It's good to see stores are realizing not everyone is blessed with fast metabolisms. Old Navy is the latest retailer to launch a plus size collection. Its fall collection has all the right trends - florals, bright colors and even some evening wear. Old Navy joins several other brands - Liz Claiborne, Dickies, Betsey Johnson - that have plus size collections (OldNavy.com/plus), which goes to show women of all sizes can look and feel fabulous.

Volume is back, and it’s reached new heights with the full skirt. Don’t be afraid, there are tame versions out there, like this GF Ferre skirt. It falls just above the knee, has pleats and looks smashing with a placketed blouse, cardigan and booties.

DSQUARED2 is bouncing everywhere lately – Paris and Milan for fashion weeks, and lately, Hong Kong, to open a new 2,727 square foot, two-level store at Central On-Lan Street. The store has ready-to-wear clothes and accessories, and also fitting rooms with leather-trimmed doors surrounded by tree trunks and birch trees. It can’t be a DSQUARED2 store without a touch of wood, great clothes, amazing accessories and fabulously eclectic decorations.

Rossella Jardini, Creative Director of Moschino, and the Moschino company, in partnership with Hotelphilosophy S.p.A., Mobygest Group, will open the Moschino hotel next year in Milan near the trendy Corso Como area. The hotel space, a former railway station dating back to the year 1840, will feature four floors, 54 rooms and 15 suites, with each room/suite being different from the other, with the overall theme being that of a fairy tale. The hotel will also feature a bar, restaurant, spa, gym and public garden.

Thus far the only information released, is that of one of the rooms that features a chandelier with rose petals, a coverlet below it made up of rose petals, as though the petals from the chandelier had fallen upon the bed, and a modern designed chair in crimson with the interior cushions having semi-origami folds of a flower petal. A more in depth unveiling will happen this weekend at the TTG Incontri, a tourism expo in Rimini, Italy. Couture's very own merchandisers travel to Italy twice yearly for vendor appointments, perhaps this will be the new favorite place to stay, no?

When the word “chic” is in the city’s name, you know it has to have some fashion sense. And it looks like New York and Paris no longer have a monopoly on haute couture – Chicago’s History Museum has a vintage couture exhibit: “Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum.” It features couture dresses from 1861 to 1996 – Chanel to Lanvin to Versace, as well as Pingat gowns from the Gilded Age. The exhibit will also show fashion-related films such as Unzipped, a documentary chronicling Isaac Mizrahi’s work after his mixed-reviewed 1993 show, and The Fashion Frontier, about the relationship between political statements and clothing.

The best part is it will be at the museum until July 2009. There’s plenty of time to check it out.

We here at Couture often give our viewpoints on fashion and trends as part of our ongoing reporting duties, but this time around we want you dear reader, to tell us what you think about certain fashion and trends. Share with us your favorite shoe style and tell us why?

We here at Couture love fashion, as you already know, but we especially love great fashion presentation. Another of our fashion favorites, due to her consistent ability to effortlessly pull off a 'rocker chic' aesthetic, is Janelle G. She rocks empire waist frocks, a plethora of skinny jeans, drapey strapless tops and enviable leather cut out sky high heels. Ms. Janelle, we love the way you rock it!

Maverick designer Rei Kawakubo, of Comme des Garcons, that sought-after label of coolness, has signed on to design a line of evening bags for the luxury label Louis Vuitton. As we all know, Marc Jacobs, the designer for Louis Vuitton, has a wonderful eye for picking the right guest designer and/or artist to design handbags for the company. Just think of the Murikami handbags and pop-up concept shops, or the Stephen Sprouse grafitti logo handbags from a few years ago.

But getting Rei was a true coo, after all, the designer herself eschews labeled bags and only carries a plain black tote for a night out on the town. Known for her avant garde style, one can only anticipate the cutting edge designs that she will produce for Vuitton. My style bets are on lots of LBBs (little black bags), some futuristic materials and interesting shapes. Um, note to all, get on the waiting list. If these bags sell like the previous guest collections, they will be sold out before they ever hit a store.

There was another episode of Runway last night, which means we’ve got another rundown of it for you here. We also are priviledged to have another opinion of the episode. John Fanok, Brand Designer here at Zappos, gives us his thoughts.

The challenge: Get inspired by New York City at night, and design something that reflects that. Flashback to Season 2 episode: get inspired by New York City during the day challenge…

The winner:
SS: Kenley was channeling Mad Men/early ‘60s style (clearly, her personal style) among other trends. Her winning design, a printed bubble-shaped mini dress with long sleeves, impressed the judges with its shape and abstract print. Prints are a major trend for fall 2008, congratulations Kenley.

JF: What's with that balloon on her hip? Looks like a goiter, ew! I don't agree with the winning decision but what do I know? I thought Leanne made a great comeback and learned to edit, edit ,edit. Leanne captured the essence of the NYC photograph that inspired the design.

The loser:
SS: You know, Emily’s dress really wasn’t that bad – basic black asymmetrical dress with a T-shaped orange and yellow ruffle up the front – but it was boring in comparison with the others. Other designers like Stella’s metallic vest and skinny gray jeans and Korto’s all black pantsuit were equally boring due to their monochromatic color scheme and all too familiar fashion shapes, but were better executed. Every episode someone must be auf’d, so the judges had to say Auf Wiedersehen to Emily. Come on, when Nina gives you the condescending smile, you know you’re a goner.

JF: Loser and rightfully so. She may have captured the image in the photo, but it was poorly executed. Keith skated by and he had better watch out. His piece was innovative but the model looked like she was wearing a paper bag, she had no curves.

Dear readers do you have any predictions for who will last ‘til the end? I think Suede will go far, but I wish he would stop talking about himself in third person. John thinks Kelli and Blayne will make the top three, too. We welcome your opinions, so write back and let us know.

The Hills has much more going on than the catfights and fabulous outfits. But it does have to do with fabulous outfits, actually.

Heidi Montag, villainness of The Hills, is taking a needle out of costar Lauren Conrad’s sewing box. She has just reportedly signed a deal to design her own line of clothing. This fast spreading affliction seens to be de rigueur for the “I think I can design because I am hot right now” young Hollywood set. First Nicky Hilton, then her sister Paris, followed by Mandy Moore, Amanda Bynes and Lauren Conrad, but the list goes on. Just how many clothes can a fashionable girl/woman wear? It is a Hollywood punishable offense to repeat an outfit!

This deal for Heidi follows on an earlier one where she will be the face of the spring/summer 2008 campaign for the store Anchor Blue along with designing seasonal pieces for them. We wonder what her pieces will look like; we actually like some of Conrad’s past pieces.