SKIN
• Ads for Estée Lauder's Tri-Aktiline Instant Deep Wrinkle Filler, which promised to make wrinkles "disappear instantly," have been ruled misleading and must be pulled. [Telegraph]

HAIR
• Carolina Herrera: "Long hair after 40 is out in my book as it looks too messy and too young. Women need to learn how to age gracefully." [Times UK]

• Philosophy's Falling in Love Shampoo and the Body Shop's Deep Sleep Mist are among those products designed specifically for people who shower at night. Because night showering is so different than morning showering. [Beauty Blogging Junkie]

MAKEUP
• As part of the big Hello Kitty for M.A.C Cosmetics launch in February, M.A.C invited designers like Catherine Malandrino, Charlotte Ronson, Blumarine, Elie Saab, Emanuel Ungaro, and more to design twenty couture pieces inspired by Hello Kitty to be auctioned off on M.A.C's Website February 5. [Beauty Anonymous]

• Fifteen-year-old Dakota Fanning wears very age-appropriate makeup. Kudos. [Beauty Counter/Style.com]

Last season IMG Fashion, which organizes Fashion Week, boasted more than 80 designers on its schedule. However, only 52 have been confirmed for February Fashion Week so far. The lineup won't be finalized for another two weeks, but IMG senior vice-president Fern Mallis still expects a "full schedule." We hope Mallis is right — a rep for Zac Posen told us the label still hasn't decided how they'll show their collection. Other designers could be in a similar position, but if we don't have 500 million places to be at once from February 13 to 20, we just don't know what we'll do with all our free time (recessionista knitting circles?). However, Tommy Hilfiger and William Rast, who have traditionally not shown in the tents, will show in the tents next month.

Mallis expects designers to try to save money by staging presentations instead of runway shows. Just renting a tent that seats 350 to 1,100 people costs $25,000 to $50,000 and that doesn't include the hair, makeup, models, what have you. IMG is looking for a fourth venue for presentations but hasn't found one yet. Godspeed.

Calvin Klein, Michael Kors Confirmed For New York Fashion Week [WSJ]

Kick off the New Year with a new pair of kicks. For our latest Shop-A-Matic, we asked Sky Gellatly of the streetwear- and sneaker-fanatic Website Hypebeast.com to help us pick 25 of the hottest pairs on the market. We also added another 87 to make your sneaker shopping even easier. From low-tops to high-tops to athletic sneakers, we bring you 112 options to search. Even if you aren't following through with that gym resolution, you can still rock a new pair. And since most of these are under $150, you have no excuse not to shop. Check out our top five after the jump, including three from Hypebeast.

We pretty much know the Sex and the City sequel is a go. (We love the clothes, but does it feel too soon to revisit all that pink spangly hype to you, too?) Apparently Vivienne Westwood, who designed Carrie's wedding dress in the first movie, wants to write the script. She has reportedly written to the producers and called Sarah Jessica Parker to plead her case, marking another reason Parker is the luckiest girl on earth (see aforementioned clothes). A spokesman for Westwood said that the production company has yet to take her up on the offer.

Sean Yseult is best known as the colorful, long-haired bassist in White Zombie. Once the band split in '96, she moved to New Orleans and eventually started making super-poppy graphic silk scarves that now sell at Henri Bendel. A far cry from the nineties alternascene. We sat down with Yseult to find out how exactly she made the move from Zombie to Fifth Avenue and what else she's got up her sleeve.

More sad store news from across the pond. British retailer Marks & Spencer, the chain Patricia Field designed a capsule collection for late last year, is laying off 1,230 workers and closing 27 stores. Marks & Spencer is the largest clothing retailer in Britain. Though it sold more than 50 million pounds of goods on December 23, it suffered its worst quarterly drop in a decade, of 7.1 percent, afterward. Chairman Stuart Rose says the cuts will reduce costs by 200 million pounds. He added, "We're just finding that customers individually didn't have as much to spend." Analysts have heralded the chain for taking action in the downturn and the company's stock is up 5 percent. We're all in this together.

UK retailer Marks & Spencer to cut 1,230 jobs [AP]

Okay, Madoff. Now it's personal. The Evening Standard is reporting that Bernie Madoff defrauded Valentino of a "significant amount of cash." The paper cited anonymous sources, and WWD reports that a Valentino spokeswoman declined to comment on Vava's personal life. Still, it's not unlikely news — Madoff's known fashion victims already include the Vittadinis, Nine West founder Jerome Fisher, and 86-year-old L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Meanwhile, Saville Row tailor Kilgour confirmed Madoff as a client. According to WWD, Madoff bought suits there for the past 30 years, always in gray and in a variety of fabrics. He reportedly always paid his bills on time. Well then. How about that.

Oh no! Bernie's made off with my cash too… [Evening Standard]
MADOFF’S GRAY AREA [WWD]

• Sasha Pivovarova's spring 2009 Giorgio Armani campaign is out. Yep, she's still gorgeous. [Fashionologie]

• Retailers are trying to convince landlords to lower rents so they can keep their stores open. We wish apartments worked that way. [WSJ]

• Model Liskula Cohen is suing Google to try to force them to reveal the blogger who called her "skank" and "ho." She says such posts tarnish her "reputation and desirability for endorsing products." [British Vogue, Daily Intel]

• MTV is casting for True Life: I Don't Like My Breasts. "We are not looking for girls who just want to get boob jobs … If you feel like your breasts are keeping you from having the life you want … then we want to hear from you." [NYP]

• Cindy Crawford on her early modeling days: "Some girls at school found out, called me and said they were from a local store in our town, saying they wanted me to model for them. I showed up for the interview and the woman there said she knew nothing about it. I was so humiliated and I walked out and saw four girls from high school pointing and laughing." [British Vogue]

The economy is slowly eating away at next month's fall 2009 Fashion Week (hello, Vera Wang, Carmen Marc Valvo, Betsey Johnson, Monique Lhuillier, and Naeem Khan). But even in this bearish financial wasteland, bulls walk alone in the night. Like Oscar de la Renta, who has, upon our stars, added a fashion show. He will show twice on Wednesday, February 18, first at 1 p.m. and then at 2 p.m. One show is for retailers, the other for press. He tells Fashion Week Daily, "[2008] has a been good year for me … While some businesses faced tough times, I actually added 15 employees to my company. Sales-wise, the last three months have been solid for us." Merry words indeed! Fabulous to know the really rich have stayed that way. Ladies who lunch must be just as keen, perhaps more so, on Oscar's divine, exorbitantly priced creations (one white lace cotton dress: $4,790) in hard times as in good times. Next thing you know he'll fill the gift bags with cash.

Oscar de la Renta to show twice during New York's Fashion Week [FWD]