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......

Okay, maybe pets aren't so into the holidays, except when it comes to scraps that fall to the floor or the prospect of a new chew toy. But that doesn't mean that pet owners aren't enthusiastic about projecting the spirit of the season onto Fido and Fluffy. Clockwise, from the top left, we have: Delco the West Brighton wanna-be (and possibly reluctant) reindeer, photograph by walkwpack, a reader on SILive.com; a cute Christmas tree......

ART: Art, fashion and blogs meet tonight at the Met. In an exhibition entitled blog.mode: addressing fashion, viewers will be able to comment on what they see. It's "the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present." Visitors are then encouraged to share their reactions online or from a "blogbar" of computer......

The NY Post warns the women of New York that their bag habits may be bad for them. Some women sling up to 11 lbs over their shoulder on a daily basis, and doctors warn that "Any time there's an unequal weight distribution on the shoulders or upper back, it's going to affect alignment of the spine." While we think it's more about living in New York and carrying around what you need to get......

Peter Braunstein really loves the New York Post. The fashion industry reporter-turned-prison inmate, after being recently convicted of the kidnapping, sex assault, armed robbery and burglary of a former co-worker on Halloween in 2005, gives his first interview since being locked up this past summer to the tabloid. He gives a number of choice quotes to the Post, who calls him "still-crazy." And how! Not only does he regret not killing his ex-girlfriend Jane......

It's been snowing out lately, and thanks to The World's Largest Snow Globe, it's going to be snowing indoors soon as well. Standing at over twenty feet tall, the monstrosity of holiday cheer will be arriving at The Pond at Bryant Park next week (December 14th to 18th). Throughout the week, the snow globe will feature live models in cheery winter scenes, not unlike an Old Navy ad. Why? Good question. In typical holiday fashion,......

Love 'em or hate 'em, hipsters have made their way into a real-life bounded book that will be available for purchase next spring. What does Generation Hipster look like in black & white? It ain't pretty. 6 Sick Hipsters, by Rayo Casablanca, follows "Williamsburg's reigning elite" and brings some noir to the neighborhood...as well as a feral baboon. The press release tells us a bit of what we can expect: "Lately someone has been laying......

Notice anything funny about the Calvin Klein billboard below? No, not the hot pink splashing. The giant ad that hangs above Lafayette and Houston has a secret in the "negative space" left by the splashed paint. The silhouette is of the new New Museum building on Bowery. Here is what the billboard looked like over the past few days up until last night: And as Josh Spear pointed out yesterday a "stage 3 reveal" took......

"With Spitzer, it seems like he’s walked into buzz saws of his own devising." - Richard Norton Smith, biographer of former Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, to the NY Times Today, Governor Spitzer dropped in on the State Assembly Democrats' annual meeting, which has been characterized as being "almost like a pre-game show to the session," held at the Marriott in downtown Brooklyn. According to video from Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily Politics, an almost warm-and-......

The gasps you heard in front of certain American television sets Wednesday were because Project Runway's second episode packed a wallop. After American icon challenges during season 2 and 3, the fourteen remaining designers speculated this year's fashion icon could be Madonna, Britney ("she needs help," according to the severely coiffed Christian, who interned at Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen) or Snow White, it's possible that the actual icon was better than their dreams:......

Elizabeth Currid's new book, The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City, posits that the city's culture is the key our fiscal well-being. With insights culled from many of New York's leading players in the worlds of art, fashion and music, she draws a detailed blueprint of how these creative processes become big-money industries. Currid's thesis is that the conditions that have made New York one of the cultural capitals of......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Art in the Twenty-First Century (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) Four artists - Robert Adams, Mark Dion , Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Ursula von Rydingsvard – who explore the intersection between nature and culture. Billy Crystal: The Mark Twain Prize (Monday & Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. WLIW 21) Billy Crystal receives the tenth annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in......

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

Books, or at least book shelves, must be on this couple's wedding registry: The Post has a cute story about a couple whose engagement took place at the Strand Bookstore. Joshua Reich and Shianling King "always told friends they met at the Strand," but they actually met online - their first date was supposed to be at the Museum of Modern Art, but the lines were so long that they went to the Strand instead.......

Over a week ago, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio after their star witness's credibility came into question. DeVecchio's trial was as high-profile as they come, as the Brooklyn DA's office charged him with tipping off mobster-turned-FBI information Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa Jr. with information that led to four murders, and their case hinged on the testimony of Scarpa's mistress, Linda Schiro. In late October, Schiro had testified......

This week in New York life is like a box of chocolates – on steroids. (Mmmm, chocolate steroids.) The wicked masterminds behind the 10th annual International Chocolate Show decided that this year the usual three day, 40,000 square foot cocoa orgy just wasn’t going to cut it. So they’ve gotten a number of area restaurants to collectively boost the city’s blood sugar levels by declaring the next six days Chocolate Week. Some notable New York......

There have been a few ads in the NY Times weddings section that spoof the real wedding announcements. For instance, we believe we recall a few for divorce services, but less ironically, there have been ads for marriage-related movies, like The Starter Wife. And this week, there's an ad for an upcoming wedding on the ABC comedy Ugly Betty. Of course, the ad is a lot wordier than the usual NY Times wedding announcement,......

Last week demolition was underway at the former CBGB. At the time Racked put their money on a Duane Reade taking over the space, but today The Post reports that John Varvados will be opening a chic boutique in the old punk rock palace. With his eye on a Spring opening, it's unclear how much of the 13,000 square feet will be taken over by the designer. Before you get your black leather punk......