A personal favorite of mine, Ed Hardy laceless oxfords at Bakers.

Yesterday was a market day for me….it was time to spend some time in the stores just to see what has come in for Spring/Summer 08 while looking for harbingers of 2010. I was disappointed. Inventory was light in many places and not much in the way of excitement; then again, there weren’t that many shoppers out there either.

Crate & Barrel was interesting; nice round up of colors–lots of orange but there were great navy blues or cobalt, and greens too.

Coach was the most fun when it came to color. They just can’t get enough of it.

Anthropologie was fun, as always, and they have one very colorful spread this year that just outdoes anyone’s version of colorful spread yet. There was more crochet and needlepoint, even in lamp shades, with appliques and embroidery…Coach has appliques on some of their wallets and purses also (if you haven’t seen it yet).

Urban Outfitters has these great flocked lampshades (my personal favorites).

Baker’s killer boots, possibly their answer to the Balenciaga hard to come by, too expensive boots, also, girls just like boots.

But truthfully, the shoes have it. Shoe designers seemed to have gone all out this year to impress. Baker’s took the cake there, what a round-up….not the least of which are the Ed Hardy sneakers and head scarves. But in fact and in deed Bakers has something for everyone and every occasion with a variety of price points, and the customers to boot (no pun intended, though they had those too!).

Urban Outfitters is doing such a great job in home furnishings these days I sometimes forget to check out their clothes…and shoes. They’ve got a great selection of shoes. Gladiator sandals are big this year and they had some cool variations on that theme, I thought, as well as some unique sneakers…and the neatest yellow jellies I’ve seen yet–and they’ve got great bootie looks that go wonderfully with their tights, or bare legs and minis (I love to take my daughter shopping at Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, while I look for myself at the same time).

As long as I’m at it, I have to give a shout out to Journey’s who does a pretty good job with shoes too….they’ve got a great round-up of sneakers, vans and hi tops, and Smets does their own variation on the laceless tattoed oxfords but theirs have rhinestone eyelets. And I really dug these too cute Bento plaid flip flops.

And finally, you can take Fido out in style too…

from Poochey Shoes.

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Austin Kleon, an Austin Tx. writer/cartoonist/designer, has developed a new art form: Newspaper Blackout Poetry. It’s more than just the design or layout of his poetry that is so fascinating, but the fact that he can look at a paragraph (or two) from an article in a newspaper and find such profound meaning. For more, go here. And, Happy Mother’s Day.

Thank you to How Magazine’s blog for the heads up on this one.

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I’ve gone on and on about Nau over the last six months, thinking it was the best thing to come along since sliced bread. It’s my opinion their “webfronts,” Nau’s trademark term for stores where you can purchase their product at an internet kiosk instead of bring it home from the store, getting an extra 10% to do so and helping to reduce a brand’s overall carbon footprint, were or are the cutting edge of retailing.

It’s where many retailers need to take their next step, and do so responsibly. As I’ve commented before, Nau’s business model is one for the text books, so I just don’t think this is Nau’s final curtain, or maybe I’m just in denial. Maybe I have more in common with Hillary Clinton than I think. Hang in there till the bitter, bitter end.

Ian Yolles, Nau’s vp of communications, says they were not immune to this nasty economic environment and investors became jittery; that just says to me they have the wrong investors; they need some Seventh Avenue guys used to eating nails at breakfast and concrete for lunch.

You don’t go down until the fat lady sings and in Nau’s instance, we’ve only just taken our seats before we were told the theatre was going dark. How is this happening that one of the greatest ideas to hit retailing in years is shuttering its doors and windows as we speak. So Wal-Mart can have a run on recycled t-shirts? Pull-ease.

I’ll refer you to TreeHugger’s obituary for Nau, they wax much more poetic about it than I and manage to give them their proper due at the same time.

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At the Victoria & Albert Museum March 15-July 13.

Right on cue with all the controversey about goods being produced and imported from China, it’s time we see the upside to this country’s progress. The V&A exhibit explores China’s current design, art, fashion and architecture scene. Journeying along China’s east coast, the exhibit moves south to north from Shenzhen, China’s manufacturing centre, to fashion capital Shanghai and architectural hotspot Beijing.

As the country has developed so has its arts, architectural and fashion practices. ‘China Design Now’ covers some 100 designers set to influence the international stage as they establish a new norm within their own shorelines.

For more information, downloads, and to order tickets, visit the V&A’s website or to their online shop for information on or to purchase the above poster, Graphic Design in China by Chen Shaohua, or any one of the Hi Panda collectibles (small versions of the larger ones seen in the show and designed by young urban designers Shirtflag).

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Opening May 7, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s newest show, “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” is a “celebration of the body fantastic,” so says Giorgio Armani, the exhibit’s honorary chair.

Clicking through the slide show of some of the costumes reminds me of some of fashion’s better moments both on the runway and on the silver screen. For more, go here.

Image courtesy Style.com. From the Superheroes, “The Doge Knows: Philip Treacy’s futuristic Venetian mask, photographed by Irving Penn for Vogue, December 1996.”

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