It could be that fashion industry types are drinking away their slow-economy blues this Fashion Week, or perhaps they've just finally acknowledged that many runway looks are more attractive after a strong drink, but alcohol is is increasingly prevalent even in daytime Fashion Week events. Designers providing free liquor to their guests so far include Alexander Wang, Vena Cava—champagne and Budweiser tall boys!—and Loden Dager, whose Bungalow 8 show morphed into an afternoon cocktail-party, with waitresses proffering tasty concoctions made of the ginger liqueur Canton.

Rag & Bone, which has in the past opened a bar at Cipriani 42nd Street, went dry for their Joy Division-inspired show last Friday.  read more »

Kanye West might collaborate on a line of clothing with the Gap, or appear in a Gap commercial, or both! The hip hop artists was spotted this afternoon in Gap's corporate NYC offices. [Jezebel]

Cartier has filed suit against Donna Karan, charging the designer with stealing the name of the luxury jewelry maker's Tank watch by selling her own model called the Women's Ion-Plated Tank Watch. Cartier's version costs $10,000 and up; Ms. Karan's is $115. [NY Post]

Richie Rich said that his wonderfully whimsical Heatherette line, which he designs with Trevor Rains, is far from being over--even though both of the designers are taking a break from it. [The Cut]  read more »

On a recent balmy Saturday on the Ladies Mile of lower Fifth Avenue, the windows of Intermix, Anthropologie and H&M were just beginning to transition into displaying fall collections, but many of the shoppers shlepping around in 90-degree heat were curiously dressed in what could be mistaken for winter wear: Frye boots! Knit scarves! And woven beanie hats!  read more »

“You know you might get some looks if you wear boots and a scarf down the street in the summer,” said Morgan Monaco, 24, a Parks Department employee who has taken to wearing her Max Azria riding boots and black pashmina year-round.]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/style/boots-summer-augur-seasonless-revolt-autumn#comments O2 Alexander Wang Blue & Cream Boots Chloe Gwyneth Paltrow Kirsten Dunst Roberto Cavalli Scarves Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:59:27 -0400 Irina Aleksander 72523 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/style/morning-memo-7-16-08

Attendees expected to attend the Democratic Convention in Denver include Kanye West, Wyclef Jean, N.E.R.D., Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ed Norton Jr. [WashingtonPost]

Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are fighting to keep St. Vincent's hospital from expanding onto West 12th Street, three blocks from their home. [P6]

Brooke Shields says she got very emotionally involved with the Project Runway contestants when she filmed her upcoming guest judge spot. [The Cut]

The 10 finalists for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund were announced late yesterday and included: Richard Chai, Alexander Wang, Irene Neuwirth, and Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava.  read more »

It used to be that if a grown woman were wearing shorts, it would be for purely utilitarian, counter-style moments: jogging, errands on a hot Saturday, a trip to the Laundromat. That is no longer the case.

There is the return of the ’60s high-waisted hot pants, sent down the runway this season by Erin Fetherston and L.A.M.B. There is the Bermuda short that reaches right above the knee, from Tory Burch ($195) and BCBG Max Azria ($138), for the BlackBerry clutching gals in midtown, and the neat little cuffed and expertly tailored Fanciful Short by Alice and Olivia ($165) and Badgley Mischka ($138), preferred by those going for a Lower East Side look, like the actress Kirsten Dunst.  read more »

Not everyone who made an appearance at the Tim Burtonesque Angel Orensanz space on the Lower East Side last night knew what it was exactly that they were there to celebrate.

“I don’t actually know what it is, what is it?” asked designer Alexander Wang, who seemed bewildered when we wondered what he thought of the evening’s guest of honor, the “Jagger Dagger.”

Let us explain, Mr. Wang. We were gathered for the release of a specially designed $250,000 ice pick that Jade Jagger created for Belvedere vodka, but even we’re not entirely sure why since the event was not a fund-raiser of any kind.  read more »

When New York Fashion Week starts on Friday, Feb. 1, many will promptly begin anticipating its climax seven days later, when Marc Jacobs is scheduled to show his fall 2008 collection at the Lexington Avenue Armory at 7 p.m.—an improvement over last season’s 9 p.m. start time, which turned into 11 p.m. Mr. Jacobs had emerged from a stint in rehab tanned, honed and—after a thorough drubbing from a normally tolerant press—kinda defensive.  read more »

Fashion Week’s hottest after-party thus far? The Alexander Wang after-party on Thursday. Indeed, hot doesn’t even begin to describe it.

By 11 PM, as a large warehouse in the West 30s began to fill with fedora’d, tank-topped, creatively-hairstyled early twenty-somethings, the crowd was getting moist. By 11:30, anyone wearing a shirt had completely sweated through it. The music was loud and Strokes-centric, vodka was flowing, revelers were spilling out of the bathroom stalls four at a time—but none of this made up for the fact that we were all starting to smell. The Transom took this up with the charmingly youthful Mr. Wang, who bounced around the room posing for pictures, belle of his musky-scented ball. He was drenched, but cheerful. “I’m, like, working on AC right now,” he breathed. “It is so hot in here!”  read more »

The Transom was rudely rejected from up-and-coming design hotshot Alexander Wang’s show at Bumble & Bumble’s Meatpacking District salon this afternoon, despite the fact that we were on the list—and we weren’t the only ones.

This fiasco owed to a most unwelcome last-minute guest: the city’s Fire Marshal, who made it his business to ensure that the space’s capacity of 200 was in fact kept to—well, 200 (one wonders if this will be the case with the rest of the nine shows scheduled to take place at B&B?). Wang and Co. had clearly invited many more than that, and a tattooed publicist bemoaned the fact that their allotted 200 included both models and photographers, which left space for, like, no guests!  read more »