You know that beautiful necklace your ex-boyfriend gave you that sits in the back of your jewelry box because it just makes you think of how you broke his heart and wonder if you're a bad person?

Sell it!

We recently caught up with Sarah Johnson, the head buyer for LunaBoston.com, an online boutique that features a fabulous selection of handbags from modern and emerging designers like Olivia Harris, Jenny Yuen, and Treesje. We asked her what she looks for when shopping for new young designers to carry, and found out what trends she thinks will be hot for Fall 2008.

Something we've noticed lately is the sudden prevalence of relatively inexpensive wedding dresses on the Internet. It started with Lane Bryant's now-dwindling Bridal collection of dresses and separates, all priced at around $150 initially and now on sale for about fifty bucks a pop. Then we noticed that David's Bridal has an online gown collection with dresses for all sizes priced under $250. Now Torrid has a few new wedding options for the curvy bride, all priced under $250.

Sounds great, right?

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there. In order to find out more about just what makes all of these creative types tick, we present to you an ongoing segment called Indie Designer Interviews.

Today's interview is with UK-based artist & designer Lee May Foster. who in addition to designing her own line of screen printed tshirts and jewelry also sells the work of other indie designers at her online shop, The Bonbi Forest Indie Emporium.

Inessah and Tara are two New York ladies who found each other through Craigslist as subletter and sublet-ee in college.

"Two years later, after having worked traditional careers, Tara and Inessah missed the spontaneous community, independence and creativity they felt when subletting. So over lunch one day, they decided they would create their own permanent sublet through Sublet Clothing."

--Subletclothing.com

I'm not sure how logical that is, but I don't care. Look at this dress! A sweet, curve-skimming cut with an unusual non-halter-style bow at the back. It's made of organic cotton, spandex, and bamboo. Sixty-seven percent bamboo!

In fact, all of their simple, elegant clothing is made with bamboo. How exotic! How perfect for the Retro Princess! You could slay a black and white party, a garden party, or even just a nice dinner in any of their items. The only place I wouldn't recommend wearing these clothes is the zoo. 'Cause, you know. Pandas.

(Carnage.)

Remember when online shopping was the solution to pounding the streets for good deals on clothing and accessories? Well, now we have a solution for pounding the keyboard, too.

ShopItToMe.com is a seemingly simple but surprisingly comprehensive free site for male and female fashion lovers on a budget. You go to the site, sign up for a free account, select your favorite designers, modify settings such as price caps and how often you want notifications, and voila! However often you chose, ShopItToMe e-mails you with sales on stuff you want but don't have time to look for.

The e-mails look great; very organized and not overwhelming. I can see them just fine on my home and work computers; that's Internet Explorer on a PC and Firefox on a Mac, two applications which hate on each other so hard they should be characters on Super Smash Bros.

Here are a couple of things that were e-mailed to me yesterday:

Pretty yellow Theory top, $85.00
BCBG Sonar Wave Burnout Camisole, $86.90
Nanette Lepore Pinstriped Skirt $135.00

It works, people. Go there.

It's during these stretches of cold, gray day, after cold, gray day, after rainy, cold, gray day, that we all long to be somewhere under the equator. As we dig through the semi-broken $5 umbrellas that have amassed in our closets, we dream of lying on a beach, or exploring the rainforest, or traveling through the desert under the hot sun, and of course looking fabulous in a chic blend of luxury and local accoutrements.

For a taste of warmer climates, I recommend Pangea Collection. Pangea Collection was created by Patricia Pinkney to bring you exquisite and unusual jewelry and accessories from exotic countries all over the world, as well as Canada. Wait, Canada? Yeah, all right, I'll leave that alone.

A lot of these pieces, for example the African Lily Necklace ($62.70) at right are made with bold, bright colors, perfect for that Retro Princess: White and Bright look over which I've been drooling.

Patricia says: "Many of the collections are from Fair Trade organisations. Shipping to the USA and Canada is Free."

Good enough for me. Check out the great Travel Stories section, too. We all need to dream.

More of my favorites:

Look at this adorable pair of red houndstooth shoes with metallic heels. I love them. They are sexy, but not too sexy for work. Guess how much they cost? $9.99. Shipping? Free, if you spend more than $50 on the site. If you go www.cutesyshoes.com and click on your size...voila! Women's shoes galore!

You can also shop by price. Do not neglect that rare button you see there on the side: "Under $10."

For shoes? Actual shoes? The replicas of shoes you find in theater and museum gift shops cost more than that. It costs more than that to get shoes re-heeled!

Listen. I can't guarantee that these shoes are comfortable. I can't guarantee that they're made of cashmere and alpaca, but they are cheap, stylish, and available on an easy-to-navigate site. I thought you should know!

This is one of those sites that I wish I had discovered earlier, sparing myself hundreds of frustrating hours trying to dig through discount codes in my Inbox. Retail Me Not is an online, user-submitted collection of discount codes for various online stores, from Papa John's to American Eagle to Walgreens. Although the success rate of each code is rarely ever 100%, there's no telling how much you can save if you just give the codes a try. I just tried this out with a test shopping spree on the Victoria's Secret and I could have bought an alarming amount of underwear and lipgloss for next to nothing (by lingerie standards).

This is definitely one of my favorite finds of the year. Also check out another site from the Retail Me Not creators: Bug Me Not. It's a huge collection of usernames and passwords open for public use on websites that usually ask you to register to see certain material (like the New York Times and YouTube).

The so-called clicks and mortar stores that combine retail space and a booming catalog or online business are fairly common but now Federated Department Stores will convert a former Lord & Taylor store in Delaware into a showcase for catalog and online retailers that have not had storefronts. The Epicenter Collection will offer 180,000 to 200,000 square feet of retail mall space. Epicenter will be a place for successful online businesses to have their own retail locations. They expect to have up to 60 e-tailers and catalog companies under one roof. Shoppers will also have access to a self-checkout device that will offer onsite purchases and home delivery. The store will be converted to the new format during the next year and open for customers by fall 2008 and more stores will be opened if the pilot program is successful.

Hey, we're not going to opine one way or the other about letting a sugar daddy take care of you. However, if you happen to love jewelry, particulaly gorgeous designs from indie designers, well then, we say, go with a Sugardaddy, all the way!

That is of course, if you are buying earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings from Canadian jeweler, SugarDaddy (www.sugardadyshop.ca). SugarDaddy is an online boutique that features jewelry designs from independent, original designers in Canada. They also carry handbags and other accessories.

If ever you shop at Amazon.com (who doesn't shop at the online mega-store?!?!), you know that they have lots of decent deals and sales, but they're difficult to find. You basically have to browse the department in which you are interested, then hope that whatever catches your eye will be on sale. It's a little bit unnatural to the way we shop in real-life -- we head straight for the sale section and then look for something we might want.

Well, now thanks to the bargain bounty hunter over at BrandNameCoupons, all of the links to Amazon's rebates, deals, and sales in a whole slew of departments are conveniently listed in one place. Take a peek to see what you might find for as much as 90% off!

Several months ago, we were tipped off to something called "Lukablu," with no other information other than a link to a shell of a website, some mysterious words about a website as beautiful as the designers, and an ambiguous launch date for "sometime in the fall/winter."

Well, it looks like Lukablu has launched, and it's another shopping site. While I'm not sure that the site itself as beautiful as the apparel and accessories they offer, it is a standard mix of designers that appear on Bluefly, ShopBop, and other retailers. Nonetheless, I'll be taking a peek every once in a while to see what they offer.

As we head into the new year, we're all making resolutions, and no doubt, a lot of them are about health (which is just a less aggressive term for "diet"), fitness (same thing), and beauty. Yes, even for the men, "getting gorgeous" is a big factor for 2007.

So maybe for men, we call it "grooming." Whatever it is, if you're a guy and you need a resource for all things guygorgous, try out Details for Men, an online store that carries high quality men's products with everything from Elgydium toothbrushes to skincare to a collection of products intended for the athlete. Details for Men's mission to "provide men with the highest quality grooming, skincare, haircare, shaving and personal care products to suit their active lifestyle."

Active? Let's hope so for the new year!

Today is the last day you can order a gift online and still have the pressie in your little procrastinating hands before Christmas day. If you're thinking that you might want to get your man a cool winter hat or snag your lady a purse hanger, you better snap to it, my friends, because the window of opportunity closes at 3pm EST today.

Best get shopping, people...