This 38 dollar Urban Outfitters slip kind of looks like a Jonathan Saunders dress. Now, we're shopping online here so we can't say for sure but hear us out. You buy this 38 dollar slip in a size larger than normal (our new favorite non-trick) and you pair it with opaque black tights, black ankle boots, a lean blazer, and a men's watch and you might just have a totally killer outfit on your hands. Wearing a slip as a dress brings us back to our undergraduate days (oh, the shame) and we can't say that doesn't, for many reasons, make us nervous, but it just might work. Either that or you put it on and the fabrication is lousy and you look like you're going to a Madonna concert circa the Blonde Ambition tour but in a bad way and you decide 'body-con' is one trend you might actually invest in because, you know, there's a fine line between looking like a modern body-con warrior and a tootsie roll. We like the first idea better so we're going to pretend that that's how these kind of things roll out in the world of e-commerce. Hey, at least it's an adventure and one that, thankfully, won't leave you walking around with a slightly shaming Urban Outfitters bag on your wrist.

Grey Ant, our favorite contemporary brands from this summer, will be participating in one of the eponymous Urban Outfitters collaborations. The collection will be cleverly titled Grey Antics, and feature the same kind of seventies inspired bottoms and billowy tops that the ready to wear line puts out. Last time we went to Urban Outfitters (while in SF) we picked up a jumper from some jumbled pile and discovered it was one by Geren Ford (we think, we can't remember). You have to be carefully skilled in deciphering what, to us, feels like waaay too much information and waaaay to many piles of crap that need to be folded, to find the 'special' pieces. We're not sure, but we fear that these neat little collaborations get lost in the piles of other jumpers and other tshirts and other billowy tops that the retailer stocks in the first place. We suppose that's fitting though--if you can't decipher the collaboration from the Free People offer, what's the point in caring that they be separate and tidy within the shop anyway. On that note, let's forget all about Urban Oufitters and just shop the real Grey Ant collection--it's marked down to an Urban Outfitters price point which kind of solves all of our problems right here and now.

Clear shades are popular with the fashion folk this summer. Hardly a day goes by that we don't see a pair of acetates staring back out at us. For Fall acetate frames will still be around, but in the form of eyeglasses (we're down with going it seventh grade style and wearing them even if you don't require them), our pick in that regard is the Selima pair for J. Crew. Alas, we are still in shades weather and in that regard the Nicole 002 by Benjamin Eyewear takes the cake (left). Forget looking like the Terminator with thick all-black shades, the acetate trend is letting the real thing show-off (i.e. your face!). If you're stuck in between two worlds, Wayfarer put out a two-tone number that we've seen a few chicsters sporting. We think the two-tone kind of makes you look like your eighty years old but in a good way. Also on our radar is this pair, by Grey Ant. The case these shades come in is as big as a briefcase but the shades are pretty amazing and aptly named, The Status Sunglasses. If you can't be asked to drop some dough, Urban Outfitters has a pair of acetate shades for less than it costs to fill up your tank (minus a million).

Corpus, the contemporary brand known for its prepster cum hipster aesthetic, is pulling out all of the stops for their Urban Outfitters collaboration called ByCorpus. Pretty young things playing hookie like they're starring in their own suburban film noir adventure does a successful look book make. Even though we've thoroughly outgrown the laid back 'indie' Urban aesthetic, we have to admit, we're tempted. We might skip the Urban signature babydoll dresses and mini-floral skirts, but a crisp, white ByCorpus blouse (and a pair of Cheap Monday's) might bring us back through those double glass doors just like the good old days.

Urban Outfitters, as we've reported on before, has wrangled brands like Spring & Clifton and Steven Alan for their collaboration efforts. As with any retailer, their attention to the demographic is reflected in their partnerships. Target, for instance, sticks to high fashion brands with a palatable aesthetic. They wait for a significant amount of buzz to generate before they secure their conspirators. Case in point, Proenza Schouler, Loeffler Randall, and Luella were all, at the time of collaboration, garnering a significant amount of peripheral attention all on their own.

For Urban Outfitters, however, their strategy starts with the hipster set--the kind that went to a good college and grew up riding in a Volvo. Urban Outfitters is choosing, that is, brands that are decidedly conservative (far away from what you might consider avant garde) though still definitely hipster (when hipster means creative/intellectual types who like the occasional St. Germain cocktail). For twenty-somethings (and many an NYU alum), that means easy-to-understand basics done by trusted contemporary brands, it means not having to worry that the printed t-shirt is a rip off, it means shopping avant garde straight from the designers who are known for that sort of thing and still getting chilled out ByCorpus blouses for a reasonable price. It's a win-win if you ask us.

Urban effing Outfitters is jumping on the getitwhileitlasts train with their very own capsule collections. Those smart cookies have arranged for (are you ready for this?) Charlotte Ronson, Geren Ford, Corpus, Steven Alan, and Paul & Joe Sister for prefab mini-collections at Urban price points. First up is label Geren Ford's 'Hawks' collection, priced between $48 and $128. We're wondering, though, whether all of these accessibly priced duds will just get mixed up in garment the free-for-all that is Urban Outfitters (what a MESS!). If the press didn't cover it, we could easily see ourselves walking in and seeing a Corpus jumper and just, like, trying it on. Not, you know, screaming and waiting in line and whatnot. We live in a funny fashion world, don't we? See you in the Hawks line this May, or the Rogan line, or the Wang line, or the Lim line, or...


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(image part of the Hawk collection for Urban Outfitters courtesy of MissCrew)