they had a lovely old time.

Simon Doonan’s one of our favorite New York fashion figures and we hardly ever turn down a chance to hear him speak.

Especially when he’s talking with someone of Stefano Pilati’s caliber.

The two will sit down to discuss the launch of YSL’s “New Vintage” Collection at Barneys’ Madison Avenue flagship tonight from five to seven. When the collection was first announced, we scratched our heads over what “New Vintage” would mean exactly.

Turns out it’s a selection—exclusive to Barneys—of classic YSL pieces cut from the unused cloth left over from recent seasons. It’s pretty much the chicest sort of recycling we can imagine.

The two’ll talk fashion on the second floor—see you there!

—AMANDA JEAN BOYLE

Before we say anything about the actual Alexandra Richards DJed Rachel Roy show - we must share the news that Andre Leon Talley is, at this very moment, out and about in New York City wearing tweed pants with a black crop top. As in, his midriff is bare underneath his black and white fur vest.

Anyway, Rachel Roy was a little too inspired by Stefano Pilati’s Fall 08 collection for YSL.

First, there were the sharp bowl-cut bobs and super shiny black lips. But they were paired with feminine, sheer, Easter-colored dresses so we thought, ok cool, those trends have popped up quite a bit.

But then we got to the grey wool trouser suits paired with corsets and really structured jackets. And the black jumpsuit with sharp, angular seams and chunky black shoes and thought, um, that YSL collection’s a little too iconic to reproduce just one year later.

Not that the clothes weren’t gorgeous - because they were and we’d wear that powder blue shorts suit anywhere - it’s just that we should have left thinking about that and not Stefano Pilati.

One of the things you’ll often hear a designer complain about is the number of seasons for which they have to design - Spring and Fall are the standards, but then there’s Pre-Spring, Pre-Fall, Resort, Holiday, sometimes even Summer, and then those random capsule collections they might do that are probably driving each of them slowly insane, something Jane Mayle once touched upon when announcing the end of Mayle.

But Stefano Pilati isn’t fazed - he’s just announced a new, annual collection he’ll produce, Edition Soir, a 26-look evening wear collection topped off with matching accessories and shoes to be sold worldwide alongside the normal YSL Fall 08 range.

He’s even borrowed from Isaac Mizrahi, who once launched a made-to-alter collection a few years back, and designed each look to have interchangeable color/fabric/embroidery choices from which his customers can choose.

It sounds like semi-couture, except it’ll never see the runway and sounds entirely based on what the customer wants as opposed to the designer’s potentially irrelevant vision. So, a boring line that might end up on pageant stages nationwide? Or a democratic line for the people, (kind of) by the people?

Either way, we’re sure Pilati’s design assistants are working major overtime these days.

Cacharel’s removed Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto from their designer posts.

The duo’s been designing the line for just one year and though they haven’t made much commercial headway, they’ve gotten solid critical reviews and appeared to be on the right track toward revitalizing the French brand, which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in Paris this past Fashion Week.

But they weren’t doing it fast enough for Jean Bousquet, the brand’s founder, who’s still in control of the line and let them go over “a conflict over creative vision”.

The thought of designing for someone else’s brand when that iconic figure’s still alive could make even the most hardened designer feel sick. It might not be Laurent and Pilati, but tension inevitably arises when trying to express something so personal while trying to create something fresh and new.

This Spring’s Cacharel collection was fun to see on a runway, and ten times more wearable than most, but it wasn’t so much classic Cacharel as it was grown up Eley Kishimoto, and we’re not surprised they weren’t the right fit for the French brand.

Though we don’t think Bousquet has too many chances left. Maybe he should focus on a total vintage revival - because that’d sell in a heartbeat.

“I’m doing this to talk to you, to seduce you, and to make you feel what is, on the one hand, my personal projection of myself and, on the other, my visual aesthetic sensibility about looking at you with a certain skill and experience to suggest how you can respect or enhance your personality to make yourself even more beautiful.” —Stefano Pilati in Interview.

People seemed uneasy about Stefano Pilati’s use of heather gray jersey on YSL’s spring ‘08 runway - until Kate Moss wore this dress in the ads and everyone else wanted to wear it, too.

The thing that keeps it from being a glorified American Apparel-esque sweatshirt tube dress is the expert tailoring, the thin fabric and the sharply cut front ‘V’.

Unfortunately, when Topshop decided to copy it, they left out those important factors. The color’s the same, so are the darts and the length, but you can tell, just from seeing it float in internet space, that it won’t be flattering on anyone.

Not even Kate - and that says a lot.

p.s. Olga’s shoes are way on sale at Barneys!

The first time Kate designed for Topshop, we loved it because we love her. This time around, we’re feeling love once again, but it’s entirely independent of our love for Kate.

Her new collection launched today, and despite the lackluster reception at Oxford Circus, we’d wear at least 90% of it.

Natalie’s already put in her order for the daisy print tea dress and the embroidered tunic dress, and it better not come until it’s warm out because she’ll be dancing in the street as soon as the package arrives.

Britt’s obsessed with the Spotty Bandeau Dress and the Irina-esque Boyfriend Blazer.

And Faran, well, she cried.

And we both would have loved to have been at the party where Stefano, Karl and Kate huddled together and decided to sprinkle stars on pretty much everything this season.

Things we’d love to buy from YSL:

- a le smoking jacket
- the paint-splattered dress Demi wore
- the strappy star heels we know we’ll see everywhere come May

We’re not, however, interested in paying YSL prices for the sweatshirt Stefano Pilati showed on the Spring ‘08 runway.

We can’t even imagine what his version costs, so we’re going to go with the one on the right instead.

It might seem plain, but imagine it with a jewel toned silk mini. Or skin tight black jeans? Layers and layers of chunky necklaces? A crafty appliqué of your own initials instead of Monsieur Laurent’s?

Liking it better? We do.