Fashionrules reported months ago that French designer Isabel Marant is opening a store in NY. Today, New York Magazine’s The Cut blog reported the store will be at Greene and Broome in Soho opening around February of 2010. Meanwhile, Isabel Marant fall 2009 is completely sold out at Satine in LA and at Curve in LA. Barneys has one blouse left, but that’s IT! Fall was a great pastiche of the way LA girls – and apparently, Parisian girls – really want to dress on the street: knee hi boots (those suede boots are REALLY gone – we know folks who tried to order them from France), slouchy black jackets, faded silk skirts – the clothes are both fashiony, trendy, and really rocker chic and casual, all at once. Sure, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Balmain and Haider Ackerman are amazing – but they all look so European urban. Marant’s clothes have the same sophistication, with a much more casual fit and fabrication.
Spring 2010 is filled with bright pinks, little stripes of poppy red and baby blue, little tops, short ruffle skirts, soft tweedy jackets that slouch – nothing’s stiff. And it’s all shown with fringed boots. Marant does the urban hippie beautifully – and now that she’ll have an American store, look for a lot more girls wearing it this spring. This was one of our favorite Paris shows. She’s one foot in fashion, and one foot in the real world.

         Fashion News reported yesterday that one of our favorite L.A. designers, Raquel Allegra – she of the shredded distressed t shirts and dresses that are so chic – is showing at Curve on Mercer Street in NYC this week. Well, her fall collection can still be spotted at Curve (83 Mercer from Feb 15th on), but the cocktail event for it on Tuesday Feb 17 from 5 to 9 moved from Curve to another Lower East Side store locale, Assembly, at 174 Ludlow, near Stanton Street. OK, so it’s a few subway stops down. It’s worth. We hear some super models are droppin’ by, too.

Fashion Rules caught up with L.A. based eveningwear designer Monique L’hullier after her fall 09 presentation to get some details about the beautiful new looks she showed, which will no doubt be turning up on a red carpet near us soon.

FASHION RULES: We are loving those ripped stocking-looking fitted body suits you put under all the strapless dresses and gowns. How did you make those?

MONIQUE L’HULLIER: Well, we started with Wolford tights and ripped them and shredded them, and cut out the crotch – that’s it! It makes the evening clothes more covered, which gives women another option in the fall.

FASHION RULES: They’re ripped Wolfords??? That’s crazy! Are you going to produce them as body suits?

ML: Well – at this point, no. But everybody seems to be taking to them, so maybe we’ll find another way to make them.

FR: Yes, it adds options to be very bare looks.

ML: Yes, the whole idea of this collection was to give women more options – options in terms of color, and layers. You can wear a lot of these pieces more than once and change the way they look – and of course, nowadays, you have to give the consumer a reason to shop.

FR: The chunky jewelry layered on to the looks is pretty fabulous, too.

ML: Yes, isn’t it? The jewelry designer’s name is Fenton – my stylist Jill Davison, whom I’ve worked with for five years, found her.

***(FR NOTE: Fenton jewelry is designed by Dana Lorenz, and is sold at Barneys, Saks, Curve in LA and is on Fentonusa.com)  I wanted to take this Ballet Russe inspired collection and funk it up a little, and Fenton jewelry was perfect and very boho and casual, but dressy, too. It gives the clothes more edge.

FR: So you did a presentation instead of a runway show for the first time in a decade. Was that all about economics – or fashionomics?

ML: Well, the economy came to play more in how to show the collection than the design of it. In some ways, what’s negative about now having a big show is also a positive – people can get closer to the clothes and see the detail. It also gave us more time with the collection, so we got to experiment more. I didn’t design this with the economy in mind – I actually wanted to inspire fantasy. I think in times like these, fantasy is even more important. You want fantasy. And our customer comes to us for fantasy. But the reality is this – there are less events right now, and there’s less need for dressy things. So I’m marketing in a different way, and going more direct to my customer.

FR: How are you doing that?

ML: I’m sponsoring the Young Fellowship Ball at the Frick, so I will work directly to dress girls who are going. I want to answer more directly to my customer’s needs.

FR: How long are you staying in NYC?

ML: Oh, my husband and I are leaving tomorrow to go back to L.A. I am working on some dresses for the Oscars all week!

FR: Anything you want to tell us about the Oscars? You can trust Fashion Rules with your secrets!

ML: My mouth is zippered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But we are working on quite a few things!   - Merle Ginsberg

Fashion Rules! was lucky enough to meet up with Hilary Duff last week, as she took a tiny break after making three films, “Greta,” “Stay Cool,” and “Safety Glass” – and finished cutting two new singles and videos for a new greatest hits collection that’s coming out this month.

But who cares about that trivia? We wanted to know about FASHION – and PERFUME! Hilary was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a turquoise boyfriend cardigan, a men’s fedora, and her hair was back to blonde, after she’d gone brunette for a movie, “War Inc.”

So here’s a snippet of our interview with the woman who’s made somewhere around 30 or 40 million dollars just on her tween line, “Stuff by Hilary Duff”

FASHION RULES!: So, Hilary, what’s the future of “Stuff by Hilary Duff”?

HILARY DUFF: Well, I’m going to discontinue the line, actually. I don’t really want to continue to design clothing for girls who aren’t my age – I just turned 21, and I tend to shop at Barneys and Satine and Curve, and mix up designer pieces with less expensive pieces – it’s a very Los Angeles and New York way of dressing. And I didn’t have full control of that line anymore. We had some very good years in terms of money, but I can hardly take credit for all of that – I didn’t do it on my own. And anyway, I’m too young to be thinking about only money all the time.

FASHION RULES: But you still love clothes, we can assume?

HILARY DUFF: More than ever. That will never go away. But I want to design clothes for women my own age, that’s what excites me now. That’s a challenge to me. In about two weeks, I’m going to announce that I’ve signed a deal with a big clothing company – a fairly mainstream one – and I’m going to design a line for them for the next few years. I already like what they do, so I’m very excited by the opportunity. I can’t wait to get started.

FASHION RULES: Do you feel like this is something you HAVE to do, just because the Olsen Twins, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and all those celeb girls are doing clothing lines?

HILARY DUFF: Hardly. I’ve never done things before they were expected of me. In my new video for “Reach Out,” I wear little shorts – but then I wear a tulle gown. I’ve worn short wigs in videos, long hair, I change my hair color all the time – in fact, I’m feeling the mood to change it now! I really go with my mood and what inspires me. And I don’t think I dress like anyone else.

FASHION RULES: And you are doing a third perfume with Elizabeth Arden?

HILARY DUFF: Yes, we’re in the midst of that now – deep into it. You have to have the name approved in every country before you can move forward – if one country’s language interprets it in some kind of negative way, we can’t use that name and have to start over – so it’s a long process. But I’ve learned so much about the process from the people at Arden – I have approvable of everything, and I chose the flowers and scents and notes by their smells but also by their symbols. It’s really really creative.

FASHION RULES: And you are leaving your record company, Hollywood Records, owned by Disney?

HILARY DUFF: Yes. I want to make my next record on my own and release it myself – it’s the new way of doing music. I want to do it in my own time and go with my own direction – same as with the clothes. I want to see where it all takes me. I’ve been working so hard for a long time – and I just turned 21 – so it’s time to do it my way!!!