>> INSIDER WIRE —Spotted: Michael Kors filming a guest appearance on Gossip Girl Tuesday at Capitale on the Bowery as part of a fashion week-themed episode.  Unsuprisingly, he's a fan of the show: “I was glued . . . from Day One. I think it truly is the ‘car-crash-that’s-glamourous.’" [WWD]

>> IN PRODUCTION —I didn't ever expect to be reporting this one, but Alexander McQueen is said to be in talks with Target about doing a Go International capsule collection. If it's true, that would make Lee the most prestigious notch on Target's belt yet.  [WWD]

*image: source

>> After two seasons of working together, Alexander Wang and Erin Wasson are parting ways . . . mostly. Alex has hired Alastair McKimm to style his Spring 2009 collection in place of Wasson, but Erin will still be creating jewelry for the show from her Low Luv line.

As for the clothes, Alexander Wang promises "a marked departure" from past collections: lots of color and dresses, an athletic-meets-“Miami Vice” vibe, lace patterns inspired by sweat stains, and runway hats by milliner Albertus Swanepoel that look like a mix between swim caps and “corseted do-rags.”

But wait, there's more!  Spring 2009 also means a diffusion line, T by Alexander Wang, and the designer's first shoe collection (both above). T focuses on what else but tees: Tanks to T-shirt dresses ($28-$40 wholesale) in colors ranging from whites and gray to lavender, chartreuse and cerulean, all in Alex's signature slouchy style. 

As for the shoes, there are five styles to begin with, $125 to $250 wholesale, capturing the street feel Alex likes — and get this: He used actual body-piercing rings as hardware. What a whirlwind — let's hope Alex can keep up!
*image: source

>> MODA OPERANDI —Phoebe Philo may finally be ready to come back into the designer spotlight.  The former Chloe creative director, who has laid low since resigning from the French label in 2005, is reportedly in talks with Celine.  An announcement could come as early as September, with Phoebe's first Celine collection bowing in March 2009. [WWD]

*image: source

Michael Kors is moving overseas by opening 25 collection stores in Europe, starting with one in Milan. To which we say, whaa, Michael Kors, lover of jetsetting advertisements and perpetual tans, doesn't have any collection stores in Europe? Are we the only one's who just assumed he did? Anyway, this first space in Milan is taking over the Viktor and Rolf store (Viktor & Rolf just sold stake to Deisel) and opens on September 23rd. Another twist in the story is that Kors is opening a Palm Beach boutique shortly thereafter and Kors himself acknowledged that the venture is a head-scratcher to most people, "A lot of people look at me and say, ‘You don’t have a store in Palm Beach?’ So much of our clientele spends a good part of the winter season there. It’s really our first resort store. I have always loved designing resort and things that have a resort mentality, and Palm Beach is one of the few places left on earth where a jeweled $800 bikini is a basic.”. We don't watch Project Runway but we've always loved Kor's articulate and humorous sound bites. Of his Chicago store opening he said, “I am a camel hair and gray flannel kind of guy and Chicago is a camel and gray flannel kind of town.". Which basically makes us love him. Below, some spring and fall offerings from the designer.


Click here to see the Michael Kors Fall 08 collection

After bringing you our Top Ten Rules For Shopping Online, we're going to give you a few reasons for doing so in the first place. Now, let us preface this by saying that pulling together the examples you see below took all of ten minutes (three of those we spent wondering how these fit) and so take this as a completely uncontrived set of discrepancies in online shopping. Discrepancies we think you should be aware of if only because it won't be like this forever (yes, waaay too good to be true) and because it illuminates why shopping online is exciting (and yet resourceful) in the first place. The five, below.

1. The Season-less There are certain items that are season-less and ordered and reordered a million times over. Now, one site's season-less might be another site's "we'll give this a try" and so you'll necessarily find vast discrepancies. Denim is often caught in this battle. The Acne A Pant, below, is an example. The A Pant by Acne is stocked and restocked by many stores, both online and behind the bricks, so you'll always find it at full price somewhere. That said, if a site (or store) buys a size run and the jeans don't move, well, that's grounds for a markdown. Simple as that.

2. The Coveted Remember when Beanie Babies went from high-stakes eBay gambling to sitting-in-my-aunt's-basement? Well, that's the basic principle behind this reason to shop online. When an item is 'coveted' then retailers will break some of the mark-up and mark-down rules in its light. Because we're online, we can see the different value judgements retailers make on such items. Handbags are commonly treated this way and below, a perfect example. This Derek Lam handbag is marked down to a mere (relatively speaking) $495 when the same bag is online elsewhere at full price. Now, we set out to write this without calling names but we will say this: there's a reason for this discrepancy and it's that eLuxury probably sells a boatload more designer handbags than Shopbop--they've no need to mark down because, in their world, that handbag is still coveted. (Also note the bags are titled as medium and large respectively but are actually the same bag when you look at the measurements and non-sale retail prices).

3. The Inconspicuous This reason for shopping online references those items that get lost in the shuffle. They are neither IT Bags nor memorable catwalk frocks, most often they are just plain 'ol contemporary items that come and go with the seasons. First, note how vastly different this Alexander Wang dress appears on the two sites. The color, title, fit, and texture do not match whatsoever--even though they are the same exact dress. This is why it's important to check out the same item on multiple sites, with or without the cost differences. In the end, once you get past the visual discrepancy, you'll notice that the markdowns are one hundred dollars apart. Although that might not seem like much, the world of online shopping is riddled with these discrepancies and, in the end, those differences add up.

4. The Long Overdue This reason is one that is more difficult to keep up with but important nonetheless. There is a method to moving inventory and it usually follows the frequency of new deliveries. In the most basic sense, for every box you are shipped, you should be moving a a box out through the shopping carts. Because this is impossible to make happen seamlessly choices are made as to how to finally get rid of inventory that has been sitting on the site, even at 50% off, for a long time. The Phillip Lim skirt you see below, as far as we remember, was part of Holiday 07. Why it is still online in multiple places is amazing to us, especially with a secondary offense of the Inconspicuous (which we describe above), staring you in the face. Many items, long overdue, stay online (they do in the stores too) well beyond their seasonal allowance. As a general rule, if it shipped more than six months ago, you'll probably be able to find it for next to nothing and it's likely to be peddled for vastly different sale prices.

5. The Basic Mark Up Observe the Miu Miu flats below. You're probably wondering why we're calling out a mere 66 dollar discrepancy. Well, take a closer look. Those flats are not even on sale. Yep, that's just the basic mark-up. The way it works is that designers set the wholesale costs and retailers, as a general rule, multiple that number by 2.25. That means they make 50% on the sale of a garment (with the extra .25 going towards shipping costs, etc.). This is, however, completely suggested and some stores will mark up by 2.5 or 2.75 if they think the item will sell for that much. Voila--you've got yourself a sixty six dollar reason to shop online.

Since we spend the majority of our August days in either a Mexican house dress or one-piece bathing suit, we've decided to play virtual dress up. As much as it pains us, we know fashion week is just around the corner, and that means waaay more running around and waaay less Mexican house dress. We've already started editorializing Fall but since not an overwhelming number of fall deliveries have made it online, it's still worth it to bring you outfits that are both on sale (from spring) and, at least partially, fall weather appropriate. To that end, we're put together this look. For starters, everyone please put down your pencils and check out this Derek Lam bag which is marked down over seventy percent off. It's like a sample sale that no one can see because they can't wrap their minds around it. Be the wise one and snatch that steal up--we're guessing there are only a few. After that insane bargain, the rest will be easy to rationalize. Two Rachel Comey sale items that are totally worth a combined value of just over two hundred dollars and a pair of Acne jeans at 50% off. Those A Pants will be on all of the e-commerce sites (including La Garconne) at full price in the next couple of weeks so you might as well get them on sale now (we know it's crazy but that's the way denim turns over).