>> INSIDER WIRE — L'Wren Scott is like the fashion jack of all trades: She's modeled, styled, designed, acted as muse . . . and she's even infamously worn a Thierry Mugler dress with a "pubic neckline," explaining: "The things we do, darling."  Also, her "obsession"?  It has nothing to do with fashion: just plain-old Purell hand sanitizer. [NYT T Magazine]

»Amber Valletta, her son and husband get LOLVogued [Jezebel]

»This morning's Barneys warehouse sale: Not as crazy or marked-down as in the past [Racked]

»Mary-Kate Olsen is obsessed with Diane von Furstenberg [Page Six Magazine]

»Sean Avery's Gap ad overlooks Vogue headquarters [Fashionista]

»Victoria Bartlett commissioned Lizzie Fortunato jewelry for her Spring 2009 VPL collection [The Pipeline]

»Cato Van Ee shot a commercial for D&G with Mario Testino last week [Dazed Digital]

»A "loose size 2" seems to be the modeling size of choice right now [The Cut]

>> THE MODELIZER —Doutzen Kroes makes her advertising debut as the newly contracted Victoria's Secret lingerie model — are wings in her future?  One thing is for sure: she's raking in some serious money for this one. [Of the Minute]

>> We know Anna Wintour's an Obama girl, but an email from the Senator's camp on Tuesday may have strained the tie a little.  Right in the middle of fashion week — Sept. 9, to be exact — the Charles Nolan studio is hosting an Obama campaign fashion fundraising event, which a Tuesday campaign email to supporters referred to as "Runway to Change with Special Guests Sarah Jessica Parker & Ann Wintour."

Ann Wintour.  It's fairly safe to assume they were referring to Anna Wintour, who as of early July had contributed between $100,000 and $200,000 to the Obama campaign, but this still seems like a big faux pas — she is their "special guest," after all. Besides, we all know the story of how Hillary Clinton was publicly chastised by Anna after she pulled out of Vogue — she has no qualms about putting politicians in their place.

Here's the nail in the coffin: Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan joked about the email mix-up: "It was either a typo or the extra syllable would have thrown off the haiku we were going for."  At least Anna's name is spelled correctly on the formal invites, but . . . yikes, that might have ruined any chance for Michelle Obama to nab a Vogue cover, not to mention how many campaign dollars they might have just lost.
*image: source

>> INSIDER WIRE — Anna Wintour loves her silence, Alexandra Shulman opposes wearing fur, Carine Roitfeld doesn't do comfort, and Franca Sozzani is all for Prada lace: The ultimate breakdown on the top four Vogue editors, their looks, likes, and dislikes. [The Moment]

Sometimes the chaos just isn't worth the effort, and sometimes you've not choice anyway. Our New York colleagues over at Racked are providing live coverage of the Barney's warehouse sale and as much as we love to drop the New York-centric post now and again, we realize not everyone has access to the madness. That said, when we scoped out what Barneys had to offer online, the 60% off or more options were plentiful. Below, check out our spread of the best from that category. Between the Maison Martin Margiela Cork Knee Boots, marked down to $355 from $895, to the Lanvin Large Peplum Bag, marked down to $789 from almost two thousand, it's clear there are still some non-warehouse goodies to be had. Just be warned that a link is only a link for a day or two. Much of what we'd put into a wishlist for ourselves has gone out-of-stock either because it was moved to the sale or because it sold out overnight. Such is the nature of sample sales, both online and in warehouses. Pick up something for yourself today and call it an ode to the Fall season and a looming fashion week, where cork boots and Lanvin purses will come in handy.

>> For emerging designers, there are many routes to success — toting samples around in a suitcase a la Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs, or you could just get your entire first collection on Gossip Girl, like Abigail Lorick.

Placement on such a buzzed-about show has landed her Lorick collection mentions in everywhere from Elle to WWD to Teen Vogue, and for her first New York Fashion Week presentation this September, she's keeping it all in the family: Gossip Girl stars Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, and Taylor Momsen are all expected to make appearances, and the show's costume designer, Eric Daman, is working with Abigail on the Spring 2009 collection.

If you can't make it to the fashion week presentation, you're in luck — ten pieces of the Spring 2009 collection will debut on Gossip Girl a week later as "Eleanor Waldorf's runway collection" — presumptively in the same fashion week episode Michael Kors is appearing in.  Kudos to Abigail for building such buzz around her label so quickly — but it will be interested to see if it has legs on its own — the show can't go on forever, after all.
*image: source

A tube dress and a vest for seven hundred dollars could only be peddled by the unstoppable Alexander Wang. These two pieces, simple vintage finds, have come from Wang as part of his Fall 08 collection. This 'look', a textbook waif uniform, follows in the footsteps of the many other vintage-inspired looks that, despite their easy-to-source elements and outrageously expensive price tag, are stocked at all of the best boutiques worldwide. We're sure this dress received plenty of orders, what's not to like? It's funny how cyclical these things are. A vintage store stocks early nineties tube dresses and old man vests, the leggy gals pick them up and put them together, along comes Wang, and then, well, then the vintage stores up their buys of these two pieces from maybe a couple to a bunch and before you know, the look has penetrated young fashion culture. In fact, whichever side of the fence you fall on is completely determined by whether or not you happened to catch a Wang sample sale, found a tube dress post-Wang version that suited your frame, or just had seven hundred dollars to blow on your way home from work. In the end, it's all relative and Wang, most of the time, wins.