“First of all, if you lived in New York at that time, there was no way you could not meet Andy Warhol. He was everywhere; he was like parsley.” —DVF tells students at Oxford, via WWD.

Be Italian: We totally agree on the Penny Lane girl crush of course. We can’t even describe the levels of excitement we have for Nine. And Kate never fails to look super cute. Seriously this press tour is going to be out of control fashion-wise. {WhoWhatWear}

Not That Lisa Kline: But the one who styled Sarah and the rest of the Palin clan during the campaign finally comes out to clear the air. And she was asked to do the big makeover during a holiday weekend. Yikes on so many levels. {NY Times}

Change the Date: Fashion’s Night Out is moving to Friday September 10th so that you can drink champagne, shop, and shotgun beers all night long without having to show up for work the next morning. Sweet. {WWD}

That’s Me in the Corner: I (Abby) remember when all my REM tunes were actually on cassette tape. Hence I was automatically drawn to this one-off collaboration between Michael Stipe and Maison Martin Margiela. Though I don’t think I would try wearing it as an eye patch as someone in the shot did. {Racked}

There is something a bit awkward about a designer choosing to repeat their “one-time, exclusive, limited edition” collaboration.

We love it - the more the merrier - but for the handful of people influenced to buy because it’s now or never, it must be disappointing when really, there’s nothing exclusive about it.

If you’re not in that camp, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Stella McCartney’s teaming with Gap for yet another collection. It’s still Gap Kids, for Spring, but by now you should know whether you need a girl’s size 12 or 14 and whether you prefer the fit of the boys’ or girls’ jackets.

Also on repeat? Jil Sander’s collection for Uniqlo. Unlike Stella, she’d left room for the possibility. We’re pretty sure her brilliant coats caused the line down Broadway, but we’re curious to see what she does with spring.

photo courtesy WWDWhile we love everything bespoke, we’re probably more excited about Z Spoke—something we can indeed afford.

That’s the name of Zac Posen’s new line launching at Saks this spring. And get this, the price point starts at $78. The 60 pieces include tons of separates and are all about sportswear.

Zac told WWD, “To me, it’s more appropriate to build a whole brand and collection around this price point. Chic sportswear should be at this price point. Designer dresses and cocktail pieces should be at a more expensive price point.”

The inspiration is much more LES than UES as Zac had pics of Nike Dunks and Travis Bickle on his inspiration board. We love the idea of this expansion and not only because it’s going to offer us a little bit of Zac to wear in our daily lives, seeing as we’re not the frequent fancy dress wearers. But also because he sounds so excited and serious about the project.

“I treat a T-shirt as a T-shirt should be treated. With a lot of love.” Well said, sir.

The best part of this article, in which WWD explains they’ve heard Michelle Trachtenberg’s ‘designing’ a line of jewelry for Coach’s new Poppy line, is when they describe her, “tough-girl meets sugary-sweet vibe.”

That’s Georgina, right? Minus the all-important word “psychopath?”

So she’s making baubles with Coach for spring. The line will focus on colorful crystals and fake pearls with “intricate hardware.” We loved the necklace she wore last night, to the nightmarish American Eagle flagship opening in Times Square, so maybe, despite our increasing distaste for celebrity collaborations, we’ll like what she does for Poppy.

(More on Leighton’s performance once I figure out how to upload videos to Youtube.)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are celebrity designers now.

They’ve been working on a capsule collection for Asprey for a year, which means that in between UN conferences, orphanage visits in Africa and raising however many children they have, the not-human couple found time to design a $525 baby spoon.

Their line, which aside from the baby spoon includes pave diamond snake rings, earrings and pendants, is called The Protector and inspired by snakes, or more specifically a non-Asprey snake ring Angelina wore while pregnant with her first child.

Brad and Angelina are still super humans though, so all net profits from The Protector will go to Education Partnership for Children of Conflict which helps, “children who most need a safe place to learn, a place to heal, a place to learn reconciliation, a place to build a better future and a place — to just be children.”

photo courtesy WWD
Katie Hillier, the creative genius, or accessories designer, behind first Luella, Giles, Stella and then Marc by Marc Jacobs has finally launched something of her own.

It’s the bunny necklace at left, yes she’s really only launched one thing, and it goes on sale at Dover Street Market and Colette this week.

The bunny, whose bottom half is basically a fancy safety pin, is made from 18-karat gold with a diamond eye and retails for $1,325 - probably three or four times the amount her “Daddy, I want a pony” belt sold for ten years ago so here’s hoping for a Katie by Katie Hillier line very soon.

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” —Kate Moss tells WWD.

Last year, Alexander Wang won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award and this year he’s won the Swiss Textile award.

The prize, which comes with 100,000 euros (about $150,000) was given to Rodarte last year. The money’s meant to help younger brands develop their international presence though really, aside from the runners up who are given Swiss fabric vouchers, it can be used for anything. The judging panel included Isabel Toledo and i-D’s Ben Reardon.

Alex said, “I’m so honored to take this award…This year has been an amazing year for us as a company and as a family. Taking it forward and growing as a business has helped us realize a lot of things. The monetary component [of this prize] is always a big help, no matter what size business you are. The most important thing is to keep improving what you do and keep on moving forward. [It’s] like the cherry on the cake.”

Is there anything else left for him to win?

This morning’s Times tells of more bad news for Condé Nast, or rather actual numbers on news we already knew would be ugly. The company’s ad pages are down by 1/3 or 8359 pages. W is one of the worst hit, down by 46%. Oof, that’s definitely gotta hurt.

We’re all well aware of the cost-cutting that’s already gone on. So what to do next to get readers and advertisers excited?

Apparently InStyle thinks it has an idea. Its December Taylor Swift cover has a 3-D component wherein you hold up the magazine to a webcam and see a 45 second video of Taylor surrounded by snowflakes.

The 3-D theme continues inside with a bunch of advertiser participants like Michael Kors and YSL Beauté. We’re not quite sure exactly how this works since we don’t have the actual issue in hand, but according to WWD there are click-to-buy features and videos. And it sounds like the advertisers are pretty jazzed about it…at least for now.

In which other industry do people have as many jobs, or their hand in as many tasks as they do in fashion?

Though Jason Wu’s become a booming success, he’s lending his design skills to Tse next season. His limited edition capsule collection - around fifteen pieces - will debut at New York’s Fall 2010 Fashion Week.

Tse’s been producing Jason’s knitwear for a couple of years, so he already has a solid relationship with the brand and its CEO, Christina Peng-Gerschultz. He told WWD, “I thought, ‘This could be interesting.’ In many ways, I am probably the least expected designer to do this, because Tse’s aesthetic is so different from my own, but that’s one reason I wanted to do it.”

It’ll be sold through Tse outlets, no word yet on the price points, and though it’s being billed as a one time pairing, Peng-Gerschultz already says she’d love to do it again.

Lately we hear about pop-up shops every single day. This morning’s WWD talked of the just opened “J. Crew Special Selections” shop inside Ron Herman (which is inside Fred Segal.) While it’s nice that Ron himself picked out some pieces and is putting them next to the Margiela, Lanvin, etc. in his boutique, we really don’t see the point.

It’s not that we don’t appreciate mixing high and low. Of course we do. We just don’t understand doing a pop-up shop with merchandise that is readily available elsewhere like, you know, a J. Crew store. Others that come to mind are Citizens of Humanity (also at Ron Herman) and Alice + Olivia at Scoop. Really, are the people of Los Angeles having a hard time locating J. Crew merch or COH jeans? We highly doubt it.

“Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana hit New York City last week to shoot their spring-summer advertising campaigns for women and men. According to…Twitter, the duo was in the middle of a Sicily-themed photo shoot with Steven Klein in a Brooklyn studio on Wednesday.” — From this morning’s WWD, because dressing Brooklyn up as Italy, which is where you are in the first place, makes so much sense.

The Tribeca Film Festival hit Doha last week and my mom finally saw The September Issue.

She loved Grace, loved Raquel, and wanted to know if Thakoon ever did design for Mango, and if he didn’t, who did? The only other name we remember from Anna’s list, when she sat down with Oscar De La Renta, was Tracey Feith which, thank god, didn’t happen.

But this morning WWD suggested that Moises De La Renta, Oscar’s son, is up for the job. The Spanish brand’s staging their annual fashion show on Wednesday in Madrid’s Magic Box (built for their failed Olympic bid) and Moises is expected to attend. He’ll be among 600 other guests including Scarlett Johansson and Dree Hemingway.

Meanwhile, Thakoon does have a new job. He’s been appointed Creative Director of Tasaki, the Japanese jewelry line known for cultivating their own pearls. He says, “It is exciting to be working with fine jewelry as it will unquestionably feed into my overall creative process… My goal is to approach jewelry design in the same manner that I approach clothing: always move forward but respect the past.”

Back in June, we started hearing rumors that makeup artist Tom Pecheux would be getting his very own makeup line at a major cosmetics company.

According to this morning’s WWD, that company is Estée Lauder. Pecheux will not be designing an eponymous line, but instead has been given the newly created title of creative makeup director.

The last superstar makeup artist to work with the Estée Lauder brand was the still dearly missed Paul Starr. His role as leader of the national makeup team, however, was not one with much product input. Pecheux will have his hands in everything going on at the flagship brand. We think this is a very good thing.

Lady Gaga may talk about starting a clothing line and she may pop up in front rows, but now she’s landing real fashion work (or as real as can be expected from Gaga).

Yesterday, the Daily Mail leaked photos of her Hello Kitty campaign. The pop star wears stuffed kittens and too much glitter in honor of the Japanese brand’s 35th Anniversary. The images will also cover special editions of her album (which’ll be sold with locks of her hair).

And now she, with Cyndi Lauper, will front the new MAC Viva Glam campaign.

The annual project sends 100% of the profits from MAC’s $14 Viva Glam lipstick to their AIDS Fund (which has raised over $150 million since its inception in 1994). This year’s campaign launches on February 25 and the lipstick goes on sale March 18th.

We can’t even fathom the launch party for this one.

If you love fashion and have a deep desire to understand the business, there’s really not a better place to learn than WWD.

Their closet sees every designer’s goods from Chanel to the one you haven’t even heard of yet…which sounds like a pretty darn good place for an intern to be. Currently the editors are looking for both fashion and accessories folks to help man said closet.

You know the drill about organization, details, pace and whatnot. But location scouting, sample trafficking, and assisting on shoots are also in the mix.

Seriously, this is an amazing opportunity that could put you in touch with all the people you’ll want to know later, so we highly suggest getting your credentials into the right hands quickly.

Email your cover letters (including start date) and resumés to wwdinterns@gmail, like right now. Oh and it’s unpaid, in New York, and you need to get school credit.

Good luck!!

Like most fashion magazines, and just print publications in general, W has seen better business days. Rumors have been rampant that the magazine will reduce its frequency, and layoffs are still expected.

But publisher Nina Lawrence said yesterday that the frequency rumors are not true and announced two themed issues, according to WWD. Presumably these are meant to drive circulation and advertising business. However, I’m not sold

The first themed issue will be devoted to shopping, as in every item in the ads and edit will be for sale. Readers can take a picture of the page, send it to an email address and then receive replies with a link, a special offer, or something like a video of the brand’s collection. Um, to me that sounds like a lot of work for not much payoff. Right? The two day shopping event they’re planning around the issue makes a lot more sense from a promotional standpoint.

We are very happy to hear that Fashion’s Night Out will be back, on September 9, 2010 to be exact.

Before the big night this year, we wondered what it would really be like and if people would indeed shop. As it turned out, many, many did and it was considered a success by most. And according to ShopperTrak, retail foot traffic was up by 50%.

Anna Wintour says, “It was only 15 minutes after the event began, and we were getting reports about lines around the block at stores throughout the city. It was wonderful to see people embrace this initiative, and we are thrilled that they wish it to return.”

Agreed, Anna. Really, FNO was one of the most fun evenings I’ve had in a long time. The city felt alive and united, which I honestly didn’t expect. And the fact that it was the night before 9/11 made my heart swell with New York pride. Plus, I watched dudes shotgun beers in the middle of the Prada store. So there’s that.

No serious details have been announced yet and there’s more than enough time to plan. So what would you do differently in 2010?