We remember a few years back when everyone went crazy for the hidden platform by 80%20; a small footwear company based in New York. The discreet hidden wedge boots were sold out everywhere with stores wait-listing their entire reorder. Never, at least in New York, have women been so enchanted by a single boot. Priced moderately and sticking with the signature wedge as a backbone to the line, 80%20 has grown into its own. 80%20's designer and founder, Ce Ce Chin, came from a design background with Calvin Klein and Michael Kors which should explain why she knows how to make something people want and stick with it--season after season. To see the 80%20 Spring 2009 look book, click here. To see our snapshots from the showroom, click below.

>> In February, it was announced that Marc Jacobs was being investigated for allegedly bribing a New York state employee.  It came to light that Jacobs might have been paying and gifting the employee to secure his traditional fashion show spot, the Armory, which he had an exclusive deal with to keep other designers from showing there during Fashion Week.

Today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Jacobs's company, Marc Jacobs International, has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement; Neither Jacobs nor his company will face formal charges in the scandal.  As part of the settlement, Marc has agreed to retain a private monitoring agency for two years that will review operations and report to the attorney general.

No word on whether Marc Jacobs's show producers, KCD, who were also being investigated as the intermediaries between Jacobs and the state employee, will also have to settle.
*image: source

>> INSIDER WIRE —Vogue Paris's December/January issue, guest edited by Princess Stephanie of Monaco, is supposed to drop Nov. 28, and with it comes that annual treat, the calendar.  The 2009 edition was photographed by Terry Richardson and was made in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, featuring footwear and bits of lingerie from the Cruise and Spring 2009 collections.  Anna Maria Jagodzinska and Aline Weber are rumored to be inside. [WWD, TFS]

*image: source

>> Miu Miu campaigns have a long and storied history of celebrity faces — Chloe Sevigny, Vanessa Paradis, Drew Barrymore — and though we were initially hearing otherwise, it sounds like the tradition is continuing. 

Katie Holmes is rumored to be the Spring 2009 face, and as for all those models that were being cast for the campaign?  According to the commenters over at The Imagist, they will still be there, but instead of helming the starring role, they'll be flanking the celebrity cast as "accessories."

*image: source

Eskell's Spring 2009 collection has the sort of antique charm that you might associate with Lyell or Mayle--easy silk dresses with eyelet details, mix and match floral prints, and some clean denim pieces thrown in for good measure. The designers behind the brand, Kelly Whitesell and Elizabeth del Castillo, have been friends since they were 14, started their company out with a collection of one-off repurposed vintage pieces, and thereafter decided to put the concept of 'personal style' high on their list of aesthetic guidelines. This potion, in the end, is how the pair arrived at such a very genuine and sweet aesthetic.

To see the Eskell Fall 2008 look book, click here. To purchase it online, click here. To see our snapshots of the Spring 09 collection, click below.