>> Fashion Continues to Invade TV on the CW's Gossip Girl, The Beautiful Life —Zac Posen has staked out a position in the series premiere of the CW's model-centric drama The Beautiful Life and Nina Garcia just filmed for the show recently, but they're not the only familiar guest stars that are slated to appear: Matthew Williamson, Erin Fetherston, and Jessica Stam have all been booked and Versace and Calvin Klein are also somehow involved. As for Georgina Chapman and Tory Burch's mysterious Gossip Girl cameos, they begin in the upcoming season's first episode by hooking up with Blake Lively's character Serena, and according to the show's executive producer have to do with Serena's “decision [in terms of college] and what happens to her in the first couple of episodes.” [E! Online, People]

>> Soon after Maybelline announced it would be be taking over from five-year Bryant Park cosmetics sponsor MAC, MAC — presumedly, as New York Times' Eric Wilson put it, tired of having to share "a rather circuslike stage with other sponsors who were competing for attention, sometimes including makers of doughnuts, cameras, toilets and Big Macs" — announced that it would be producing the tentatively-titled MAC and Milk Fashion Week with Milk Studios at the same time as the traditional New York Fashion Week.

The event can be seen as either a complement or a competitor to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but on the record, anyway, there seem to be no hard feelings.  Milk Studios founder Mazdack Rassi says of the initiative: "This week is not an alternative show space, it's a way of cultivating designers and helping them come up with new ways of selling their clothes."  And Zach Eichman, a VP of IMG Fashion, which produces the shows at Bryant Park, told the New York Times last week the company welcomed the MAC and Milk event and that bus service between shows would be available when possible. “We can’t do every show in the tents. We hope they will be successful.”

Alexander Wang will be there, so will Preen »

>> It turns out that the House of Style revival on MTV isn't quite what we thought; rather than bring back the series, MTV partnered with Teen Vogue for a Spring House of Style special.  Bar Refaeli is indeed host, and Chanel Iman, rather than co-host, is a correspondent.

The show is definitely targeted at teens: Bar counts down a Top 10 Most Wanted Trends list — think jelly shoes; talks designer DIYs — Teen Vogue fashion editor Mary Kate Steinmiller teaches viewers how to make friendship bracelets with Charlotte Ronson; catches up with Justin Timberlake for a behind-the-scenes look at his Fashion Week show; and chats with Taylor Swift about her style.  But there is a segment with Jessica Stam, who opens her closet to talk "how to make the most of what's already there," and Chanel catches up with Erin Fetherson to throw a dinner party, so definitely worth a look; it premieres this Saturday, March 21, at 3 PM EST/PST.

>> INSIDER WIRE —MTV's new House of Style featuring hosts Chanel Iman and Bar Refaeli, plus Erin Fetherston, apparently, has a premiere date: this upcoming Saturday, March 21, at 3 PM EST.  Also of note — apparently it's a special, not a series. [FWD]

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>> Budget cuts brought fewer European retailers to New York Fashion Week and fewer US retailers to London Fashion Week — Julie Gilhart of Barneys, for one — so instead, designers are meeting them at the one Fashion Week they all can't miss: Paris.

Those from New York heading across the seas to meet with potential buyers and hopefully secure sales are Brian Reyes, Alexander Wang, and Victoria Bartlett of VPL, who are all sharing a space, plus Elise Overland, Jason Wu, Erin Fetherston, and Justin Giunta of Subversive Jewelry.  Diane von Furstenberg and Philip Crangi have already been spotted together at Tuileries, but The Ritz Paris is said to be the unofficial headquarters of retailer-designer-meet-and-greet activity.

The British Fashion Council is also investing itself in a trip to Paris — starting Friday, designers such as House of Holland, Osman Yousefzada, Felder Felder and Louise Gray will reside at the JTM Gallery on Rue de Richelieu, where international fashion press and buyers will have a second chance to peruse the collections; the hope, of course, is to increase investment in London designers.
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>> Besides the obvious runway trends that have emerged — cut-outs, metallics, thigh-high boots, emphasized shoulders — we're seeing something else: designers are sending out a substantially less gowns down the runway.  Now we're talking designers who dabble with gowns, not whose livelihoods depend on the red carpet — see Monique Lhuillier, Badgley Mischka, and their ilk — but Rodarte, who usually end their collections with a trio of three gowns, chose to bypass that segment for Fall 2009, sticking to minidress silhouettes all the way through.

Max Azria, who usually does at least three full-length dresses for Herve Leger, didn't have one hem below knee-length for the Fall 2009 collection. Diane von Furstenberg, who showed four floor-sweeping frocks for Spring 2009 and five for Fall 2008, had one singular gown — the last look — for Fall 2009.  Erin Fetherston, known for her proclivity for long, flowy dresses, had at least seven last season; for Fall 2009, there was one.  Matthew Williamson produced seven gowns for Spring 2009 and four for Fall 2008; this season, he went down to three.  Narciso Rodriguez didn't do any for Fall 2009; the list goes on.

So is it because we're maxed out on maxi dresses?  Because a long dress takes more fabric and therefore is more expensive to produce?  Because separates will likely sell better?  Because gowns just look too extravagant in these pinching times?  Whatever it is, we could be seeing a lot more cocktail-length dresses on the red carpet if this keeps up; that or, the gowns will all have to be custom.
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>> THE MODELIZER —Has Coco Rocha — who recently had her hair cut at a Steven Meisel shoot, she told The Daily — graduated from Style.com video host to E! News video host?  She was spotted backstage at Erin Fetherston today, interviewing the designer for the cameras with E! microphone, and then later, after she returned from her front row seat at Miss Sixty where she harassed Jessica Stam on the runway, looked like she was about to tape another segment in the middle of the tents.

UPDATE: It's confirmed from her blog — today was her "first day as a reporter for E!": "the pressure for that one interview with the celeb of the moment is quite intense, but don't get me wrong I lived for it. It was a great experience." [Oh So Coco]

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