With Americans and Europeans opting often for ready-to-wear, design houses are increasingly turning to fashion-savvy consumers in Russia and the Middle East to fill the void. [Wall Street Journal]

Books, movies, travel, sculpture...Designer Jason Wu, who sprang to fame with First Lady Michelle Obama's inauguration gown, talks about what inspires him. [Wall Street Journal]

"Glee" star Lea Michele sports new bangs...and how you can duplicate the look. [InStyle]

Up next from the indefatigable and ubiquitous Kardashians: a new line of bikinis, which will be available May 10. [People]

Designers from Diane Von Furstenberg to Max Azria are turning fashion inside out with reversible pieces to stretch your fashion dollar. Take a peek! [New York Post]

Twi-hards can dream along with top designers, who show us what Bella's wedding dress might look like. [InStyle]

Report: Bono may be next to appear in Louis Vuitton "core values" ad campaign. [wwd]

Is it an album? Is it a scent? Maybe it's both. Songstress Mary J. Blige talks about her new My Life fragrance. [wwd]

Celebrity hairstylist Rita Hazan launches an interactive website so you can see what's new and how it's done. [StyleList]

A word in support of neckties: they don't bind, they free men to express themselves. [Guardian]

Michael Bastian talks about his look, his new line for Gant. [Tmagazine]

New documentary tries to find the real Halston. [Style.com]

Call it the cougar effect? Lingerie sales get a boost from middle-aged women. [Daily Mail]

-- Susan Denley

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Photo: Bono. Credit: IPTC

For the debut Gant by Michael Bastian collection, aimed at what the designer envisions as the more casual "younger brother" of his existing customer, Bastian chose a lacrosse motif.

What's that? Not familiar with one of the oldest team sports in the Americas? 

Neither was Bastian, who told me at the fall/winter 2010 presentation (appropriately enough staged at St. Anthony's Memorial Gym in New York's SoHo district) that he'd never played it -- or even attended a school that fielded a team. 

Yesterday, Ray Smith, my colleague in the fashion trenches over at the Wall Street Journal mused on the recent stateside proliferation of bared necks and plunging necklines -- at the men's runway shows specifically and in popular culture in general.

He touches on a topic I first wrestled with back in June 2008 when the trend first started to emerge on the runways of Milan and Paris: What exactly do you call that "hair-muda triangle" of man cleavage? Smith invokes "heavage," which he traces to a tweet from Hilary Alexander, fashion director of Britain's Daily Telegraph, describing the look sported by Stephen Gan of Harper's Bazaar at a Paris fashion show in October.

That does manage to efficiently wrap "hair" into the notion of "cleavage," for the general populace, but fails to include the vast majority of the male models -- who are usually clearcut from wishbone to waistband.

Back then, I was pretty proud of the term I'd come up with that managed to cover all the bases -- "dude decolletage" -- but maybe there's something even more clever out there in the ether.

Any suggestions? If so, let us know.

-- Adam Tschorn

Photo: A model sports a deep V of bare chest at the Michael Bastian Spring 2010 runway show during New York Fashion Week in September. Style writers refer to the increasingly prevalent man cleavage by different names including "heavage" and "dude decolletage." Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson for the Times.

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NEW YORK -- After staging presentations for the last few seasons, Michael Bastian staged a full-fledged runway show for Spring/Summer 2010. "We have so many clothes we decided we really wanted to show them all," he told me afterward.

That made the 53 men's looks that came down the catwalk a lot to process -- running the gamut from canvas surf shorts to shawl collar dinner jackets -- and a lot of the detail that makes Bastian's collections so enjoyable in danger of being lost in the shuffle (but I suppose that's what show notes and re-see appointments are all about).

This time out those details included accessories like brass railroad spike cuffs and Guadalupe medallion necklaces (both by Giles & Brother by Philip Crangi for Michael Bastian) and specially made Stubbs & Wootton slippers in camouflage, allover seagull embroidery and an Argentine sunburst embroidery, all three designs also appearing on clothing ion the collection.

NEW YORK -- Michael Bastian's New York Fashion Week debut last season was one of our favorite discoveries, and we're happy to report that he he didn't disappoint on his sophomore outing. We're going to let the collection speak for itself in this video, with more details to follow later. In case you can't tell, the runway is a gray carpet with white road stripes on it, and Bastian's models (labeled as "exits" in the show notes) seemed to crest a hill and walk a lonely road, itinerant musicians, grease monkeys and travelers badged like grown up Cub Scouts with raccoon tails, embroidered acorn patches and camouflage print neckties.

-- Adam Tschorn

If you didn't blow your holiday budget at the mall on Black Friday and you're going to take our advice and head out to Pacific Palisades to shop the local merchants, pencil it in for Dec. 4. We're told that's when the last call starts at Elyse Walker's women's clothing and shoe boutique, with a 75% discount on all sale merchandise (on our last visit, Christian Louboutin and Prada were among the shoes priced to walk).
At the same time, next door at the Elyse Walker Men's shop, the already-on-sale merchandise goes to 50-60-70 -- the first item is 50% off, the second is 60% off and the rest of sale purchases are discounted 70%. When we were poking around the sales rack a few weeks ago, among the notable things we spotted were a Rag & Bone dark navy Svedke coat (at a pre-sale price of $688), a Michael Bastian checked blazer with corduroy elbow patches (originally $2,388), a black leather Alexander McQueen puffer jacket ($3,852), and a wide selection of Barker Black shoes, including $250 sneakers and $850 wingtips with toe-cap perforations that form a subtle skull-and-crossbones design ($850). 
Elyse Walker and Elyse Walker Men, 15300 and 15306 Antioch St., Pacific Palisades, (310) 230-8882, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Photo of Elyse Walker Men courtesy of  Elyse Walker.