The Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in New York has great news for the discerning plus-size woman with cash to burn: Starting this fall, luxury clothing in up to size 20 will be available from top-tier fashion houses like Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Fendi, and Roberto Cavalli. (We couldn’t help but notice Versace was not among the labels listed.)

Racked NY reports:

Saks Fifth Avenue is about to become the only major retailer in the city to carry plus-sized womenswear by names like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana. Coming very soon to the department store’s super high-end third floor, fall and winter plus-sized pieces will be mixed right in with existing stock—most of which would formerly have only been available in sizes ranging to a 10. Stock will reach size 14 across the board, and in some cases—depending on the brand—will go up to a size 20.

Meaning women of average size but above-average shopping budgets are about to become very happy indeed.

This is great news — with a caveat. Saks admits that “only one of each size will be stocked for most pieces.” But all the better if plus-size shoppers mop the floor with demand, because Saks promises it will expand its women’s offerings nationally if the experiment proves successful.

As an element, pure gold — the 24-karat kind — can be melted down and refashioned an infinite number of times with no change to its strength, shine, or molecular structure. It’s even easy to reclaim alloys, which are used to make the metal harder and more durable. Most frequently alloys are created by combining pure gold with nickel or palladium (for white gold), silver (for yellow), or copper (for rose), all of which are easy enough to extract and recycle as well.

The environmental impact of mining gold is a well-documented travesty, responsible for water and air pollution and displacing not just tons of earth per ounce but also the indigenous communities who have the bad fortune to live near a lucky strike.

Yet even high-end designers have found that there are literally tons of reclaimed gold available for purchase, meaning that no waste is created in the production of high-quality fine jewelry.

We profile five of these designers in the below slideshow. Click on any image to launch.

Tetta Matera, a writer for the Philippine Star, used her column inches today to explore what has become known as “purse parties,” social events at which upper-middle-class women in the Philippines enjoy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails while browsing counterfeit luxury merchandise. The practice is illegal, but that fact has done little to quell its popularity — not just overseas but in America as well.

Ms. Matera writes on the ripple effects of these parties:

A researcher named Renee Richardson Gosline became curious about the phenomenon and conducted research over a period of two and a half years. She followed purse parties and traveled through social networks to document the attendees’ behavior. She found that most of the women didn’t seem to mind the illegality of their behavior because of the friendly atmosphere at the parties. But what she didn’t expect was, over a period of time, these women began checking out the brands’ websites and became converts to the real thing. They reconciled their dishonest public behavior with their positive, private self-image and the latter one won over time. In the end these women realized that nothing could substitute for the real deal.

With gorgeous designer bags now at all price points — one new favorite of ours is the Michael Kors Hamilton, a bargain at under $300 — there’s no good reason to buy fake anymore.

It’s easy enough to slack off getting your high-end denim properly hemmed — who wants to pay for tailoring on top of the sticker price? And then you have to recall which jeans are hemmed for flats and which ones are for heels.

But if you wear flats with too-long pants, you’ll get frayed, torn hems from them dragging on the ground. And not in an artful way. (We’re looking at you, Audrina Patridge!)

So we’re glad to have discovered Hem Gems, the lazy girl’s DIY hemming solution. You simply roll up the extra material inside the pant leg and use these removable rivets to pin it in place, preserving the original hem and adding a little extra flair to your style.

Our favorite? The pyramid stud option, in goldtone and silver ($20).

Trust us, it’s so much better-looking than cuffing.

(via Daily Candy)

The back-to-school bug always bites us around this time of year, even though our years of stocking up on No. 2 pencils and L.L. Bean backpacks are well in the past. But that doesn’t stop us from eyeing beautiful boots, heavenly coats, and adorable office supplies.

Near the top of our list this year is British label Mulberry‘s absolutely stunning laptop cases. They’re designed with the Apple MacBook dimensions in mind, but any notebook computer will likely fit (just take your own measurements to be certain).

Crafted from vegetable-tanned natural leather, these laptop cases come in 13- and 15-inch sizes and a plethora of rich colors, both cheerful and classic. Each case features a secure lock and a slip pocket to hold important files. And Mulberry’s commitment to quality means they will last until your machine is obsolete (and likely well beyond that as well).

Bayswater Sleeve for 13″ MacBook, £350 at Mulberry.com.

We know, we know: Summer’s technically only just begun, but when it’s this hot out, we start dreaming of crisp nights and cool afternoons. And a part that daydream, of course, is what we wear in the fall of our fantasies. So for the July edition of E.S. Eco-Over — our monthly feature where we take a blistering-hot trend and find a stylish equivalent from an ethical source — we take on the classic trench coat.

Burberry is pretty much synonymous with the concept, and if money were no object, a custom creation from the venerable British fashion house would be Stop No. 1 on our shopping spree. Yet we can’t help but be drawn to the impressive creamy confection from designer Richard Nicoll. And guess what? It’s 100 percent organic cotton, with a PVC belt and underlayer to keep you perfectly dry and toasty in a rainstorm. (Also check out the sweet buckles on the sleeves.)

Burberry Brit Double-Breasted Trench Coat, $895 at SaksFifthAvenue.com, versus Richard Nicoll Organic Cotton Trench Coat, $549 at TheOutnet.com.

This week, he spoke to New York Magazine about why his preference for fur is an informed choice, and what we can expect to see from him fashion-wise in the future:

You encountered a spot of trouble earlier this year for wearing a bit of fur on one of your skating outfits. Do you own a lot of fur?
I do have a lot of fur. I’m a big fan of fur. I’m not a fan of nutria or fake fur and I’ve taken a lot of flack for that, but it’s just a choice that I make. I travel a lot to Russia and it’s usually in winter when I’m in Russia, so you can’t walk around in a plastic coat and plastic boots when it’s minus 40 degrees. I’m from the country, I’ve gone hunting, so I know what happens. I know everything there is to know about the fur industry and I choose to wear fur.

He also reports he has a men’s clothing line in the works, about which he says: “I want Chanel quality, of course — a different price point, but of course Chanel quality.” Love him or hate him, you have to give it to him that he knows what he wants and where he stands on fashion ethics.

In an article that appeared in the New York Post on the extreme shopping habits of five New York City women, one seasoned consumer offered some surprisingly sound advice:

“You’ve got to be socially responsible in terms of style, and that means recycling. Things like furs and skins, if you hoard them and don’t wear them, you are making it so that more needs to be produced. Sell it, give it away and get it back out there. That is a big part of being a good consumer.

“Never hoard!”

In other words: If you loved something once, set it free so someone else can love it again. From an article in which an executive assistant brags about spending $4,000 a month on clothes (even if it occasionally means she has to sell something to scrounge up money for rent), this is actually pretty reasonable.

So E.S. readers, how often do you purge your closets of items that aren’t getting enough love?

When I think about innovation, I think about new ideas and inventions that have an impact in the world. In the rush to protect our ideas we often overlook the fact that the value of some ideas are most fully realized when they are shared, not kept secret. In the laboratory, in the arts, in the marketplace – shared ideas collide and make better ideas; innovators see them, get inspired, mash them up, and ultimately devise solutions and products that change the world.

This is why I enjoyed seeing something else hit the web last week: a provocative talk on TED.com by Johanna Blakley, who spoke at the TEDxUSC “Ideas Empowered” conference this spring. As Johanna points out, most of us assume that without protection there is no incentive to innovate. But clothing designs – along with foods, furniture, magic tricks, jokes, tattoos, perfumes, fireworks, games and automobiles, to name a few – have no copyright protection. Despite this, the fashion industry has developed an ecosystem of creativity and sharing that results in fast innovation and large sales. Much larger, in fact, than the high-IP industries like films, books and music, Blakley hastens to point out.

We know a few influential labels would beg to differ, but Ms. Holly makes a compelling point. In creative industries where inspiration is 80 percent of success, should designers be allowed to safeguard their ideas from copycats? Or is this merely how trends develop?

In a Designer Dossier profile of creative head Rosa Tous, Marie Claire magazine clued us in on these excellent benefits (June print edition):

“I think our success has come from demystifying fine jewelry,” she says. … But it’s also Tous’ concern for her employees that has earned her fans. Predominantly women in their 30s, Tous factory workers have access to an on-site nursery and children’s learning center.

What great recognition for hard work! Since so many factory employees work hard for low wages to provide for their families, we wish more companies would follow Tous’s lead and go the extra mile to support the backbone of the manufacturing process.