Be still our hearts. The Outnet is open.

The Outnet is the just-launched online outlet store of Net-a-Porter, arguably the Web’s dreamiest shopping site. Its combination of designer wear, shoes and handbags is unparalleled (and hey, if you know a site that beats it, please please let us know), but the prices tend to be designer as well.

Which means The Style Insider’s brain threw a little neuron party when we saw some of the numbers on Outnet — 50 percent off, 60 percent off, 70 percent off. We have died and gone to heaven.

The designers are there — McQueen, Sui, Chloe, Choo. There’s Marc (more…)

Did you hear the opening salvos?

Last week a WWD.com story (subscription only, sorry, you’ll only get a peek) with no small amount of slant held forth on the fact that Michelle Obama is championing the cause of little-known American designers and ignoring the big players: Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, to name a bunch.

With the fashion industry in an economic crisis of its own, it’s not a surprise that the bastions of American style are wondering why the First Lady won’t deign to don some of their beautiful clothes. We can feel — and appreciate — their frustration. Still, most of the designers quoted — Wang, Hilfiger, Karan, Herrera – tempered their comments with support for a fashionable First Lady breaking boundaries.

Another story, in the New York Times, took issue with the fact that Mrs. Obama is relying apparently exclusively on the design choices of retailer Ikram Goldman, the owner of Michelle O’s favorite Chicago boutique for years (a picture from the store below).

Arnold Scassi (hmm, we remember that name from somewhere) chided her, (more…)

The prestigious award for America’s top womenswear designer will be awarded to either two well-known names — Marc Jacobs or Narciso Rodriguez — or to the less-well-known women behind the Rodarte label, Kate and Laura Mulleavy.

Each year the Council of Fashion Designers of America hands out awards to the nation’s top designers of womenswear, menswear, accessories and an award for emerging talent, according to WWD.

The younger designers who will compete for the Swarovski award for emerging talent (more…)

Just because The Style Insider is not actually in New York doesn’t mean we can’t hold forth with our observations and opinions on the ‘09 runway shows. Actually, being there is probably detrimental in maintaining the long view.  Thus: 

Off with their shoes!: After tumbling and stumbling and falling in their sky-high stilettos, the models at the Brian Reyes show all shed their silly footwear and paraded barefoot on the runway. Finally, some common sense has kicked in.

Someone needs to talk to Isaac: The omnipresent Isaac Mizrahi put on a fine show today, with all manner of lovely bright colors, layers of  varied fabrics, some elegant and some crazy. But several models stalked the catwalk with purses on their heads, like hats. We’re all for zany touches, but that just looks crazy. Maybe he’s still upset about the whole Target deal. (more…)

The shows are still going on, but we started yearning for a purse fix. So we cruised the galleries and found five that we really love:

1. Some of the most precious, fun, wild, colorful and just plain sweet bags were being marched up and down the Marc Jacobs runway, accompanying his equally retro ’80s neon colored clothes. Our first Jacob fave is this little pink clutch, studded with red pyramid shaped embellishments, and a clashy/great red chain strap.

2. Here’s another zany Marc Jacobs look — the leather handbag, all wild pink and green, matches the colors of the clothes exactly. So it’s OK now to get matchy-matchy. (We’ve always wanted to, anyway).     

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You’re going to blow it again, aren’t you?

It’s 72 hours until Valentine’s Day, and you’re going to blow it. You’re going to frantically call florists (to no avail), try for restaurant reservations (good luck with that) and end up with a cookie that has a frosting heart on it, hoping she’ll buy that old “thought that counts” thing.

(Ladies, if the above clearly applies to your significant other, by all means forward this item to him. Now.) 

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We got a glimpse. It was quick. We have a grainy picture yanked from a BBC video. We can’t really see it clearly.

And because we are hopelessly obsessed with handbags, a glimpse was enough to send us wheeling through the internet, trying to find something akin to the black patent leather purse Michelle Obama carried on Saturday’s train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.

(Do we know that more important things are at stake here, you ask? A bigger picture, a global view, a grand plan? Of course we do. But since we have no details as yet on the inauguration gown, we are making do with this.)             

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