Ashley Olsen’s photoshoot at the Ace Hotel today was for:

a) The Row. Because if anyone makes you want to drop $400 on sunglasses, it’s an Olsen.

b) A magazine. In which case let’s guess, Vogue? Probably not. Elle? Wasn’t she in there recently? Let’s go nuts and hope it’s for Lula.

c) New movie promotion? Wait a minute, we just checked her IMDB profile and she hasn’t been in a single film, movie or commercial anything since 2004’s A New York Minute.

d) So scratch film and back to fashion, what are we missing?

photo courtesy WWDWhat’s as important to an Olsen as leather jackets and white t-shirts?

Sunglasses, duh.

The twins, who’ve grown Elizabeth & James with shoes and jewelry this past year, are ready to expand The Row. Instead of starting with bags or accessories, they’ve done sunnies.

Mary Kate told WWD, “Designing eyewear was definitely more complicated than we thought, and of course we wanted to be extremely hands-on.”

But they did manage to choose four frames, including the ones at left, in collaboration with Linda Farrow. They’ll launch this spring, starting just under $400, and sell alongside the twins’ clothes at Barneys and Bergdorf.

photo from modelinia!Last night, at 8, I ran out of Julie Haus’ Kate Lanphear-styled show and into the madness that was Fashion’s Night Out.

The streets of Soho were packed with people who weren’t just shopping, but had properly decked themselves out for the Vogue sponsored occasion. From top to toe they rocked Balmain-shouldered blazers and chunky jewels with booties and their official Fashion’s Night Out tees.

I swung into Intermix, pre-Rihanna & Millers, where it was so packed that even though I wanted a grey Kain tank, I couldn’t make my way to the register. Outside I found Keegan Singh staring into space, more overwhelmed than I at the growing crowds. Then Eddie Borgo found us and I gushed over Jen Kao’s show (on which they both worked, more to come later). We split and I (stupidly) hopped in a cab uptown to Barneys, a veritable frat house full of models, socialites, designers and the most fashion forward children I’ve ever seen - all of them laden with shopping bags.

“I think people would be surprised that all the product is produced from the five people who work here. I think that would be shocking—that the brand seems much bigger than the actual process is.” —Ashley Olsen on the size of The Row’s team in The New York Times.

Don’t get me wrong, New York is the best city in the world as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I had to move back after a couple of years in SoCal. But Los Angeles has things like temperate weather, hiking Runyon and Topanga, ridiculous Mexican food, Coffee Bean, and In-N-Out that I miss on a regular basis.

They also have Jenn Ripley’s Archive Agency - basically a fashion lover’s mecca in the heart of Larchmont Village. Jenn puts together an amazing collection of designer pieces (often exclusive, based on her industry relationships with showrooms, designers, and even factories) that she sells out of her loft. She often holds weekend sales open to anyone, but her most frequent visitors during the week are stylists (personal and wardrobe), professional shoppers and agency types searching for the perfect item for a client.

Ashley Olsen’s going to grace the cover of Hamptons magazine.

No really.

Apparently July’s all about The Row and people in the Hamptons like The Row which means she’s a perfect smack-in-the-middle-of-summer cover girl for the lifestyle magazine whose previous cover girls include Bridget Moynahan, Kelly Ripa and Katie Lee Joel.

We’re not sure where to get our hands on a copy of Hamptons, but we can’t wait to hear Ashley dish on her summer habits.

Meanwhile, the same Olsen spent some quality time at Marie Claire yesterday - here’s hoping for an Olsen-filled summer.

Mickey Boardman, aka Mr. Mickey, is the Editorial Director, and basically the face of Paper Magazine.

The man’s one of the busiest people I’ve ever met - and yet he positively bubbles over with enthusiasm for his job and the people he works with. The first time I met him, in an elevator at Milk Studios at one of the first fashion events I ever went to, he told me I was funny. In Paris last month, he gave me his ticket to John Galliano and introduced me to Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Needless to say, I love him.

So our Life With session turned into more than just a what-do-you-do-all-day interview. We dove into topics like his love for India, his devotion to various charities and the highlights of his sixteen-year career at Paper - the Olsens are involved, so is DVF.

His goal? To host Mr. Gay Bombay, but for now there are photo shoots to plan, web meetings to conduct and a snack run to the local deli wherein lives a fat cat lovingly christened Candy Cats Price.

We’re big t-shirt people here at Fashionista.

We wear them to work, to shows, to parties - we might’ve even tried to pull off a white tee at a black tie event, which means we’re always in search of the perfect one.

And yet we’re not willing to pay $300 for The Row, no matter how Olsen-obsessed we may be. But yesterday, we finally checked out the new A.L.C. - that stands for Andrea Lieberman Collection. She’s the super stylist who had a hand in L.A.M.B and guest-designed for jewelry company Mouawad before starting her own line last season.

Anyway, we loved the tartan coats and skinny tux pants and spent a few too many seconds touching the cropped leather jackets but the t-shirts were really amazing. We wanted to nuzzle into the rack of super soft, almost sheer jersey and never leave.

You can find them at Intermix and Barneys but if you think $147 is too much for a t-shirt don’t even think about touching them or they’ll be in your closet before you know it.

We’ve always been intrigued by Mary-Kate and Ashley’s adamant choice to remain invisible from The Row.

They’ll make public appearances for Elizabeth and James and talk about it in the press, but when it comes to their $300 t-shirt line they didn’t even advertise until this season and they refuse to let themselves be too publicly associated with it.

But the retailers who are determined to sell their line through this recession can’t help but push a little bit of Olsen into the leather jackets and cotton tees. The Spring 09 editorial-like, giant size Barneys catalog was shot by Patrick Demarchelier and stars a string of current top models rocking head to toe runway looks.

On the last page Eniko wears The Row, with cleaned up Olsen hair, over-sized shades, perfectly chunky Louboutin platforms and for extra emphasis, a white paper coffee cup.

The twins might not want to be the face of The Row, they might want their clients to buy their line based on quality and design expertise, but Barneys knows it takes more than that to sell a $550 white v-neck.

The Row, one of the only celebrity lines that manages to overcome the “celeb” part of their story even though the creatives behind it have sold more US Weekly covers than Mandy Moore, has decided to quietly expand into menswear, much like many other womenswear designers as of late.

The 35 piece collection should hit stores this Fall, ranging from t-shirts for $230 and overcoats for $3,200 (and if that second price just made you laugh, consider that their current line includes a $6,000 trench that looks like it was made exclusively for Catherine Deneuve).

Clearly, the women’s side of The Row has been doing very well if the Olsens think expanding into such high-end menswear is a good idea. Ashley claims most people don’t know it’s her behind The Row but we wonder if her tween-association will be a bigger issue with the menswear rather than the women’s - after all, we’re not so sure grown men want to wear expensive pants designed by the same girls whose DVDs are stacked in their daughters’ bedrooms.

The new J.Crew catalog just arrived in our office, sandwiched in between invites and barely worth a second glance until we noticed they’d snagged Lauren Hutton for the cover.

They’ve been putting their own employees to modeling work on their website for the past couple of months and riding the gigantic wave of Obama publicity — apparently saving their pennies for Lauren who looks, well, kind of ravishing.

The model/actress is keeping up with the supers revival, this marks her third campaign alongside The Row and Mango - and J.Crew’s first use of a household name (unless you’re talking our household in which Anouck, Cintia and Stam definitely count).

Question is, do we want that trench because it’s perfect or do we want the trench because Lauren makes it look perfect?

Is Lauren Hutton kind of having a modeling comeback?

First she smiled for Mango’s Fall 08 ads, and now Mary-Kate and Ashley have announced that she’ll front one of their own labels, too (we think it’s safe to assume it’s The Row - and yes, we’re going solely by age.)

The twins picked Hutton, who’s also one of the subjects in their new book Influence, not just for the campaign (so we guess there’s going to be a campaign - for Spring?) but also for “catwalks” - So the The Row’s going to have a fashion show? Does that mean they’ll show at Fashion Week?

So many questions.

In any case, Hutton’s quite a change from the girl used in their promotional video for Holiday, no?

We’ve ignored the discussion of political outfits up until now, because, well, we don’t think the outfits matter.

In fact, the candidates should wear uniforms so that the press talks about what the candidates are talking about instead of how much their ties cost.

Anyway, that’s not going to happen. Especially not now that Donatella Versace’s dedicated her SS’09 show to Barack Obama, whom she declared, “the man of the moment”.

The collection, which doesn’t include a single tie, is supposed to represent, “a relaxed man who doesn’t need to flex muscles to show he has power”, which is a neat summary of what people are hoping for with Obama. But we can’t really picture the senator wearing the outfit at left.

The idea of a muse has taken quite a turn. First BryanBoy for Marc, us for AP, and Obama for Versace. Next up, McCain trousers for The Row?

While most Americans look forward to the Fall TV schedule, we at Fashionista have another anticipation:

The Fall Buying schedule, as in, what new lines will debut at which big boutiques.

Though we’ve heard rumblings of certain British brands sneaking into certain Fifth Avenue staples, here’s one buy-and-sell we can confirm:

Net-A-Porter will take on Elizabeth and James, also known as the Olsen twins’ secondary line, for Fall.

Considering how good the girls are about their clothing line press, could we expect to see a special MK + A blog in the future? Or maybe a behind-the-scenes slide show?

Fingers crossed, especially if it means Mary Kate will actually speak, but in the meantime, ponder this:

They’re picking up E&J, but not The Row…

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen recently debuted the Spring 2008 collection for their cheaper-than-the-Row-but-still-not-that-cheap label Elizabeth & James. It’s already available all over the US, and oddly enough at Urban Outfitters in the UK (or not that odd, Britt says Urban is boutiquier across the pond).

Now get this- Tuesday, psychologist Richard Wiseman unveiled the results of his name association experiment. Which names top the list as “most associated with success”?

Elizabeth and James, of course.

Good news for MK & A, and anyone named Elizabeth or James (although we guess this one didn’t really work out for Jessie Spano), but if this experiment is any indication, all you Lisa’s and Brian’s out there might want to reconsider that diffusion line…

[Click through to see a new video of the Spring lookbook]

—JAZZI McGILBERT