Valerie Steele

Topshop has hired Antipodium's Geoffrey J. Finch to be its new creative design consultant. {Vogue UK} Grab your Miley Cyrus foam finger while you can--the cheapest Halloween costume you'll maybe ever come by is apparently almost sold out. {The Cut} Valerie Steele, director and chief curator at The Museum at F.I.T., revealed this morning that the its fall 2014 exhibit will be "Dance and Fashion." We knew Rick Owens was onto something... {WWD}

The fall couture shows ended last week, with successful collections from established designers like Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel to newer, more experimental collections from the likes of Iris van Herpen. Countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium all had talent represented on the runways. But if you're looking for a great American name in haute couture, you're going to have to dig deeper.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court deemed the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. What a way to set off the weekend’s Pride celebrations! With the fanfare, comes the fashion, an open playground for redefinition, expression and outlandish style. There’s sure to be rainbow regalia, wigs, glitter, leather, heels and muscle tees galore. It prompted me to think about high fashion’s relationship to queer style. To outsiders, it seems fashion’s kings are gay male designers, the fabulous creators of straight female threads. I started to wonder about labels and designers outside of this well-known dichotomy.

Roger Vivier--the brand credited with inventing the stiletto--has a long and rich history, all documented in the new Rizzoli tome Roger Vivier. To celebrate the release of the book, head designer Bruno Frisoni and brand ambassador Inès de la Fressange sat down with FIT's fashion historian Valerie Steele Wednesday evening to chat about the history of Roger Vivier and Frisoni's own creations for the brand.

The latest exhibition to take up residency at NYC's The Museum at FIT is Shoe Obsession, featuring over 150 pieces of contemporary footwear, which also made their way into an accompanying book due out in April. Designers featured include icons like Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutins and relative newcomers like Charlotte Olympia.

Welcome back to our column, Desk Side! Sorry, PRs, we stole your lingo and in this feature we’ll go to the desks of some of your favorite designers, editors, stylists and assorted industry insiders to see where the magic happens–and then share it with you! This time around, we visited Valerie Steele at her FIT office, where she dished on everything from that time she wore a black leather corset to her neo-punk period. Click through for an enlightening interview and a peek at the cool stuff we saw in her office.

The FIT Museum's Chief Curator Valerie Steele has an interesting exhibition in the works for next year. It's to be called "Queer Style: From the Closet to the Catwalk" and will focus on gay designers. Admittedly, our initial thought was: "Wait, so will it include every (male) designer?" The fact that gay designers outnumber straight male ones (though, there are more heterosexuals than you might think) makes us wonder how exactly they'll... narrow that down.

Some of you are just back to school and some of us are sadly done with school for good but we remember how fun it was to gather all your required back-to-school reading and dive in (okay, we were nerds). So in the spirit of the back-to-school reading list, we've put together a list of some awesome, essential, fashion reading. There are some really beautiful and important fashion books out recently and they are worth investing in. And that means actually going and buying the hardcover versions because these books are filled with Karl Lagerfeld illustrations, Diana Vreeland-styled editorials, and more really good stuff. Stuff not to be wasted on an e-reader. Click through to see your required reading. Don't skim! There will be a quiz!

The Prettiest Baby Bump Ever: Miranda Kerr posed nude for W magazine, six months pregnant with what will be the most attractive child to ever be born. {W} Wedding Disaster: In related news, Kerr might also be walking down the aisle naked because American Airlines lost luggage containing her wedding dress in July. Four months later, she still thinks she has a chance at getting it back and asked her Facebook friends for advice. {Racked} Is London More Posh? Victoria Beckham might start showing in London instead of New York. "I'm very proud to be British and the brand is British," said the designer. {Vogue UK}

She calls them belt bags, but regardless, Donna Karan doesn't get why people carry handbags when they could sport a much more comfortable leather belt

Delman might play second fiddle to its Parisian counterpart Repetto in the ballet flat department, but we've always had a soft spot for the label's cl