Myra is back with a new pair of boots, and these boots are made for Rockin (Several different ways that is ! ) . Myra has been with Zappos for a little over a year, and she, along with the entire Juniors team have helped us to bring the Juniors Fashion Portfolio to the next level. Great job to Myra, and the rest of the Juniors Fashion Team!

One of the secrets of expanding a small wardrobe is to make sure that each piece you buy can be worn with something you already have. Let's look at Zappos.com for three easy pieces, and then think about how you can wear each one with something already in your closet.

Everyone needs a good pair of trousers, and these "Jackie" wide leg pants from Liz Claiborne do the trick. They're denim with a classic cut and style. The flat waistband sits at the natural waist, and the hems of those wide legs are cuffed. These are classic pants you can dress up or down, and wear with almost anything.

The second piece of this outfit is this stylish scoop-line top from MICHAEL at Michael Kors. It has a flowing design to make it comfortable, and that scoop neckline is dressed up with little round studs. Its vivid red coloring is the perfect complement to the dark pants.

Finally, layer the top with another Liz Claiborne piece; this stretch denim peacoat is all about style, with a double breasted three-button front, pointed collar, and welt pockets. The cuffs have a button accent, and the jacket has a back vent for ease of movement.

Put the pieces together, and you've got a great outfit. But look at them separately and see what else they can do. The pants can dress down with a colorful tee, or dress up a bit with a long-sleeved shirt (think Tommy Bahama or BCBGirls) left out or tucked in. You can top the shirt with a cardigan when cooler temperatures arrive.

The peacoat, in navy denim, is a neutral that can top almost anything in your closet. If you have a sheath dress (look at the ones from Hype for ideas), top it with the jacket before you put it away for fall, and keep wearing the summer dress through the next season. Finally, the Michael Kors top would be perfect over white pants or capris for a bright summer look.

Now you've got three easy pieces and four stylish looks. Does life get any better?

Marc Jacobs and DKNY significantly cut down their guest list for fashion week, and Marc Jacobs even went so far as to - gasp! - cancel the after party.

No after party? That's reason enough to realize fashion weeks are greatly being affected by the economy.

DKNY cut its guest list from the usual 1,000 down to just 400. Four hundred people. That's it.

Marc Jacobs's list, normally 2,000, was cut to 700. Robert Duffy, Jacobs' business partner, also told papers there will only be "one or two celebrities." One or two celebrities at the Marc Jacobs show? At New York Fashion Week? That just seems so ... wrong. And did we mention no after party?

Okay, we understand the importance of cutting costs, but we can still mourn.

In addition, several publications are cutting back on sending editors to overseas fashion weeks. This year's fashion weeks all seem like they'll be a bit warped.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association officially votes on the awards given out annually at the Golden Globes. Unofficially, though, the ceremony is known as the first celebrity fashion show of the year. And 2009 definitely demonstrated the stars' abilities to deck themselves in their classiest clothes.

Among those with fashion-to-die-for: Kate Winslet, who looked sleekly chic in her perfectly fitted black gown (Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent). The only detraction: bonny Kate tended to tug at the top of her strapless dress. Demi Moore, attired in a white Dior that contrasted beautifully with her hair, continues to appear about three decades younger than she is.

And although she and Brad snubbed Ryan Seacrest, Versace-clad Angelina Jolie looked every inch the star in a draped gown. Special mention must go to Drew Barrymore, whose exquisitely fitted blue gown deservedly drew gasps of appreciation as she paraded down the red carpet. From her perfectly coiffed hair to her demurely clad shoes, Drew shone like a real star.

It almost seems cruel to comment on some of the truly bad fashion that showed up for the Golden Globes ... but it's irresistible. Standing out among the worst: Renee Zellweger, who for some inexplicable reason (temporary insanity?) decided to slip into a solid white bra beneath her sheer black gown. Huh? Another pitiful failure: Rumer Willis, who wore a badly fitting dress that looked as if it came from a yard sale (hint to Demi: please give your daughter a lesson in fashion!).

Then there's Maggie Gyllenhaal, a lovely girl who seems to have an unfortunate fondness for fashion errors. She began 2009 with her traditional lack of style by choosing a very peculiar print that had this volcanic eruption of fabric on her shoulder. Could someone please call in the fashion police for this hapless celebrity?

Last but not least: don't men have fashion advisors anymore? The ones on parade at the Golden Globes certainly didn't seem to. The one exception: youthful-yet-dapper Zac Efron, who chose a sophisticated tux-and-tie combo, which surely caused more than one young girl to sigh with envy at Zac's gal pal Vanessa Hudgens (whose gorgeous gown's elegance matched her boyfriend's charm).

Amsterdam International Fashion Week 2009 will take place from January 24 to February 1, 2009, at Westengasfabriek. If you want to try a unique and different kind of fashion show, you should try out the International Fashion Week of Amsterdam. The AIFW has slowly become the recognized fashion week that stands for alternative and innovative ideas by taking inspiration from the city of Amsterdam and its very well-rounded talent pool of young people. The AIFW offers the most hip and modern catwalk shows, and in between the shows it has events, exhibits, lectures and parties scheduled. The event has gone from the previous three catwalk shows, just some years back, to the current 20 shows, and over 50 events were scheduled last year.

Previous catwalk shows at Amsterdam International Fashion Week have featured designers and lines such as; Daite by Tessa Koops, C'est Brilliant, EAH Non by Kim, Django Steenbakker, Blue Blood and many more. EAH! Got the nomination for being most daring. Eva Hanna, who is the face behind EAH!, did not grace the catwalk this time as she had in previous show but stayed behind the scenes and pulled off a show with great, new and innovative designs of summer dresses, sandals, beach wear, bags, shoes and jewelry.

Amsterdam International Fashion Week is sponsored by great companies such as Redken, Maybelline, Evian, Torres, Heineken and a great number of other sponsors whom have their own events and parties throughout the week. The 14th Frans Molenaar Award was given to Danny Cremers with the prize he also got awarded 10,000 euro, which he can use on his future couture shows.

Amsterdam International Fashion Week's motto is that fashion should be for everybody, so they created along with fashion week a program called "Downtown Programme," which can be attended by anyone. Highlights from the event were "Fashion in Film" at Kriterion and a bags exposition of Liesbeth Kaag that took place at the museum of bags and purses.

Amsterdam International Fashion Week takes place twice a year; it put Amsterdam on the map as a town of innovative fashion.

Written by lisa Kir

Miami Fashion Week will be held from March 19-22, 2009 at SOHO Studios in the Wynwood Art District of Miami. While those of us up the coast tend to think of New York as the fashion center of the United States, we can't forget that Miami is the gateway city for all of Latin America, and there are tons of fashion talent and fashionistas south of the border.

Miami Fashion Week was designed to cater to this enormous and growing market. It's the largest international fashion event in the United States with a focus on Central and South American designers and buyers, but the rest of the world is well-represented too, with fashion media and celebrities from such far-flung places as Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, India, Italy, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and the United Arab Emirates attending. (I wish they'd had it back when I was in ninth grade, it would have made an excellent topic for my World Cultures report!)

There's much more to Miami Fashion Week than just fashion shows. Events will include seminars on topics such as trends, retail and apparel law, a buyer's salon for clothing, a similar marketplace for jewelry and accessories and, as you would expect from Miami, lots and lots of really cool parties!

Miami Fashion Week is also sponsoring several contests. There's a Student Fashion Designer Competition open to any student currently enrolled in a college level fashion design, management or merchandising program in the U.S. who's able to produce one full outfit for the showcase, which includes shoes and accessories. There's also an Emerging Designer Competition for Florida designers who have been in business from between 2-5 years, have their clothes sold in at least one retail store and are able to produce a full collection. Deadline for entry in these competitions is January 15, 2009, and winners will be announced on February 2. Since Miami is a lifestyle as much as a place, they're also planning a competition for interior and furniture designers, though details on that one are sketchy at the moment. For more information on Miami Fashion Week, visit www.miamifashionweek.com.

If you really need to get away from it all in December and appliquéd Santa or reindeer sweaters don't satisfy your sense of style, why not plan a trip to a fashion show in Fiji? The first annual Fiji Fashion Week will be held at the fabulous Renaissance Fiji Beach Resort and Spa on Denarau Island in Nadi, Fiji, December 3-7. It will showcase Autumn/Winter 2009 fashions for the southern hemisphere — yeah, there's a whole half of the world that's not on the same schedule as Paris — through a two-day workshop for emerging designers, two nights of fashion shows and an exhibition day showcasing designs from both emerging and established Fiji brands and designers.

Designers featured at Fiji Fashion Week Winter '09 include Manafidji, Robert Kennedy, Wai Tui, Uprising Beach Resortwear, Value City, Hupfield Hoerder, Samu Cabe, Tali by Rajan Sami, Courtney Nicole & Arieta Tora, Ellie Nusbaum, Brittany Byrne, Craig Marlow, Carlos Semisi & William Sanday and Lisa Lee. The local fashion sensibility is definitely tropical, but surprisingly chic — no Hawaiian shirts or Bermuda shorts in sight. And lest you be in doubt about whether Fiji is really a hotbed of fashion or not, celebrities that have visited there recently include Britney Spears, Tori Spelling, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Demi Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Russell Crowe, John Travolta and Mel Gibson.

The really interesting part of Fiji Fashion Week, though, is the attention given to further development of fashion talent through the workshops. Designers will be on hand to discuss all aspects of putting together a line, from designing a collection to marketing it to maximizing press coverage and sales from the perspective of fashion editors and stylists. Fashion weeks aren't usually as upfront about the commercial side of the business — I like to call them the world's most glamorous tradeshows — but in Fiji there's even a meet-and-greet exhibition between designers and buyers. Think about it, fashion designer wannabes. You could stand out there as a big fish in a small pond and live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It sure beats Fashion Week Rochester, anyway!

If your daughter is the age where she's into American girl dolls (and that pretty much covers kids ages 6 to 96), why not give her a treat and take her to an American Girl Fashion Show? American Girl dolls are themed around historical characters and modern girls, so the variety of styles ensures your child will be able to find SOMETHING she likes. The historical characters are Julie (circa 1970 and clearly targeted at the moms who remember bell bottom jeans and peasant tops from the first time around), Molly (1940s era, with the same idea, except appealing to grandmas), Samantha (early 20th century), Kit (Great Depression), Addy (Civil War), Kirsten (pioneer days), Josefina (early 1800's), Felicity (Colonial times) and Kaya (whenever it was that Native Americans were allowed to live their lives in peace without interference from invaders).

The modern American girl dolls' lifestyles range from that of a regular suburban kid to the daughter of archeologists, so the outfit possibilities are almost endless. Accessories are aplenty too, which lead my friend, who grew up during the actual Depression to comment, "There's something really twisted about the fact that this doll has 32 accessories , which each cost more than it cost to feed my family for a month back then." But the dolls aren't really intended to reflect accurate history, they're more a way to get kids to deal with current problems through the rose-colored prism of time. (Well, that and to sell a lot of dolls, books and clothes.)

Outfits are made to match for girls and dolls, and there are even custom dolls that can be made to look like your daughter, but they all share the same face. The difference is mostly in coloring and hairstyle. The fashion shows include refreshments, prizes and lectures on how clothing over the years has reflected history, culture and individual style.

All shows benefit local nonprofit organizations, and local talent is hired to portray the characters in the books (my daughter's friend got to be Kit one year because she shared a similar blonde bob with the doll.) For more information and local dates in your area, go to www.americangirl.com.

The good folks of the Epworth United Methodist Church in Indianapolis have come up with a great idea for a fashion show that puts the spotlight on green living and giving back to the community: the 2008 Recycled Threads Fashion Show. The event will take place on Friday, November 14, at 7 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 6450 Allisonville Road, Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Recycled Threads show is also a contest, and Epworth United Methodist, along with its cosponsors (+Indiana Living Green Magazine,+ Interfaith Alliance Indianapolis Care For Creation Committee, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Dress for Success Indianapolis), are hoping to discover the next Tara Subkoff while doing good. The requirements for the contest are as follows:

Purchase clothing or accessories (shoes, stockings and undergarments are not allowed) at a second-hand clothing, consignment or thrift store. Alter them imaginatively with new or second-hand items, including normal embellishments such as buttons, appliqué or embroidery. Contestants are especially encouraged to use household or office items that would otherwise be thrown away (someone watched the episode of Ugly Betty where Christina made couture out of paper clips, methinks.)

The contest is open to individuals and groups in the categories of children's wear (6-12), teens (13-18), women's wear and men's wear. The outfits will be judged on stylishness, imagination, appearance, cost savings and audience reaction.

Prizes will be awarded by category; first place wins $75, second place nets $50, and third place is $25. In addition, all entries in the children's category will receive a small prize for participation.

Contest entry deadline is November 6, 2008. All entrants must pay an application fee, which is $15 per adult, $10 per teenager and $5 per child. All proceeds benefit the charitable organizations sponsoring the contest. The entries will be judged by a panel and the top examples in each category will be accepted for the show, with final judging taking place there. It sounds like so much fun I'm hoping the idea catches fire and spreads across the country to the East Coast! Maybe I'll enter just for the heck of it! Road trip to Indiana, anyone?

Few of us can afford to fly to Paris to see the collections, but if you're interested in a quick fashion getaway to a foreign city with a true international sense of style, nothing could be easier than Toronto. L'Oreal Fashion Week Spring 2009 will take place from October 20-25, 2008 at the spectacularly stylish Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto. Unlike New York Fashion Week, our neighbors to the north are a bit more egalitarian about fashion. Some of the shows are by invitation only, so this is one scene where, if it interests you, it's actually worth traveling to check out in person rather than viewing on Style.com.

The Fall 2008 Toronto Fashion Week included big names such as Alfred Sung, Diesel and Buffalo DAVID BITTON, but it also featured some of the most unusually named fashion lines I've ever heard: bustle, Damsels In This Dress and Playdead Cult, BODYBAG by Jude, and gsus sindustries. It kind of sounds more like an alternative music festival than a fashion week, but after being in Bryant Park for days, I was ready for a little irreverence and checked those lines out. The gsus line, which originated in the Netherlands as a skate shop in 1993 and moved through street wear into high fashion, impressed me the most; it featured red pleather pants and dresses, elaborate head wraps, some of the best cut jeans I've ever seen and, dare I say it, touches of acid-washed denim that managed to look completely modern due to their lines and construction.

Local line Preloved was another standout. Creative director Julia Grieve, a former model, constructs the remade clothing line out of vintage sweaters. One collection can require as many as 50,000 of them, and each new garment manages to retain the vintage flair while appearing totally up to date and assisting the environment. (The clothes used to construct Preloved would otherwise end up in landfills.) Preloved kind of reminds me of Toronto itself: clean, friendly and slightly cheeky.

Some of the most innovative ideas in fashion shows lately have come from charity events. One fashion show I'm really looking forward to was conceived by Seam Collective, an initiative that matches female designers whose styles complement each other with their ideal customer, the chic, urban boutique shopper. These designers and their ideal customer have heart, though, as they're now working hand in hand with Women Rising, a Hudson County based charity that serves women and their families in Jersey City and the surrounding communities, allowing them to achieve self-sufficiency and live safe, fulfilling and productive lives through social services, economic development and advocacy services.

Seam Collective is presenting Fenomenon, a fashion show whose proceeds benefit Women Rising, at the Canco Lofts in Jersey City on Saturday, October 25, 2008. Fenomenon will also incorporate a dance party with DJ Jen Johnson. Doors will open at 6 p.m., with a complimentary wine bar until 8 p.m., when the runway show will start. Other entertainment includes interactive photo shoots, burlesque dancers and visual art.

Designers showing at Fenomenon include Elizabeth Rynish, a founder of the Seam Collective, who primarily designs women's dresses; Deepti Moti Babani, whose Indian heritage is a strong influence on her designs; Kattina Hilton, whose unique specialty is well-constructed and sexy one-piece swimsuits; Annie Lim, who focuses on clean-lined, wearable sportswear separates; Elizabeth Kosich, who designs high-fashion knitwear bikinis and loungewear; Shiana, an alumni of Ebony Fashion Fair who designs elegant evening wear; and Bieja-Flor, a mother-daughter team who produce designer jeans with a Brazilian body-conscious aesthetic.

The concept of Seam Collective is to present female designers who excel in a particular fashion niche together, so that this ideal customer, an affluent young professional woman, can utilize this seamless shopping experience to fill all her wardrobe needs at once. Fashion designers are often criticized for excelling in one area above others ("She's just a dress designer" is the kiss of death from reviewers), but if we're honest, most of them do anyway, so why not be upfront about it? This is one fashion show where I'll genuinely want to shop.

The Paris Ready To Wear (Pret-a-Porter) fashion shows will be held from September 27 to October 5, and one of the most closely watched shows will be Yves Saint Laurent, taking place at the Grand Palais on October 2. Although Stefano Pilati has been designing for YSL since 2004, this will be his first Parisian collection out from under the shadow of Yves Saint Laurent himself, who died in June 2008.

New York Fashion Week was filled with tributes to YSL, who was known for his slouchy silhouette and elegant appropriation of menswear. Tom Ford, who designed the collection until 2004, ignored this meme in favor of the sexy siren look he perfected for Gucci, but his worldview was met with disfavor by the Yves Saint Laurent customer. Pilati, however, has stayed closer to the mandate he's been given.

His Autumn/Winter 2008 collection featured menswear-inspired separates in neutral monochrome, with subtle shots of color like cobalt blue and sunshine yellow to alleviate the seriousness of the look. The waist and hips were a major focal point, with high-waist pants accented by narrow belts, color blocking, or ingenious cutouts in their matching jackets. Skirts and pants both belled downwards to echo the cocoon shape of the coats, allowing Pilati to present sophisticated but flattering lines. Tactile but potentially dour fabrics such as flannel, velvet, leather and tweed were accessorized with punk rock dog collars, severe haircuts and black lipstick, as if the youngest daughter in an English manor had dressed in the dark, grabbing half of her own clothing and half of her mother's. My favorite look was a high-collared brown velvet jacket with prominent zippers mixed with an asymmetrical black leather zippered skirt. It sounds odd in the telling, but it was a collection you not only wanted to look at, you wanted to wear.

I believe Yves Saint Laurent would truly be proud of his namesake of a sort. After all, he got his start at 17 when he took over design duties for Christian Dior.

Hair and makeup trends at New York Fashion Week Spring 2009!

Makeup for spring 2009 will feature dark, exotic eyes paired with rosy or neutral cheeks and lips, and hair will be streamlined, if you can believe what I saw backstage this week at New York Fashion Week. The look, ideal customer and intent is obviously going to differ from fashion show to fashion show if you're looking at Abaeté, L'Wren Scott, Carolina Herrera and Betsey Johnson, but there were a couple of common threads running through all those shows that differed merely in the details.

The makeup mastermind at Abaeté was Jeannine Lobell for Stila, and she created a dramatic eye using a Smudge Pot (gel eyeliner) in charcoal gray. The eyeliner extended around the eye in all directions, include inward (it was applied to the inner rim), and was neither smoky nor sharp but was blended to fade out like the end of a song. Jeannine let the eyes stand out by pairing them with clean skin and just a hint of rosy lips.

Carolina Herrera is the first lady of fashion, and her makeup look was positively presidential, much like that at Abaeté but slightly more ladylike and subdued. The hair at her show was slicked back but slightly textured, as shown off inimitably by Agyness Deyn.

The hair at Abaeté was created by David Cruz of Redken and featured tight buns with dimensional shine created by the application of Electric Wax. It's an elegant look anyone could wear successfully at home, and for this I applaud him!

L'Wren Scott's eyes were more rocker chick, and her hair was bed-head, but contained Bed Head, all of which was fitting for Mick Jagger's main squeeze. But the true rock star of fashion week was Betsey Johnson, and she had a look all her own, created by Fulvia of Make Up Forever and Italo of Redken. Her makeup was pure Raggedy Ann, with long faux eyelashes on top and bottom, created with Aqua Eyes eyeliner. These were paired with very rosy cheeks and lips on white skin, a look I'm about to recreate with stuff I bought at Target. Hair was synthetic wigs in bright colors with lots of shine, cut into a sharp bob to bring the eyes into focus. My good friend Italo says you need a certain personality to carry off those colors, but anyone can wear the cut.

The Macy's Passport Fashion Show is celebrating it's 25^th
anniversary this year with a theme you'd expect from Northern
California: Passion and Compassion. This event, sponsored by Macy's
West and American Express, will be held over Wednesday and Thursday,
September 17^th and 18^th, at the Fort Mason Center
in San Francisco, and will benefit charities that fight against
HIV/AIDS. Macy's Passport has contributed over $27,000,000 to these
charities to date.

Macy's Passport is one of the
highest-anticipated fashion shows for San Francisco society. Tickets
cost $200 for runway seats, or $85 for general admission. San Francisco
is a liberal, creative city, of course, and besides the kinds of things
you'd expect at a fashion show sponsored by a department store, like
trend forecasting for Nike, Hugo Boss and Wonderbra, it could be
described as a circus, if the term was used complimentarily.

Macy's
Passport features unique entertainment such as motorcyclists, break
dancers, strippers, Bollywood musical numbers, and sex education game
show-type audience participation games. The lighting and music for the
show are award-winning, and celebrities who have appeared at the show
include Claudia Schiffer, Christie Turlington, Elizabeth Taylor, Sharon
Stone, Annette Bening, Tyra Banks, Macy Gray, Cindy Crawford, Tina
Turner, Will Smith, Liza Minnelli, k.d. lang, Jennifer Lopez, Sean
Combs, Dita von Teese, and Mary J. Blige. Designers Calvin Klein,
Michael Kors, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Hilfiger, Anna Sui, Vera Wang and Marc Jacobs have all participated as well.

After
the show the clothes from the runway will be available for sale on eBay
as well, providing another opportunity to fundraise for AIDS charities.
Fashion shows outside of New York can appear provincial, especially
when Fashion Week is tacked on arbitrarily at the end of any city name
that's having a fashion show for even an afternoon-Mattoon Fashion Week
and Bagel Fest, anyone? San Francisco is a world-class city, though,
and the fashions at Macy's Passport rival anything you could find in
the tents in Bryant Park, with the atmosphere possibly trumping the New
York shows. Don't snub it because it has the name of a department store
found in every mall across the country in its title; take a look, it's
time well-spent.

Rock & Republic will be showing at Spring 2009 New York Fashion Week on September 6, 2008, and I hope to be there in person, as last year I watched their fashion show on a video screen in the lobby of the main tent at Bryant Park, due to a series of parking mishaps that left me locked out of the Carolina Herrera show, which was my A-list invitation for my very first Fashion Week ever. It turned out okay because immediately afterwards I got myself into Nanette Lepore without an invitation by sweet-talking Nanette's mother, but that's a story for another day.

Rock & Republic, the brainchild of CEO and creative director Michael Ball, is best known for their fit-oriented, sleekly modern denim, but they've branched out quite a bit, first into what I would call club wear, and now they're launching a cosmetics line just in time for fall. Side note to laypeople: the fashion shows - at least the RTW, couture works differently - are labeled 6 months in advance, so a fashion show that takes place in September 2008 is Spring 2009. Confusingly, however, cosmetics lines are labeled with the actual current date. So Rock & Republic's new Fall 2008 cosmetics line will debut at Spring 2009 Fashion Week, in September 2008. (And everyone wonders why I'm so easily confused - half my brain is taken up with stuff like this.)

The women's wear in Rock & Republic's Spring 2008 show featured a long, lean silhouette reminiscent of Bianca Jagger in her Studio 54 days. For those of us above a certain age, virtually anything called "modern" harks back to our childhood, but it was a gloriously glamorous era that I remember through a haze of nostalgia so I couldn't like it more. In some ways, the men's line was less appealing to me, because it harked back to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, but Michael Ball is currently collaborating with Julia Restoin-Roitfeld on Rock & Republic's first major ad campaign for the September magazines, which will be coming out in a couple of weeks, so expect amazing things from them in the very near future!