Tired of seeing all those "cool" brand collaborations like "BAPE X FRESHJIVE X PUMA RAZOR T SHIRT WITH THREE LOGOS, $55," etc.? Well now collaborations are coming to the common folk! Cool hipster hip cutting edge Japanese retailer Beams is teaming up with your favorite store, 7-11, for a collabo-branded pack of stationery. We quote: "The latest collaboration by Japanese select shop Beams is with 7-Eleven, producing a stationery collection that includes pens, sketchbooks and sticky notes." Because co-branded stationery is not just a Tokyo thing any more. [Monocle via Hypebeast]

Sears is a company that has become almost entirely redundant, is outflanked by competitors on all sides, and stands ready to poison the reputation of the financial genius who last bought it, Eddie Lampert. The store is not as cheap as Wal-Mart, not as good as Macy's, and not as convenient as Amazon. It's an old retailer desperate for a revolutionary change to resurrect it from the grave. So how is Sears going to claw its way back into the competitive fashion market? By hiring LL Cool J to start a clothing line for it, of course! This is such an appropriately crappy idea:

Oh noes! Publicist/stylist/funboy-about-town Kristian Laliberte's Facebook page was hacked and someone's been sending his friends the most horrible messages! "Dear All," he writes. "This is Kristian and this message is real. Sometime between midnight and nine am, my facebook account was hacked into. A similar experience happened with my gmail two weeks ago-where fake emails were forwarded to an unknown address. The perpetrator sent slews of disgusting fake messages to many of my contacts, but I do not know who all received these. I am categorically letting everyone know that this happened and I'm so sorry if you were upset for one moment and caught up in this mess." Clues as to the perp's ID and a sample of the offending emails below.

So, remember how fashionista Marc Jacobs promised to design an ostrich handbag for Bryanboy, a twinky, blogging, Filipino version of Paris Hilton? It's done! Bryanboy surfaced pictures of "the BB" on his blog this morning after receiving photos from an email tipster. (It's up there at left, while Bryanboy is spanking himself with a whip on the right.) With as much dignity as he can muster, Bryanboy also dropped a lot of hints he'd like to, somehow, obtain one of these bags for free. Wait, what? This hasn't already been promised? Maybe if a certain uberdesigner wasn't so busy updating his Facebook and playing with boy toys and, OK, fair enough, being robbed, he could take care of his handbag muse and avert a PR disaster before it happens.

Energetic American Apparel CEO Dov Charney was named "Retailer of the Year" last week, and the anonymous American Apparel ad spoofer jumped right on it. Copyranter found this new poster of Dov holding up what should have been his award: a dildo. Way to stay tied in to the news cycle, spoofer. Larger picture after the jump.

Oh, excellent: Designer Marc Jacobs has taken his love life gloriously downmarket again! He's back with former rentboy and longtime on-again off-again squeeze Jason Preston, according to Page Six, whose tipster spotted the couple "at Pastis Saturday, looking 'very much together, laughing and kissing...'They were overheard saying they'd missed one another during their separation." We were just saying last week that the fellow Jacobs turned up with at the Custome Institute Gala, an "emotionally grounded" Italian advertising executive, wasn't sufficiently scandal-prone for our taste. Let the threesomes and emotional drama resume again! Or perhaps not. Recall that Jacobs recently switched his Facebook status to no longer read "in an open relationship," while Preston switched his to "in a relationship." A sign of the newfound stability to come, perhaps. Either that or Preston phoned the tip into Page Six himself, and Jacobs is sticking with the hunky Italian as common sense would dictate. [Post]

Heatherette, the fashion label former club kid Richie Rich set up with his friend Traver (stupid spelling!) Rains, may be splitting. Richie Rich was a no-show at Vienna's ridiculous Life Ball this weekend. The organizers blamed "a family thing" but the consensus rumor among the coked-up partygoers was that the partnership between Rich and Rains was over. "People were talking about Richie on the plane, saying he's turned into a full-on diva (surprise, surprise) and has been pulling some major shitty stunts (like booking Life Ball and not showing up)."

Designer Marc Jacobs recently got a new boyfriend and changed his Facebook relationship status to "It's complicated" from "In an Open Relationship." Does that mean Jacobs is loyal to his upscale new boy toy in a way he never was to threeway-friendly ex Jason Preston? Perhaps! But Preston isn't going to send the new man threatening text messages as he did with Jacobs' last guy, Austin A. No no, he's moved on, and in fact has a new, awesomer boyfriend, who Preston wants all his Facebook buddies to know about, at least according to the status update above, forwarded by an email tipster. Let the race to a Facebook-able California gay wedding begin!

PETA, the perpetually outraged animal rights group, is very upset that the New York Times Magazine ran a fashion photo shoot last weekend featuring bees. "The entire world is talking about the fact that bees are dying off—The New York Times has even reported on it—and yet The New York Times Magazine does a fashion spread with bees in it. That's pretty irresponsible," PETA told Animal NY. But Animal also spoke to a beekeeper, who said such photo shoots were perfectly safe for the insects. Perhaps PETA just wants bees to be paid fairer wages for their modeling work. Two more photos of honeymongers inconvenienced by fashion, below.

Pervy pacing madman and American Apparel CEO Dov Charney was named "Retailer of the Year" at the annual Michael Awards, which are the self-described "Oscars of Fashion." The company was cited for its "progressive business practices and provocative advertising
campaigns." Like this one! The Michael Awards are a benefit for medical disorders, which is very appropriate.

Viral marketing: an ostentatious and mysterious way to grab buzz, but ultimately futile when it comes to measurable results that benefit you in the real world. Which makes it exactly the same as luxury clothing. Which may be why luxury brands from Cartier to Prada are now trying to make cute little viral YouTube videos, just like every other company in the world. Do rich, exclusive consumers, who are the prime targets of these brands, really spend their time clicking on YouTube links of amusing commercials? We think not. Which makes this entire trend a mystifying waste of time and resources, just like luxury clothing. Full circle and all that. After the jump, a Sergio Rossi viral video of shoes from different social classes making sweet, sweet love. Luxuriously!

To my untrained eyes, this hat, which Sarah Jessica Parker wore to the premiere of Sex And The City: The Movie, and which was featured in our open caption contest yesterday, is distracting and awful. But the Post rounded up a celebrity stylist and Lucky magazine "accessories director" to weigh in, and they declared the hat officially awesome (click through for a larger picture):

NYC blogger-about-town Cajun Boy was minding his business on a bench outside of an American Apparel store on the Lower East Side last weekend, when "a man with thick eyeglasses wearing a blue Member's Only jacket, carrying a denim murse, and generally carrying on like a crazy person" started pacing back and forth on the sidewalk, shouting into a headset. The man's erratic behavior had Cajun Boy convinced he was a maniac about to shoot up the store. Until he got a good look and discovered—spoiler alert—that it was just energetic American Apparel CEO Dov Charney, no doubt engaged in important corporate business! A scary, businesslike man. Not spotted: Dov's poor chihuahua. [Cajun Boy In The City]

By donning a procession of fleshy, high-heeled escort outfits over the last few weeks, Gwyneth Paltrow managed to land herself a new job! No, it’s not a plum acting role (remember, even Gwyneth herself knows she’s “the worst actress ever”), but at least it’s a paying gig. Seems after all that prancing around in see-through dresses and S&M booties has caught the attention of reputably tame brand Tod’s, they of the classic driving shoes and boring leather bags. And just yesterday she began her first day on the new job, shown here filming a commercial in Rome, triumphantly displaying a new pair of towering heels. A closer look at the pair of stilettos that we must admit we find ourselves craving, plus how Paltrow’s Lady Of The Night wardrobe selections have affected sales at British boutiques, after the jump.

Singer Beyoncé's fashion collection, House of Deréon, is pushing a new kids line, for which it created the ad pictured at left. The reviews are rolling in, and they go a little something like this: "I don't know about you, but the words 'fuck me pumps' and 'pre-schoolers' do not need to go together in the same sentence." Taking racy pictures of underaged girls seems to be the fashion of the moment. Beyoncé is just staying on the cutting edge! But at least Miley Cyrus had a track record of sexual photos before her controversial Vanity Fair shoot; these girls are, what, five or six? And, more importantly, however will Annie Leibovitz take edgy pictures of them when they reach the next break in the celebrity pipeline if they've already been dressing like this for ten years? Larger photo of the ad after the jump.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has revealed his inevitable-in-hindsight line of t-shirts and bags and shit. It's no surprise that he likes pink. Oh, and look! Edgy things like pistols and the words "Gossip Gangster" emblazoned on hoodies and t-shirts! Also, some sort of death kitten rainbow. Plus, of course, his name. Who doesn't want to tell the world, loud and proud, that they read Perez Hilton?? The line, to be sold at upscale Hot Topic stores across the nation, will surely be popular among angry anime girls and flood victims. Click after the jump for close-ups of some of the precious garments.

Bushwick, Brooklyn. Hope to working-class and poor folks, a large Hispanic population, white college-grad hipsters and their holy grail of communal living, the McKibbin lofts. (1 month of free bedbugs included.) Rents are cheap, for now. Expectations, however, are high. Bushwick, the lifestyle! Bushwick, the brand—it's all there on BushwickBK.com. And these young people would like to explain their clothes to you!

You know that Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty," which featured women slightly less skeletal than the average model, and therefore demonstrated that Dove is the greatest, most big-hearted company ever in the world? Well now there's a scandal about it! A new New Yorker story about Pascal Dangin, the world's "premier retoucher of fashion photographs," contains this tidbit on Dove's campaign, which ostensibly celebrates authentic, unadulterated womanhood:

"'He spends most of his time partying until morning in Paris,' a friend said. 'It's out of control. There's always a different boy and everyone is worried he's going to pull a Halston' - referring to the legendary designer whose work suffered due to drinking and drugs. Halston died of AIDS in 1990." [Post]

President Bush's parents George and Barbara just want what's best for their WASPy descendants, particularly on the occasion of the wedding of their beloved, dignified granddaughter Jenna. That's why they don't want David Lauren, son of Ralph Lauren, to attend. See, David has been dating Jenna's cousin Lauren Bush for three whole years, and still hasn't proposed marriage. "Where's the ring, David?" one source near the family told the Daily News. Also, he's an ancient 36 and she's an innocent 22. And, no doubt worst of all for the patrician Bushes, David Lauren is a Jew, and his Jewy-ness might infect precious Lauren: