Nina Ricci has reopened its Paris store on Avenue Montaige after a 6th month renovation. Olivier Theyskens' new gray cozy interior has contributed to daily sales tallies roughly triple that of last year.

Short Starbucks lines seem like a good thing until you realize that no one is shopping. The deserted Vegas Starbucks is given as evidence that things are unusually subdued at Magic Marketplace

Japan Fashion Week, which runs September 1st through the 5th, is a challenge for Japanese designers.

Stefano Pilati faults Tom Ford for giving women what they want. We are torn on this opinion.

Sallie Underwood Baker, fashion collector, one cool broad, has passed away

Canadians need a little extra insulation to keep warm in their frigid winters. Or at least that is the sense we get considering the outcry over Quebec retailer La Maison's use of overly skinny models. The catalog has been recalled and everyone is happy again.

The Venice Film Festival debuted Valentino: The Last Emperor. While the title references the famed designers it is really about "the deeply rooted, inspirational and unique union between Valentino and Giammetti."

With news that fashion brand, Mayle, is closing down after Resort/Holiday 09, we think a spread is due. Perhaps you've only loved the Mayle aesthetic from afar, perhaps you've indulged in every smart frock and pair of trousers from previous seasons, or perhaps the brand hasn't meant much to you until now. Either way, we have a feeling these last deliveries will mean much more to many of us. To think, just last week we wrote up an immaterial about a shearling caplet that is part of the Fall 08 collection. Little did we know it would be one of Mayle's last quirky offers. If anything, this should stand as an example of how difficult is is to run a fashion business in general, and how the contemporary companies in particular, often get thrown the wolves if they don't peddle their clothing properly and act as total slaves to the buyers (who have peddle on their own accord). It's not easy, especially in our current economic climate, to endure the season-less demands of the contemporary shopper. Jane Mayle, in her conversation with WWD, referenced perfumery and home goods as being her next endeavor so we're sure we haven't seen the last of that magpie/indie girl aesthetic. That said, it's still the end of a clothing line beloved by many young burgeoning chicsters. Below, our spread of Mayle from Spring 08 (all on sale) and Fall 08 (just delivered). If you shop only for the sake of archiving, we won't blame you.

The twenty four hour news cycle is filled with constant and consistent regurgitation. Americans peep and peck at the beak of the all American newscaster, preferring to have information gathered and digested for them. We consume in tiny little bits at regular intervals like a baby bird being nurtured in the nest of international news without ever bothering to spread our wings. Just as with actual digestion, a little bit of bile is often the result of this process. One of our favorite by products of this process this summer? The constant obsession with the economy and/or the recession.

Now of course defining a recession is pretty cut and dried, but that doesn't leave much to fill the gaping maw of America's desires. Because if we can't consume things we must consume content. We often wonder that if in attempting to keep up appearances, as the beloved Simon Doonan points out in his piece on dressing during a recession, we as the fashion content industry has gone completely overboard in our efforts to sate the appetites of our constituency. We know you aren't buying as much, we aren't buying as much either.

Thus we continue to supply useful pieces on consuming no matter how large our debt to China grows. Instead of consuming products you consume ever more useful pieces of content on fashion. We show you how to shop online, or how to avoid sample sale madness. We are complicit in the ever growing obsession with constantly consuming, no matter what the product. And you know what? We are going to keep doing it.

In the rat race of online publishing we must constantly polish the rhetoric of consumption such that you are always wondering what new and digested manner of shopping we will provide to you next. In fact, we already have a new series in mind that makes use of the kitschy buzzwords of the recession content watch (we are going on staycation folks), but we just wanted to let you know that we are aware. Even our hyper vigilant efforts to remain aloof from the other yammering folks churning out content online (no boring ogling of persons of non-note for us) are not immune from the process of constant product. So we have to at least admit that we know we are doing it too.

The nostalgia and yearning of city life has been an inspiration since antiquity. While pastoral idealism has certainly had its impact on many creative processes, fashion has always sat squarely in the camp of urbanism.

While Atonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, in E Minor "From the New World" is our favorite for a certain kind of longing and aspiration that speaks to the hard scrabble world of American immigrant urbanism that built our textile industry, there is another kind of urban symphony that speaks to American dreams.

They are dreams are not of longing, but of completion and success. Naturally we are referring to George Gershwin who is our go to guy when it comes to a certain era of cosmopolitan creation. It is inspiration for those that have already made it. He plays on a kind of perky insouciance that says there is no hoping only being as the kind of cocky optimism that plays out across the American cultural heritage. He gave us An American in Paris which practically defined the genre of American cross cultural ownership of the urban landscape. Strangely nothing is more American than a pretty lady and her beau swanning about Paris claiming French haute couture for a certain quirky American constituency.

But with the Euro beating the dollar the kind of naive ownership that American style have long had over modern cities even beyond our borders is crumbling. We cannot borrow and reinvent against other's cosmopolitan culture anymore. We simply can't afford it. We say however to let go of Dvorak and go again for Gershwin when dressing in our American Not Quite in Paris staycation attire.

Let us hope that these style inspirations help us remember more of the Gershwin and less of the Dvorak in our urban landscape. This kind of confident ownership is sure to turn our currency around and annoy the crap out of the Parisians as we again claim rights their crown jewel. Even if we have to do it from a café next door on our staycation we say emulate the Parisians. After all, we are a nation of comeback kids and second chances. We say be dressed to be an American in Paris, since any day now a chic pair of black pants and a black shift might be required as we traipse about humming Gershwin on a wild spending spree at our favorite Right Bank boutiques.

Your editor just came back from a very curious little vacation. She went on the ultimate search for the ultimate bar food munchie: the chicken wing. This strange journey upstate to Buffalo is somewhat indicative of the perplexing situation of plenty amongst the possible ruins that typifies our current climate.

Though not everyone is able to take a vacation this summer. In fact, we have taken a shine to a phrase that is all over the news media. Many of us are supposedly going on staycations to save on gas, airfare, and other overpriced travel problems.

We find this humorous because fashionistas have been playing at escapist fantasies without ever leaving our four walls for years. That is why we play dress up in the first place as far as we are concerned. But its nice to know that our ability to play with perception is finally gaining credence with the rest of the world. Thus we give you are first attempt at the escapist fantasy dress up game in our staycation series.

We love deserts, rafting, and cowboys. The allure of that lifestyle is one we continue to chronicle. Thus we give you Four Corners Without Leaving Your Four Walls. Cheap dungarees, fast fashion southwestern themed accessories (totally called that one) and one very pricey but awesome Phillip Lim western shirt will take you to a dive bar that plays both kinds of music (country and western) or maybe a movie night at home. May we suggest a few dude ranch westerns?