Steve & Barry's, the cheap clothing retailer that offered inexpensive fashions from celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes and Stephon Marbury, filed for bankruptcy for the second time in three months. Steve & Barry's, whose bankruptcy filing said it had no "prospects for continued financing of their business," will start liquidating and closing its 177 stores. Newsday reports that a group of employees who were laid off on Monday are suing because the company......

Don't go thinking all the fashion talk about the Obamas is geared towards Michelle, Barack has also been getting his fair share of critique since before he even won the election--Tim Gunn approved his style back in June. Now that he's done campaigning, and has ditched the dark suits, The NY Times is taking a look at his casual side. Belted jeans, sneakers, tucked-in polo shirts...sounds a little like he raided Jerry Seinfeld's closet, no?......

The 11th annual New York Chocolate Show is taking over the huge Pier 94 space at West 55th Street this weekend, and the serotonin surge started last night with a colorful "Super-Hero" chocolate fashion show. Almost everything you see the models wearing here is edible, and the sweet threads will be displayed on mannequins until Sunday or until someone breaks past security and eats them, whichever comes first. But take it from us; security is......

Based on financial disclosure records, Politico reports that the Republican National Committee apparently spent over $150,000 to "clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August." Some of the expenses: $49,425.74 in Saks Fifth Avenue bills in St. Louis and New York; $75,062.63 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis; $789.72 at Barney’s New York; $5,102.71 at Bloomingdale’s in New York; and $4,716.49 in hair and makeup....

Meet Mathias Guerrand-Hermes: Polo player, heir to the French fashion house Hermès, petulant crotch-grabber. The 36-year-old socialite is in the papers today after being arraigned in Brooklyn federal court over a nasty incident aboard an Air France flight from Paris to JFK on Tuesday. Prosecutors say it all started when Guerrand-Hermes—loaded on booze and the pain medication Propofan—began pestering a female passenger in first class. When her husband told him to step off, Guerrand-Hermes, who......

Lindsay Lohan has a fashion line that's about to launch, and it's all about leggings. She updated her blog today with the announcement that her line, 6126 (named after Marilyn Monroe's birthday), would be officially launched at a celebration at Henri Bendel's tonight in New York. And you're all invited. About those leggings...she says: "Our holiday collection is pretty eclectic from gold zippers to leather detailing, to buttery soft cashmere. I hope you enjoy the......

The NY Times today has a profile about Lolitas, a fashion subculture of young women that began in Japan and has been appearing around New York of late. Lolitas seem to alternate between dressing overly innocent with bright pastel dresses and bows in their hair and then dangerous, taking on a more goth appearance, a clash reminiscent of the "kinderwhore" look sported by many 90s female punk bands in America. A handful of Lolitas talk......

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon has stepped off stage and into the world of clothing design, starting a label called Mirror/Dash (named after her and Thurston Moore's side project) with friends Melina Wansbrough and Jeffery Monteiro, the NY Times reports. The musician told the paper, “There’s a need for clothes for cool moms,” and her first piece is a limited edition military-inspired wool jacket. If you want one of the 50 made, you'll have to be......

The critical darling 1960s ad agency drama Mad Men and its "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" fashion inspires a NY Times look at what passes for advertising agency style these days. Boutique ad agency Droga5 CEO Andrew Essex sums it up: “Today, it’s the man in the artisanal T-shirt, selvaged denim with holes in them and really expensive vintage sneakers from a small boutique in Japan. The personalities haven’t changed that much, just the......

The NY Times' Eric Wilson analyzes the opening ceremony outfits and gives low marks to the U.S.'s Ralph Lauren-designed get-up, for appearing "poorly made" and not being that distinctive. Wilson also hated the Canadian (baseball caps, messenger bags) and Russian outfits (weird smock), and liked the French (seersucker jacket, nice sneakers) and Spanish (bold red suits) ones. Wilson's favorite were Australia's blue "degrade pattern" nylon jackets, saying the designer has their "finger on the pulse......

Make sure you’re sitting down: Because of a surge in visa requests, America is currently in the grips of a severe fashion model shortage. The problem is that professional good looking people from overseas have to apply for the same H-1B visas that pasty high-tech workers require. According to Politico, demand for the visas is double the 85,000 spots available in the category per year; in the fiscal year 2007 only 349 models from overseas......

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama's weekend bicycle ride is still being parsed. To some, his bicycle seat seems too low. To others, his tires seem flat. And to many, his outfit just seemed like a way to look dorky, maybe because he's so cool. Commenters on the Huffington Post wondered why he was biking in jeans. The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn noted that "politicians are now best advised to avoid helmets of any sort"......

Last night the fashion world gathered behind the New York Public Library for the 26th annual CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Awards, which honors the top designers. The Daily News reports back, saying the night also gave the group a chance to celebrate the life of one of their own, Yves Saint Laurent, who died this past Sunday at the age of 71. Diane von Furstenberg held back tears as she announced that......

The Whitney, being so modern, has joined forces with The Gap, the founders of which talked about opening their own museum just last summer. The retailers aren't quite trying to set up shop in the new downtown outlet, but they are getting their T's imprinted with famous artist designs thanks to the museum (and the nonprofit Art Production Fund). The Artist Editions T-Shirts feature 13 contemporary artists who were previous Whitney Biennial participants: Chuck Close,......

The long-awaited, much-hyped Sex and the City Movie premiered in London and the film's stars strutted their stuff on the red carpet. In particular, Sarah Jessica Parker wore not only a Alexander McQueen dress and Fred Leighton jewels but a whimsical chapeau as well. Created by go-to-milliner Philip Treacy, the hat is like a garden scene--butterfly, flowers, and maybe a mound of moss attached to Parker's head (it's all very fashion forward) Anyway, Premiere.com......

The best style article in the NY Times isn't in the magazine or the Styles section--it's the Metro section's look at the "tradition of the dapper detective." Other industries are open to more casual, dressed-down threads, detectives (ones not working undercover) generally stick to wearing suits. One psychologist explains, "Because they are all well dressed it establishes a barrier between them and the messiness." A retired detective commander, Vernon Geberth, said "put me in a......

Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg uses the word unconscionable so much that the Times poured 969 other words into analyzing the verbal tic. According to the article, Bloomberg’s U-bombing is definitely excessive; he drops the heavy pejorative in situations that don’t merit it, like when a reporter dared ask him if his trip to Israel was calculated to woo Jewish voters. (“That’s unconscionable. You should be ashamed to ask that question,” he reportedly snapped.) And when a......

The Observer has spotted a hot new non-trend: The Urbane Tomboy. The style says, “Sure, I’m still turning heads...but don’t think it took me more than 5 minutes to get out of the apartment.” It's utilitarian chic, and women city-wide are finding solidarity in sweatpants. Or rather, $500 designer jeans. And occasionally a "giant blanket." Next up? The return of the couch dress. Since mystery lurks behind heavy makeup and designer dresses, there's apparently an......

The NY Times looks at some of New York's indie elite in their Men's Style Magazine this weekend. So incase you were wondering what last night's SNL music guests, Vampire Weekend, wear when they aren't decked out in their Columbia University alum apparel, now you know: Marc Jacobs. Or at least that's how The Times translates it. They include a tip to aspiring designers as well, those "searching for indie cred need look no further......

Even though there wasn't a "villain" along the lines of Santino Rice or a favorite like Michael Knight, the fourth season of Project Runway has been pretty captivating with some very lovely work. Tonight, the three remaining designers' Bryant Park Fashion Week face-off will be shown and a winner announced. Designers Christian Siriano, Jillian Lewis, and Rami Kashou have had some high and low points this season (the denim challenge kinda sucked, as did......

Museum Guard, by Atomische at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx. A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the......

Not too long ago it was reported that Jennifer Lopez was ready to burst as her belly swelled with twins on the way. She had visited a Long Island hospital with husband Marc Anthony and her couture hospital gowns, but it must have been a false alarm, because soon after she was attending Fashion Week events. Initially it was reported she would have a Cesarean birth that was scheduled for Valentine's Day; no word yet......

MUSIC: Of course we're going to recommend you come hang out with us tonight at our 5 year anniversary show. Come on by and check out Pattern is Movement and The Forms, along with a special guest band at midnight. On top of all that, you'll get Craig Wedren deejaying between sets. What more could you ask for? Buy tickets here. Friday // 9pm // Union Hall [702 Union St, Park Slope] // $10......

Before the first model walked down the runway, Naomi Campbell spoke out about the lack of minorities at this year's Fashion Week. The Daily News follows up on her initial accusation as the tents emptied out this weekend, saying that "a campaign to promote diversity on the runways during New York's Fashion Week appears to have failed miserably." According the paper, out of 1,584 model slots, 94 (6%) went to black models, 17 (1%) to......

On Wednesday, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo crashed Fashion Week when he announced an indictment against the former superintendent of the 26th Street Armory. James Jackson had solicited bribes from fashion darling Marc Jacobs (pictured), who allegedly complied in order to secure the coveted armory space for his fashion shows. The Armory is considered a "community asset" whose space is to be used by the military and public. As of Wednesday, the designer was in......

Gothamist finally got to try Sakae Sushi, the new kaiten – or conveyor belt sushi restaurant – the other night. We were quite pleased to find the Singapore-based chain’s first New York City location actually open; when we stopped by last week it was temporarily closed. Given that it’s Fashion Week it was vaguely appropriate to see the plates parading down the runway in the sleek, hypermodern space. Some might dis the pastel-colored plastic plates......

Photo: Claire Houston Curious about the fate of all those orange bikes with the DKNY website that were locked up around town? The ones the police didn’t cart away (some were illegally chained to trees) are being picked clean for spare parts. The tone deaf Fashion Week publicity stunt was presented by DKNY as an effort to promote cycling in New York, and the company did help raise awareness by, uh, distributing bicycle maps in......

What happens when Antonio and Mario Cerra, former owners of Da Antonio, take over the space that once housed Sichuan Palace? If you said another Italian restaurant, you’re only partially right. The father (Antonio) and son (Mario) team have created Padre Figlio, an Italian steakhouse of exceptional quality. The menu offers Piemontese beef and such exotic fare as rack of Canadian wild boar in limoncello reduction and also pays tribute to the family’s Neapolitan......

It wouldn't be Fashion Week without a little bit of scandal, and this week a state government employee nearly made runway roadkill out of designer Marc Jacobs. Jacobs, apparently so over the tents, has staged his shows at the 26th Street Armory (also known as The 69th Regiment Armory) from February 2000 to...this week. In order to get exclusive access to the building during Fashion Week, he's had to pay the piper. Charges were filed......

Rev up your Manolos (or, whatever), Fashion Week starts tomorrow! A little history: "Fashion Week originally began as 'Press Week' when a well-known fashion publicist named Eleanor Lambert organized the event in 1943. During the 1970s and '80s, designers began to show their collections in lofts, restaurants and clubs across New York City. It wasn't until Fern Mallis, vice president of IMG, the company that produces Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, searched for a venue where all......