What's your kid planning to do this summer? For a mere $5,000-$9,500, an outfit called University of Dreams guarantees it will score your kid an internship at Donna Karan, or you get your money back. Private yoga and Kabbalah sessions with Donna herself not included. [WSJ]

Next week's inauguration has spawned a flood of Barack Obama-themed items, a collection of merchandise that the Times reports runs from the cheap and crappy ("I ♥ Obama classic thong undies" for $8.99) to the indescribable in a family newspaper ("Obama sex toys"). But there are plenty of overpriced and relatively stylish items to be had, too, like the official Runway to Change $70 tote bags by Diane von Furstenberg and Tory Burch, and T-shirts by Zac Posen, Rachel Roy, and Donna Karan, who tells WWD that her "Inspire Change" shirt was meant to function as "a communication tool that would connect people to inspire change," whatever that means. Alas, the one thing inauguration-goers could really use—Obama-themed earmuffs—don't seem to exist. We'll exercise faith in the capitalist system and assume that there's an entrepreneur somewhere waiting for a shipment to arrive from China any minute.

Cinema Society, Nextbook and Grey Goose hosted a screening of Defiance last night with an after-party at Shang inside the Thompson LES. Host Andrew Saffir and the film's stars, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, and director, Edward Zwick, were joined by Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone, Naomi Watts, Olivia Palermo (left), Jason Pomeranc, Agyness Deyn, Tory Burch and Lyor Cohen, Donna Karan, Martha Stewart, Jay McInerney, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Villency, Amy Sacco, Russell Simmons, Zani Gugelmann, Ivanka Trump, Andre Balazs, Steve and Christine Schwarzman, Ann Dexter-Jones, Ellen Barkin, Paula Froelich, Richard Johnson and Sessa von Richthofen, Larry Gagosian, Bettina Zilkha, Carson Kressley, Jennifer Creel, Valesca Guerrand-Hermes, Rachel Roy, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Douglas Hannant, Rosanna Scotto, Heather Matarazzo, Joshua Bell, Leelee Sobieski, Jill Hennessy, Debbie Bancroft, Marina Rust Connor, Nina Griscom, Caroline Murphy, Judah Friedlander, Patrick McMullan, Liam McMullan, Mary Alice Stephenson, Dan Abrams, and Dave Zinczenko. [PMc, Wireimage, The Daily]

Louis Vuitton celebrated Marc Jacobs' new collection in honor of Stephen Sprouse last night with an exhibition preview, cocktail event, and after-party. Marc and boyfriend Lorenzo Martone (left) were joined by a long list of fashion, art, and society types, including Donna Karan, Leigh Lezark, Nicole Miller, Jeffrey Deitch, Anna Sui, Patricia Field, Patrick McDonald, Erin Fetherston, Russell Simmons, Rachel Roy, Linda Fargo, Nina Garcia, Anne Slowey, Agyness Deyn, Molly Sims, Bettina Zilkha, Andrew Saffir, Jane Holzer, Tim and Helen Lee Schifter, Lisa Falcone, Terence Koh, Adi, Coco and Ice-T, Casey Spooner, David Hershkovits, Kim Hastreiter, Rogan Gregory, Chanel Iman, Eva Amurri, Fabiola Beracasa, Chuck and Candy Pratts Price, Brooke Shields, Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann, Mickey Boardman, Serena Bass and son Sam Shaffer, Glenda Bailey, Robert Burke, Peter Marino, Andres and Lauren Santo Domingo, Marjorie Gubelmann, Paul Sevigny, Andre Harrell, Andres Serrano, Stephen Knoll, Andrea Rosen, Maurizio Cattelan, Kipton Cronkite, Kehinde Wiley, Debbie Harry, Jackie Astier, Tatum O'Neal, Marcus Schenkenberg, Veronica Webb, Waris Ahluwalia, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Dr. Frederic Brandt, Monet Mazur, Peter Davis, Dori Cooperman, Mary Alice Stephenson, Melissa Berkelhammer, Luigi Tadini, and, of course, Patrick McMullan and son Liam McMullan. [PMc, Wireimage, NYO]

• Vivienne Westwood may have designed Carrie's wedding dress for the first Sex and the City movie, but she'd like to write the script for the sequel, and she's even written to Sarah Jessica Parker to make her case. [Telegraph]
• Tracy Feith is the latest designer who has been tapped to do a line for Target. [WWD]
• Fern Mallis says IMG has confirmed 52 designers— including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Michael Kors—for Fashion Week in February. [WSJ]
• Marchesa will be showing, too. [Fashionista]
• Photos of Isaac Mizrahi's new collection for Liz Claiborne. [Pipeline]
• Go alert your mom: Carolina Herrera says long hair after 40 is "out" in her book. "Women need to learn how to age gracefully." [Times UK]

• Madonna's interest in Alex Rodriguez appears may have waned (she's been spotted with a young Brazilian model in recent weeks), but there's another rich, older, equally Kaballah-obsessed woman happy to take her place. At a New Year's party in Parrot Cay last week, Donna Karan seemed smitten with the slugger, although A-Rod "refused Karan's advances" since he's "still hung up on Madonna." [P6]
• Not only are most people on Mustique happy the Noel family stayed off the island this year, but a bar even created a "No Noel" cocktail to celebrate. [P6]
• Lindsay Lohan says on her MySpace blog that she and Samantha Ronson have not broken up, just in case you've been up all night worrying. [People]
• Officials in the Bahamas have completed an autopsy on John Travolta's son, Jett, and claim the death was caused by a seizure. [CBS, NYP]

• In what will probably come as soul-crushing news to Arden Wohl, Mischa Barton is launching a line of headbands with Stacey Lapidus. [WWD]
• How do you rope in shoppers during a recession? Staying open 24 hours a day is one popular approach. [WSJ]
• More bad news for retail: As if the recession wasn't painful enough, snowfall during the final days of the season is expected to make things worse. [WSJ]
• Just in case you missed the news, leggings are back. [LAT]
• Tim Gunn has sent out "videotaped personal pleas" to Giorgio Armani and Donna Karan to urge them to stop using rabbit fur from China. [P6]
• Betsey Johnson is not, in fact, planning a diffusion line. [NYM]
• Sorry, folks: Burger King's meat-scented body spray, is sold out. [Racked]

• Giorgio Armani is moving ahead with his massive Fifth Avenue flagship, which he says will open on February 18th: "New York needs glamour. It needs size. This store is an act of faith toward the Americans and Fifth Avenue shoppers." [Racked]
• Alice Temperley is the latest designer to announce she's skipping a Fashion Week runway show. [WSJ]
• Tommy Hilfiger, however, is moving to the tents this year, and Max Azria says his three shows will go ahead as planned. [WWD, WSJ]
• Pamela Anderson is the newest model for Vivienne Westwood. [R29]
• Agy Deyn appears in a new, T-sponsored movie. [Fashionista]
• Donna Karan has cancelled her Christmas party. [WWD]
• What it's like to shop at Bergdorf as the wife of a Russian gazillionaire. [NYT]

Adrian Grenier and Jessica Stam hosted Scott Harrison's third annual Charity: Water benefit last night at the Metropolitan Pavillion. Attendees at the event included Richie Rich, Olivia Palermo, Whitney Port, Byrdie Bell, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Rocco DiSpirito, Jenna Elfman, Emma Snowdon-Jones, Jamison Ernest, Cee-Lo, and models Larissa Bond and Masha Rudenko. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG]

♦ Did you attempt to get your hands on some Comme des Garçons for H&M today? You're braver than us. [Racked]
♦ Cathy Horyn provides a clear-eyed assessment of Barack Obama's sartorial style, pointing out that "his jeans are the loose, jingle-the-change-in-your-pocket type. He belts them at the waist, and when he wears them with white sneakers and a windbreaker, one could almost say he had stolen the look from Jerry Seinfeld's character on the television series." [NYT]
♦ At Diane von Furstenberg's party for Financial Times editor Vanessa Friedman, André Leon Talley broadcast his delight over Obama's victory in the most appropriate way: The back of his coat was emblazoned with "The New American Dream" in crystals. [WWD]
♦ Also gushing about the Obamas? Donna Karan, who says: "I'm hoping to get to work with them—it would be my dream. They are so committed to ideals that are much in alignment with mine." [WWD]

♦ Unlike the Marc Jacobs store window in LA, which is mocking Sarah Palin, Henri Bendel's display is bipartisan, with mannequins flanked by red and blue polling booths. In more other Marc news, you can add his "Rock and Roll Circus" holiday party to the list of festivites that have been cancelled due to the economic downturn. [WWD, WWD]
♦ Madison Avenue is "pockmarked" with vacant storefronts, reflecting "sky-high rents and how cautious and dollar-conscious European and American brands have become in their expansion plans." [WWD]
♦ Donna Karan is opting not to spend money shooting an ad campaign for spring '09; instead, the company will just use images from the runway show. If this is going to be a trend, models and photographers might want to consider a side job. [The Cut]

♦ André Leon Talley urged fashion students at the Art Institute of Philadelphia to vote, "no matter who your candidate is," and said of Anna Wintour: "She is not that person in 'The Devil Wears Prada.' She is like Catherine the Great of Russia. She has kept that magazine on top, raised money for the Met and for the Democratic party." [WWD]
♦ Election eve shocker! Donna Karan and Diane von Furstenberg are voting for Obama. [WWD]
♦ Michael Kors could care less which network Project Runway winds up on: "I just want people to watch the show." [The Cut]
♦ In the new Agent Provocateur campaign, Helena Christensen doesn't look very happy in cheap red lace, and we don't blame her. [The Mirror]

♦ Last night Karl Lagerfeld was in town to celebrate the Chanel Mobile Art exhibition with a cocktail party in Central Park. Undeterred by the chilly weather and/or enticed by the chance to be photographed in Chanel: Kate Bosworth and James Rousseau, Glenda Bailey, Linda Wells, Agyness Deyn and Albert Hammond Jr., Zac Posen, Dasha Zhukova, Peter Davis, Helena Christensen, Terry Richardson, Eve, Ann Dexter-Jones, Boykin Curry and Celerie Kemble, Cory Kennedy, Victoria and S.I. Newhouse, Terry Richardson, Julie Macklowe, Debbie Bancroft, Katie Lee Joel, Tiffany Dubin, Kim Raver, Christopher and Amanda Cutter Brooks, Fabiola Beracasa, Amy Astley, Stefano Tonchi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Carine Roitfeld, Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Kate Schelter, Ferebee Bishop Taube, Luigi Tadini, Eleanor Ylvisaker, Jackie Astier, Fran Lebowitz, Justine and Jeff Koons, Genevieve Jones, David Hershkovits, Kate Schelter, Sophie Auster, and Vidal Sassoon. [The Daily, PMc, GoaG]

♦ Yesterday evening the New York Women's Foundation Fall Gala took place at Gotham Hall: Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor, Iman, Joel Klein and Nicole Seligman, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Felicia Taylor, Jamie Niven, Herbert Wachtell, and Jonathan Farkas ate, drank, and watched a performance from the American Ballroom Theater Youth Dance Company. [Wireimage, PMc]

Donna Karan is celebrating her 60th birthday today, although you'd probably never guess it thanks to all the juice diets, yoga, Reiki and Kabbalah classes, and "therapeutic screaming" sessions. Others celebrating today: Photographer Annie Leibovitz is 59. Kelly Ripa is 38. Lorraine Bracco is turning 54. Sting is 57. And '80s pop star Tiffany is celebrating her 37th birthday.

Fashion companies will be delighted to hear that while demand for their $5,000 purses may be waning a little, expensive perfume is enjoying a renaissance as a means for women to broadcast that they have too much time and/or money on the hands. Rare and expensive fragrances are growing in popularity as "perfumistas," who obsess on blogs like perfumeposse.com, compete for hard to find brands, to the extent of traveling to different countries to track them down.

Do try to be extra nice if you bump into Donna Karan during Fashion Week: She's had better weeks, that's for sure. Jeff Moss, Karan's stepson-in-law—her late husband's daughter's husband—pleaded guilty yesterday to being high on Xanax and GHB when he got into a car crash on Long Island last year, a wreck that killed a 60-year-old woman. Moss pleaded guilty to all 14 counts against him, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and driving under the influence of drugs. He's expected to spend two to six years behind bars.

• Drama abounded at DKNY's show yesterday: PETA protestors burst onto the runway, shouting and brandishing placards—to the apparent amusement of André Leon Talley—while Petra Nemcova's new bangs rendered her unrecognizable and therefore unmolested by the media. Meanwhile the rather random celebrity trio of Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci, and Nicole Richie were regaled with "combinations of electric blue and black, neon pink and yellow anorak dresses, parachute pants and color-blocked knits" and a finale led by Donna Karan's five-year-old granddaughter Stefania. [The Cut, Fashionologie, NYDN, Telegraph]
  
  

1) One of many Fashion Week kick-off events was the Agyness Deyn-hosted, Thierry Mugler-sponsored bash last night at Christie's, where Chloë Sevigny, Henry Holland, Kelly Osbourne, Peaches Geldof, Yigal Azrouël, Kelly Cutrone, Paul Sevigny, Kate Schelter, Jennifer Creel, Holly Dunlap, Genevieve Jones, Jen Cohen, Dori Cooperman, Ellen Von Unwerth, Padma Lakshmi, and Mary Alice Stephenson previewed the auction house's fall sales of post-war and contemporary art, impressionist and modern art, and fashion. [The Daily, Wireimage, NYO]

Donna Karan no longer controls the company that bears her name: LVMH purchased the company in 2001 for $643 million, leaving her with an estimated $400 million fortune. She remains the company's creative director, of course, but she also keeps busy with philanthropic work. Last year the Queens-born designer shelled out $2.7 to various causes, including the $1 million to the Spirituality for Kids Foundation, which teaches Kabbalah to kids in schools. (Naturally, Madonna's also a big donor.) A fan of all sorts of new-age fads (she's expressed her fondness for "therapeutic screaming" and past life regressions in the past), Karan also has a soft spot for Tibet. Her Karan Weiss Foundation (which reflects the name of her late husband) contributed $200,000 to The Norbulingka Institute, which is dedicated to preserving Tibetan culture, and $20,000 to the International Tibetan Medical Association. The entire list—including her token $1,000 contribution to Bill Clinton's Global Initiative and the $59,000 she gave to pal Russell Simmons' foundation—after the jump.