If you are not a classic movie star buff, Kathryn Grayson, who died this year, was both a film actress and stage actress and a trained opera singer. She started to get small roles in MGM films in the ’40′s, and really hit it in a movie called “Seven Sweethearts.” She went on to star in films with Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra (“Anchors Aweigh”) and filmed editions of famous operas. She also starred in famed fifties musicals “Showboat” and “Kiss Me Kate.” She also performed countless musicals on Broadway. Now A.N. Abell, purveyors of antiques and art, will conduct an estate sale for the operatic film star. It will take place on Thursday August fifth at ten am, and will not only include contents from Grayson’s home, such as furniture and art, but highlighted items including over 100 articles of vintage fashion, apparel and accessories dating form the 1940-1960’s. We understand the fashion section is really strong, and that serious afficianados of forties to sixties vintage are going to be very excited. The location is at Abell’s warehouses and showrooms – 2613 Yates Avenue, Commerce, CA 90040 323 724 8102. Apparently, Abell is known for very fair prices, even if they are a bit out of town.

Katie Holmes is one star who doesn’t need to have a designer dress and hair and makeup on to leave her house and head to the streets. She was spotted crossing Sunset in the last few days in Madewell cropped jeans – shocking! There are so many more expensive, luxurious and status conscious jeans out there! We love the casual cotton army jacket, matching the whole thing with grey Louboutins – and then throwing a Ferragamo fall hobo bag in a chocolate color over her arm. Ferragamo makes very nice leather shoes and bags in Italy, but it’s also known a bit as a rather “conservative” and “older” brand. We like that Katie isn’t only about the hip status brands – and lord knows, she could.

We’re living for this photo, fyi: models and rock star daughters Theodora and Alexandra Richards flanking their famous parents: Patti Hansen (in the purple) and Keith Richards. You don’t see this ultra cool NY based family in a photo very often. The occasion was the launch of a new bag line called Hung On U – put out by Patti Hansen – a major supermodel of the 70′s and 80′s – with talent manager Molly Madden (Debra Messing, Patricia Arquette) and designer Deb Koppel, at the downtown Standard Hotel in Manhattan. The bags are a play on slings, and allow for totally handless carrying – perfect for NY, and for dancing and nightlife. Theodora and Alexandra found a vintage version of them in Patti’s vintage closet, and convinced Patti and her pals it would be cool to re-do them. The collection now includes nylon, mesh, and leather selections. “Alex takes the yellow nylon version to Spain with her, throws a bathing suit in it and goes to the beach,” said Patti. They actually are the perfect beach handbags. Let’s face it, you really don’t want your Birkin on the beach. If “Sex and the City” was still on tv – new episodes, not re-runs – we can only imagine how they’d use this new/old fashion accessory. Meanwhile, the rock star/model cred is enough to recommend it on its own.- Merle Ginsberg

We know. You’ve been draggin’ around that basic black Givenchy tote bag for two years now, and while it looks good even a bit beat up, this fall, many of the accessories have color. Since accessory designers have finally figured out that most women like to wear black because it 1/goes anywhere, and 2/makes them look thin. and 3/never clashes – they’ve started making shoes and bags that are more designed and more colorful, to jazz up your simple chic perennial clothing. Lockheart bags are made by the former designers of Isabel Fiore, here in L.A. – and they are very reasonably priced, about $600 – about a fourth of the average designer bag these days. They just put their autumn lookbook online at www.lockheart.com. Here are a couple of looks we’re marking on our hard drives.

So many L.A. women have flipped for pieces by French designer Isabel Marant – which are carried in very few L.A. stores: Barneys, a store in Sunset Plaza and Satine, on West Third St. near Crescent Heights. Satine seems to be ground zero for the full range of Isabel pieces – they take orders, and their customers contact them after they see runway show images and place their orders well ahead of time. When Satine does receive new shipments – like today, they just received a lot of the best fall pieces – they sell out almost immediately. Many of the pieces have been pre-ordered. Here are some of things they’ve gotten in, and if you’re at all interested, we advise to contact their stylist/personal shopper right away: Shannon Jett, at vintagepr@gmail.com. That shoe with the bow is the “poppy shoe” – a black kitten heel pump with a detachable bow – always a good idea. Or just enjoy the window shopping, like we do.

While L.A. ladies tend to go all “ladies of the canyon” when it gets brutally hot, New Yorkers go tighter and shorter, generally. The New York Times Styles section showed Manhattanites in all form of short dresses today (7/29). We checked in with a NY A-list party this week in humid melty NYC, at the Cinema Society of NY – the hottest screening party in town. Blake Lively kept cool in a cut-out back little Chanel dress of mixed textures. Jessica Szohr donned a grey t shirt tunic with grey skinny jeans. (This doesn’t look like it feels very cool in that weather, but it looks hip.) Designer Nicole Miller chose a fatique dress to go with spring’s army trend – that never really took off, did it? And Zoe Kravitz surprised everyone and wore a very baggy silky lilac dress, with longish sleeves (for summer, anyway) and a longer length. Perhaps she was thinking ahead to fall. – MG

Yes, we’re all jones-ing this summer for a major red carpet and some big A-list stars in fabulous clothes outside of Angelina Jolie and Marion Cotillard. But there’s two only a month away – the Emmys on August 29 and the Venice International Film Festival (the one in Italy) which plays from September first to the eleventh. Sofia Coppola’s new film “Somewhere” is the story of a jaded Hollywood star and his daughter – and the star is played by Benecio del Toro, but Michelle Monaghan and model Angela Lindvall are in too. Big names like Natalie Portman will be on the red carpet, because she stars as a ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” – with Mila Kunis, who is on fire right now. These actresses worked super hard to come across as seasoned pro ballerinas. And Julian Schnabel’s film “Miral” – based on a book about a Palestinian orphanage after Israel was formed in 1948 – stars Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave. The new Ben Affleck-directed film “The Town” should bring out its stars Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall and Ben Affleck himself. And both Aronofksy and Affleck could bring their famous wives: Rachel Weisz, and Jennifer Garner. And these actresses will all be doing press conferences, red carpets and parties – so no doubt, right now, their stylists are pulling summery warm-weather clothes – probably from resort 2011 – which is not easy when so many designers in Europe and the U.S. are on holiday right now. In any case, mark your calendars. – Merle Ginsberg

Carmen Steffens may not be a name that’s familiar to you right now, but we have a feeling it will be soon. He’s a Brazilian designer of shoes, bags and accessories, has 130 stores around the world, and is one of the fastest growing brands of leather goods in the world. If you want to check out his fall collection, you can see it www.CarmenSteffens.com. Or you can hit Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks on Thursday night, August 12th between 6pm and 9pm, to get a VIP launch tour through the collection. Call 323 782-9000 to RSVP. So often we go back to the same shoe brands and never check out the new ones.

Most actresses don’t wear a couture dress to a movie premier – those amazing creations (straight off the European runways in early July) are saved for the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and only for the A list-iest of the A list. But Jessica Biel makes any dress look good, so no wonder designers want her wearing their most amazing creations. To the German premier of “The A Team” in Berlin, she donned this strapless, fitted, powder blue Atelier Versace cocktail dress, gathered slightly at the waist and covered entirely in intricate beading. We love her hair all smooth and on the side part like that – very chic – and a nice contrast to the elaborate dress.