What are stars wearing on their feet this spring? Jessica Biel, Sarah Jessica Parker and others show you. [People]

See the best (props to Reba McIntyre, Jennifer Nettles) and worst (Faith Hill, what were you thinking?) dresses at last night's American Country Music Awards.  [New York Post]

If you want to walk down the aisle in something a little different, see 20 takes on the bridal gown from Thakoon, Rachel Pally, Phillip Lim and others. [refinery29]

Sustainability roundup: Moxsie.com, Puma, Deckers. [wwd] 

Olympic snowboarder Shaun White gets into the shoe-design biz with Target. [wwd]

Melania Trump talks about her new jewelry line for QVC, The Donald and more. [StyleList] 

Strange Invisible Perfumes' new scent, Essence of IX, was created in collaboration with California's Colgin Cellars and may remind you of touring a wine cellar. In a good way, we mean. [BellaSugar]

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush of Sugarland. Credit: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

For his fall/winter 2010 runway show, Thakoon Panichgul complemented his fur-heavy collection with strong eyebrows and cheeks that glowed in a deep peachy hue.

Panichgul's inspiration, which were the costumes in Chopinot & Gaultier’s Le Défilé, led makeup artist Diane Kendall to create a look that she said highlighted the eyes showing depth and boldness in a way that wouldn’t compete with the heavy layers and textures of the clothing.

Anyone who’s a fan of these Nars colors will have to wait until next fall to get them. Kendall used mostly shades that aren’t hitting stores until the end of August, but she provided some alternatives to tide fans over until then.

FACE
• Douceur Blush (new for fall 2010); try Lovejoy or Madly Blush for a similar effect.

EYES
• Coconut Grove Single eye shadow (new for fall 2010); try Bali Single eye shadow.
• Tzarine Duo eye shadow (new for fall 2010); try the Orgasm Illuminator on brow bones.

LIPS
• Tashkent Pure Matte Lipstick (new for fall 2010); try Belle de Jour Velvet Matte Lip Pencil.

-- Melissa Magsaysay

Photos: Thakoon Panichgul's fall 2010 runway

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Photos: Two looks from Thakoon Panichgul's fall/winter 2010 collection. Credit: Nars

With lackluster collections from Jason Wu, Thakoon Panichgul and Zac Posen, I was beginning to worry that New York Fashion Week was experiencing a young designer burnout.

It's easy to see how it could happen, with the pressure to make headlines and reinvent season after season -- and now in the pre-seasons, too.

But not every designer has the boundless imagination to be an Alexander McQueen. (It's possible even McQueen was having trouble keeping up, and that it led to his death.) And not every designer should try.

 
From edgy to ethereal, these hair and makeup looks from New York’s Spring 2010 runways shows were some of the most inspiring or wearable.

Rodarte’s dark and webby dresses called for a hairstyle that was just as intricate.  This may not be one to try at home, but the style was full of texture and looked almost sculpted.

Hair stylist Odile Gilbert created something daring enough to rival the Rodarte sister’s futuristic creations.

Keep reading to find out how she got the look:

For spring, Thakoon Panichgul, whose floral print dresses are favorites of the first lady, injected some sportiness into his girlish look with mixed results.

The focus was on a new, more body-conscious silhouette. SCUBA-inspired dresses with draped, Fortuny-pleated floral and lava-print silk, combined with techno twill color-blocking, felt overly tricky. Same thing goes for shifts with armor-like front panels of silk jacquard (a bit sandwich board-like), and silk T-shirts and ninja pants that mixed a riot of prints to dizzying effect.

The best pieces were jackets -- one molded to the body in a cyberfloral and techno twill mix, and another in black twill covered in waves of silver chains.

Still, I left wanting more.

-- Booth Moore

Pictures: Thakoon's spring / summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson  / For The Times

Gossip, first impressions, trends in the making, celebrities and style setters. A regular feature by fashion critic Booth Moore.

"American Idol" creator Simon Fuller is partnering with Net-a-porter vet Sojin Lee on a new online fashion venture called Fashionair launching in September. And if anyone can take the fashion experience to the next level on the Web, it's these two.

"I want to be a pioneer in the way content and retail can co-exist on the internet," Fuller wrote to me in an e-mail. "Television will no doubt have a part to play in Fashionair’s expansion, but for now we are focused on the web."

The site will be a hybrid of entertainment and e-commerce, featuring video programming taped around the world and edited at Fuller's 19 Entertainment Ltd. studios in London. Like "American Idol" -- and unlike most glossy magazines -- the site aims to be inclusive. "We are going at this from a consumer perspective," Lee said by phone from London. "We want to tell stories and have solutions for fashion dilemmas."

Don't expect an intimidating, perfectly coiffed editor-in-chief dictating trends and annointing new designers. At Fashionair, the users will be the voice. "We are living in the YouTube generation," Lee said. "Every individual has been given a means of expression, and you get inspiration from your neighbor, from someone living in Hong Kong, from so many places."

Fashionair is more about discovering style than discovering fashion.

The folks who gave us the presidential candidate paper dolls last year released a new book last month titled "President Barack Obama and His Family Paper Dolls: The Inaugural Edition." And while he may be the commander in chief on paper, the star of these pages is Michelle Obama (and to a lesser extent Sasha and Malia, who were given scant attention in the earlier book).

Among the six outfits included (the girls share four looks, the president himself has six, most of which are variations on his Hart Schaffner Marx suits) are the J. Crew cardigan, Italian Deco tank top and sheath skirt outfit Mrs. O was wearing on her Oct. 27, 2008, appearance on "The Tonight Show," the black-on-red Thakoon number she wore to the Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, her Jason Wu-designed silk chiffon inaugural ball gown, and the sunshine-yellow, custom-made Isabel Toledo dress and Jimmy Choo shoes she wore to the inauguration.

But our favorite is "Plate 8": the red-and-black satin Narciso Rodriguez dress and Loree Rodkin diamond bangle bracelets and earrings she was wearing on election night in Chicago. 

And maybe it's  just us, but Mrs. Obama looks pretty good on paper.

-- Adam Tschorn

"President Barack Obama and His Family Paper Dolls: The Inaugural Edition," by Tom Tierney (Dover Publications April, 2009).

Photos: The Obama family in Chicago's Grant Park on November 4, 2008. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images. At right, the paper doll version of Michelle Obama's outfit from the same night as depicted in "President Barack Obama Paper Dolls."

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She wore American designers (Jason Wu, Thakoon) and European (Azzedine Alaia, Moschino), Japanese (Junya Watanabe) and J. Crew. Watching her in Europe, it became clear that getting dressed is much more than an official duty for Michelle Obama.

This is a woman who loves clothes. 

When she met French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at the NATO summit luncheon in Strasbourg, France, on Friday, it wasn't much of a fashion smackdown after all. Both women stuck to their pet designers -- Thakoon for Obama and Christian Dior for Bruni-Sarkozy. No surprises there.

First Lady Michelle Obama took off for the G-20 Summit in London today wearing an ivory tulle tweed coat with black grosgrain piping made especially for her by young New York designer Thakoon Panichgul. It’s her first trip to Europe as first lady, and fashion enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the chic smackdown between Obama and her European counterparts.

Obama has already met Sarah Brown, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s wife, who brought first daughters Sasha and Malia a TopShop care package when she visited Washington, D.C., earlier this month. Brown scores points for extending a stylish olive branch. (TopShop opens its first U.S. store in New York City on Thursday.) But she doesn't offer much competition in the wardrobe department.

Despite being a cheerleader for London Fashion Week, Brown hasn’t tapped into the British scene’s extraordinary rising talents such as Richard Nicoll, Erdem Moralioglu and Giles Deacon for her own wardrobe. It's a shame, too, because London designers are in desperate need of exposure from someone other than Kate Moss. And though they may have a reputation for being edgy, they could surely be tamed for a chance to dress the British first lady. You only have to look to British designer John Galliano to know that.

At Christian Dior for 12 years now, Galliano has gone from rockabilly transvestite and geisha girl looks to sober luncheon suits after embracing French first lady and former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as his muse over the last few seasons. And no doubt, when Bruni-Sarkozy meets Obama over the weekend, she will look impeccable, a tribute to her nation's haute couture heritage. But will she look interesting?

Even with the French first lady’s model pedigree and good looks, we’re still betting on Obama to steal the spousal wardrobe stage. Not one to wear watered-down versions of European fashions, a la Jacqueline Kennedy, Obama is likely to continue to take risks, choosing pieces from a roster of multi-cultural, up-and-coming American designers such as Panichgul, the Taiwan-born Jason Wu and the Cuban-born Isabel Toledo. By doing so, she’ll help put those new American names on the world fashion map, and no doubt give us all something to talk about in the process.

 

-- Booth Moore

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Photo: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama take off for the G-20 Summit in London. Credit: AP / Ron Edmonds

L.A.’s own Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte have been nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America Women's Wear Designer of the Year Award. The Pasadena sisters, whose collage dresses were a highlight of New York Fashion Week last month, are up against Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez. Another local designer, Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders, was nominated for the Best Men's Wear Designer of the Year Award alongside Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein and Michael Bastian. Thakoon Panichgul, Jason Wu and Alexander Wang are contenders for the Swarovski Award for up-and-coming women's wear designers. The board of directors Special Tribute Award will be given to First Lady Michelle Obama, who has boosted the American fashion industry by choosing clothes by emerging designers, including Rodriguez, Panichgul and Wu.

The awards, which are the fashion industry's Oscars, are scheduled for June 15 at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York.

--Booth Moore

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Photo: Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.

NEW YORK -- Thakoon Panichgul may be a favorite of First Lady Michelle Obama, but he doesn't only make ladylike clothes. What distinguishes his collections is the undercurrent of sex that runs through them. How else do you explain the wonderful rose buds-with-legs print dresses and eyelash print onesies from his spring collection in stores now?

For fall, he stuck to the formula, but with not quite as much wit as in the past. Michelle Obama-appropriate looks included a navy-and-white confetti print bow blouse and shirtdress, a red velvet sculpted bow-front shift, and the business suit alternative of a black velvet bomber jacket and skirt.

He loosened up a bit when playing with the idea of sheers on a blue wool shift with breakaway ruffles, a black chiffon and wool degrade bow-front shirtdress, and a peekaboo blouse with tiers of fox fur.

Then it was party time with bombers and capes in parrot-hued feathered fox fur. More palatable was a black doubleface wool dress with disco mirrors contouring the waist. So you can forget the bathroom and do your makeup in front of your dress!

-- Booth Moore

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Photo credit: Jonas Gustavsson and Peter Stigter / For The Times