Recession scorecard: J.Crew is up; Hermès is down. While the former can boast only a slight increase in net income, the latter, unfortunately, has seen its profits dip 7 percent. And JPG might be leaving, too? Ouch. [WWD]
Versus is back. Donatella Versace’s”young and spunky” line is showing in Milan this season after Christopher Kane [...]

Bruno Frisoni is in town, and there’s only one thing to do when a cobbler of his caliber lands on our side of the pond—throw the man a fabulous cocktail party followed by an intimate private dinner. That’s just what Amanda Brooks did last night, greeting shoe lovers like Dr. Lisa Airan and J.Crew’s Jenna [...]

Disregard the name. According to Tim Hamilton, it’s giving people the wrong impression. “People hear ‘Tim Hamilton,’ and they immediately think all-American, they think casual, they think sportswear,” muses the designer, restraining a sigh. “You can’t really control how you’re perceived, but honestly, that’s really not who I am.” Indeed, Hamilton has come a long [...]

When Michelle Obama finds something she likes, she sticks with it. See her back-to-back choices of Jason Wu for The Big Night and the Vogue cover shoot, and the Web site-crashing J.Crew outfits she wore on Leno and again for the Vogue feature spread. There’s something comforting about her continued patronage of designers that work [...]

What: An art-world version of a beloved real-world staple: the Sharpie marker re-created by brand-subverting artist Tom Sachs.
Why: Because even though it’s more than you’re used to spending on a permanent marker, it’s far less than you’d spend on art. “[It’s] the closest that most of us will get to the art world, [...]

As part of its ongoing upward spiral, J.Crew today quietly opened a Women’s Collection store at Madison Avenue and 79th Street. And despite the gloomy economic forecast, shoppers were piling in to the uptown-meets-downtown space, conceived of down to the last Serge Mouille light fixture by creative director Jenna Lyons Mazeau. The draw? All the [...]

The Fall J.Crew accessories catalog arrives in mailboxes this week. As usual, the preppy retailer has done an excellent job of making Muffy look cool—mixing, for example, a puffy vest, pencil skirt, slouchy leather gloves, a metallic tote, and satin slingbacks in one improbable but editorially appealing ensemble. My favorite accessory? The beat-up looking leather [...]