Suddenly, Everyone's Copying Rick Owens

Paris, Milan top Forbes list

(NEWSER) - Weighing everything from fashion to architecture to street life, Forbes rates the 10 most stylish cities in the world. The best of the best:

• It doesn’t get any more chic than Paris
• Milan: “flashy” fashion and cool contemporary design
• New York: a shopping spree from Brooklyn to 5th Avenue
• Rome: La Dolce Vita still says it all

Shops offer more trendy, form-fitting clothes to full-figured shoppers

(NEWSER) - Full-figured women and girls once had fewer fashion options than their size-0 counterparts, but that’s changing as more designers cater to shoppers who want to flaunt their curves, the New York Times reports. Options for the plus-size fashionista range from pink leggings to—gasp!—horizontal stripes. “Some of those girls feel like they have the brio to pull off a fitted look,” says one boutique owner. More»

(NEWSER) - The wildly popular British clothing store Topshop opens its first outpost in New York this week, and Emily Rotberg has advice for uninitiated Americans. First and foremost, “don’t be afraid to push" she writes in the Guardian. "They’re not your friends.” Other nuggets:

• "Sales assistants" aren't there to help. They're there to "demonstrate how to wear a $14 shoelace as a headband."

Chief exec Jeff Bezos swears he won't undercut retailers

(NEWSER) - Anxious retailers are watching Amazon penetrate its next big market: high-end, designer clothing. Having already scarred publishers and lowered prices in electronics, Amazon is making a "significant" investment in fashion and wooing designer brands, says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "It's Day 1 in the category," he tells the New York Times . The megasite has long sold clothing, but now shoppers can find brands like Vivienne Westwood and Jack Spade on Amazon's MyHabit website . More»

'There is no controversy,' he declares as he flouts industry standards

(NEWSER) - Designer Marc Jacobs is flouting fashion industry recommendations by sending 14-year-old models down his catwalk. “I do the show the way I think it should be, not the way somebody tells me it should be,” Jacobs told the New York Times after his Manhattan presentation. "There is no controversy." Health initiative guidelines set by the Council of Fashion Designers of America—which includes Jacobs on its board—recommend that runway models be at least 16 years old . The age limit has been touted as a sign of progress in an industry plagued by anorexia. "The industry's hiring of prepubescent-appearing teenage girls as models of adult clothing sets an unrealistic standard; the curves that define the female figure are absent," said council president Diane von Furstenburg. Models who attempt to maintain a child's body into adulthood "run the risk of eating disorders," she warned. More»