We've all seen the art inspired abstract prints that are a key trend this summer. What we bet you didn't know was that the look is also an easy DIY project. Instead of shelling out a cool thousand for a D & G dress, why not do one just as fabulous yourself?

Here's what to arm yourself with:

If you've ever thought to yourself "Man that Obama... he is one foxy guy," then you and Donatella Versace are on the same page.

Loden Dager is one of New York's smoothest up-and-coming menswear labels. A collective of four friends who design as a group, the collection is all about being clean, wearable and realistic for regular dudes.

Yup, it's a simple formula of updating classic pieces for today's audience. Far from a cliché, the Loden Dager spin is absolutely fresh and approachable.

Loden Dager's presentations over New York Fashion Week have been more like fun parties rather than traditional catwalk events. Now they're taking the formula to Paris with a spring/summer 2009 presentation, July 3–4, with some help from the group's showroom, Opening Ceremony.

Hopefully, you grew out of playing with Barbie dolls a long, long long time ago, but if you have it in you to dress yourself up like the imaginary blonde with impossible measurements, you can pick up Patricia Field's Barbie Luxe pieces for Spring 2008.

The designer, who is known for her styling of Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw, Ugly Betty, and the Devil Wears Prada, debuted the collection of Barbie-inspired sportswear, vintage-style dresses, jewelry and handbags at the Directives West fashion show in Los Angeles last week. The collection will launch on November 13 at the designer's store in New York.

The third day of LA Fashion Week featured collections by Gregory Parkinson, Jenny Han, Christian Audigier, Dina Bar-El, Grey Ant and Whitley Kros.

My favorite show of the day was Dina Bar-El. Last year, Bar-El came under heavy criticism for using child models in her show, so as you might expect, the show was juvey-free this time around. I do have one gripe for Ms. Bar-El: what's up with all the white girls? Come on, Dina, get with the program.

However, if you can overlook her homogeneous choice in models, Bar-El's clothes were wonderful. Her evening wear was particularly stunning this time around. I loved the silk gowns in rich jewel tones and her plucky cocktail dresses with striking necklines. The simple makeup and sleek hair was also right on target.

My least favorite show was without question Christian Audigier's presentation. The catwalk/stage was set for high drama -- there was even moody lighting and music to match. To tell you the truth, I kind of think that the combination of the busy clothes and overwhelming set left me agitated. Consequently, I've got no love for the clothes either.

I wasn't sure what the designer was hoping to create. Some of the clothes had a 1920s Jazz Age feel -- flapper dresses, feather boas, cropped hair -- and I liked that part. However, some outfits looked like they were Jodie Foster's castoffs from the set of the movie Taxi Driver. Trust me, underage prostitute is not a good look. I also hated Audigier's makeup: red lips and dark eyes. Most models can't handle dramatic eyes and lips, and they end up looking like tweaked-out trannies.

Adding all of this up, if you can image an underage, tweaked-out trannie prostitute in a feather boa, you basically get Christian Audigier's Spring/Summer 08 collection. You can also check out the woman pictured at right.

We've picked out some of our favorites and our, well, least favorites for the Styledash LA Fashion Week Gallery. Let us know what you think.

Here are a few shots to check out:

Last week, Fashion TV celebrated their 10-year anniversary in LA with a fashion show featuring Bebe's Summer 2007 line at The Social in Hollywood. I got to go because I'm special like that, and by "special," I mean I somehow weaseled my way in.

Bebe's Summer 2007 collection is mostly fun and flirty, with lots of bright colos and short short short (did I say "short?") hemlines. There were no surprises with respect to silhouettes, as everything basically riffed on Spring's styles.

Don't think that Fashion Week begins and ends in big European cities like London, Milan, and Paris. New York leads the United States, and I'd like to think that LA makes a respectable showing. There are Fashion Weeks popping up in San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas. But is the owrld ready for Fashion Week straight out of Columbus, Ohio?!?

I wasn't aware that Columbus had a big enough pool of designers to put together a Fashion Week, but apparently they do since they just closed their first Fashion Week last night. According to a quick interview on a video at lifestlye site The Palestra, Columbus is "ripe breeding ground to start turning a cowtown into a metropolitan."

While I doubt that Columbus will ever reach the same level as New York, I certainly give them credit for their effort.

[via: Pink Rock Candy]

By now w've all read about Carmen Electra's little slip up on the stage/runway Wednesday night in LA during the Max Factor Salutes Hollywood charity fashion show. Apparently, the runway was so slippery that celebritieis and models had taped the bottoms of their shoes to keep from slipping. However, even with the precautionary measure, Carmen slipped, Allison Sweeney, who went out on stage to help her slipped, so the rest of the show, the models sashayed down the runway in their floor-length gowns carrying their sandals in their hands. They were barefoot!

I think I really like that as a lasting idea. Expensive gowns, and no shoes. Barefoot is beautiful.

It looks like the Decade of the Dominatrix is back.

At least, according to some designers who showed at Milan Fashion Week, namely Dolce and Gabbana, now cutely termed "Dominatrix and Gabbana." The backdrop for the D&G runway show was a silver sex parlor that extended out into a mirrored catwalk. Models, who formed a "chain gang" were dressed is studded stiletto heels, leather dresses, chastity belts, and carried metallic whips.

According to some, the show "stepped near the edge of taste and the dark pit of decadence," and was "discomforting - even distasteful - to women that these creatures of darkest male fantasies should be high fashion role models."

I think it's kind of fierce.

It's fashion week in New York and those of us stuck in other places (like sunny LA) can admire the view from afar courtesy of the photos and reviews from Style.com. I perused the shows thus far and I am seeing a lot of dresses, a lot of black and vivid jewel tones. Some vintage 1930s and 1940s looks but done with a twist or a hard edge. Some particularly amazingly wearable looks at the Diane von Furtstenberg show (no one does a dress like DVF), truly adorable outfits at Karen Walker and the charming British chic of Luella. Hair for the most part is pulled back. sometimes with a fringe of thick straight bangs. As near as I can tell, for fall you will need a tank dress, a coat with three quarter sleeves and large buttons, long gloves and wide-legged pants. If you can only watch a handufl of these slideshows, I would suggest the von Furstenberg, Tuleh, Luella and Karen Walker.

Abate=Audrey Hepburn bondage
Bruce=muted, moody, eccentric
DKNY=Chanel meets Studio54
Erin Fetherston=misty, twee, flapper
Sari Gueron= wearable, dark, cozy
Alexandre Herchcovitch=unwearable, bizarre, compelling
3.1 Phillip Lim= quirky, menswear, preppy
Luella=witty, Britty, fey
Naum=tailored, pants, dramatic
Tracy Reece=metallic, ornate, shiny
Reyes=stripes, boxy, bows
Lela Rose=Parisian schoolgirl deluxe
Threeasfour=shiny, flowing, tights
Tuleh=rich, glamourous, patrician
United Bamboo=plaid, bulky, gray
Diane von Furstenberg=red, black, coats!
Karen Walker=Katherine Hepburn updated
Matthew Williamson=kaleidoscopic, geometric, random

It looks like everyone wants a piece of the Fashion Week fun. Anne mentioned that internationally, Germany will be presenting a fashion week, and following in the path of Mercedes-Benz taking over sponsorship of Fashion Weeks in New York and Los Angeles, Cadillac will be presenting Fashion Week in Dallas.

The event will take place from March 7th through the 10th at Dallas's Northpark Shopping Center. Fashion at the Park, as it has been named, is a collaboration between the shopping center and Vogue magazine, which will be providing much of the media sponsorship. Fifteen fashin shows from designer like Carolina Herrera and Salvatore Ferragamo will do shows on a full-scale runway.

Gucci recently opened their latest flagship store in Ginza, Japan. The Italian brand opened their eight-story glass-and-steel store on November 3. The shopping paradise includes four floors of retail space, a cafe and a gallery as well as office space. The store is part of Gucci's revamped style as a less in-your-face more understated brand (sort of a hybrid of the Tom Ford years mixed with a bit of Gucci's Italian luxe roots). For those of us not lucky enough to attend the opening of this palace of shopping opulence, Gucci has created a four-episode podcast available on iTunes for free that gives a good view of both the building and the fancy wares on display. The podcast features snips of the opening event which included a performance by Mary J. Blige and a runway show of Gucci's Spring 2007 collection. Not as good as being there (they gave out free Gucci iPod cases after all) but still fun to watch.

You may love her or love to hate her, but the fact remains that Lindsay Lohan has become a style icon in today's celebrity-obsessed culture.

Ms. Lohan has been spotted all over Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris, attending fashion shows, sporting the latest (and sometimes disastrous) styles, and generally causing a ruckus wherever she goes. Recently Lindsay gave an extremely revealing interview to the News of the World, discussing her celebrity status, love life, and the overwhelming pressure from Hollywood to remain stick-thin.

With notorious stylist Rachel Zoe in Lohan's employ, it is not surprising that the starlet has shrunk to waif-like proportions. However, Lindsay seems to be fed up with never being allowed to feed.

"Sometimes being that thin doesn't look healthy. I kind of didn't realize that," said Lohan in her recent interview. "I feel great about my body now, though. When I was in the hospital I was overworked and stressed out and that's when they started talking about my weight. Now I am comfortable in my own skin and I like having a shape and having breasts the size they are."

I for one think that it would be wonderful to have a young, stylish starlet who wears fun clothing for the public to emulate, and is curvy rather than emaciated. Let's hope that Lohan uses her celebrity status and newfound attitude about her body to offer a more balanced perspective on fashion and the risks of becoming weight-obsessed.

We're working backwards with our reviews of the individual shows from LA's Fashion Week last week. Though the bulk of the shows were held at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, the Hello Kitty by Victoria Couture show was held off-site at Element, a club in Hollywood on Thursday night.

I will let the video of the runway speak for itself. Though most everything is geared toward bling and club-fashion (I couldn't really imagine wearing a crystal Helly Kitty-studded pair of hot pants to lunch), the show itself had the best music and most fun vibe of the week.

First we visited New York, then peeked in on London, Milan, and Paris, and now, since some of us actually live here, we'll be galloping around the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles at Smashbox Studios in Culver City. The week doesn't officially kick off until Sunday, October 15, but the festivities (yes, with all those pretty clothes and beautiful people, I call them "festivities") started gearing up this past week.

We'll keep you posted as we go along, and if you are going to be there, maybe we'll run into you!