In recent years the city of Moscow and Russia in general, has left behind the drab looks of gray everything and breadlines and has become a hub for fashion. With a nascent capitalism and a new fashion conscious society, Russia has introduced a fashion week and countless high-end stores. One of the latest Moscow additions is Ralph Lauren. WWD reports this morning that Lauren is opening a major store in Moscow to head off the bootleggers (ok, I added that last part). The designer known for classic American style launches twin stores in Moscow tomorrow- gone are the days of smuggling Levi’s.

Explaining why he took so long and why he is finally ready to enter the market Lauren tell WWD:”

When they asked me to come here years ago, I felt that I wasn’t ready for Russia with the clothes that I make,” explained Lauren, dressed head to toe in black with a gold Rolex on his wrist. “I think they get it now. Russian people have a history of a lot of elegance and a lot of class. This is an old-world country. So it’s in the blood somewhere.”

Read the whole feature here. (it’s free for today)

This asshole had planned on killing Anna Wintour. Let’s say he were to get past her huge black bodyguards, chances are he would tremble at her absolutely stylish radiance. The very sight of this graceful swan would have him rethinking his whole purpose in life.

In all seriousness, one has to wonder what he was thinking when he committed the original set of crimes that got him in trouble. Quoted from the New York Daily News, here’s what this f-nozzle planned to do:

“I’m going to kill Anna Wintour because I feel like it,” Braunstein wrote in a monstrous manifesto that cops found after he was arrested for dressing up like a firefighter and sexually abusing a former co-worker on Halloween 2005.

Braunstein wrote that he wasn’t content to just shoot Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief, because that would be “too impersonal.”

Talk about sick.

Read the whole article here

Okay, so you’ve got your nights figured out, but what are you going to do all day Saturday? Recover from the night before, do some laundry, and watch an America’s Next Top Model marathon? Or learn to D.J., take your t-shirt from cast-off to on-trend, and design your own jewerly? Check out C.O. Bigelow and GenArt’s blog party on Greenwich Avenue between Christopher and 10th Street from 2 to 5 p.m. this Saturday. In addition to all the cool eats and activities, there’s family stuff and prizes all to benefit the Children’s Museum of the Arts. Go ahead, become the new MisShapes and help shape children’s lives at the same time.

The freshly hip (and very young) streetwear design label Cake has opened its website to shipping orders. Their Summer 07 collection only has 5 different T-shirts — each surprisingly unique, with a little bit of edge — but at $32 each (shipping included), they’re a real steal.

Each shirt is printed using a series of overlapping screens with a seamless layering effect of graphics and photo images. My favorite is “Models Love Cake” — playful sexiness meets irreverent style.

Keep your eye on these guys, they’re planning on expanding the label to include a full line of garments and accessories in the near future.

Listen up, ladies. There’s no need to pay more for great skin care products. Your ticket to a more youthful complexion awaits you on the shelves at your neighborhood Target. Boots, top UK health and beauty retailer, has made its way overseas, and penny-pinching Target freaks everywhere (myself included) could not be more pleased to have its affordable, quality products readily available here in the US.

The first of two products from the No7 line I tried was the Restore and Renew Beauty Serum, famously sold out all over Britian for its radiance-restoring properies. No wonder they like it! It glides on smoothly, and leaves skin feeling supple and soft. It’s the perfect makeup primer, and it didn’t freak out my sensitive skin. And with the promise that my complexion will look renewed in just four weeks, I’ll gladly slick it on day and night to watch for the results. At just $19.99, what is not to love?

Second on the list was the Intensive Moisture Face Mask. I decided to try this product during what was a rigorous test of willpower in pursuit of health, and a lighter me: A liquids only fast. Nothing looked better than this dreamy, creamy whipped topping of a moisturizer, and denied the sensory experience of eating, slathering the lofty gel/cream on my skin was just as good as dessert - and it made me look betterafterwards, instead of wider. Worn as a mask, it did wonders. It softened up my face and left my skin positively dewy. Dewy! So nice, I started wearing smaller portions of it to bed every night as a PM moisturizer, over the Restore and Renew Serum, and I’m loving the results. I’m willing to bet you will too.