Sophie Buhai

Anyone who works in the industry has had ‘em: A fashion week related nightmare. We asked designers, editors and stylists to share theirs with us, and

Good news for Vena Cava fans: The struggling label has found a lifeline. After reports surfaced last winter that the label had lost a key investor and was laying off employees, things were looking pretty grim. WWD was reporting that the financial state of the company was "drastic" (whatever that means). Today Vena Cava announced their partnership with LF USA, the US subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Li & Fung Limited. Designers Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai "will continue to oversee the creative vision for the brand," a press release reads, "while LF USA will contribute its extensive global resources and deep retail relationships to support the growth of the brand." So what does this deal mean for Vena Cava, LF USA, and for us as shoppers?

Vena Cava, the label designed by indie fashion darlings Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock, might shutter, a source tells us. Though the label garnered a cult following among a certain set of Brooklyn girls since its debut in 2004, the loss of a major investor has reportedly put the label at risk of going under. This probably also explains why Vena Cava didn't put on a spring runway show this September as they have in seasons past. According to a source close to the situation, the label moved out of their Soho headquarters this week and laid off a lot of staff. Vena Cava hasn't shuttered yet--they've moved their offices home--and we hear a deal with TJ Maxx is still in the works. Still, things seem grim, which is sad news to hear about a label we've always been fond of.

Vena Cava's Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock announced Wednesday at Fashion Group International's panel on entrepreneurship that they will be collaborating with Uniqlo. It's a juicy little tidbit of news that we nearly missed because the designers mentioned it so offhandedly (luckily Fashion etc., didn't and reminded us). Collaborating with brands is nothing new for Vena Cava. They've partnered in the past with Gap, Aqua for Bloomingdale's and Converse. The Gap collab was a struggle, Sophie said, because "Vena Cava is not a khaki brand", and she and Lisa are "pretty far from preppy." The design duo went on to weigh out the pros and cons of doing collaborations--one the one hand, lower-priced collaborations with big brands are a great way to reach the mass market and a new audience, and bottom line, make money, but they would never want work on a collaboration that wasn't true to their brand.

After living here for a while, you sometimes forget how many amazing people live and work in New York City. When we walked into City Hall for the Fashion's Night Out kick-off press conference today, we went through security with Lisa Mayock from Vena Cava. Then, we saw Anna Wintour walking ahead of us and Alex Wang suddenly appeared behind us. A few minutes later Marc Jacobs, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez walked in. After we were seated inside the press conference room, the following people (in addition to the aforementioned) surrounded the podium: Prabal Gurung, Zac Posen, Phillip Lim, Tracy Reese, Kenneth Cole, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, Thakoon Panichgul, Marcus Wainwright from Rag & Bone, Francisco Costa, Vera Wang, Tory Burch, Steven Kolb, Linda Fargo, the Mayor...and after a few moments, we noticed tiny Mary-Kate Olsen peeking her head out behind Marc. Then, unfortunately, we died and are thus unable to report anything else about Fashion's Night Out. Just kidding - sort of.

It's pretty easy to be green living in New York. Most people don't have cars, there's not a lot of space to light, sometimes it's harder to find not-

Vena Cava's jumping on the t-shirt bandwagon, but Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai may be the first designers to do something different with the wardrobe

Save Fashion returns this week and if today's Luella news is any indication, there's still a lot of saving to be done in this fair industry of ours. B