>> Stefano Pilati has been in New York since the weekend, hanging out at the Mercer Hotel with Purple's Olivier Zahm, Chloe Sevigny, and Waris Ahluwalia, but last night he got down to business, hosting the launch of the Yves Saint Laurent sustainable "New Vintage" collection with Barneys.  All the bags, shoes, and dresses were cut from archive fabric left over from previous seasons, and Barneys fashion director Julie Gilhart reports that it went fast — only a few pieces left, and she grabbed one of the bags for herself.

Today, Pilati presented his Cruise 2010 collection to press and buyers — where Chanel Iman was apparently called out for Twittering while she modeled.

>> New York Mayor Bloomberg declared yesterday "Burberry Day," in honor of the lighting of the brand's logo atop its new US headquarters — watch a video of it going down here — and the weather complied with rain, appropriate for a brand known for their trench coats. "I was worried about the drizzle before, but now I love it," said Christopher Bailey, in town to celebrate. "It's all very English."

Christopher arrived to the unveiling last night with Lily Donaldson on his arm, who grinned and gushed about being "a Burberry girl" and "part of the [Burberry] family."  He went on to explain what an honor it it is to have the Burberry logo lit in the first place: "It's one of only six grandfathered buildings in New York where you can do that, so it's a big deal for us to be able to affect the iconic Manhattan skyline, which I love."

The excitement seems to have made him chatty — he covered a range of topics, from admitting that he dyed his hair blue once to discussing advertising fees — like Mario Testino's, which runs $140,000 a day: "You’re buying talent. And I think talent never goes away with the changing economy, and talent is something we all need to keep nurturing."

Models (Hilary Rhoda, Helena Christensen) mingled with editors (Kate Lanphear, who apparently has dyed her hair black underneath, Amy Astley, Cecilia Dean) and it girls (Byrdie Bell, Alexa Chung, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, Harley Viera-Newton), and the mix left at least one girl confiding that she didn't recognize Blake Lively — Lily Donaldson, who admitted: "I don't watch Gossip Girl. But you can't blame me. I don't even own a TV at the moment!"

The celebration seemed a success, except for skimping in one area.  An alcohol shortage kicked in around 9:30 pm, leaving one guest unhappy: "That's the driest party I've ever been to."  Same goes for Harley, Leigh Lezark, and Derek Blasberg, The Cut tweeted: "The party has run out of glasses, and the trio is displeased."

>> Julia Restoin-Roitfeld recently opened her New York apartment to Todd Selby, and it seems that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, even if she doesn't live in the same city as her mother Carine Roitfeld — they have the same stark, white-filled minimalist design sensibility when it comes to their homes.  Unsurprisingly, she has quite the collection of designer shoes, bags, jewelry, and back issues of Vogue Paris — but it does offer a peek at some childhood photos of her and brother Vladimir.  There's a framed picture of her first major ad campaign on the wall — for Tom Ford's Black Orchid fragrance — but she just scored a new fragrance campaign: Jil by Jil Sander, which she shot with Jan Welters back in December.
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>> It's officially happened — the first US Topshop is open (view inside), and frenzy was just as expected — funnily enough, the women at the front of the line this morning were from England, and flew in expressly for the store opening.  Christopher Kane was inside, even though he doesn't currently have a line for the store, and Marc Jacobs showed up with Lorenzo Martone last night, answering yesterday's question of his whereabouts.

Right at 11 am, when Kate Moss was supposed to make her appearance, employees encouraged the crowd to chant "Kate, Kate," and apparently she came out with Sir Philip Green, stood on a box as confetti fell, and did her catwalk around the box, all in about ten seconds before the doors were opened, she did a little dance (video), and disappeared — she's already been spotted at Pastis since.  But she has been doing quite the publicity blitz, revealing her list of loves to Style.com, and doing video interviews with the Telegraph and Teen Vogue.

Sir Philip Green is certainly coasting on the hype — two parties the past two nights, a VIP shopping event marked by Anna Wintour and Bee Shaffer appearances, and another party tonight — but will Topshop's cachet remain now that it's more accessible?  Jezebel's reporting that they're keeping the store empty and the line long to create hype, so we'll have to see if it works.
*image: source, source

>> Designers seem to have a new fixation on pairing mature women with younger men when it comes to advertising their accessories.  First, Karl Lagerfeld paired up 52-year-old Jerry Hall with Baptiste Giabiconi for Chanel handbags, and now, Brian Atwood cast 55-year-old Rene Russo to sex his Spring 2009 footwear up with Jon Kortajarena, Tom Ford-style (Jon is even Tom's campaign model of choice).  The steamy scenes were shot by Tony Duran over a period of two days at Russo's home, and are being collected in a limited-edition book, Role Play Rene, for Atwood to pass out.  Russo and Atwood didn't even meet until the shoot, but celebrated the 1,000 editions last night with a dinner in LA and tonight, will be feting again in New York tonight at a party hosted by Julia Restoin-Roitfeld.

Gallery is NSFW.
*image: source