Lovely blonde actress Kaley Cuoco

Lovely blonde actress Kaley Cuoco has a hit on her hands with her role in "The Big Bang Theory." Perhaps that's why she's decided to move on and leave her home in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles behind. The LA Times reports that Cuoco has put her three-bedroom home on the market for $995,000 listed with Stephanie Vitacco of Coldwell Banker.

The gated Spanish-style house was built in 1937 and listing pictures show that Cuoco has already decamped. The home has distressed hardwood floors and recessed lights. French doors that open to a covered patio and the home has a separate dining room. The kitchen is updated with a breakfast area and stainless steel appliances. The master suite has a walk-in closet and a bathroom with an oversized shower. There is not pool but the listing describes the home's grounds as "parklike." Records on PropertyShark.com show that Cuoco bought the home in 2005 for $1.355 million.

Fans rate the body, also known as the bodysuit

It was the scourge of women's wardrobes in the 1980s: now "the body" is back to torment a new generation too young to remember the downsides of wearing it.

Sales are soaring despite the garment's notorious reputation as one of the least comfortable items of clothing ever invented. Retailers, taking their cue from pop stars such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna as well as catwalk designers like Lanvin and Chloé, are increasing their stocks for the rest of the year.

Fans rate the body, also known as the bodysuit, for much the same reason that Donna Karan, the New York designer who made it famous, alighted on it. It goes with – and under – everything. And this time round, hi-tech fabrics mean bodies can double as 21st-century corsets, sucking in while covering up.

The body's revival comes alongside a slew of other unlikely resurgences, from jumpsuits and ponchos to dungarees and flares. Edith Youngblood, head of intimates at the fashion analysts WGSN, said the trend for vintage clothing had prompted women to reappraise what they wear – and why. "I hate to say it, but women have been known to forgo comfort for the sake of cutting-edge fashion, and the body is one of those instances. The vintage influence, which has translated to the high street, has a lot to do with women accepting some uncomfortable traditional aspects of lingerie."

Marks & Spencer, Asos and River Island are among the high-street retailers that have exploited the body trend. At the luxury bodywear label Wolford, sales of bodies are increasing faster than anything else it sells. A House of Fraser spokesman said customers were "demanding more and more styles". The department store group said sales of Flexees, its most popular shapewear brand, have jumped by 190 per cent compared with last year.

Just as the likes of Lady Gaga seek to shock with their outfits, flaunting so-called "intimates" in distinctly public settings, so do their fans. Farida Kaikobad, River Island's womenswear brand director, said: "Girls are wearing bodies as outerwear for an edgier look."

Jessica Brown, editor of the fashion industry title Drapers, said bodysuits also played into the dancewear trend, which the box office success of Black Swan has helped to reignite. "A body under a floaty or pleated skirt really plays into the ballerina look," she said.

But, as Ms Brown and others warn, fashion comes at a price where bodysuits are concerned. "They aren't that practical – toilet trips are a nightmare," she said.

Rob Phillips, of the London College of Fashion, said: "Those of us with longer memories can recall that bodies and jumpsuits are far from easy to wear – the construction relies on assuming that every woman has the same body proportions, which is clearly not the case. And it can lead to fashion horrors."

Mr Phillips said trends, even unlikely ones, would continue to make a comeback "because of the nature of design – as a designer it's important to look at what's gone before, in much the same way that trends in music come back around. But for all our sakes, let's hope the body isn't around for long this time."

Kelly represents a true Material Girl

Macy's Material Girl line has revealed Kelly Osbourne's second-season ad campaign, and it's getting raves from none other than Madonna, who co-designs the juniors label with daughter Lourdes "Lola" Leon.

"Kelly represents a true Material Girl. She is edgy, cool and has a unique sense of style that Lola and I love," Madonna said in a statement.

Madonna and her oldest child chose Osbourne to front their 2011 spring campaign earlier this year after parting ways with 'Gossip Girl' star Taylor Momsen, the line's original spokesmodel. See more images from the Material Girl ad campaign after the jump.

The trio belongs to a sartorial mutual admiration society, with Osbourne claiming Madonna as her muse and Lola admiring Osbourne's eclectic style. "I take so much of my style from Madonna in the '80s and I really admire how Lola dresses and that she stays true to herself," Osbourne said in a statement.

Shot in New York City's East Village by fashion photographer Brooke Nipar, Osbourne is shown wearing alternately sweet and tough looks at iconic venues including the Lit Lounge and Mars Bar. Additional images were shot at BathHouse Studios in New York City on a set inspired by New York in the '80s, complete with chain-link fences and graffiti.

The E! 'Fashion Police' squad member switches between floral-print dresses and stiletto heels to a boldly striped, lace-edge bra peeking from a short-sleeve jacket, while carrying a giant boom box as a prop. Accessories include a buffalo-check handkerchief wrapped around her hair and peep-toe pumps paired with ankle socks.

Bethel Park cheerleaders hold fashion show

About the time former Bethel Park cheerleading coach Sharon Zaremski decided the girls on her squad should engage in community service, an eighth-grade cheerleader with cancer was having a wish granted through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Adopting the foundation for its fundraising efforts, Bethel cheerleaders staged a spring fashion show during which the girl, who has since recovered, spoke of her joy in meeting members of the Pittsburgh Pirates -- which was her wish.

The first Bethel Park cheerleader-sponsored event raised $600, followed by the second at $1,300. Last year, the event raised more than $13,800.

On March 13, the Bethel Park Cheerleaders' Booster Association will sponsor its 21st Annual Spring Fashion Show, "Oceans of Wishes," benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia. It will be held in the Independence Middle School auditorium, 2807 Bethel Church Road.

The doors open at noon so those who attend can get a close look at auction baskets, and the show begins at 1 p.m.

The effort involves 100 district students -- 66 cheerleaders and 34 boys who are involved in a school organization -- of which 86 will be modeling fashions from Babette's, Buckle, Body Central, T.J. Maxx and other clothing stores. Students will also act as hostesses.

Mistress of ceremonies Heather Abraham of KDKA-TV will describe the outfits as students model them on the runway.

Among the participants will be Madison Zaremski, 14, whose first appearance at a show stretches back to being carried as an infant by her mother, Sharon, who was mistress of ceremonies at the early events.

This time, Madison will model black jeans and a short-sleeved black and red summer shirt.

Nick Heisler, 16, a Bethel Park wrestler, said he looks forward to donning a tuxedo "for such a good cause."

Jillian Lindberg, 17, a fifth-year participant who will model two gowns, said -- besides the event being fun -- she likes "helping to get kids their wish."

"The beauty of it all," said Patti Maloney, president of the booster association, is the entire community pitches in, from businesses to the school district to the students and donors -- and the funds raised grow every year."

Many consumers are reluctant to purchase a luxury handbag

The reasons and drivers for investing in a luxury handbag are particularly strong and convincing if consumers fully consider both the benefits and costs compared to randomly picking up a purse from an unknown manufacturer. Shenzhen Wuzhou Changlian International Trading Co. presents a wide range of luxury handbags from 17 top brands at an affordable price and is currently offering insane discounts.

Many consumers are reluctant to purchase a luxury handbag because of its usual unreasonable price tag. It is totally understandable why consumers step away from luxury brands, such as Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. However, most people might have never thoroughly considered both the advantages and disadvantages. It is also logical that many consumers were simply frightened by the one time spending.

Considering the quality of the luxury products and the time length they could last, consumers might wish to reconsider their predetermined mindsets. If a person spent $199 on a luxury handbag which would last for more than 10 years, that means that person would only pay less than $20 a year to own a magnificent sac. More importantly, owners should also realize how many admiring looks and praises they will gain for the next 10 years.

On the other hand, a consumer can spend several $10 bills grabbing a regular purse from an unknown store, and discard it within a year because of its inferior material and poor quality. The accumulated amount of total spending is, in fact, considerably more than a luxury handbag. Even worse, consumers might sometimes have to sacrifice their jackets from handbag stains or possible scratches due to poor handcrafting.

The Bellamy Brothers set to sue Britney Spears over

Britney Spears may need to enlist more than just a high-kicking kung fu body double to help her fight her latest set of legal battles.

The pop tart may soon be served with a multi-million dollar lawsuit alleging that she and four credited songwriters “ripped off” country music duo the Bellamy Brothers’ 1979 hit, “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me?” with her latest song, “Hold It Against Me.”

"It becomes somewhat uncanny if you simply double the beat of the Bellamy Brothers’ song and match it up with Britney's version,” the Bellamy Brothers’ attorney Christopher E. Schmidt said in a statement. “Literally thousands of fans for both artists have also taken notice.”

FOX411: Britney Sells Out Big Time in New Video.

The Bellamy Brothers’ attorney also noted that this isn’t the first time Spears’ co-producer on “Hold It Against Me” has been accused of plagiarism. “Dr. Luke was sued in 2007 for copyright infringement along with Avril Lavigne and her record label for ‘lifting’ portions of Avril's hit song ‘Girlfriend.’ The suit subsequently settled in 2008.”

Schmidt also noted similar accusations of plagiarism against Dr. Luke on songs he produced for Katy Perry and Daughtery.

FOX411: Britney Our Celebrity of the (Last) Decade.

Meanwhile, David Bellamy told the U.K.’s Daily Star: “Howard (Bellamy) and I have no personal beef with Britney. She’s a talented gal. But professionally we feel completely ripped off. We will without doubt take the appropriate legal action if our attorneys agree we’ve been ripped off.”

“From here, it is just a matter of trying to work things out amicably with everyone involved,” Schmidt concluded in his statement.

Lily Donaldson is so beautiful that our waiter drops everything

Lily is our first home-grown supermodel since Kate Moss. Sure, other British models have edgier hair (Agyness Deyn) or better name recognition (Lily Cole) but in terms of sustained demand Lily Donaldson is way out in front. As anyone who's watched Britain's Next Top Model knows, superstar models need to be all-rounders with catwalk, editorial and campaign skills. Lily Donaldson can do all of those, backwards.

At 24, she has had nine international Vogue covers. She has worked with Patrick Demarchelier, Tim Walker, Nick Knight and Mario Sorrenti, and signed contracts with Burberry, Gucci, Lanvin, D&G, Nicole Farhi, Mulberry, Dior and MaxMara. She was first recruited by Mario Testino for his 2006 rooftop Burberry shoot alongside Stella Tennant and Kate Moss. Testino tells me he picked her because 'Lily has that very valuable quality in a model, that "English" look'. She has naturally baby-blonde hair and seven piercings in her delicate ears - she grew up in Camden, after all. Her voice has acquired a lazy transatlantic lilt, legacy of living in New York (in a $2.2 million apartment in Manhattan) for five years, and she has a cool, detached, otherworldly manner, rather as if she were a visitor from Planet Gorgeous, a place where you or I will never be permitted to land. 'I actually got bored of New York. I missed Marks & Spencer so I've moved back here,' she says. 'I'm back in town. Hopefully I'll find somewhere near Kentish Town, where I grew up. It's my roots calling.'

She grew up in 'a very artistic household'. Her grandfather is the Pop artist Antony Donaldson, who exhibited in the 1960s alongside Patrick Caulfield and Allen Jones. His work is in the Tate's collection - bright, abstract, over-sexed paintings inspired by girlie magazines. 'I love going to visit him in the South of France and hearing tales of Pop Art days and nights,' she says. Her father is the fashion and stills photographer Matthew Donaldson; in the mornings he always had to wait for Lily to finish customising her clothes before taking her to Camden School for Girls. 'Tutus? Maybe. Definitely ripped jeans and lots of safety pins. Super-original, hey?'

Camden was 'diverse, liberal. I was a bit of a class clown, often in trouble with the teachers. I guess I have a guilty face.' She pulls a rabbit-in-the-headlights expression. Lily's passion at school was art and she always intended to go to art school. Instead, she was spotted by a model agency scout when she was sheltering under an awning at Camden Market (she is currently represented by Storm Models). She became the face of Miss Sixty at 16; by the end of the year she had her first British Vogue cover. 'Being scouted was nothing to do with my dad. He was quite protective of me and possibly didn't even want me to do it.'

The pressure the modelling industry puts on girls to become size zero is legendary, but Lily says she was never particularly affected. 'I was a teenager, my metabolism was in overdrive anyway. It's more down to genes.' Today she's already started the day with eggs on toast ('I'm a believer in breakfast'). She looks healthy, in control and without any obvious food neuroses. Sure, she offloads half her crab cake on to my plate, but there's models for you.

'I've definitely been through lows in my career,' she says, 'but my friends and family have been a great support team.' Her parents divorced when she was 16; her mother, Tiffany Jesse, now lives in Devon and has 'embraced country living in major way. She has chickens, three dogs, three cats, a Shetland pony and some Indian Runner ducks I bought her. She's a great force for good in my life. She's been my guide in many ways, being so removed from the fashion industry.'

Caught up in the fashion whirl, Lily has had some crazy moments. A recent shoot with sexed-up Pirelli calendar photographer Terry Richardson('who is super-nice, actually') saw her cuddling a leopard cub, then two bunnies and then a python. 'I was fine with it. But then the handler said, "You'd better wash yourself to get rid of the smell of the bunnies or else the snake is going to go for you." So I was scrubbing and scrubbing and the second they put the snake on me it hissed in my face. I screamed. After all my bravado…'

A shoot she did in 2009 for Vogue Paris, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, was a high-fashion take on chav chic. Lily posed with a fake pregnancy bump, her hair scraped back into a Croydon facelift, puffing on a fag. In one shot she is tossing a plastic baby over her shoulder. 'We laughed the entire time,' she recalls. 'When it came out I got text messages from people saying, "Oh, I didn't realise you had a bun in the oven." Fashion magazines support the whole industry, they're a big deal, but they're also about having fun from time to time.'

She has an eye for fashion, collecting jewellery. 'My best purchase? Probably a Victorian mourning ring that's a skull with two hands that close over it.' And for Vogue Paris's 90 years' celebration masquerade last Christmas, she made her own mask. 'I went to the fabric district in Paris and bought red tulle to go with my long red dress and wrapped it around my head. I had so much fun, although it kind of fell apart halfway through the evening.'

In 2007 she started dating artist Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, son of Carine Roitfeld, then editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris. 'He's great, he's still a good friend. I speak to him and [his sister] Julia a lot.' Lily was subsequently linked to Michael Phelps, though why is still a mystery to her since she never even met 'the big fish-man swimming guy'. She is currently happily paired up with the writer-DJ-musician-whatever Brett Stabler, and becomes animated describing their recent trip to southern India. 'We got the train from Kerala to Goa, it was the real deal. The journey lasted 12 hours and there were mice. My boyfriend and I shared a bunk with a family of five and we had such a nice time. Only when I got off did I realise, "Oh, I need a shower." ' They also went freewheeling on a scooter, and chanced upon an orphanage. 'Everyone there was super-sweet. I'd like to go back and see what I could do to help. In the end I gave them everything I had in my purse.'

Now it's back to the daily life of modelling, except she sometimes likes to turn the tables. 'In New York I used to go to life class a lot. I like painting in oils, mainly naked bodies, or abstracted human forms. My paintings can be…' her voice grows shy, hushed, 'quite sexual.' Behind the angelic façade, it would seem, there's a dirty painter trying to get out.

These days it feels quite exotic to stay in and watch East Enders

I still dream of being a teacher I was in the process of doing it before I was spotted [by a model scout] on a school trip. My mum, my sisters and my aunts are all in education – and it was a path which I was very sure about too, but then fate changed my life.

As I walk into a photo studio, I adopt a different character It's an important shift I make to hold back who I really am. The glamour and glories of modelling are all great fun but when you're home, stripped of your make-up and the nice lighting, you have to be able to reason with the person you truly are.

I'm beginning to accept what I was given When I was starting out in fashion, there were people who told me to get my nose reduced and my boobs blown up. I was bothered by my wonky nose and the fact I didn't appear to have a blossoming cleavage, but I felt incensed, and thought, "I'm not going to do that for you." It was an important day and if I'd gone and interfered with my face, I would have zero career right now.

We're assaulted by technology Our body parts are now constantly either shrunk or expanded [by Photoshopping] in an attempt to create an unobtainable version of perfection, but in doing so we've lost the essence of that beauty, and the impact this has on young women is quite disturbing.

I may look stern in a magazine, but I'm actually quite friendly It's easy to be pigeonholed: I was the 6ft woman who looked as though I could come at you with a machete, not the girl you see on the cover with a great smile, lovely teeth and plump lips, so I was always told I'd never be on a Vogue cover as I didn't look approachable enough. [O'Connor has since been photographed for the cover of Italian and British Vogue.]

I want the fashion industry to welcome outside opinion With my All Walks Beyond the Catwalk foundation we are appealing to designers to realise that the one-size-fits-all approach is incredibly limiting; there was a point where clothes became so minute that a lot of women started compromising to fit inside them. While we may not change the ideals of some established designers, we can focus on the younger ones at university; they already work on different-size mannequins, which is a start.

It was quite surreal appearing on a Royal Mail postage stamp The only people who usually appear on them are royalty and dead legends; I was just a young girl who wore a hat [designed by Stephen Jones]at a jaunty angle. It was hilarious for me; I can remember thinking, "People are going to be licking my head." The potential for narcissism was terrifying.

The essence of living for me now is repetitive routine There was a time when I would be on a flight three times a week, travelling to wherever the shoot was; life was so unpredictable and I had to be a willing nomad. Now, there's something quite exotic about staying indoors, watching EastEnders, cooking a curry and going to the chippie on a Friday night – it's momentous.

Style and conscience can co-exist We're still fighting with the "hats made of tofu" impression that people have of ethical fashion. But style is style, and ethically made garments should be a given. With [designer] Ada Zanditon, for example, you don't see "worthy", you just see an unapologetically cool, British vision of the future. And She Died of Beauty [O'Connor's new T-shirt range] is covetable clothing that takes a gentle poke at my industry – it also happens to have been carefully sourced.

 

Best products for a close shave

1. Soothing shave cream

Pamper your post-shave skin with this ultra-calming shave cream infused with anti-oxidant ingredients to protect skin, and menthol to keep it cool.

£18.50, Dermalogica, 0800 591 818, dermalogica.com/uk

2. Smooth Shave foaming gel

Designed to take the stress out of shaving, this foaming gel uses a patented formula of bison grass, Chinese ginger and purslane extracts to energise, soothe and purify the skin.

£13.79, Clarins Mens, 0800 036 3558, clarins.co.uk

3. Blade 5 razor

Achieve a close shave with this five-blade razor system complete with precision trimming for the most meticulous of groomers.

£6.12, Boots, boots.com

4. ProGlide manual razor

The newest offering from Gillette, this razor uses unique technologies as well as a larger strip infused with mineral oil to give a smooth glide without irritation.

£9.99, Gillette, 00800 4455 3883

5. Razor repair balm

This balm combines ancient Japanese knowledge with cutting-edge scientific research to combat irritation and smooth the skin's texture after shaving.

£29, Kyoku for Men, mankind.co.uk

6. Smooth shave oil

Shaving needn't be traumatic. This moisture-rich number helps to cushion and glide for a close shave, while emollients protect against razor burn.

pops of red on Ralph Lauren's New York Fashion Week runway

Ralph Lauren sent his fall 2011 collection down the New York Fashion Week runway earlier today and it featured sleek black gowns, column silhouettes, pops of red and tiny handbags. The Ralph Lauren handbag collection included small clutches and tiny mini-bags which either blended into the background of the garments or popped in a tiny, yet bold red color.

The clutches on Ralph Lauren’s runway were tiny and barely popped out from the sides of the models hands. Tiny little evening clutches and semi-formal clutches could be seen in exotic skins as well as smooth leather. The clutches were shown in both black and red.
Ralph Lauren also created mini-bags with a shoulder strap that allowed the body of the mini bag to hit at the models hip bones. The mini-bags were also tiny and barely larger than the hands of the models. Mini bags could be seen on the runway in black and red exotic or smooth leather. The shoulder straps were done in gold chain.

The tiny handbags, and pops of red on Ralph Lauren’s New York Fashion Week runway, signaled two strong trends for fall 2011; red handbags and the return of the small handbag.

was honoured with the Style Icon gong

Emma Watson, 20, was honoured with the Style Icon gong at the event but was no doubt left feeling uncomfortable when Vivienne Westwood, who was presenting the trophy, admitted she’d no idea who the actress was.

Looking stunning in a cream dress and her pixie crop Emma was all set for a night to remember.

But she may have regretted her request that the British fashion designer present her with the award after the 69-year-old’s unusual speech.

Taking to the stage Vivienne said that she came to the event to “find out who people were”, including Harry Potter actress Emma.
“I don’t watch TV, I go to the cinema perhaps once a year and I don’t read magazines so I come here to find out who people are. I was told Emma is in the Harry potter films but I’ve never seen Harry Potter,” she told the fashionable guests at London’s Great Connaught Rooms. She added: “I want to give this award to Emma, who I have never met.”

Her comments were met with gasps and laughter from guests, while an embarrassed Emma came to the stage. Despite Vivienne’s speech she thanked the designer for presenting her with the award.

Emma, said to be worth £19million, was joined by a host of other stars at the do, including Cheryl Cole, Dermot O’Leary, Alexa Chung – who hosted the awards – and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

They enjoyed a three-course dinner followed by Beefeater 24 Cosmos cocktails and Valentine’s chocolates at the after-party where Boy George, in DJ mode, took to the decks.

What you really need is your basics for every type of person

Nobody is more surprised by Jessica Simpson's success as a fashion maven than the designer herself! Taking over New York magazine's spring fashion issue, the 30-year-old beauty appears on the cover showing off a huge, teased 'do and dishes about her rise to success.

"I never thought I’d be some fashion mogul!" Simpson told the mag.

But, whether or not she planned for it, Simpson's new ready-to-wear and career separates lines will bring her company's sales past the billion-dollar mark -- a figure comparable to those of famed designers like Michael Kors.

So, what's the secret to Simpson's accidental success? It seems she can relate to the average shopper and knows what she's looking for when she hits the stores.

"What you really need is your basics for every type of person," Simpson says. "When it comes to other celebrity brands, I think a lot of people do a great job, but it can't be all about them.

Everybody doesn't want to just look like the celebrity, because they can't. They just want one element of that style."

Her business manager, David Levin, agrees. "A girl could go to the shopping mall with her mother and she'd have a great new outfit and still have some money left for lunch at McDonald's," he said. "She can look like Jessica Simpson, smell like Jessica Simpson, and she can afford it."

who are women and women who are men

Lea T is a model in demand. After fronting Givenchy's last two campaigns and gracing the brand's latest pre-fall lookbook, she jetted off to Sao Paulo to open the brand's fashion week before moving on to the New York shows.

She's also the cover star of the latest issue of Love, super-stylist Katie Grand's bible of cool – paired with Kate Moss, no less. It's the standard "hot model of the moment" story. But with one unexpected addition: Lea T was born Leandro Cerezo, son of Brazilian soccer hero Toninho Cerezo, and is still undergoing gender reassignment.

Lea T isn't the only signifier of fashion's current fixation with transgender chic. Andrej Pejic is the male mannequin name to know – whippet-thin, pouting under a cascade of blond hair and with a disarming similarity to the female model Erin Wasson. Jean Paul Gaultier was certainly impressed: he cast Pejic as the keynote model of his autumn/winter 2011 menswear show, "James Blond" (Pejic's locks are a Harlow-glow shade of peroxide). Not only that, but a week later, Pejic teetered down the same catwalk in flounces of tulle as the "bride" at Gaultier's haute couture show. Flat-chested, narrow-hipped and inhumanly tall – yes, he's a boy, but that's the figure of the fashionable female these days, too. It was the shape Katie Grand stated she and Marc Jacobs were looking for when casting for the Louis Vuitton womenswear show last October, one of the hottest of hot tickets on the Paris Fashion Week schedule, and the first time she picked up on the androgyny vibe that has stamped itself so indelibly across the latest issue of Love and its three covers.

It may seem odd for the barometer to have spun so resolutely away from the Mad Men-influenced gender archetypes espoused for the past half-dozen seasons, but fashion is nothing if not fickle. That said, there's something of the ambiguous even in those hyper-sexualised silhouettes. Antony Price, the legendary fashion designer responsible for outfitting Bryan Ferry and trussing up Amanda Lear, Jerry Hall et al in leather, satin and fish scales for Roxy Music's seminal album covers, is an expert. "Small arses, small waists, wide shoulders and big tits, that's the female ideal. But that silhouette of small arse and big shoulders is a man's silhouette." It's also the Vogue Paris-sponsored shape that has held grip for the past half-decade.

After a few years of curvier girls and butcher blokes gracing magazines and catwalks, fashion has decided it's time to gender-bend again. Or maybe that should be gender-blend – taken to its extreme, this is less about one gender approximating the other than actually appropriating its best parts. The photographer Nick Knight caught on to the mood last year, creating a cover editorial for the winter/spring issue of Arena Homme + that showcased boys in lipstick and suspenders, girls with beards, and a pre-operative transsexual in little beyond a smattering of magenta body-glitter. "It has nothing to do with the subtle, slightly dull androgyny of the 1990s," Knight says. "This is a big, flamboyant explosion of sexuality and gender image. It's that, on steroids. It's a lot more exciting, in my opinion."

Cross-dressing is, of course, nothing new. Fashion has flirted with androgyny for almost a century – those Twenties garçonnes earned their moniker because their shingle-cropped hairstyles and flat-chested bodies looked like those of teenage boys. Our current obsession is a little more abstract. To quote from Grand, "There's something about that early-Eighties thing of boys dressing as girls dressing as boys that feels right for now." With this in mind, even Lea T has a forerunner, in the form of Teri Toye, the openly transgendered model-cum-muse of the late New York designer Stephen Sprouse. What it's certainly not about is the dour 1990s brand of androgyny – the floppy-fringe coyness of Suede's Brett Anderson, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and a young Stella Tennant – where sexuality wasn't so much ambivalent as plain absent. The new trangenderism is frank and direct.

Of course, the Blitz Kid cult of the early Eighties had its roots in the peacock glamour of Seventies rock, and performers such as Roxy Music and, of course, David Bowie. Knight cites those as his own personal reference points but states: "Now, it's much more upfront. It's now 2011 – it's not 1970. And, with the advances in cosmetic surgery, there's the ability, medically, to go further." That was the inspiration behind Knight's latest images – redolent of the decadence of Weimar Germany and the louche, libertine mood of Studio 54, they certainly go further than most. This cross-gender boundary-crossing is made all the more exciting in situ, the images sandwiched between the brawny, muscle-bound editorials of a magazine that, high fashion or not, is otherwise resolutely male.

That's the striking thing about fashion's latest round of gender games – it's the men who are leading the way. We've got used to seeing women cross-dressing in three-piece suits and trench coats, but there's still a frisson of shock over a man appearing in anything overtly feminine. The latest round of menswear shows tackled the feeling head-on – not only via the more artistically inclined Parisian labels, but on the testosterone-pumped, big-business catwalks of Milan. There was nary a comedy kilt or sarong wrap in sight – this was cross-dressing done with po-faced seriousness. Christopher Bailey sent out his Burberry boys in sweet, Sixties-style bell-skirted coats with fur tippets fit for Nora Batty, while Miuccia Prada wrapped her boys in glistening Lurex fretted with art deco patterns, and what the press office euphemistically described as "a back-buttoning silk-georgette shirt in pale blue". Otherwise known as a big girl's blouse.

Heading up the men's march into the women's department is Luis Venegas, editor of Candy – billed as "the first transversal style magazine". Venegas himself puts it a little more simply: "The idea was to make 'Tranny Vogue'." Certainly Candy is glossy and high-fashion enough – its second cover featured Hollywood star James Franco photographed by Terry Richardson in full drag. An arresting sight, certainly – even Venegas states: "Not even in my dreams could I imagine this Hollywood movie star cross-dressing on the cover of a magazine. I haven't seen anything like that anywhere."

Candy is at the cutting edge of the new transgender explosion – but don't call it underground. The appeal of Candy's first issue, featuring Kelly Osbourne's then-boyfriend, Luke Worrall, in a powder-pink negligee, was such that cult Swedish clothing label Acne approached Venegas to create a selection of transsexual-friendly pieces. That's transsexual rather than unisex. "I wanted to make the opposite of unisex. Unisex clothes are usually very neutral – in this case, I wanted people not to say, 'Oh, these are clothes for men and women', but to ask, 'Oh, are these clothes for men or women?' The same feeling you get in front of a transgender person, that's what I wanted to create with the clothing." Acne has previously collaborated with Fantastic Man and Lanvin. "The last thing you can call that is underground," Venegas says.

With its first issue published in autumn 2009, Candy has been credited with kick-starting fashion's current cross-gender obsessions. "I read some blog that dubbed it 'The Candy Effect'," Venegas says. "I wouldn't say it's because of Candy, but I think maybe Candy showed that there's something interesting there at a time when magazines are repeating the same stories again and again. How many times can we see military stories, or streetwear?"

Change is, of course, the ultimate aphrodisiac – but rather than a mere seasonal flight of fancy, this is only the latest chapter in fashion's continuing love affair with gender-bending. Nick Knight summarises it neatly: "From Andy Warhol and Candy Darling there's always been a fascination for men who are women and women who are men. I think what Riccardo Tisci is doing with Lea T is part of that."

So where will this interest take us next? The womenswear shows are currently in full flow, hot on the heels of a menswear season that questioned the status quo between the sexes at every turn. Whether fashion will bravely continue to transgress the boundaries, or will wilt into the shadows of gender stereotypes, remains to be seen. Leading the vanguard as he prepares for Candy's third issue, Luis Venegas is philosophical about his aims. "If showing these images and stories somehow helps to change the conventions and what people see as elegant or right or wrong, I'm happy about it. That wasn't the plan, but at least people can look at this in a different way."

Richard Chai’s Love show was full of surprises

Richard Chai’s Love show was full of surprises, not the least of which is his ability to make a really cool collection out of a monotone palette of oatmeal beige, inky black and charcoal gray.

Just when our eyes were glazing over a bit from the lack of color, out comes a model with bright pink hair.

But that little trick aside, the color – or lack of it – forced us to focus on the cut of the clothes and the intricate layering, which somehow managed to feel both well studied and completely insouciant at the same time.

And with temperatures hovering in the mid 20s outside, all those multi-layered outfits had me wanting to arm wrestle a parka off the back of a model – just maybe not the one with the pink hair.

Chai's fall 2011 collection had cozy written all over it: wool tweed swing coats, cashmere vests, merino wool funnel neck tops and a sumptuous piece described in the show notes as “moss brushed wool viscose drapey twill double layer parka.”

Backstage after the show, Chai was mobbed by well-wishers, reporters and 6-foot-tall blonde models blowing him kisses (it’s good to be a cute young designer).

I nudged my way up to the front and asked him for his thoughts behind all those rich layers.

“It’s about the spirit of individuality, not a uniform way of dressing,” he said. “I love textures, and I was inspired by menswear.”

The pioneering founder of Net-a-Porter transformed online fashion

Chic" is not a word readily associated with the internet and its quirky-bordering-on-sordid vagaries.

But one woman has changed the sartorial face of cyberspace with a business plan that catapulted fashion fans and designers alike into a new era of luxury consumption. Natalie Massenet MBE, founder and chairman of designer shopping website Net-a-Porter.com, is one of fashion's great pioneers, taking the industry not only into previously uncharted and challenging territory, but also into its own future.

The company has scored year-on-year profits annually since its inception in June 2000 and was bought last year by Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, which also owns Cartier and Chloé. Massenet, 45, who started her business with about £1.2m, was said to have received £50m from the sale, which valued Net-a-Porter at £350m. It's a far cry from the site's beginnings at the kitchen table of a Chelsea studio flat more than a decade ago, where Massenet worked with only two other employees. She has said recently that she receives 2,500 emails a week from jobseekers.

The reason for such interest is, of course, that Massenet's star is in the ascendant: this month alone sees the launch of a digital TV channel, a print magazine and the eagerly awaited men's site, Mr Porter. It is expected to become as astronomically successful as its womenswear counterpart, which attracts 11,000 new users every month. Massenet not only has the Midas touch, she also has an uncanny, bloodhound-esque instinct for progression and profitability.

"Natalie possesses a remarkable ability to feel the moment, and to understand people's needs and desires before they know them," said Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry, in 2008. And, said the editor of Harper's Bazaar, Lucy Yeomans, "She has the knack of knowing exactly what women want. She's very smart and hardworking, but it's her incredible taste that is at the heart of Net-a-Porter's success."

Natalie Massenet was born in May 1965 to a Californian journalist and a British model, and spent her childhood moving between Paris, LA and Madrid. She was 11 when her parents divorced and chose to remain in the US with her father, who scrimped to provide her with a rigorous – and rather expensive – education. "I was surrounded by some very wealthy people," she told Vogue in an interview last year. "I realised at a certain point that if I was going to have the sort of life I fantasised about, I needed to get my act together. No one was going to do it for me."

This attitude lies at the heart of her fashion empire, which raked in a turnover of more than £120m last year. Massenet was awarded her MBE in 2009 for services to the fashion industry, and was named Harper's Bazaar Innovator of the Year in 2010, the year that Net-a-Porter celebrated its 10th birthday and notched up its millionth customer. Last year also saw the release of an iPad app (one of the first of the shopping ilk) and marked a year of excellent trading on Net-a-Porter's sister website, The Outnet – where customers can buy past season designer clothing at heavily discounted prices.

Massenet's schtick is providing service not only at the highest possible level, but at its most basic function. Her ideas are simple and practical; above all, they make people's lives easier.

There is an innate pragmatism to all of her schemes: people want top-end designer fashion and kid-glove treatment without leaving their homes. She delivers it to them (often within 48 hours) in acres of tissue paper, sleek, matte black boxes and beribboned bags, a type of packaging straight out of the golden age of couture. For designer fashion at affordable prices she has The Outnet, with up to 70 per cent off original prices and regular online auctions, during which pieces are known to sell out in minutes. People want designer fashion but aren't interested in being flashy about it – she offers an alternative packaging option, an anonymous brown cardboard box. The website also has a team of personal stylists, who are available on email and Twitter, to answer your every fashion query.

"We will have a wealth of information, tips, facts, advice and inspiration," says Toby Bateman, buying director of the forthcoming Mr Porter, "all there to make your experience with us as enjoyable and informative as possible. And if you don't like what you've bought, we'll take it back – simple as that." Before online giants such as Net-a-Porter and ASOS (which launched in the same month at Massenet's site) became our quotidian, customers were wary of buying clothes they hadn't tried on, touched or been guided to by a shop assistant. Especially when those clothes had designer price tags. (The most expensive piece on the site is an Alexander McQueen cape for £28,660.) Her insistence on luxury is the basis of her success. If anyone has become the face of e-tail, it is without doubt Massenet. "Natalie was first in – and best dressed," says Chris Colfer, chief executive of Alfred Dunhill and one of Massenet's first investors.

The reason behind her success, and her "clued-up" reputation, is that Natalie Massenet is, to use the industry vernacular, "proper fashion". She cut her teeth at publications such as W, Women's Wear Daily and Tatler, where she worked in fashion cupboards and on shoots, before becoming a fashion editor. She also worked as assistant to the late Isabella Blow at The Sunday Times, but the glimmerings of entrepreneurial spirit were never far from her mind. Readers would call in wondering how they could buy pieces from the magazines and Massenet realised that it was a very small number of women who had shops such as Dior and Fendi anywhere near their front doors. Her aim with Net-a-Porter was to provide an online magazine format from which readers could buy directly. "Twice I let people talk me out of good ideas," she has admitted in the past. "Coffee house and scented candles. I know I have good instincts and this was a complete intersection of everything I knew as a fashion editor – trends, magazines, and I had a Rolodex of contacts."

Those contacts included designers such as Anya Hindmarch and Roland Mouret, who were among the first to sell on the site. Chloé accessories joined in 2003, Burberry Prorsum in 2005 and Stella McCartney in 2006. Massenet is an excellent networker and moves in a sophisticated London set of financiers and their wives. She is herself married to Arnaud Massenet, a hedge-fund manager, who worked at Lehman Brothers at the time of Net-a-Porter's birth and provided both a fiscal and figurative helping hand to his wife. They have two daughters.

"The thing about Natalie is that she has an abundance of charm, but she never falters far from the line," her friend Jane Gottschalk told Vogue. "She doesn't get over-emotional. She's an approachable boss." That original team of three, gathered around the kitchen table, has since grown to more than 1,000, working in four locations in London and New York. Several of them have also become millionaires.

Massenet's HQ for many years was the dome at Whiteleys in Bayswater, but the company moved last year into premises in west London's Westfield mall. The gargantuan shopping centre which opened during the world's worst recession, playing host to the flashing-eyed and impeccably slick internet operation, provides an interesting allegory for the modern fashion consciousness.

It's like the birds that feed from hippopotamus' teeth and, in doing so, clean them. Massenet hasn't just revolutionised internet fashion. She has shaken up high street shopping too. It's thanks to her site that people are more fashion literate than ever before, thanks to her that everyone can know exactly what the must-have jeans of the season look like. No wonder those CVs are flooding in.

Nicole Richie Hits NYC For Fashion Week

Enjoying some time on the east coast, Nicole Richie was spotted out and about in New York City last night (February 9).

The “Simple Life” starlet looked to be having a good time, sporting a black and grey dress with a black jacket and black heels.

And now that she’s had some time to settle into married life, Nicole says she’s enjoying the financial benefits of being married to a rock star.

"I can take his credit card and buy anything with it without anyone questioning me about it. That's definitely one thing I'm loving."

She continued, "I just went to Ireland, and it was really the first time I was called Mrs. Madden. The people were asking me if my last name is Madden, and I was like, 'Yeah, my last name is Madden now.' And they were like, 'You're one of us!' And I was like, "Oh, hell yeah I am.' It's awesome to be known as Mrs. Madden. It's music to my ears."

Giorgio Armani admires Kate Middleton's sense of style

The Italian fashion designer revealed he thinks Britain's future princess - who will marry Prince William on April 29 - is "highly aware of fashion trends" and he is looking forward to seeing her outfit choices in the future.

Giorgio - who will design Charlene Wittstock's wedding dress when she marries Monaco's Prince Albert in July - told WWD Kate is "so discreet and straightforward, but highly aware of fashion trends".

He added: "She will have all the time in the world to become fully integrated into her new role and choose the most sophisticated and precious dresses and outfits for official occasions."

Armani is not the only famous designer to admire 29-year-old Kate; Karl Lagerfeld has previously praised her "chic" look and commented that she is both "beautiful and elegant".

He said: "FOR the royals, apparently the royal blood is not in demand any longer.

"Better for the generation to come. She is very different from Princess Diana, and seems a very well-balanced and a happy person. She is chic in a way the position needs."