>> INSIDER WIRE —There's no way to officially confirm if Jason Wu is the hottest ticket this season, but he's definitely up there.  Well before Vogue debuted Michelle Obama wearing his design on their cover today, his show was sold out — as of at least two days ago — and editors are now being stuck on a waitlist; it's rumored that there's no standing room at his show.  If things get really desperate, there are always the two tickets auctioning on eBay for charity (now at $300), or as a last-ditch effort, the scalpers on Craigslist. [WWD]
*image: source

>> Instead of a runway show or presentation like they did last season, Halston is taking a page out of Viktor & Rolf's book — with a twist.  Today, the brand sent out a trailer to a select group for their Fall 2009 presentation of choice — a music video featuring literary descendent Dree Hemingway running throughout New York in slow motion, yellow Halston dress flowing around her.  She passes models posed in cars, sitting on the street curb, standing in the foreground, twirling around — all outfitted in the Fall 2009 Halston collection.  February 13, the full video goes out by email, and the day after, an illustrated Fall 2009 lookbook and an invitation to see the entire collection in showroom follow.  The hope is that the video goes viral.

The change in format was not due to economic strain, Bonnie Takhar, CEO of Halston maintained — "It was something we were planning since September, before the world fell apart."  But it has worked out with the economy in mind: "A lot of people’s budgets will be cut and many won’t be traveling to see the shows, and this is a way to be inclusive."

The new format is a signal of some brand restructuring — it's aimed toward the 25-45 year-old demographic rather than 30-50 year-olds, as previous collections were.  And although Marco Zanini hasn't been replaced since he unceremoniously left the brand last July, the search is still on, Takhar confirmed.

Video: The teaser! »

>> THE MODELIZER — You know Fashion Week season is here when a number of models all change their hair simultaneously: Coco Rocha did an early swap to red a couple of months ago, and Monday night, Vlada Rosylakova took her strawberry blonde redder to a similarly vivid color.  Also parading a new look: Iekeliene Stange, who ditched brown for blonde, and Iris Strubegger, who debuted her cropped cut — supposedly done for a Vogue Paris cover — during the Givenchy couture show late last month. [COACD, Place Models, Women Management]

Girl Woman Beauty Brains reported on the alarming trend of women going for bargain basement cosmetic procedures.

Cuffington got service-y and helped us understand why not to wear heels in certain parts of San Francisco. 

Fashion Binge finds a high waisted bathing suit from Hayden-Harnett less than amusing. 

Always In Style reviewed a product where you can touch up your roots (and give yourself highlights) on the go. 

Stefano Pilati's unisex line for Yves Saint Laurent, called Edition Unisex, is poised to debut during New York Fashion Week--alllllll the way downtown. The pop-up will run for the entirety of the week, from tomorrow's first fashion murmurs through next week's straggling finales. The range, inspired by Pilati's Spring 2009 Men's collection, will include washed silk blazers, silk organza trench coats, and pants in crepe de chine which "maintain the men's silhouettes while offering an implicit femininity". Looks like downtown is good for more than just an after-party these days.