Conde Nast, and Vogue, specifically, sent out a press release today saying what celebs and brands are participating in Fashion’s Night Out – the second annual – in New York, Los Angeles, and all over the world that night. The list is rather gigantic – but they didn’t confirm who would be WHERE! For instance, on the celeb list: Nicole Richie, Rosario Dawson, Sean Combs, Coco Rocha, Erin Wasson, Karen Elson, Pharrell Williams, Corinne Bailey Ray, Bar Rafaeli, Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson (confirmed for the Armani store on Rodeo Drive – a nice return for all the free suits!) and Heidi Klum. When it comes to designers, it’s pretty much everybody: Isaac Mizrahi, Nicole Miller, Vera Wang Catherine Malandrino, Derek Lam, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen – it just goes on and on. Who’s in NY? Who’s in LA? Guess will just have to show up and see, right? Conde Nast also confirmed that they are producing the first “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show,” which will be produced and shot at Lincoln Center with 150 top models, wearing hot trends for fall (of course, the New York shows are all about spring 2011, so fall is technically old news) – BUT – they’re selling tickets to the public (www.Lincolncenter.org/fno) starting August 19th – and there will be live webcast at cbs.com/fno at 7pm New York time – so if you’re not engaged in any of these activities, it would be fun to watch this. But anyone in the fash biz is over the fall clothes and onto spring 2011!

In other FNO news, Frederic Fekkai will team up with Marchesa with an event at Henri Bendel in NY. They’ll select 5 Marchesa celebrity moments (and there are many), and recreate the hair styles LIVE. There will also be a much ado about the red carpet. And they are charging the public $75 a ticket! The show and the new entrance fees will help raise more money for charity.

Marc Jacobs is spreading out. Not the very thin Paris-based designer. He’s in amazing shape. We’re talking about his empire. In New York’s West Village, he’s opening a book store – an absolute first for a fashion designer in the States. (Karl Lagerfeld has a book store in Paris.) It will be called Book Marc, and will carry the kind of books that the Marc by Marc Jacobs store on Melrose carries – art books, music books, photography books, fashion books – an eclectic mix of extremely cool books. And in Los Angeles, after Marc by Marc put its menswear next to the big Marc by Marc women’s store at Melrose and Orlando, they will now take all the accessories in that store: sunglasses, jewelry, notebooks, rings, pens and the like – and open a Marc by Marc accessories store where Mulberry used to be, on Melrose Place, next door to Diesel, near Orlando. It’s nice to hear that a fashion empire in the U.S. is growing every minute.

The men’s fashion gravey train pulled out of Milan this week (Dolce, Gucci, Armani, Ferragamo, etc) and headed for Paris, where Marc Jacobs’ spring/summer Louis Vuitton collection started things off – not with a bang, but with a lot of man bags! Of course, this IS LV, after all, you’re not NOT going to see a lot of bags. But along with the slim cut dark, pale grey and off white traditional-but-streetwise menswear, there were crazy grey and white semi-camouflage shoes, tote bags, shoulder bags and every kind of bag in leathers light and heavy – and even a scarf tied around a summer suit like a belt. Will American men buy it? Perhaps it’s time to get over the man bag stigma, as these are pretty beautiful, and they look quite masculine. Now, as for those shoes . . .

Louis Vuitton, the French luxury brand with amazing clothes designed by Marc Jacobs, may be the line that is most obscure to all but hardcore fashionistas. After all, the clothes are VERY French, less accessible than Chanel, usually have a LOT of shape, are avant garde, and – a little hard to wear. They look only really good on models – normal women can look dowdy in these clothes. And they are sold in no stores in the world outside of LV boutiques. So that makes them harder to find. Not only that, LV does VERY few red carpet looks for celebs. But when the brand opened a new boutique in London on Bond Street, chic ladies like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst and Thandie Newton wore pieces – all quite different – to the opening, and showed that it’s possible for women who aren’t models to wear LV and wear it well – and make it their own, arch as it is. Gwyneth is just dead chic in this grey wool peekaboo dress (wool – in May? Well, it’s England) with pink bow shoes and a sequin clutch. Kirsten, who loves unusual clothes, chose a navy and black wool tea length dress with a full skirt – this is a dress that would NEVER fly in Hollywood, but looks fab in London. And Thandie Newton picked one of the few short LV dresses – a yellow bubble mini with side sequins. Still, it’s far from your typical short dress. If you want to check out LV clothing, the boutique on Rodeo Drive has the full spring collection, and will fall in August.

The CFDA Awards – essentially, the Oscars of fashion – will take place at NY’s Lincoln Center on June 7th – and the nominees were announced late this week. The late great Alexander McQueen will get at Special Tribute Award, which will not leave a dry eye in the place, we’re sure – and all that well-done makeup – but here’s the rest of the list:

• Womenswear Designer of the Year: Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Alexander Wang (the looks below are by Jacobs, Karan and Wu for fall 2010
• Menswear Designer of the Year: Tom Ford (WHAT a year he’s having!), Michael Bastian and Rag & Bone
• Accessories Designer of the Year: Alexis Bittar, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler (for those awesome briefcase handbags)
• International Award: Christopher Bailey from Burberry
• Eugenia Sheppard Journalism Award: Kim Hastreiter of Paper Magazine
• Eleanor Lambert Award: Tonne Goodman of Vogue
• Swarovski Award for Women: Joseph Altuzurra, Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu
• Swarovski Award for Men: Richard Chai, Patrick Ervell, Simon Spurr
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Michael Kors

For more fashion reviews, visit Apples & Oranges with Merle Ginsberg and Abe Gurko on imeanwhat.com

OVERALL TREND: So goes MJ, so goes the fashion world. It’s been a week of skintight minis, leather jackets with knit insets – and Marc Jacobs had his own way of adding texture to his clothes; sleek wool princess coats with fur hems and cuffs. But he’s not one to gild the lilly – especially when everyone is gilding up the leather and adding extra pieces of fabric everywhere. The lesson of fall 2010 in NY is: more fabric is more. Why do leggings when you can do RUCHED leggings? Why have a leather jacket when it can have mongolian fur and knitwear insets? But Marc went in the other direction – LONGER. He dropped hems, which is a huge cry in the fashion world, where mini’s have rained for so many seasons now. Every so often, some designer puts a long skirt in a collection – and a few L.A. hippie girls wear them with motorcycle boots. Now, MJ has given us over the knee A line skirts, almost ankle length skirts, even swishy long skirts. But there’s nothing retro about this collection. Even though it has fur, tweed, even three piece suits – it looks very American, somewhat Californian – and NEW! Sure, it’s got plenty of black and grey – but it’s also got acid green and yellow. But none of it looks weird or forced. The word for this collection is GENTLE – and soft. The models had long mottled hair with deep side parts, peach lips, wore low heeled shoes with socks – and some even wore glasses. These girls look like smart French students who are in America for a year, and are deep in thought. They’re too smart to be too trendy. It’s a revelation, that someone departed from the tough looks of the last two years this much. It’s not gussied up or overthought – it’s simple – gentle – it’s calm. Wow! It’s like Marc’s saying to us: Stop all the noise! Calm down a little!

SHAPES: A line skirts, long blazers, 3 piece suits with trouser, fur jackets with A line skirts or long dresses – and the return of velvet twisted and cut on the bias. Long cardigans in sequins that look not blingy, but student-y. The way a smart girl would dress for a date after class. These are real girl clothes, and they can be worn by any size of woman – waif or curvy. Those soft white almost sailor dresses are just so lovely and innocent. Do they work in the winter? In L.A., hell yes! This is Marc’s quote about it all: “There’s so much striving for newness now that newness feels less new.” We hail his return to not trying so hard.

COLORS: Black, grey, heathered tweeds, cream, tan, ecru, brown, citrus green, yellow, white

BEAUTY: Matted hair, a bit messy, deep side parts – peach lips, no cheek color, and a touch of black eyeliner – a pretty student who’s too busy to think about makeup much. This undone look makes her look much younger. She’s not trying to be a grand sophisticate or a tough punk – she’s actually not even trying . . .

RELEVANCE TO HOLLYWOOD: Sort of none – and sort of everything. This Marc Jacobs collection is NOT sexy, it’s soft and dreamy. But outside of LA, THAT’S sexy. It’s not body hugging, and it’s not bombshell. It’s personal, serious, youthful and very innocent. It’s really the right collection for our times of starting over, of trying to have some hope . . . will Hollywood girls embrace it? Only the cool ones, we’re afraid. We have a feeling Vera Farmiga will be wearing some of this – or Maggie Gyllenhaal.

With people – like myself, for instance – having attempted to fly out to NY today for the NY fall 2010 fashion shows starting tomorrow, Thursday Feb 11 – and getting curtailed by a giant blizzard – it’s clear that the fate of NY fashion week is quickly changing in so many ways. First of all, having shows in NY in February is like booking a convention in India in the summer. The weather is a giant deterrant. Up to the late 1990′s, NY fashion week took place in late October and in April – it followed London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks. And NY designers had the advantage then of being able to look to new European trends to influence them. Along came Austrian designer Helmut Lang to move to NY and relocate his business there. He decided he wanted to show BEFORE the Europeans, and so all the NY designers followed – and NY fashion week moved to early September – when it’s often still ninety degrees – and February – when it’s often twenty degrees or colder. Brrrrrr. Here are some other developments:

Major designers Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs announced this week that they’ll be streaming their upcoming runway shows live on the Internet, making exclusive invites to the Bryant Park tents practically moot. In fact, Marc Jacobs was even quoted today as saying he’s “over the whole celebrity thing.” What happened, did his wranglers get lazy this year? Traditionally, his show was more stacked with celebs than any other show. More likely, what’s true is that celebs don’t want to be in NY in February. “Celebs won’t like it,” says an industry insider. “It’s completely transforming the aura around Fashion Week. The event serves as a sort of hierarchy of New York City fashion, and those who get invited to shows are considered worthy of seeing the collections before they hit the stores.” Then it was announced yesterday that both Rodarte and Alexander Wang will be streaming their shows online as well. (These images are from Alexander Wang’s stark) pre fall collection.) These are two very hip design houses – the fact that they are going “mass” speaks of a large trend. And what’s with the new trend? Most sources say that it’s all about the cash: More viewers means more followers, which will translate into more money. With retail suffering the way it is, designers have got to get the word – and the image – out there. Fashion Week online makes these designers universal, which is a huge benefit to their lines. Not only that, there are less fancy paper invites – most invites are done via email these days. And many editors miss collecting those lovely expensive invites – but it’s all nostalgia now. No one wants to spend that kind of money anymore.
What’s funny is that people like Anna Wintour and Marc Jacobs are the ones who have made fashion so famous – and now that it’s not so exclusive anymore, they’re the ones crying the blues! And of course, this is the last season at Bryant Park, which is becoming nostalgia too. The move to the Upper West Side and Lincoln Center makes fashion more – well, Upper West Side – which means, parents and babies. It’s not the favored neighborhood of fashionistas. Still, snow or no, New York Fashion week is expected to bring over $200 million in visitor spending to the city. And that’s a lot of flakes, no matter how you shovel them. – Merle Ginsberg

It’s not as common for male celebs to turn up at mens’ fashion shows as it is for female celebs. Giorgio Armani is good at getting male celebs to his Milan shows, but that’s because he dresses so many male celebs for awards shows (and we hear Oscar host Steve Martin already ordered his new tux). But who could keep the best dressed man in music, the Louis Vuitton don, away from a Marc Jacobs-designed Louis Vuitton menswear show in Paris? Kanye showed up with his fur-clad woman, Amber Rose, and they hung out with LV CEO Yves Carcelles, and LV menswear designer Marc Jacobs himself.
The LV fall winter 2010/11 collection features chic looking black leathers, and lots of black, grey and tan close the body well-made mens clothes. But man oh man, were we going to see a case of manorexia break out when these clothes hit the stores!

Marc Jacobs doesn’t really need another career. The designer of his eponymous line, plus shoes, bags, perfumes, sunglasses and jewelry – and then all of that for Marc by Marc Jacobs – and then designing the Louis Vuitton collection and collaborating with people like Morikami and the late Stephen Sprouse on sprucing up the LV bag label – the man has made his mark, so to speak. But today, Gawker.com reports that Marc Jacobs is seriously considering signing on to a new show on the Logo Network (MTV’s gay arm, home of “Rupaul’s Drag Race” and the new Robert Verdi show this winter), called “Kept” – about gay housewives in New York City. It would be about high-powered gay playboys (like Marc) who “keep” young men in the lifestyles they’d like to be accustomed to. Why would Marc consent? Well, it certainly wouldn’t be for the money – or the fame. Maybe for the fun. In any case, it shoots in November, and is a BRILLIANT idea for programming.